Bharateeya Blog Mela. Well folks, its Monday again... and a start to yet another week. Just a couple of days to go for the seventh edition of Bharateeya Blog Mela. Please send in your nominations for the Mela. For details on how to submit your nominations, click here. Alternatively, you could even leave your nominations as comments on this post.

C'mon people, lets see the cream of the Indian blogscape on the Blog Mela!!

PS: Shanti has created some really cool buttons for linking to the Blog Mela. They are available here.

Tornadoes to drop 'concrete bombs'

After using the ultimate in hi-technology in the form of accurate, precision-guided missiles, the Allies are now turning to another piece of innovation in a bid to reduce civilian deaths resulting from explosions due to the bombs and missile.

But now the crews operating over Iraq from the Ali Al Salem airbase in northern Kuwait are about to go to the opposite extreme and use "inert bombs".
These are basically blocks of concrete shaped as bombs and painted blue to identify them as non-explosive if they are discovered still intact after the war.
But they will be laser-guided 1,000lb blocks of concrete, capable of destroying a tank or artillery piece, but without causing a devastating explosion that would put civilians at risk and shatter surrounding buildings.[link via WarFilter]

Interesting! :-)

A legend turns 90

In the company of generals, children, politicians, journalists and illustrious members of the global Parsi community and with traditional Zoroastrian rituals, Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, India's first and only living field marshal, celebrated his 90th birthday in New Delhi on Thursday.

Manekshaw, his legendary wit and charm intact, cut his birthday cake with a silver khukri, the favourite dagger of the legendary Gurkha soldiers, as the large gathering sang Happy Birthday to You.

Yesterday, I was watching some footage of this birthday party on TV and I was struck by how active and sprightly FM (retd.) Sam Manekshaw (Sam Bahadur to his troops) looked and acted, even at the age of 90. He looked dapper in a smart suit and he answered questions with enthusiasm.

One journalist asked him about his views on the war.
"War?! What war are you talking about??!... I don't know of any war!", he shot back almost immediately, "I'm a peace-loving man. The only fighting I did was with my wife. And she died two years ago!".

We could really do with men like him in the Army and politics right now. Belated Birthday Wishes to you, Sam!!

Attention citizens of Mumbai! A non-governmental organization (NGO), Praja has just launched an Online Complaint Management System (OCMS) in close association with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). OCMS was launched at the BMC headquarters yesterday (3 April 2003) by Mumbai's mayor, Mahadeo Deole and B G Deshmukh, the chairman of the board of trustees of PRAJA foundation

According to the press release by PRAJA,

The Online Complaint Monitoring System (OCMS) is designed to enable citizens of Mumbai register complaints and receive information on the complaint status quickly and easily, without the need to visit or call the Brihan-Mumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) ward offices at restricted timings.
All you need to do is to go to www.praja.org and fill in a simple form with the complaint details. On submission, you will be given a unique complaint tracking number, which helps you check the status of your complaint on the internet - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Anonymous complaints are accepted.
What if you don't have connectivity to the internet? Not to worry, the OCMS is a cohesive system. Complaints filed from any source - the net, phone calls and letters to the BMC - will be entered into the OCMS database. The BMC has a 24/7 complaint hotline telephone "1916." And, regardless from where the complaint is fed into the system, you will get a similar complaint tracking number.

Citizens can post their civic complaints online through the OCMS on PRAJA's website. Be it water shortage, encroachment, garbage pile-up or any other civic concern, people of Mumbai no longer will need to run to their area's municipal office to lodge a complaint. They can post their complaint through OCMS and be assured that it will be taken care of soon. A complaint officer in each of the 24 wards of BMC will monitor the complaints for his/her area and forward the complaints to the concerned departments in the BMC. If a particular complaint is not resolved within a stipulated time-frame, then it gets routed to a higher official, thus ensuring redressal. This stipulated time-frame is decided in a Citizen's Charter, a comprehensive document prepared jointly by the BMC and PRAJA. e.g. the Charter sets a time-frame of 24 hours for the redressal of issues like "Overflowing drains or manholes" or "Garbage not lifted from authorised collection spot".

The OCMS is also a complaint monitoring system. Higher officials in BMC can keep track and monitor the progress of grievance redressal by accessing the system.

Some salient features of OCMS... (taken from the PRAJA press release)
1. First of its kind anywhere in the world.
2. All the complaints - from whichever source - will be put in one cohesive system, making it easier to respond, maintain, and evaluate.
3. Each complaint will have a unique tracking number. The complainant can at any time of day or night check the status of the complaint online.
4. If the complaint is not heeded, it will be escalated to the higher officer automatically - up to the Municipal Commissioner. There is no human involvement in this process and it removes the scope for delays in dealing with citizens' complaints.
5. It will revolutionize the use of Information Technology in governance. E-governance is much more that simply computerization of government offices and better communications. This is an interactive system.
6. The OCMS will bring about transparency in governance thus improving governance tremendously.
7. For the first time an NGO is partnering the government in such an initiative.

I think OCMS is an excellent step towards creating an accountable and functional civic administration. BMC and PRAJA have taken the first step. Now it is upto the citizens of Mumbai to step forward and make this effort a success.

Finally... an applause for the people behind PRAJA for their wonderful initiative.

Bharateeya Blog Mela #7

The next Bharateeya Blog Mela will be hosted here on this blog

Directions for submitting entries
* Please submit your nominations for the Mela at webmaster @ opti-mystic dot net
* You can also submit your nominations as comments to this post

Other Rules
* You can submit any type of posts except that it should not be a personal journal entry.
* You can nominate either your own or someone else's posts.
* Please send URLs (permalinks) of the individual posts (not the blog URLs themselves)
* Only the posts dated between 02 April 2003 and 08 April 2003 will be considered for Bharateeya Blog Mela #7.
* Entries should reach me by 12 noon IST on April 09 2003 (that makes it roughly end of Tuesday for people in the US)

If you want to know what this Blog Mela is all about read this and this. Go here if you want to see some examples.

Announcement: If you would like to host the Blog Mela on your blog, slots are open for the following dates -
April 16th
April 23rd
April 30th.

Send an email via this form or leave a message in the comment box saying that you wish to host the Mela.

US forces use Daisy Cutters

As American forces encounter stiffer resistance on the road to Baghdad, military commanders say they have been authorised to use still greater firepower.

And by greater firepower, they mean Daisy Cutters. These 15,000 pound hulks are quite dumb. They don't have any precision-guided technology. They're just slid off the ramp from the aircraft flying around 6,000 feet or higher and they use parachutes to float towards their target. Once they explode, an area of several hundred yards is completely obliterated.

If the Cruise missiles are as precise as a surgeon's scalpel, the Daisy Cutters are as subtle as an ironsmith's hammer-blow.

Click here for a good, concise pictorial description of these monsters. Or if you prefer Flash, then click here.

Bharateeya Blog Mela #6

The sixth edition of the Bharateeya Blog Mela is up at The Examined Life - Ravikiran Rao's weblog. Click here to go and check some of the choicest blogs of the week in the Indian Blogosphere!

The Blog Mela is also mirrored here.

Note: Next week's Bharateeya Blog Mela will be hosted here at Supersam Blogs. Details about how to submit your entries for the same will be put up shortly (within the next 24 hours)

I didn't expect any of my posts to figure in it this week. But then... there is one! *LOL*

BBC reports that Al-Jazeera site tackles hackers

"Fingers crossed that it is back up and running properly in the next few days," Newsroom coordinator Susie Sirri told BBC News Online.

"We don't anticipate farther hacking as we have put in enough security barriers," she added.

So they say!! But have you gone to the english Al-Jazeera site lately?
No??! Then hop over to their site right now!

Whoa!! you're it!! You are the hacker!! I'm not saying that. The site says so. Dear reader, your IP address is in the list of IP addresses banned by Al-Jazeera.

Not a very bright team of web-site security they have, do they?!

[link via WarFilter]

India reacts sharply to Powell's remarks

"No other issue is as central in Jammu and Kashmir as cross-border terrorism," the minister (External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha) emphasised adding, "To the extent to which any other country would pressure Pakistan as part of the global war on terrorism, it is fine, but it is our war."

Well said Mr. Sinha!! India's war is its own to fight.

And well... for some people who feel "Why again should the US/UK give a shit about India's terrorist problems?", go ask this question to your good old Mr. Colin Powell. Perhaps he has some answers as to why US likes to give a shit!

Saddam Eyes Endgame, Gathers in His Elite Forces

The Iraq war is resolving itself into a battle of wits whose lines are deliberately blurred by the bravado, ambiguous maneuvers and half-truths propagated by both sides. The protagonists are US General Tommy Franks and Saddam Hussein. The score on Day 12 of the war is even. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources and military analysts stress that both are perfectly aware that the war will end in an American battlefield victory. With an eye on the endgame, the two are maneuvering over its cost.

Exactly!! There are no two ways about the fact that the Coalition forces are going to win this war. It is inconceivable that the combined might of US and UK air-force, army, navy and dolphins could be defeated by the Iraqis. The only thing that matters for both the sides is the cost of war.Franks’ goal is a victory with the lowest number of American casualties, whereas Saddam, who has no inhibitions about the human cost to his army and people, seeks to extract from the conflict enough leverage to dictate the conditions for his and his sons’ survival.Saddam has been playing a game of chess in last couple of days. He has pulled back his Republican Guard from many major cities. In doing so he has beefed up the Republican Guard presence around his two centres of power. viz. Baghdad and Tikrit. All indications of the fact that Saddam knows that the war will never result in an Iraqi victory. Only thing that remains is to salvage his pride.

On another front, the Sunni Saddam is striving to enlist a powerful weapon, the rival Shiah, Iraq’s largest population segment.
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that, Sunday, March 30, Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei directed Iraqi Shiites not to rise up against Saddam Hussein or help the US-UK coalition topple his regime. The order was conveyed through their leaders – the Tehran-based SCIRI (Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq) and the Dawa Party. The Tehran government’s calculus was simple: The Shiites can afford to stand aside while the Iraqis and Americans spill each other’s blood. The Shiites will gather the spoils whoever comes out on top.
Saddam, picking up fast on the Tehran-Shiite strategy, directed his spokesmen to start using Shiite terminology. The Iraqi officer who blew himself up to murder four American soldiers near Najef was posthumously renamed Al-Husayn Ben Ali after the son of the first Iraqi Shiite leader who lived in the Karbala region in the seventh century. This gesture was aimed at making the suicide bomber a martyr honored by the Shiites.

In the Arab world, its all about being a martyr for a cause. If the Shiites view the suicide bomber's death in the light that Saddam wants them to see, any hopes of a Shiite upsrising in the North or anywhere in Iraq would remain a pipe-dream for the Allies.

It is hard for the American psy-op machine to get a handle on these arcane yet tidal semantic currents or fit the coalition message into their powerful religious context. In the race for the hearts of the Shiites who make up more than half of Iraq’s population Saddam has the advantage of being able to manipulate these nuances, leaving coalition forces to address the Shiites in what sounds to them like an alien tongue.
The price for this unfamiliarity with shifting local mores was paid on Sunday, March 30, when British forces launched Operation James in the Basra region and failed to make headway after finding themselves let down by the predominantly Shiite citizenry. For Basra’s Shiites, the Imam Ali is clearly a far more potent icon than 007.

Clearly, Gen. Franks needs to chalk a strategy that takes into account Saddam's mind-games. Flyers and pamphlets do not make as much of a psychological impact as do the subtle communal machinations of the tyrant of Baghdad.

The battle between Donald Rumsfeld and The Pentagon

As the ground campaign against Saddam Hussein faltered last week, with attenuated supply lines and a lack of immediate reinforcements, there was anger in the Pentagon. Several senior war planners complained to me in interviews that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his inner circle of civilian advisers, who had been chiefly responsible for persuading President Bush to lead the country into war, had insisted on micromanaging the war’s operational details. Rumsfeld’s team took over crucial aspects of the day-to-day logistical planning—traditionally, an area in which the uniformed military excels—and Rumsfeld repeatedly overruled the senior Pentagon planners on the Joint Staff, the operating arm of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “He thought he knew better,” one senior planner said. “He was the decision-maker at every turn.”[link via WarFilter]

The real battle, folks, is yet to begin!

Who Are Saddam's Most Loyal Forces?

Republican Guard
60,000-100,000
Controlled by Saddam's younger son and heir, Qusay, the Guard includes three divisions deployed around Baghdad and one near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. Guard forces crushed a Shi'ite uprising in Basra in 1991. Though the Guard's heavy weaponry is outdated, U.S. officials believe Saddam may have deployed chemical weapons to the Medina Division.

Special Republican Guard
15,000-25,000
Largely recruited from Saddam's al-Bu Nasir tribe and other loyal groups, SRG troops are scattered throughout Baghdad and well-trained in urban combat. Its units protect Saddam and top Baath Party officials.

Fedayeen Saddam ("Saddam's Men of Sacrifice")
20,000-25,000
Formed in 1995, the fedayeen handpicks members as teenagers from loyal tribal areas and are considered among the fiercest of Saddam's fighters. Often disguised in civilian garb, fedayeen units have mounted attacks against coalition troops. Operating outside the law, the group has a "death squadron" that executes people in their homes

Al Quds (Jerusalem) Army
Size unknown
A volunteer civilian group, the Quds militia was founded by Saddam in September 2000 with the supposed purpose of "liberating Palestine." Now providing domestic defense, Quds fighters (which include women) are trained in basic combat. They have staged guerrilla attacks outside Baghdad, then faded into residential areas when pursued

Secret Police and Spies
15,000-25,000
Saddam has eight overlapping security agencies. These include layers of domestic and foreign spies, guerrilla operatives and "enforcers" who intimidate Iraqis to fight. Qusay leads the most powerful agencies, and members may have access to chemical or biological weapons. The U.S. believes more than 300 agents are working abroad under diplomatic cover
[from the April 7, 2003 issue of the TIME magazine]

And I'm sure the Allies will face a tough resistance from these forces. They are highly motivated and loyal to Saddam, unlike the rabble that is the regulation Iraqi army. Moreover, these forces will fight to the last man and probably use the civilians as shields, making it a tough urban battle in the Baghdad streets. Here, the air-superiority of the Coalition forces will not mean much, unless they are ready for huge (and I mean, huge!!) collateral damages.

Testing times, for sure!

CDMA Pushed on Postwar Iraq [link via Slashdot]

A coalition is underfoot in the U.S. Congress to replace European with American cell phone technology in Iraq as soon as the conflict is over and the country rebuilds.
...

The current reconstruction plan involves using U.S. funds to install a European-based wireless technology known as GSM (define) for a new Iraqi cell phone system. Issa's bill (HR 1441) would give preference to American companies, including QUALCOMM.

"If European GSM technology is deployed in Iraq, much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system would be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe. Furthermore, royalties paid on the technology would flow to French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders," Issa said in his letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and USAID Administrator, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain.

Idiots!!! Now, this coupled with the now-infamous Halliburton contract, seriously undermines the US claims that this war is simply about liberating Iraq or dethroning the tyrant Saddam.

Ohh! and I don't think only the Americans are to blame for this. What do you say to Tony Blair who rushed to US when it became apparent that the British were left in the lurch when it came to the post-war reconstruction contracts which the US companies are winning without even going through a formal bidding process!

Rock the Vote releases new song by Lenny Kravitz "We want Peace"

Rock the Vote and Lenny Kravitz announced a new song by Kravitz called "We Want Peace," which is available exclusively at Rock the Vote's website, http://www.rockthevote.org.

The song, which says, "There won't be peace if we don't try" is an urgent call from Kravitz for America to be a peaceful leader in the world. Kravitz wrote the song and performed it with Kazem Al Sahir, Iraq’s #1 pop music artist, who is better known as Iraq’s Diplomatic Ambassador to the world and hailed as a true legend of Arabic Music. In addition, the song features Palestinian musician Simon Shaheen on the 'oud and violins and Lebanese artist Jamey Haddad’s on djembe and tambourines.
[song download available on the main page of Rock The Vote]

Nice gesture, don't you think? And yeah, the song's not bad either!!

Who armed Iraq? [link via Metafilter]

Iraq's Weapons Declaration underscores a tragic irony: The United States, the world's leading arms supplier, is taking the world to war to stop arms proliferation in the very country to which it shipped chemicals, biological seed stock and weapons for more than 10 years.

According to the December declaration, treated with much derision from the Bush administration, U.S. and Western companies played a key role in building Hussein's war machine. The 1,200-page document contains a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades.

Embarrassed, no doubt, by revelations of their own complicity in Mideast arms proliferation, the U.S.-led Security Council censored the entire dossier, deleting more than 100 names of companies and groups that profited from Iraq's crimes and aggression. The censorship came too late, however. The long list -- including names of large U.S. corporations -- Dupont, Hewlett-Packard, and Honeywell -- was leaked to a German daily, Die Tageszeitung. Despite the Security Council coverup, the truth came out.

A German company, for example, exported 1,000 ignition systems for Styx and Scud missiles capable of carrying biological and nuclear warheads.

Why were Bush and Powell so sure that Iraq possessed WMDs, even despite failing to produce hard evidence to corroborate their claims? Well... they knew, because they sold those weapons and launching capabilities to Saddam.

George Orwell's brilliant essay on empire and nationalism applies directly to the mendacity of the Bush administration:

"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage -- torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians -- which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

Almost prophetic, aren't those Orwellian words?!

The Bharatiya Blog Mela # 5 is up at Ashwini's place. Click here to go and check out some of the choicest of this week's blogs from the Indian Blogosphere!!

And if you did not already know what a Bharatiya Blog Mela is, then well, its weekly affair that showcases a collection of the best Indian blog updates of the week. It does not aim to rate the blogs, but instead it is a collection of recommendations from various people of what they think are the better posts in the week from the Indian Blogland. To check out all the Blog Melas, you can go here.

I've quite erratic lately as far as this blog is concerned. Most of my posts have been links to some stories off the Net. The reason for this has been the cricket World Cup that was going on for over a month. I've been busy watching, eating, drinking, sleeping and blogging cricket.

In addition to blogging about the World Cup, I was also running a contest on my world cup site. With my friend Abhijeet giving invaluable help all along, both of us managed to keep the blog and the contest running up-to-date throughout the duration of the World Cup. 33 teams took part in the contest. Now that the world cup is over... here are the final standings. Congratulations to Dipali for winning the contest!! She managed to pip Faizan at the post by the slimmest of margins. And as Abhijeet explains, it was just a matter of one ball in the final match and it would've been Faizan who won the contest.

Well anyways, I think I'll be much more regular with my blogging on thi blog from now on. And I have lot to blog about. The war is a constant source of material which prompts a reaction, one way or the other.

Stick around folks... we're just getting started!! :-)

The Oscar Roll of Honour

Best Picture: CHICAGO, Martin Richards

Actor in a Leading Role: Adrien Brody, THE PIANIST

Actress in a Leading Role: Nicole Kidman, THE HOURS

Actor in a supporting role: Chris Cooper, ADAPTATION

Actress in a supporting role: Catherine Zeta-Jones, CHICAGO

Direction: Roman Polanski, THE PIANIST

Animated Feature Film: SPIRITED AWAY, Hayao Miyazaki

Foreign Language Film: NOWHERE IN AFRICA, Germany, Directed by Caroline Link

Music (Score): Elliot Goldenthal, FRIDA

Music (Song): "Lose Yourself", Music by Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto, Lyrics by Eminem, 8 MILE

Visual Effects: Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (yayyyy!!)

Film Editing: Martin Walsh, CHICAGO

Cinematography: Conrad L. Hall, ROAD TO PERDITION

Art Direction: John Myhre (Art Direction); Gordon Sim (Set Decoration), CHICAGO

Makeup: John Jackson and Beatrice De Alba, FRIDA

Costume Design: Colleen Atwood, CHICAGO

Sound: Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella and David Lee, CHICAGO

Sound Editing: Ethan Van der Ryn and Michael Hopkins, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS

Short Film (Live Action): THIS CHARMING MAN (DER ER EN YNDIG MAND), Martin Strange-Hansen and Mie Andreasen

Short Film (Animated): THE CHUBBCHUBBS!, Eric Armstrong

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Screenplay by Ronald Harwood, THE PIANIST

Writing (Original Screenplay): Written by Pedro Almodóvar, TALK TO HER

Documentary Feature: BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, Michael Moore and Michael Donovan

Documentary Short Subject: TWIN TOWERS, Bill Guttentag and Robert David Port

Australians are World Champions!

The Aussie "Shock and Awe" blitzkrieg knocks off the Men In Blue.

GO INDIA!!

In one of the first major victories for the Coalition of the Willing in Operation Iraqi Freedom, US Marines raised US flag over an Iraqi Port.

U.S. Marines raised the Stars and Stripes flag over the new port of Umm Qasr on Friday after taking the installation in the face of only light resistance
[Read more]

Following the taking of old Umm Qasr, came some more encouraging news for the Allies.

U.S. armored forces thrust deep into southern Iraq, meeting only sporadic resistance on Friday, and the United States said it still hoped to topple President Saddam Hussein without an all-out war.

The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division had advanced from Kuwait at least 90 miles into Iraq by early Friday, racing north toward Baghdad.
[Read more]

So, after the embarassing initial TLAM attacks on the first day (the "Targets of Opportunity" attack) that led to nothing worth the effort, today's victories will give some hope to the war planners that the war might be over pretty quickly.

Well, at least we all hope that it does!

A warm welcome into the blogging world to my friend Ashwin.

That is not sun rising over the Baghdadi skyline. Instead, its an explosion at dawn that greeted the citizens of Baghdad who spent a sleepless night waiting for the inevitable.

WAR BEGINS!

President Bush ordered the beginning of a war on Iraq tonight, and his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said at about 9:45 p.m. Eastern time that American forces had begun to disarm Iraq and would depose Saddam Hussein. [NY Times registration required]

Here's the report from Rediff on the same.

By the way, there are 11 Indians who have gone to Iraq to act as Human Shields against the American attack. Their reasons for doing so are quite misguided though!

Now this is getting pretty regular!! In yet another incident of its kind, there has been another
Mahanagar Gas pipe leak near Chandivali Studios in Andheri(East). And even this time, the leaked gas caught fire. Four fire engines battled to bring the fire, which gutted a canteen, under control.

This place is less than a minute away from my office. I went and saw the fire in my lunch break. It was blazing at that time and three fire engines were already there at that time.

Reason to be proud or reason to be embarassed, for Indians?

Sun sued for 'favouring' Indian workers

Sun Microsystems, the Silicon Valley computer giant, was hit with a lawsuit on Monday alleging that the firm laid off thousands of US high-tech workers in order to replace them with younger, lower-paid engineers from India.

As evidence, the lawsuit cites statements made this year by Khosla on a CBS program on IIT where he was quoted as saying that at Sun, people from India 'are favored over almost anybody else.'

The lawsuit, for which class-action is being sought, was brought by Walter Kruz, a 52-year-old, a former software engineer manager at the company. Kruz claims discrimination based on race, national origin and age. He seeks compensation for lost wages, attorneys' fees and unspecified punitive damages.

Hmmmmm!!

Check this out people... Winning the Web. It's a moodpiece on the online buzz about the cricket World Cup.

And the reason I'm asking you to have a look at it is because... I feature in it! ... muahahaha ;-) :-P

[update] My World Cup Weblog is back online as all the problems with the host have been sorted out.[/update]

Protest for the sake of protesting...

Over last few weeks, I've been following with interest the storm that has been raised over the installation of Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's portrait in the Central Hall of the Parliament. It's as if the Government has put up the portrait of Satan himself. It's almost childish... the arguments put forth by Savarkar's detractors. Half of them do not know the facts and most of them, I'm sure, do not even know Savarkar's full name... leave alone his ideology. Reading the various articles penned by the pro and anti Savarkar columnists and "intellectuals", I can't help but feel that the attacks and the defense are oriented at one or two specific instances from Savarkar's eventful life i.e. his pro-Hindu ideology, his much-maligned act of seeking forgiveness for getting himself released from the notorious Cellular Jail at Andaman and his two-nation theory.

We have seen the most vociferous opposition coming from the Communists. The entire Left abstained from attending the portrait unveiling ceremony. Picking up the refrain, the Congress started opposing the installation of the portrait as well. Seeing the opposition up in arms, the Government could not keep quiet and launched a counter attack defending its decision. Thus started the war of words which has since then spilled out of the Parliament halls and into the media, tarnishing the name of a grossly misunderstood figure from India's history. To top it all, I'm amazed at the reaction of the public. They have unleashed a vitriolic campaign comparing Savarkar to Hitler... Please!!... excuse me while I barf!

Let us look at facts... and only facts!

Any decision to install a portrait in the Central Hall of the Parliament can never be a unilateral decision by the government in power. It's a decision taken by a committee which looks into the merits and demerits of such an action and the contributions made by the historical figure in question. Such a committee was formed this time as well... to decide on installing Savarkar's portrait. And it included Pranab Mukherji from the Congress and... hold your breath... Comrade Indrajit Gupta, veteran Communist Parliamentarian. The committee's decision to install Savarkar's portrait was unanimous. Where, then, did the seed of opposition germinate??

Swatantryaveer Savarkar has a sprawling memorial dedicated to him in Mumbai. It's a beautiful but simple structure with a huge statue of Savarkar on a large terrace overlooking the Dadar Chowpatty at Shivaji Park. It was built on the recommendation of a committee headed by Jayantrao Tilak (a Congress leader and the grandson of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak). Another Congress leader, Yashwantrao Chavan was the member of that Committee too. And the funds for the memorial came partly from the personal account of none other than the then PM, late Indira Gandhi. And now... the same Congress headed by the Desh ki bahu Sonia Gandhi is staunchly opposing Savarkar!

One of the biggest argument against Swatantryaveer Savarkar is that he advocated the two-nation theory. This is crap. As a proponent of Hindutva, Savarkar always advocated the concept of Akhand Bharat rather than work towards partitioning India on communal lines. Savarkar's Hindu Mahasabha had rejected the British Cabinet Mission Plan of May 1946 which proposed that provinces (formed on the basis of communal/religious majority) would have their own constitutions. It was Jinnah's acceptance of this pan that led to fruitless discussions and consequently, scrapping of that plan. The only option left for the British government was to transfer power to a partitioned India. This plan was accepted by both, the Congress as well as Jinnah. There are numerous examples where Savarkar agreed to side with the Congress on the condition that it would ensure the unity and integrity of the Indian nation.

Arvind Lavakare's column on Rediff, titled "Hitler, Vatican and Gandhi" only just begins to stir the surface of the controversial parts of the freedom struggle. It highlights the role that Gandhiji played in the partition of India while showing clearly how Savarkar's two-nation statement was not the cause of the partition of India. And the best thing about the column is that Mr. Lavakare quotes history texts and documents to support his claims rather than shooting his mouth off.

The Communists have no right to even begin to accuse Savarkar of being a proponent of the two-nation theory. Coomunists have always advocated until recently that India is a confederation of nationalities. They have advocated, as recently as the sixties, that provinces like Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, etc. are not states or provinces but nationalities which are a part of the Indian confederation. We have seen how this kind of communist confederation has crumbled into nothingness when USSR broke up. If Savarkar is being accused of promoting two nations, Communists have been guilty of advocating a divisive, multi-nation theory... and that too a good twenty years after the independence. Clearly a case of pot calling the kettle black.

Swatantryaveer Savarkar has been accused of asking for pardon instead of undergoing an imprisonment. History is replete with examples of revolutionaries asking pardon and forgiveness from the powers that imprisoned them. The great Italian nationalist (Soniaji, please note!) Giuseppe Mazzini did the same thing. So did Yogi Arvind, who was a staunch revolutionary before running away from the British and seeking asylum in the French controlled Pondicherry before giving up his ways to become a spiritual leader.

Revolutionaries like Savarkar or pacifists like Gandhi, were working for a common cause, freedom for India. Armed struggle alone could not have achieved the objective. Neither could Gandhiji's method of non-violence and submission persuade the British to eave the country. Both kinds of freedom fighters have their place in history and seeing one through the glasses of the other will only result in unnecessary hatred and misunderstanding.

Darn this Haloscan!! It keeps on going down so often!! I think I may go in for a different commenting system if it does not improve soon!!... psch!!

Folks please leave ur comments on the zonkboard! ... or take some time to sign the guestbook... or mark your spot on the guestmap! :-)

[Update] The latest shocking news is that 6 bombs have been found and defused at New Delhi Railway Station. Read more here. [/Update]

Another blast rocks Mumbai!! It's almost as if the peace in Mumbai is destined to be punctuated by a bomb blast every couple of months. At around 8:40 PM IST, a bomb blast occured in a crowded Karjat bound local train at the Mulund railway station in Mumbai.

As I am sitting at home listening to the continuous news coverage of this unfortunate event on TV, the body count is rising steadily. When I reached home less than an hour back, the news channels reported that 6 people had been killed. Right now, as I write this post, the count has gone up to 10. Added to this are around 65 people who are injured, some seriously. You can read more about it here.

This blast comes only one day after the 10th anniversary of the blasts that rocked Mumbai leaving 260 people dead.

Moreover, it comes less than three months after the bomb that blasted in a public transport bus in Ghatkopar in Mumbai... and the one that rocked a crowded street in Vile Parle in January this year.

The latest blast looks to have been caused by a crude bomb planted in the first class ladies compartment of the local train. As a result, most of the casualties have been ladies.

Authorities have confirmed that this was a planned terrorist attack and not an accidental explosion.

Three bomb blasts in three months in Mumbai. All of them in non-strategic locations. All of them in places that the people have come to trust. Bus, market and train. All of these point to a planned attack on the psyche of the Mumbaikar... aimed at creating panic and distrust.

The death toll in the blast has risen to 12.

The latest news is that another bomb has been found in Mumbai. This bomb was found in a BEST bus near IIT Mumbai. Details are not known yet.

India develops cryogenic engine. A report published on MSN says...

In a significant boost to India's space programme, scientists have successfully developed an indigenous cryogenic engine, which can power heavy communication satellites into orbit.

India now joins the select club of nations which posses this capability. The other nations in this exclusive club are US, Russia, France, China and Japan.

Way to go, India!

Do we live in a Doughnut shaped Universe? This new study[NY Times registration required] seems to suggest so.

Long ago in the dawn of the computer age, college students often whiled away the nights playing a computer game called Spacewar. It consisted of two rocket ships attempting to blast each other out of the sky with torpedoes while trying to avoid falling into a star at the center of the screen.

Although cartoonish in appearance, the game was amazingly faithful to the laws of physics, complete with a gravitational field that affected both the torpedoes and the rockets. Only one feature seemed outlandish: a ship that drifted off the edge of the screen would reappear on the opposite side.

Real space couldn't work that way.

Or could it?

That is the picture of space, some cosmologists say, that has been suggested by a new detailed map of the early universe. Their analysis of this map has now provided a series of hints — though only hints — that the universe may have a more complicated shape than astronomers presumed.

Rather than being infinite in all directions, as the most fashionable theory suggests, the universe could be radically smaller in one direction than the others. As a result it may be even be shaped like a doughnut.

"There's a hint in the data that if you traveled far and fast in the direction of the constellation Virgo, you'd return to Earth from the opposite direction," said Dr. Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hmmm!! Interesting, don't you think!

"I top the list of Bush haters", says MaheshBhatt.

Now this is what you call having illusions of grandeur. What do you say about this?!