Voice of India Features Newsletter - 21 February 2010

feb 28th, 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: VOI Features

Editorial: Maoist- Naxal Menace Haunts the Nation The Editorial Team Jihadi and Maoist-Naxal terror attacks continue unabated. The Pune blast which has so far claimed 15 lives was followed by Maoist- Naxal attack on Eastern Rifle camp in Silda, West Bengal killing 24 jawans on Feb 15. This savagery was followed by 11 killings in Jamui, Bihar by the Maoist-Naxal groups. A Block Development Officer was kidnapped in Jharkhand and released reportedly only in exchange of captured Naxalites. The terror groups have been striking at will, at the time and place of their own choosing but so far our government has not been able to strategise its response in any visibly effective manner. Read more... Rising Menace of Maoist Terrorism RP Tripathy National security of India is under great threat mainly on two fronts: cross border terrorism and Naxalism. The country is facing the scourge of terrorism for the last three decades. In fact, no other country in the world has waged such a long, relentless struggle against terrorism as has India. The threat from within is more dangerous while that from cross border terrorism and aggression is no less.  We do not seem to have learnt a lesson in dealing with such menace and continue to make a mess with our confused and inconsistent approach. Scores of people, mostly poor and living in backward regions of the country have fallen prey to this mindless violence. Still India is dithering to take firm action to restore law & order and peace in the country. This is evident from the statement of the former Home Minister of India Shri Shivraj Patil who had the audacity to say that Maoist violence was not the biggest security challenge to India Read more... Two Eyes for An Eye, The Jaw for A Tooth Kanchan Gupta Even before the CPI(M) could stabilise and get its act together after it was formed in 1964 following the historic split in the CPI over what the Marxists call "revisionism and sectarianism in the Communist movement at the international and national level", it was convulsed by a revolt within. Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal, veteran Communists of north Bengal, insisted that pursuing the path of parliamentary democracy was futile; that conditions were ripe for a rural insurrection to seize state power; and, that till this goal was achieved, the party should play the role of "revolutionary opposition" instead of becoming a part of the bourgeois system. By early-1967 Charu Mazumdar had all but declared his split with the CPI(M). The insurrection, when it came, was more of a monsoon uprising than a spring thunder. On May 25 the police fired at protesting landless peasants in a remote hamlet called Naxalbari in north Bengal. That incident triggered what came to be known as the 'Naxalite movement', based on Mao's dictum that "power flows from the barrel of the gun". Read more... Dhimmitude Emasculates Government RK Ohri The bomb blast which targeted Pune on February 13, 2010, killed 11 innocents and injured more than 40 citizens at German Bakery demonstrated the resolve of Pak-supported jihadis to target India. It also highlighted the wonky law and order priorities of the government. For three days the entire might of  Maharashtra government  was focussed on ensuring the release of  Shahrukh Khan's  movie, 'My Name is Khan',  which was a business venture of  an individual, though opposed by Shiv Sena for tactical reasons.  The media, both 'paid' and the unpaid, gave enormous coverage to Shahrukh Khan and his movie. Most anchors of telemedia went ga ga over that mediocre script tomtoming victimhood of the Muslim community - sort of an advertisement for Islam and Islamism. Many television channels lionised Shahrukh notwithstanding the fact that the Bollywood hero, as owner of an IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders, had shunned the Pakistani cricketers during the auction Read more... India Buckling Under US Pressure? Amba Charan Vashishth In the heat of the moment when Mumbai was rattled with serial bomb blasts in local trains about three years back, the government announced cancellation of its proposed talks at Secretary's level with Pakistan. But soon it ate its own words. It displayed a U-turn and declared that the peace process would go on.The people of India are fed up with the stale, oft-repeated and hackneyed reactions whenever terrorists, in  complicity with and moral and material support from Pakistan, have struck in any part of the country leaving behind a tale of death, injury, misery and loss of property. The terrorists cannot defeat us, the prime minister has repeatedly said. It will be defeated and the "peace process will go on, he has repeated uninterruptedly. But people have observed that it is the opposite that has actually happened Read more...