IMC-USA Weekly News Digest - October 26th, 2009
In a major embarrassment to the Gujarat government, the Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman issued an advertisement in a national daily in New Delhi on Friday, clarifying it has not invited Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Oman. This comes nearly three weeks after the Gujarat Information department issued a press release about an Oman delegation's visit to Gandhinagar. The release had stated that "the Chief Minister accepted an invitation to lead a business delegation of the state government to visit Oman to explore the possibility of developing trade and commerce between Gujarat and Oman…" However, the advertisement issued today said the invitation was not extended by the Sultanate of Oman, but by the Dutch Rotterdam company, which has a project in the port city of Sohar. It mentioned that the company has an agreement with Gujarat and invited Modi. "The Government of Sultanate of Oman has no relation to this visit. He is the guest of the above mentioned (company)," it read. Later today, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said Modi was not scheduled to visit Oman neither did the Middle East destination figure in his itinerary during his two-day visit to Russia from October 26. "We are quite amused to see this ad in a national daily," said a senior official in the CMO. The official, however, maintained that during a visit by a nine-member delegation led by Oman Industries and Commerce Minister - Maqbool Ali Sultan — on September 9, Modi was invited by the Omani minister. They said the CM had then accepted the invitation to visit the Sohar Port, where the Dutch port company Rotterdam is functional in a big way. Incidentally, the South Asia Citizens Web had launched an online campaign to disallow Modi's visit, as they had done in the past for his visit to the UK and the US. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/532613/ SEE ALSO: Though the death of both the accused in the October 16 Margao bomb blast appears to have retarded the police investigation, there is not an iota of doubt that the local police with the assistance of the Anti Terrorist Squad from Maharashtra will be able to reach those responsible for the heinous crime. The blast occurred when the 'sadhaks' of Sanatan Sanstha, Malgonda Patil (originally hailing from Sangli) and Yogesh Naik (Telaulim, Ponda) were riding the scooter, and subsequently, with the explosion, their bodies below the waist were mutilated. However, they did not succumb to the injuries on the spot. Initially, they were admitted to the Hospicio Hospital, and later moved to the Goa Medical College and Hospital. Incidentally, they had not lost consciousness till their admission to both the hospitals. Malgonda, who was first to die due to severe injuries, however, was more alert and mentally active enough to remember his name, address and also mobile number of the organisation to which he was affiliated. The visuals telecast on various channels were heart rendering as far as his cries were concerned. The intensity of his wounds was known from the pain that he experienced. The plot which could have been hatched for the innocent public backfired, or else a number of spectators who had gathered near the Margao Municipality to watch the Narkasur contest would have been made to suffer for no fault of theirs. All these incidents naturally pointed the needle of suspicion towards 'Sanatan,' and it is also not surprising that the said organisation was prompt enough to deny the allegation. Maybe, the involvement of 'Sanatan' as an organisation, in this incident is deniable; however, who can guarantee the innocence of its 'sadhaks' in their individual capacity, in this plot? Doubts are also expressed about the alleged involvement of Malgonda in the communal riots, which took place in Sangli during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. This could directly imply that he was already nursing an aim to become a religious fanatic. It is also possible that Yogesh, out of his close proximity with Malgonda, could have been brainwashed to doing something so terrible. Why should all this happen, one may ask. There is no doubt that this is certainly the effect of propagandists from the extremist organisations. It is nothing less than 'brainwashing,' one can easily say. Continuous dissemination of misinformation in the Goebbels style leads to plant wrong thoughts in one's mind, leading to fanaticism.… Whenever a person is raised on the poison of fanaticism right from his formative years, he develops hateful tendencies and can even go to the extent of taking most extremist steps. Soon he feels that cold-blooded mass killings brought about for the organisation, to which he belongs, is no less than a religious service. The abnormal roles allegedly played by Malgonda and Yogesh in the act on the eve of Diwali, could perhaps have resulted out of such hate propaganda. In this respect, Sanatan Sanstha cannot shy away from its responsibilities as a spiritual organisation. It has to change its perception as regards religious extremism as a penance, since this perception further leads to hate towards other religions. And this is a clear warning to other similar organisations following identical objectives. http://www.navhindtimes.in/news/goa-news/4392-margao-blast-a-result-of-hate-fanaticism SEE ALSO: Whether it was the 2008 Kanpur blast or the one in Goa the previous week, their common links have been traced to Maharashtra. Senior police officials and retired cops say the state is fast becoming a hub of right-wing organisations' terror activities as most of these outfits are based in the state. Moreover, the state has been most affected by foreign organisations' terror strikes. "Most Hindu hardline organisations are Maharashtra-based. The purported objective of these outfits seems to avenge the series of attacks on Mumbai," said V N Deshmukh, former joint director Intelligence Bureau who retired as the state intelligence chief. Deshmukh said it was time the state banned Sanatan Sanstha, whose members are allegedly involved in Goa blasts. The organisation had made headlines last year during blasts in Thane and Panvel theatres. The Anti-Terrorism Squad and the state intelligence department have already recommended a ban on Sanatan Sanstha. The recommendation came after the ATS arrested six men with alleged links to the outfit. Sources say the suspects involved in the September 29, 2008 Malegaon blast - the members of Abinav Bharat and Jai Vande Matram Samiti - are from Jabalpur, Bhopal and Kanpur. However, they conducted conspiracy meetings at Deolali and Nashik. Moreover, a Malegaon blast accused, Rakesh Dhawade, allegedly organised a terror training camp for Bajrang Dal members near Sinhgarh Fort in Pune in 2003. There have been blasts in mosques in Jalna, Porna, Parbhani and Beed areas of Maharashtra. The suspects behind these blasts were traced to rightwing extremist organisations. Two Bajrang Dal members, Himanshu Panse and Naresh Rajkondawr, died while making a bomb in Nanded on April 6, 2006. "The youth are being indoctrinated by fundamental organisations. The state government should act quickly to control the right-wing terrorism," said a senior IPS officer. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5143696,prtpage-1.cms SEE ALSO: A joint team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Rajasthan Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) has been investigating the role of Hindu rightwing outfit Abhinav Bharat in the Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and Ajmer Sharif blasts, police sources say. The team has been interrogating suspects in the Malwa region of western Madhya Pradesh for five days, the sources said Friday. "A team of CBI officials and Rajasthan ATS is camping in Malwa in connection with the Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and Ajmer dargah blasts. It has so far questioned 10 people to find out whether the perpetrators in all the three cases were linked," a police source told IANS on condition of anonymity. The official said at least four of the 10 suspects questioned are alleged to be members of Abhinav Bharat. The team has also found that some of them had links with the slain RSS leader Sunil Joshi and absconding Malegaon blast accused Ramji alias Ram Chandra Kalsangra. "Intelligence sleuths had chanced upon Joshi's telephone diary a few months ago. Call details of a mobile number found in his diary led investigators to Madhya Pradesh in search of the suspects," said a source. "All those who were interrogated at Indore were in touch with Joshi and those questioned at Shajapur were linked to Ramji," said a police official. The Malegaon blasts took place in Maharashtra in September 2006, killing six people. The Samjhauta Express train bombings occurred in February 2007 in Haryana and claimed 66 lives, while the Ajmer Sharif blast in Rajasthan killed three people in October 2007. Before coming to Madhya Pradesh, the Rajasthan ATS had collected the statements, narco-analysis report and brain mapping tests done on Lt Col S.P. Purohit - who has been linked to Abhinav Bharat - and other accused in the Malegaon blast case. "Purohit had allegedly told the investigators during narco-analysis that Dayanand Pandey, also an accused in the Malegaon blast, had planned the Ajmer dargah blast that claimed three lives," the official said. Those interrogated so far are Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's (BJYM) Indore unit leader Pranav Mandal, Anandraj Kataria, Vinod Patidar of Mhow, Arjun Yadav of Dewas, Deepak Yadav and Rajesh Mishra of Pithampur. The officials are expected to interrogate a few more Hindutva activists at Dewas, Mhow and Pithampur. Madhya Pradesh DGP S.K. Raut, while confirming the presence of the joint CBI and ATS team in the state, said: "No arrests have been made so far". http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-136822.html SEE ALSO: A key VHP activist of Kandhamal district, Madhab Chaitanya alias Madhu Baba was arrested by police on Sunday evening in relation to non-bailable warrants pending against him. Arrested Madhu Baba was produced in the Baliguda court. He was put under judicial custody and transferred to Baliguda jail as his bail plea was rejected by the court. He was a resident of Landagaon village under Baliguda police station. He was wanted by police in three cases related to communal violence over cow slaughter in Tumudibandh area in July 2008. The Inspector in charge of Baliguda police station said he had charges of threats and attacks on minorities against him. To avoid any tension following the arrest, security had been tightened in Tumudibandh and Baliguda areas. He was a key disciple of murdered VHP leader, Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati. After the murder of the VHP leader at his Jalaspata ashram on Aug 23, 2008, Madhu Baba was looking after the children, who were studying in the residential school on the campus. After the killing of Lakshmanananda, Madhu Baba had become a key man in the Jalaspata ashram under Tumudibandh police station. In July 2008, a clash over cow slaughter had occurred in Tumudibandh area. It was fallout of alleged cow slaughter that had occurred at Malipara village near Tumudibandh on Tuesday. The VHP and the Bajrang Dal activists of the area had resorted to violence over the issue. Cases were lodged against Madhu Baba in relation to this violence. But 'the question' is why Madhu Baba had not been arrested to date. He was living openly in the Jalaspata ashram, although he was absconding as per official records. The arrest of Madhu Baba hints that situation was under control in Kandhamal district as no major reports of protest or tension related to his arrest were reported from any part of Kandhamal district. http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/20/stories/2009102051600300.htm SEE ALSO: Kerala Police on Thursday told the High Court there are reasons to suspect 'concentrated attempts' to persuade girls to convert to Islam after they fall in love with Muslim boys but no organisation called 'Love Jihad' has been identified so far in the state. "There is also unconfirmed source of information that some groups are actively working among youngsters encouraging conversions by such technique and that young men engaged in such pursuits are said to be receiving funds from abroad directly or indirectly," Kerala Police chief Jacob Punnose said in an affidavit. Police were now trying to collect maximum information in this regard, the DGP said in response to a direction from the Kerala High Court recently to provide within three weeks information on 'Love Jihad', where young non-Muslim girls were allegedly lured into marriage and converted to Islam. He said police would remain 'pro actively' vigilant and take action in all instances where any reasonable suspicion exists that undesirable illegal liaisons were being attempted with an ulterior purpose of compulsive conversion. The affidavit said police had no evidence regarding operation of love jihad and source of money. Meanwhile, a day after Karnataka High Court directed the state and Kerala to probe the "Love Jihad movement", Karnataka on Thursday decided to call a meeting of top police officials Friday or the day after to discuss ways to counter it. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/468023.aspx SEE ALSO: A blast ripped apart the wall of a room of a madrasa in Jind town of Haryana late tonight. Fortunately, no loss of life has been reported. The madrasa is located on the campus of Idgah in the meat market along the Hansi branch canal. According to information received here, the blast took place shortly after the conclusion of Namaz-e-Isha around 9.45 pm. About 25 persons had offered the namaz. The explosion was heard at far off places in the town. Mohammad Shayin, Deputy Commissioner, Jind, who along with the SP, Jind, told The Tribune from the site on the phone that about 45 students, who study in the madrasa, also stayed there. But today they were sleeping in another room. Forensic science experts have been called from Hissar for investigation. The area has been cordoned off. Security in the town has been strengthened. So far, the cause of explosion is not known. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091020/nation.htm#24 SEE ALSO: Marking a new level of audacity in their attacks, armed Naxal guerrillas on Tuesday stormed a police station in West Midnapore mid-afternoon, killing two police officers and taking with them as hostage the station officer in-charge. The assailants, including some women combatants, took away arms and ammunition from the Sankrail police station and also looted Rs 9.23 lakh from a bank nearby. They left behind posters demanding the release of People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) leader Chhatradhar Mahato and withdrawal of security forces from Lalgarh, a Maoist fortress in West Midnapore district that was recently captured after a prolonged military-style operation. Sources said about 45 guerrillas riding nearly 20-odd motorcycles roared into the town, led by Shekhar, one of the seniormost commanders in the Midnapore area that borders Jharkhand and Orissa. A woman commander, named by police sources as Tara, led the women who were part of the dalam. It were the women guerrillas who opened the attack. Wearing black masks, they stormed a bank around 2pm, firing their rifles in the air. The manager meekly handed over the keys to the vault to them as the cashier and other employees ran for their lives. Witnesses said the Naxalites spoke Hindi or broken-Bengali. Simultaneously, the men entered the police station and shot dead Dibakar Bhattacharya and Swapan Roy. The other personnel fled and the station in-charge, Atindranath Dutta, was dragged away at gunpoint. The Naxalites took six rifles and four revolvers from the police station and also three motorcycles parked outside. On the way out, they smashed the radio-transmitter, ripped out landlines and took mobiles to ensure no reinforcements are called in. They warned that bombs had been planted along the road leading to Sankrail. Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji claimed responsibility for the strike. "The police officer is in our custody. He will be killed if any attempt is made by security forces to follow our comrades," he said in a statement later. Sources claimed the operation was carried out by a fresh action squad that has entered West Midnapore from Jharkhand or Orissa. The intention was to prove how ineffective security forces are in this Maoist-affected district. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5143690,prtpage-1.cms SEE ALSO: Ashutosh Asthana - alleged to be the main player in the multi-crore Provident Fund (PF) scam - is not the first key accused of a high-profile case to have died in custody in Dasna jail. Asthana was cremated yesterday at 6.30 pm even as the post-mortem examination, which went on for three hours, by a panel of five doctors could not establish the exact cause of his death. "We have preserved the viscera which will be sent to Agra for further forensic examination. The final report from Agra will help us in establishing the exact cause of the death," said police sources. The report from Agra is expected in three months. Notably, as many as seven prisoners have died in custody in the past one year in Dasna jail. In 2008, Ravinder Pradhan, the key accused in the sensational Kavita Chaudhary murder case, had died under mysterious circumstances in Dasna jail. Ravinder was taking a stroll outside his barrack when he suddenly collapsed. He was rushed to a hospital, but like Asthana, he, too, was declared as brought dead by the doctors. Even at that time, the Dasna jail authorities were accused of killing Ravinder Pradhan. Notably, fragments of glass were reportedly recovered from Pradhan's stomach. In both the cases, the cause of death is not clear. Ashutosh's death has raised a number of questions. Seven members of the Asthana family, including Ashutosh's wife, Shushma, are in Dasna Jail. The family has alleged that Asthana was killed by the jail authorities. He was receiving threats to his life and had asked for better security. District Magistrate R Ramesh Kumar said the state government had asked DIG (Jail), AK Panda to conduct an inquiry into Asthana's death. District jail doctor AK Singh has suspected that Ashutosh could have died due to swallowing of poison. Ashutosh's brother, Shriesh Ashutosh, said the former did not suffer from heart or any other serious ailment. "Then how could he get a heart attack, which proved fatal," he questioned, alleging that his brother had been poisoned in the jail, as his dead body had turned blue. Shriesh said his brother used to be beaten up while being taken from jail to court and on his return. A day before Ashutosh's death, a CBI team had quizzed him for a couple hours. He appeared quite lost after the CBI interrogation. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091020/nation.htm#16 SEE ALSO: K Krishnaveni, wife of a head constable attached with the city police on Friday alleged that she was being harassed by her husband for additional dowry and sought protection for herself and her children. Even though Krishnaveni's parents gave a dowry of Rs two lakh, Dayanand and his brothers were demanding more. Speaing to reporters, Krishnaveni said that she lodged a complaint with the Women Protection Cell against her husband recently. http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=wjyaJYvO1dA= SEE ALSO: A Hindu organisation, the Sanatan Sanstha, is once again in the public eye after a lowintensity blast that took place in Goa's Madhgaon district on October 16, the eve of Diwali. Two activists of the Sanstha were badly injured and later died when improvised explosive devices (IEDs) they were carrying in a scooter - also owned by a Sanstha member - exploded prematurely. Situated next to the famous Ramrathi temple in Goa's Ponda district, the sprawling complex of the Sanatan Sanstha appears to be in a different world altogether. On display in the complex are burnt and stained clothes (results of spiritual magic by the gurus, we are told), placards exhorting Hindus to fight their enemies and a painting that has an image of India surrounded by four villains - including 'people who oppose black magic' and Mayawati's BSP, an anti-Hindu party for the Sanstha. As I walk on, I bump into a worker who has laminated pieces of paper stuck over the upper half of his body, including the forehead, nape and back. The pieces of paper have mantras inscribed on them. Asked what it's all about, the worker - or sevak as he calls himself - says it's like an amulet to ward off evil powers. A group of young children, women, teenagers and well-to-do people walk past the room, wearing the magic patches. I spy an ex-Miss India and former Lakme model, Sharon Clarke among them. I attempt to talk to Sharon, but she hurriedly walks on. When I ask the ashram in-charge why she did so, I'm told that Clarke is tired and hence, unable to talk. She and thousands like her are a part of the Sanatan Sanstha, denizens of what their literature calls a divine kingdom, which will be fully formed by 2020. Ten years ago, Sharon left her husband and child to join the Sanstha. The Sanstha also counts the wife of Goa's transport minister, Sudheen Dhavlikar, as an active member. This group grabbed headlines after the Panvel, Thane and Vashi blasts that took place in Maharashtra in 2007. After the Mumbai ATS chargesheeted six members of the Sanatan Sanstha and its front, the Hindu Janjagriti Samiti, in connection with the blasts, it could clearly no longer be dismissed as just another small-time cult. According to DIG Rajendra Yadav of the Goa Police, the organisation has spread rapidly and has a strong network in Goa, Pune, Sindhudurg, Sangli and Karnataka. However, the Goa Police believe it will be a difficult job to nail the organisation for the Madhgaon blast, as the evidence is insufficient. Moreover, the death of Malgonda Patel and Yogesh Naik, the Sanstha members who were on the scooter when the blast occurred, reduces possible leads in the case. However, investigations are continuing. "We have reached out to the Maharashtra ATS. Their members are here to investigate links between this blast and the Panvel blasts," said SP Atmaram Deshpande of the Special Branch. The police recovered gelatine sticks, timer clocks and a plastic box with circuits from the blast site. The IEDs showed striking similarities to the devices used in the Panvel blasts as well as the Malegaon blasts of 2008. Although the police say that this similarity alone is not conclusive evidence, they maintain that there is a likelihood of a common link between the blasts and, yes, a common agenda for the organisations involved - Abhinav Bharat and the Sanatan Sanstha-Hindu Janjagriti Samiti. Maharashtra and Goa ATS officials have also discovered that Vikram Bhave, one of the accused arrested in the Panvel blasts, was in touch with Malgonda Patil up to the time Bhave was arrested. An investigating official also revealed to TEHELKA that the gelatine sticks that were used in the Panvel and Madhgaon blasts were made in Nagpur. The Sanstha's newspaper, Sanatan Prabhat, which has a circulation of 5,000, calls for the formation of a 'Hindu Naxal force.' The Sanstha's literature is also quite revealing. It talks of Kshatriya Dharma (the dharma of the warrior) and of "destroying evil by all means, even by laying down one's life" so that the Sanstha's followers, under the guidance of their guru Jayant Athavale will be able to convert the country into a divine kingdom ruled by them. Athavale, a doctor by training, spent six years practising hypnosis in London and formed the Sanatan Sanstha in 1990 after his return to India in 1988. He has been questioned by the Goa Police in connection with the Madhgaon blasts. The man who revealed troubling truths about Athavale would only speak to TEHELKA on condition of anonymity. A medical professional himself and a veteran of the organisation, he used to work closely with Athavale in running the organisation. He quit the Sanstha after he found out that Athavale, who had, by then, successfully managed to indoctrinate many people, was venturing into dangerous territory. "He wants to become God and believes he may be an incarnation of Arjun, as he has written in his texts. In order to bring about the socalled 'divine kingdom,' Athavale can do anything. He has convinced his followers that he can see Gods and that they are directing him in a fight against evil. Many defence personnel would come to the organisation to run commando training classes and deliver speeches." Athavale's growing popularity and his desire to be worshipped led to his estrangement with major Hindu groups such as the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, which disassociated themselves from the Sanstha after the Panvel blasts. A senior leader of the VHP - not on good terms with Narendra Modi - told TEHELKA that the VHP ousted the Sanstha from Gujarat where it was trying to establish itself by inviting Modi to its functions. Speaking to TEHELKA, Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said the government was considering a ban on the Sanstha and would decide after it received the SIT report. It would be interesting to see if a link between the Sanatan Sanstha and other Hindu organisations like Abhinav Bharat emerges. After all, both organisations talk about forming a kingdom in India on the lines of Israel. The IEDs that exploded prematurely in Madhgaon were intended to go off in a market full of people celebrating the burning in effigy of the demon Narakasura - a practice widely observed by Goan Hindus and strongly objected to by the Sanstha every year but not, oddly enough, this year. Whether the Madhgaon IEDs were part of a planned wave of terror is something further investigations can reveal. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne311009deceptive_piety.asp SEE ALSO: The longstanding tussle between the Indian security establishment and the Left extremist Communist Party of India (Maoist) is all set to enter a crucial and perhaps decisive phase in the next few months. This is the unmistakable message one gets from the developments over the past two months in New Delhi and different parts of central and eastern India. Central to these developments and the projections that have emanated from them is the new strategy (and initiatives related to it) advanced by the Union Home Ministry and the Maoists' own plans to impart a concerted thrust to their activities and spread to new areas. Historically, the battle with the Maoists has raged since 1967 when the first Maoist rebellion erupted. The battle intensified over the last five years following the formation of the CPI (Maoist), in 2004, through the merger of two prominent naxalite groups, the Peoples War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). Over the past two months the government has pressed new battalions of security forces into anti-Maoist combat operations and many of them have been deployed. There have also been discussions about involving the Army and even the Air Force in the operations. The CPI (Maoist), on its part, has intensified its attacks in different parts of the country. They include Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, which are the organisation's strongholds, the Gadchiroli region in Maharashtra, where it is apparently recapturing lost space, and parts of West Bengal, where it has made forays in the past two years. Officials in the Home Ministry coordinating the new combat initiative say the government has ventured into this with some spectacular successes. The reference, obviously, is to the arrest of Kobad Ghandy and Amitabh Bagchi, senior politburo members of the CPI (Maoist). According to security agencies, Ghandy was arrested in New Delhi on September 21 and Bagchi in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, on August 24. The Maoists responded to these "captures" through a series of attacks across central and eastern India. Perhaps the most daring among these was the killing of 18 members of a police party in an ambush in Gadchiroli district on October 8, five days before polling in the State Assembly elections. The brutal beheading of abducted Jharkhand Police Inspector Francis Induwar two days earlier also captured widespread attention. While these incidents evoked strong condemnation from several quarters, many senior Maoist activists who interacted with Frontline said the purpose of the attacks was to prove that the strike power of the Maoists remained undiminished despite the capture of some leaders. "All these forays have asserted that the party is moving forward in fulfilling the organisational tasks laid out by the politburo in its historic circular of June 12," said CPI (Maoist) politburo member Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji to Frontline over telephone. The June 12 intra-party circular titled "Post Election Situation - Our Tasks" etched out a number of immediate and long-term tasks for the cadre. Kishenji's contention was that the Gadchiroli attack and the Ranchi killing showed that the party was on course to fulfilling these tasks. According to Union Home Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai, the arrests of Ghandy and Bagchi signify remarkable improvement in terms of intelligence gathering vis-a-vis Maoist operations. "The series of inter-State meetings the Union Home Ministry organised over the past two years at different levels of political and administrative authority resulted in better coordination among the security forces in different States and that contributed to improved intelligence gathering," Pillai told Frontline. The new Home ministry initiative is also broadly based on the confabulations that took place over the past two years under the auspices of the Ministry and involved Chief Ministers, State Home Ministers and senior officials in government and the police departments. The discussions essentially centred on the rising Maoist influence across the country. According to informal estimates that came up in these discussions, the CPI (Maoist) has more than 20,000 armed cadre, apart from lakhs of supporters. The number of armed cadre is supposed to have doubled in the past five years. Home Ministry officials say this is an unprecedented number for an insurgency and point out that the militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir had only 3,000 armed cadre even at the peak of the militancy. The estimates also highlighted that Maoist activity had spread to 231 of the 626 districts in the country, or 37 per cent of the districts. According to a number of Home Ministry officials involved in the anti-Maoist operations both at the Centre and in States like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, the theoretical framework of the new initiative is one that has been repeated for many years and involves aggressive thrusts by the security forces, followed by the implementation of pointed development schemes for the overall socio-economic development of the local population in these areas. Where it differs from earlier plans is in the detailing and the drawing up of specific action programmes. Union Home Ministry officials pointed out that as part of the new initiative a detailed study of the Maoist-affected areas was done and the most sensitive and difficult areas were mapped. The study identified 11 areas as most sensitive, spread over 40 districts. According to the Home Ministry's own figures, overall Maoist influence has spread from 56 districts in 2001 to 223 in 2009. It rated approximately 70 of these as worst-affected, and the 40 identified districts in the 11 mapped areas qualify as the worst-affected among these. An additional 70 battalions of security forces have been earmarked for operations in these 11 areas. The 40-odd battalions already deployed in Maoist-affected areas would not be withdrawn even after the induction of the additional forces. Significantly, operations would be concentrated in one or two of the 11 areas at any given point of time, thus ensuring intense mobilisation in the selected area. All the forces would be under a unified command of the special task force trained at the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College in Kanker, Chhattisgarh.… The forces deployed in an area would be followed by a back-up team that focuses on socio-economic development. Specialists in various fields, including socio-economic index researchers, development workers, health professionals, educators and others have also been recruited for the operation. "Overall it is a comprehensive operational strategy that would first seek to clear an area of Maoists, occupy it militarily and follow it up with socio-economic development activity. The understanding is that it would take 18 to 4 (?) months in each of the phases to operationalise the strategy and implement it successfully," said a senior Home Ministry official to Frontline. A number of Maoist observers agree that this is one of the best laid out plans as far as anti-naxal operations are concerned. However, there is little agreement on the vital question whether the country and its security forces have the political and the administrative system to carry out the plan efficiently. According to Ajit Sahni, one of the country's foremost security analysts and executive director of the Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management, all well-laid-out plans can come a cropper if intense efforts are not made to enhance and improve general policing and remove political intervention in, and political corruption of, the security establishment (see interview). According to experts, the shortage in terms of police personnel in the country is to the tune of several lakhs and that, too, as per the old proportion of having an inspector and six constables in a police station. As per modern police manuals, a police station requires as many as 20 policemen in a vastly populated country like India. http://www.flonnet.com/fl2622/stories/20091106262200400.htm SEE ALSO: As the first electoral exercise after the Lok Sabha verdict, these assembly election results gain an especially national context. For the BJP, in a spiral of denial since its May defeat, they come as a reminder that postponing a stock-taking will not stop the wreckage from piling up. The BJP will perhaps wonder what may have been had it persisted with its earlier seat-adjustment with the INLD in Haryana. In Maharashtra it has gamely conceded defeat. But it needs to do a lot more to show itself worthy of the opposition space it occupies, especially in Maharashtra and at the national level. The BJP's Maharashtra leadership is already rationalising the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance's third successive defeat to the Congress-NCP combine by arguing that Raj Thackeray's votes were really theirs. This is disingenuous and lazy. In a first-past-the-post system, pointing to fragmentation of the vote can hardly be consolation. But the Thackeray factor is certainly at the heart of the BJP's troubles in Maharashtra. It is not that Thackeray was threatening to garner substantial vote away from the BJP-Sena combine, especially in what used to be their urban stronghold. It is that the party failed to articulate a political response to his hyper-chauvinism. It was certainly a chauvinism inspired by the Sena's familiar rhetoric. But the challenge for the BJP, as a national party, was to craft a positive agenda to present itself as an alternative to both the ruling coalition and to the challenger-come-lately. As seen from its feeble statements and its manifesto, it chose to play Thackeray-lite - and even alarmed its coalition partner in Bihar, the JD(U) - with talk of work permits for migrants. This failure is indicative of the BJP's challenge nationwide. Once a party of the urban middle classes and small entrepreneurs, it is now struggling to articulate a political agenda responsive to the aspirations of the cities and the urban periphery. This may be bad news for the party. But it is also unhealthy for our polity that the largest party of opposition is consumed by problems of factionalism and turned away from the urgent issues of the day. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/532162/ SEE ALSO: On October 3, Ajaz Khan Pathan, a resident of Dahod - a quiet town located 200 km from Gujarat's commercial capital Ahmedabad - decided to pray at his ancestors' graves. The 250-year-old graveyard at Idgah Chaab Talav had always filled him with calm. Pathan also wanted to clean the graves and lay flowers on them. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw when he came to his destination, which lies a few metres off Dahod's main road. A frenzied mass of labourers, bulldozers and excavators had been set loose on Pathan's oasis of tranquility. The work crew was busy digging up graves and levelling the land. Bricks, rubble and even bones that had lain undisturbed for hundreds of years lay scattered across the raw earth. Several hours later, Pathan and his friends learnt that the Dahod Municipal Corporation (DMC) authorities had decided that the town needed a new road - a road, as it turned out, that would cut right through a section of the graveyard. There had been no prior notice given to anyone. Dahod is easily one of Gujarat's most backward districts and over the years, its backwardness has become an easy answer for a range of questions, be they on funds for education or relief for riot victims. When Khan and other Muslims asked why the graves of their forefathers had been desecrated, DMC President Gulshan Bachani (of the BJP) claimed that the road was necessary to develop Dahod - and lift it out of its backwardness. Says Khan, "We waited for five days before being granted a meeting with Bachani. We would go every day, see him in his office, but return without a meeting. Meanwhile, the graveyard continued to be levelled. When we were finally granted an audience on October 8, the president was firm in his claim that the road was necessary for Dahod's development." Khan and others say that Bachani refused to discuss details of the project with them but only told them repeatedly that it would increase traffic into the town and hence bring development to the region - an explanation they reject. "We are convinced this is another way to inflict violence on Muslims. They knew the graveyard is an ancient one and that it would be sacrilege to dig up graves and disturb the bones of our ancestors. But none of this matters to them at all," says an emotional Farooq Bhai Patel. "They tried to kill us all in 2002. The ones who survived are being killed in a different way now," he adds bitterly. Patel is a fruit merchant in Dahod and, along with Pathan and others, is a member of the Dahod Muslim Panch - an organisation that has been working to uphold the rights of the Muslim community after the 2002 riots. Unfortunately, the facts appear to substantiate the Panch's charge of anti-Muslim prejudice. In an extensive interview with TEHELKA, DMC President Bachani admitted that the road project was a scheme approved in 1977 and could give no conclusive answer to why a 32-year-old plan was being revived. He also failed to explain just how the Rs 50 lakh road project sanctioned under the Tribal Sub-Plan (a government scheme for tribal development projects) would benefit the tribal community. Bachani would only repeat throughout that, "The road will improve connectivity." And just how much of the graveyard will the road project take up? Shockingly, Bachani admits that he has no idea, because the project construction - and graveyard desecration - started without a proper survey being completed. When this reporter raised the issue of discrimination against Muslims and asked if the road project would have gone ahead if a temple had stood there, Bachani retorted, "How can you compare temples and graveyards? Temples are filled with living people. Graveyards are full of the dead. Who cares about them?" But this is not an isolated case. Last year, in Tilakvada, 150 km from Dahod, a section of the Muslim graveyard was cleared for an office of the district's Agricultural Produce Marketing Corporation (APMC). As news spread of the Tilakvada gram panchayat being pressurised to hand over the land, local Muslims filed a case in the district court. In October 2008, a month after the court awarded them a stay order, the district collector, despite being served a copy of the order, signed papers handing over the land to the APMC. The graves began to be dug up the very next day. The locals approached the high court, but by the time it granted a stay order, the APMC office complex was nearly complete. Local Muslims are being punished for opposing the demolition. Musabhai Mahmadbhai Ghanchi, 60, was slapped with an eviction notice for a house he built on his own agricultural land - and has lived in for the past 25 years. And when Allarakha Masidkhan Malik went all alone to place flowers at the spot where his ancestors' graves had been, he - and he alone - was slapped with a police case for being part of an unlawful assembly. Soon after Malik was bailed, AJ Chanpura, a taluk official, cancelled Malik's hotel license. Both APMC District President Umang Patel and Chanpura refused to speak to TEHELKA. The story of Chandvada, about 60 km from Tilakvada, is even worse. The local Muslims have had their graveyard turned into a cattle pasture, with dung and haystacks scattered across it. Attempts by Muslims to explain that the graveyard was a sacred place have been completely disregarded by local Hindus. In conversations with TEHELKA, both communities held the other responsible for the situation as it existed currently. Activists like Harsh Mander and Shabnam Hashmi who have been working in Gujarat for several years believe that the destruction of graveyards is yet another manifestation of rampant communalisation in the state. Explains Mander, whose recent book Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre tracks the ongoing discrimination in Gujarat after the 2002 riots, "These are decentralised efforts, really; methods devised at local levels to constantly remind Muslims of their second class citizenship." For Hashmi, the issue was even more distressing since it highlighted the utter disregard for the judiciary. Said Hashmi, "With police and government officials batting on the same side against Muslims, the situation is bleak. People like us who constantly attempt to highlight the continuing violence are now looked at askance or threatened with violence ourselves." http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne311009waking_up.asp SEE ALSO: The Supreme Court's collegium comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and four senior judges, which recommends appointees to the Supreme Court, exercises a crucial responsibility. It has a decisive say in the appointment process, which includes a mandatory consultation with the government. The CJI's view, formed and fortified by the supporting views, in writing, of just two other members of the collegium, has primacy. Although the government can return a recommendation for reconsideration by the CJI and the collegium for specified reasons, they can reiterate their recommendation, which will be binding on the government. This legal position means that once the CJI and the collegium make a recommendation practically nothing can be done to change it. Once a judge is appointed, it is virtually impossible to remove him or her from office because the process of impeachment of a judge by Parliament is long and cumbersome. The judgment of the Supreme Court's nine-judge Bench in the Supreme Court Advocates-on-record case in 1993, (known as the Second Judges Case), which heralded the era of collegium with primacy to the CJI, said so clearly while laying down the grounds on which the government could reject the CJI's recommendation: "If the non-appointment in a rare case… [of a recommended appointee] turns out to be a mistake, that mistake in the ultimate public interest, is less harmful than a wrong appointment." However, by limiting severely the grounds for rejecting a CJI's recommendation with regard to appointments, the Supreme Court's judgments in the Second and Third (1998) Judges Cases, according to observers, paved the way for several wrong appointments. With the collegium's deliberations shrouded in secrecy, it was inconceivable that any wrong recommendation of the collegium would come to public notice. There is a gap of six to 10 weeks (which can stretch up to a maximum of 16 weeks, if there is disagreement among members of the collegium) between the government's receipt of a proposal from the CJI and the actual appointment of a judge. But this period is almost always rushed through, with little public transparency over the written opinions of the members of the collegium. The 1993 judgment makes these opinions non-justiciable but not non-disclosable to the public. A report that appeared in The Hindu on August 27 about the collegium's recommendation to appoint five new judges lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the minutes of the collegium. The names recommended were Ananga Kumar Patnaik, Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court; Tirath Singh Thakur, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; Surinder Singh Nijjar, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court; P.D. Dinakaran, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court; and K.S. Radhakrishnan, Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. Responsible legal circles in Chennai who read The Hindu's report were perturbed to learn the background of one of the appointees, Justice Dinakaran. The Forum for Judicial Accountability (FJA), of which R. Vaigai, an advocate in Chennai, is the convener, received information about certain allegations against him. The allegations related to land-grabbing, acquisition of assets disproportionate to known sources of income and abuse of office. On September 9, the FJA made its first written complaint, in detail, to the collegium about these allegations. Senior advocates in the Supreme Court, Fali S. Nariman and Shanti Bhushan, handed over the complaint to the CJI and other members of the collegium. Asked why the FJA did not disclose these allegations when Justice Dinakaran was elevated as the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, Vaigai told Frontline that the FJA did not have the information earlier. "Only now, could we get the information backed with documentation," she said. On September 17, the FJA forwarded to the collegium additional materials regarding Justice Dinakaran's assets and his "rather unusual judicial orders". Shanti Bhushan and fellow senior Supreme Court advocates Anil Divan and Kamini Jaiswal handed over to Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily a copy of the second missive and requested the government not to proceed with Justice Dinakaran's appointment. Reports in the media on the allegations forced Justice Dinakaran to opt out of an official visit to Australia along with the CJI and other judges of the Supreme Court. The FJA, on October 1, sent to the collegium more information relating to the amassing of property and exercise of judicial powers to decide cases in his own cause by Justice Dinakaran. It also provided further documentary proof of the acquisitions detailed in the FJA's earlier representations. The most serious of the allegations, on which substantial evidence is available, pertained to land-grabbing at Kaverirajapuram village, Tiruttani taluk in Tiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu. Justice Dinakaran was a judge of the Madras High Court between December 19, 1996, and August 6, 2008, before his elevation as the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. According to the 2001 Census, Kaverirajapuram is a village with 491 households and a population of 1,878. The number of Scheduled Castes is 1,083, and the literacy rate is 57.15 per cent. Nearly 500 people of the village work as marginal agricultural labourers and about 127 work as agricultural labourers. The total extent of the village, according to the FJA, is about 1,700 acres (688 hectares). The FJA's investigation revealed that the encroachment of government land and public property meant for the villagers deprived them of their resources and livelihood. The encroached area includes the government Anadhinam land, meant to be assigned only to landless poor for small holdings and personal cultivation, and poromboke land, which is meant for all residents and cannot be occupied by any individual. Under a recent scheme of the State government, they can be distributed only to the landless poor. The investigation found that the encroachment also extended to water bodies such as lakes, canals and streams, to common village pathways and to an ancient mud fortress abutting his patta land. Access to the water source for the village was also restricted by the extensive use of water for the judge's farm, the investigation found. The erection of a fence around the encroached property deprived the local residents of access to common-property resources of the village, on which many of them depended for their livelihood. According to the FJA, Justice Dinakaran is in possession of approximately 440 acres in the village alone, almost one-fourth of the village. Of these, more than 300 acres are owned by him, his wife and two daughters. This is clearly in violation of the ceiling limit under the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Act, 1961, under which a family of five persons can possess not more than 15 standard acres. Enclosed within the fenced area (440 acres) is nearly 150 acres of government and village common land meant for community use. The FJA's complaint said that nearly 600 families of Dalits and landless poor in the village had sought distribution of poromboke and Anadhinam lands to them as per the State government's G.O. (Ms) No.241 dated September 12, 2006. The applicants have not yet been assigned these lands. The FJA claimed that immediately after this the common and government lands were fenced in. The FJA estimated the market value of the area to be Rs.20-25 lakh an acre. The FJA's September 9 complaint apprehended that the fence around the encroached areas, witnessed by its members, might be removed once its complaint became public, and brought to the collegium's notice that the common village lands near Justice Dinakaran's property were out of bounds for the people. The complaint also alleged that the local police were used to prevent access to the area. As if to vindicate the FJA's concern, on October 10 some persons attempted to remove a portion of the barbed-wire fencing around the poromboke land adjacent to the patta land. It was foiled by the Tiruvallur district administration.… http://www.flonnet.com/fl2622/stories/20091106262212200.htm SEE ALSO: The spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers that shamed Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra has caught up with Orissa. The alarming regularity with which farmers in Orissa are committing suicide has put the Naveen Patnaik government in a fix. As many as eight suicides by farmers, all marginal, have already been reported from different parts of the state in the last two months. But the administration, with its trademark apathy, continues to dismiss these suicides as unrelated to the distress farmers are going through on account of drought-like conditions in many pockets. While the opposition has been crying itself hoarse about the state's callous response, the latter is deliberately adopting an ostrich-like attitude of denial. This is happening even as a fact-finding team of the ruling BJD acknowledged that the recent death of a farmer at Lakhanpur in Jharsuguda district was a suicide due to crop loss and loan burden. Agriculture minister Damodar Rout has admitted that crop output on more than 70,000 hectares will be affected because of the erratic monsoon. The extent of loss is bound to go up given the prevailing dry conditions and virtually non-existent irrigation facilities in most parts of the state. As the spectre of drought is looming large in western and southern Orissa, the state has fixed the paddy procurement target at 32 lakh tonnes for 2009, one lakh tonne more than the previous year. The state does not have a sound agricultural policy nor does it give due weightage to the demands of the sector even though Orissa's is primarily an agrarian economy. In its eagerness to climb the industrialisation bandwagon, the state government has neglected agriculture. Lack of prudent water management has aggravated the problem. While agriculture in Punjab and Haryana has benefited immensely from extensive river irrigation, Orissa depends mostly on the monsoon in spite of an extensive riverine network. The majority are marginal farmers hardly ever benefit from the various government schemes. But they are no longer prepared to suffer in silence. Protests are raging everywhere. It is time the government woke up from its slumber and addressed the farmers' legitimate demands. Quick fixes like loan waivers will not solve the problem; a focused, viable and liberal agricultural policy and its rigorous implementation are the need of the day. http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=5TL4V|1|IY0= SEE ALSO:
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS HEADLINES
OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
NEWS HEADLINES
IN NEWSPAPER AD, EMBASSY DENIES INVITING MODI TO OMAN (OCT 24, 2009, INDIAN EXPRESS)
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/23/stories/2009102355341200.htm
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/532617/
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5150227.cms
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/532086/MARGAO BLAST A RESULT OF HATE FANATICISM (OCT 22, 2009, NAV HIND TIMES)
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/20/stories/2009102059941000.htm
http://www.navhindtimes.in/news/goa-news/4301-ministers-wife-under-scanner-for-links-with-sanatan
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5144710.cms
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/530899/MAHARASHTRA FAST TURNING INTO A RIGHT-WING TERROR HUB (OCT 21, 2009, TIMES OF INDIA)
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/530812/
http://www.navhindtimes.in/news/goa-news/4304-police-see-similarities-between-margao-blast-and-explosions-in-maharashtra
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/31201/goa-blast-police-probe-foreign.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5155534.cmsCBI-ATS TEAM EXPLORES ABHINAV BHARATS ROLE IN AJMER BLAST (OCT 23, 2009, NEW KERALA)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5140380.cms
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/531610/
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5150998.cms
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/531238/VHP LEADER ARRESTED, BAIL PLEA REJECTED (OCT 20, 2009, THE HINDU)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5137398.cms
http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20091023/1416/tnl-vhp-sponsored-ram-katha-session-bann.html
http://www.asianage.com/
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=rDHx042xoVo=NO ORGANISATION CALLED LOVE JIHAD IDENTIFIED IN KERALA (OCT 22, 2009, HINDUSTAN TIMES)
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/23/stories/2009102360270700.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5146769.cms
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=G4re/HB81Xw=
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/23/stories/2009102354650500.htmBLAST ROCKS MADRASA IN JIND, NO LOSS OF LIFE (OCT 20, 2009, THE TRIBUNE)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/466990.aspx
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091019/jsp/northeast/story_11629217.jsp
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=txsja4dVcEA=
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5139570,prtpage-1.cmsMAOISTS STORM BENGAL TOWN, KILL 2 COPS (OCT 21, 2009, TIMES OF INDIA)
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/530964/
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/467443.aspx
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/530795/
http://www.asianage.com/DASNA JAIL NOTORIOUS FOR CUSTODIAL DEATHS (OCT 20, 2009, THE TRIBUNE)
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/21/stories/2009102150570100.htm
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/31157/crpf-jawans-held-misbehaving-women.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5150555.cms
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/two-women-held-in-goa-serial-killings-case/103579-3.htmlCONSTABLE IN DOWRY HARASSMENT ROW (OCT 24, 2009, EXPRESS BUZZ)
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/alleged-serial-killer-of-18-women-lovers-in-police-net/103698-3.html
http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/oct/21/mangalore-man-confesses-to-killing-18-girls.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5149548.cms
http://www.navhindtimes.in/news/goa-news/4169-attempt-to-destroy-rape-evidence-in-3-cases-forensic-experts
OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS
DECEPTIVE PIETY - BY RANA AYYUB (OCT 31, 2009, TEHELKA)
http://cpim.org/pd/2009/1025_pd/10252009_1.html
http://www.navhindtimes.in/opinions/4268-this-is-not-hinduism
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ws311009RamPuniyani.asp
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262431TAKING ON MAOISTS - BY VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN (OCT 24, 2009, FRONTLINE)
http://www.navhindtimes.in/opinions/4344-effective-policing-against-maoists
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2622/stories/20091106262200900.htm
http://cpim.org/pd/2009/1018_pd/10182009_1.html
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2622/stories/20091106262209700.htmLOSERS BURDEN - EDITORIAL (OCT 23, 2009, INDIAN EXPRESS)
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091024/edit.htm#3
http://www.navhindtimes.in/opinions/4499-the-elusive-marathi-manoos
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/532160/
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/32060/victory-default.htmlWAKING UP THE DEAD - BY SANJANA (OCT 31, 2009, TEHELKA)
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/in-bad-faithCONTROVERSIAL CHOICE - BY V. VENKATESAN (OCT 24, 2009, FRONTLINE)
http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/14036.pdf
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091020/edit.htm#1DEATHWATCH IN ORISSA - EDITORIAL (OCT 24, 2009, EXPRESS BUZZ)
http://www.countercurrents.org/padhi131009.htm
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2621/stories/20091023262111500.htm
