Editorial, "INSURGENCY AND 'SURGICAL STRIKES'," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 30 September 2016, Vol. 12, Part 2, No. 18 issue

INSURGENCY AND ‘SURGICAL STRIKES’

With the understanding of, and to an extent even an admission of, the saying: “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is very peculiar in that only about 16% of our controlled state area falls in the Kashmir valley, and only 5-6 districts in it are heavily insurgency-infested. Jammu envelops 26% and Ladakh more than 50%, and are relatively peaceful, shun such militancy and moreover are eager to fully integrate with India. True, population-wise Kashmiri Muslims form about 50% of the total – that due to India’s credit which never disturbed the population proportion in the valley; rather it is the so-called azadiwallahs who ethnically cleansed the valley of Kashmiri Pundits in the 1990s itself. Then, as Tarek Fatah asserts, the people of POK too don’t seem enamored of their Paki connection and there is an agitation in Gilgit-Baltistan for its ‘azadi’. As such, Justice Katju’s comparison of the militancy in the valley with the Vietnamese guerilla war is quite misplaced; the Kashmiri Muslims’ cries for azadi is just an infatuation with fundamentalist Islam and not the love for any ‘Kashmiriyat’, and a real danger exists of their being reduced to a slave status in any ‘Mustafa Raj’. However, the Indian Government and Army too have not done it well by shouting from housetops about the so-called ‘surgical strikes’ carried out in retaliation for the Pakistan inspired, if not directed, attacks; such audacity can be termed a most stupid measure for any wise statesman or military strategist. Surprisingly, Pakistan has also bungled by refusing to admit any such strikes happening, and just tries to degrade those as repetition of the longstanding LoC violations and blames India for not letting UN military observers inspect and report on the same. At the same time, the manner the Pakistani politicians including their prime and defence ministers as also the fanatic Hafiz Saeed and other leaders of the terrorist outfits nurtured by them reacted, shows that something very damaging to their plans, forces and dependant terrorist circles occurred due to these ‘surgical strikes’ and for some reasons, perhaps including avoidance of public disgrace, they cling on to denials. However, it should also be noted that any armed force or terrorist group planning well and carrying out surprise attacks always has the initial advantage but that should not be taken as a decider in any war or longstanding conflict. As repeatedly asserted in this journal, only a wise and sane course – building bridges with China to neutralize any danger from it, negotiating with Pakistan to come to an underhand deal for any rational partition, and, by conduct of region-wise plebiscite, lending it an official and international stamp of approval – could be the real solution for this Ravanasura Kaashta-like conflict. §§§

Editorial, "BLACK SEPTEMBER," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 September 2016, Vol. 12, Part 2, No. 17 issue

BLACK SEPTEMBER

readily brings to recollection the plane hijackings in September 1970 by the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) led by George Habash, in which too four planes were hijacked, and the sovereignty of King Hussein challenged, which led to a brutal civil war in the course of which the then Palestinian Liberation organizations were decimated – not less than 15,000 fighters mowed down and bulk of the refugees fled to Lebanon. But here are referred to – the 3-decades-later purported hijackings, crashing of those planes into the WTC Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the enormous destruction wrought that led to [used as a lame excuse for] aggressive wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, later Libya and now in Syria etc. and also to a macabre religious fanatic organization called ISIS/Daesh created to undermine the very concept and reality of any liberal humanistic civilization. Stephen Lendman asserts that in reality it is a CIA-Mossad plot, and thousands of architects, engineers and other eminent professionals in the US and Europe agree; a powerful 9/11 truth movement is spreading in the US and the West but largely ignored by the mainstream media and derogated by official circles as conspiracy theories. However, a recent European scientific study, published in the Europhysics magazine, declared that “the evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that all three buildings [in WTC Complex] were destroyed by controlled demolition.” More than 3000 persons, of several nationalities, were killed in the so-called plane attacks said to be the cause for the collapse of the towers, which were projected to the public as Muslim terrorist attacks. But even a cursory look at the attacks’ videos suffices to reveal the concocted nature of such allegations and in the entire history of the world there is no prior example of any steel-structured building collapsing due to plane hits/ office fires. Silverstein, the WTC Complex leaseholder soon reaped billions of dollars compensation, on the ground of the collapses being due to terrorist attacks, on his mere 15 million dollars investment there-for. Also in the savage wars unleashed by the Bush-Cheney gang, and later by Obama-Hillary clique, in the name of war on terror, millions of people were massacred; in a way the Third World War was already begun through this new crusade to establish American hegemony all over the world. This is nothing but an insider job, a most massive cover up in history, a 'new Pearl Harbor'. As such it is imperative for people all over the world to realize, mobilize and pressurize the United Nations to forthwith constitute an impartial international commission for a thorough investigation and inquiry into this tragedy and cause indictment and punishment of the traitors responsible for such egregious crimes against humanity. §§§

Editorial, "OUR COUNTRY AT THE OLYMPICS," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31 August 2016, Vol. 12, Part 2, No. 16 issue

OUR COUNTRY AT THE OLYMPICS

Our country, even since under the colonial rule, has been almost continuously participating in the World Olympics, since 1920 in the team events; even in the very Second Olympics at Paris in 1900, Norman Gilbert Pritchard (1877-1929), Indian-born athlete of British parentage from Calcutta, our lone contestant, won two silver medals. Real triumph for our country was secured by our super-talented Hockey team, especially by the legendary [Maj.] Dhyan Chand. During 1928-1956 our Hockey team won 6 successive gold medals. The Berlin Olympics in 1936 is a memorable landmark, when the Führer himself would get enchanted by our Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand and offer him a top post in the German Army if he consented to play for Germany, which the patriotic player so politely declined. But this greatest field hockey player of all time has not been given the topmost national award though a much junior/younger talenter in another game, which is not even an Olympic event, was adorned with Bharat Ratna due to patently political reasons. In all the Olympics we participated so far, we could only secure 9 Gold Medals with the last in 2008 with Abhinav Bhindra winning it in air rifle shooting. It is regrettable that in Athletics/Gymnastics we rarely won any medals, and it is to the credit of our Telugu girl Karanam Malleswari that we could get a bronze medal in weightlifting in 2000 Olympics, making her the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. Now we are all proud of another Telugu girl P.V. Sindhu bagging the Rio Olympic Silver in Badminton. Our total tally is just 9G+7S+12B = 28 medals in all these Olympics. Compare this to the tally of 100 medals of our neighbor China in the Beijing Olympics 2008 alone, where they also stood as World No. 1. In contrast to us, China has been participating in both Summer and Winter Olympics since the 1980 Winter and 1984 Summer Olympics only, but already its total tally in Summer Olympics is a whooping 201G+146S+126B = 473 up to 2012 – a spectacular achievement with which we have to compare our dismal performances, and try to catch up even to some 10% extent. Truly, in our country where there are no playgrounds in most of the schools, even that would be an insuperable task but what should we do is to provide the basic infrastructure for and fulfill the basic needs of the people, especially the youths, instead of declaring whimsical rewards at public cost for the stray winners; of course, they deserve all encouragement no doubt but not such political pampering. And such winners too, receiving the astronomical gift amounts now, may hopefully try to emulate Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who selflessly donated several million dollars from his earnings to his alma mater to promote the cause and conditions of sports in his country. §§§