CHANDIGARH/VALTOHA: Union home minister P Chidambram’s categorical no to including Sikhs in the ‘welcome-back’ call extended to Kashmiri youth who had gone over to PoK, has come as a rude shock for Punjab, where people are slamming the government’s stand as ‘‘discriminatory and unjust’’.Soon after PC’s offer to PoK youths, the Jathedar of Akal Takht, in an exclusive interview with the TOI, had asked the minister to make the same offer to Sikh youths on February 13. On Thursday, Chidambram’s party colleague and former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh said he ‘‘did not agree with the (PC’s) decision’’.
‘‘There has to be some logic to it. When we are extending this offer to those who are still resorting to violence (in J&K), then why can’t we call back those who have shunned arms years ago and returned to the mainstream,’’ said Amarinder, who had, during his chief minister’s tenure, carried back a list of 50-odd such youths from Canada for having their names cleared from the High Commission, after taking clearance from Indian authorities. He also took up the matter with External Affairs ministry later.
BJP MP from Amritsar, Navjot Sidhu called the decision ‘‘a shocking violation of Indian constitution where Union government was indulging in discrimination on the basis of caste, colour and creed. Anybody, who violates the constitution should be made to face action,’’ Sidhu told The Times of India on phone from Indore.
Even as criticism is pouring in from Sikh leaders cutting across party lines, human rights lawyer Navkiran Singh has decided to file a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging PC’s decision on the ground that ‘‘all the citizens are equal in the eyes of India’s constitution but the Union government is discriminating against Sikhs while appeasing Muslim community.’’
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LUCKNOW: Giant hoardings of politicians cutting across party lines stare down at passers-by at Hafizpur main crossing looking a tad incongruous. This kasbah, a mere 20 km off Azamgarh, is inhabited mostly by landless Muslim farmers, and everybody and his brother here is a bit baffled by the off season wooing by political heavyweights.
Within days of UP Congress incharge Digvijay Singh’s visit to Azamgarh, BSP supremo and UP CM Mayawati on Tuesday reactivated the Muslim ‘bhaichara samitis’ under Cabinet minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui. She has also made major allocations to minorities in the state budget. The sops include Rs 212 crore for special scholarships to Muslims; doubling of grant to Urdu Academy; construction of Haj houses in Ghaziabad and Lucknow, setting up of a Urdu-Persian university in Lucknow.
The alarm in Samajwadi Party is even more palpable where its boss Mulayam Singh Yadav dropped ‘Babri culprit’ Kalyan Singh and his friend Amar Singh. The humiliating defeat of his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav at Ferozabad forced him to dump the Yadav-backward-Thakur formula he had worked out with Kalyan, Amar and Co. Now he is back to being ‘‘Maulana Mulayam’’ with his skull cap and red-and-white check ‘keffiah’ (a sort of towel) in place.
As for Congress, Digvijay Singh’s Sanjarpur sojourn, during which he called for a fast track court to try the Batla House encounter accused, it was just the beginning. There’s increasing talk of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi visiting Shibli National College in Azamgarh. The party is focusing on east UP — its Achilles’ heel.
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1.) Rahul Gandhi travels to Mumbai.
More than 21,000 personnel from Mumbai Police, State Reserve Police, Quick Response Team, Special Branch, Railway Police, Central Industrial Security Force, and Special Protection Group ar deployed for Rahul Gandhi’s security.
Apart from the Mumbai police commissioner, three joint commissioners, eight deputy commissioners and 16 assistant commissioners supervise the security arrangements. [1]
2.) Even after no action on 26/11 by Pakistan, India offers to resume peace talks with Pakistan! [2]
3.) Home Minister P. Chidambaram says Kashmiris wanting to return from PoK welcome. Ex-cm Ghulam Nabi Azad questions the idea apprehending it could be used as a cover by Pakistan to push foreign militants into India.
"Who will take guarantee of these youth willing to return? How can you prove that these are the same youth who had gone to that side for arms training and are now willing to come back on their own choice? Some foreign terrorists can take advantage of this move," said the Union Health Minister and senior Congress leader from the state on Tuesday. [3]
4.) Cong general secretary Digvijay singh plays the Minority card by casting doubts on the Batla house encounter.
The National Human Rights Commission gave a clean chit to the Delhi Police in the Batla House encounter case. 1 police officer died in the enocunter. [4]
5.) SRK's Proximity to Gandhi family lead to diversion of massive security for the film release. [5]
6.) Times of India start "Aman Ki Asha" campaign to promote peace with Pakistan.
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Is Indian govt taking the terror threat too lightly?
Discourse: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Shiva means your very self, the purest Self, your innermost core. Shiva means good or benevolent. The word ratri in Sanskrit means that which relieves you from three types of agony ethereal, mental and material. At night everything becomes quiet and peaceful. The body gets tired and goes to sleep. Shivaratri literally means that night which infuses the Shiva tatva or the transcendental principle to the three instruments: the body, mind and speech.
Shivaratri is a night of deep rest. It is the night that takes you into its lap, comforts you and gives rest. When the mind rests on the lap of the Divine, thats real rest. Like the mind, memory and intellect , Shiva is also a tatva or principle in us. Shivaratri is when the Shiva tatva and Shakti become one.
The jagran in Shivaratri staying awake all night is not just forcing oneself to be awake or sing devotional songs. It is about being consciously aware of the inner rest that sleep brings everyday.
When you surpass a certain layer of sleep, samadhi happens. Samadhi is often referred to as Shiva Sayujya, the presence of Shiva, a state of deep rest with alertness, which brings freedom from all identities. Kabir Das calls it koti kalpa vishram a billion years of rest consolidated in a moment. When you come out of it, you experience certain pleasantness and reduced entropy , which brings an unusual freshness to the mind and senses.
The linga in Shiva temples symbolises identification or sign through which you identify someone as being male, female or neutral. The Divine is beyond the three genders; hence the Divine is called Ekalinga, or unigender. What is that one gender The Self, the Atma. The Self is beyond body, mind or intellect; it is beyond likes and dislikes. Ekalinga is the Lord of the Self.
On Shivaratri, the Shiva Shakti merges into the whole universe. Shiva has been associated with destruction; but transformation , new beginning for the better, can only happen when something is destroyed. Shiva is the factor of transformation. Sham means peace and good and kara means one who does that. Shankara means one who gives peace and does good.
The whole of Creation is the dance or play of Shiva, the tandav or dance of one consciousness, one seed, which manifested into a million species in the world. The whole world moving in an auspicious rhythm of innocence and intelligence is Shiva. Shiva is the permanent and eternal source of energy the one and only eternal state of Being. There is a story related to Shivaratri, about the union of Shiva and Shakti. The primordial and dynamic energy is wedded to the transcendental. Shiva is the silent witness and Shakti is chitti or chidvilasa, the energy that plays and displays in infinite space.
Shiva is the formless Being; Shakti is manifestation in the field. This is the recognition of the dual aspect of matter and energy, prakriti and purusha, the dravya and guna substance and its qualities. Recognising the underlying non-dual nature of Brahmn is Shivaratri.
It is only wakefulness that brings out this knowledge in our consciousness and Shivaratri is the night to celebrate the wakefulness of one universal consciousness without falling into the unconscious sleep state. Breaking the pattern of unconscious sleep gives you a glimpse that you are not a mechanical apparatus but a legend in Creation. To recognise the Shiva tatva, you have to be awake.
In an embarrassment to President Pratibha Patil [ Images ], a revenue court in Amravati has ordered that the names of her relatives, including her husband Devisingh Shekhawat, be deleted from the title of a disputed piece of agricultural land in a village.
The order by Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) Ashok Amankar, in quasi-judicial authority, came on a petition by one Kishore Bansod, who had claimed that the Shekhawat clan had allegedly got their names included in the land title.
Reacting to the order, Devisingh Shekhawat said there is no question of his family taking anyone's land.
"Remeasuring the land is part of the order but it also says that the record should be changed to include the farmer's name(Kishore Bansod) as well," he said, adding, "There is no question of taking over the land."
Pratibha's son and Congress MLA Rajinder Shekhawat, denied his family had been accused of land grabbing in Maharashtra [ Images ].
"The order of Sub Divisional Officer was that a fresh measurement of the land will take place...believe me, there is no such issue of land grabbing," Shekhawat told PTI.
He said the land in question relates a four-decade-old case which was filed by his grandfather. Since the case is old, the land records were not available, he said.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said he would not be in a position to react without knowing the details.
In a recent order, the SDO had directed that the entry relating to the names of six persons belonging to the Shekhawat family be deleted from the official land records.
The six respondents in the case include Devisingh Shekhawat, five of his relatives, the local Revenue Inspector and village 'Talathi', a lower-level official who maintains land records.
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