Washington D.C. Wednesday April 11, 2012: Thanks to the spontaneous and brave reaction of millions of Sikhs (captive in Indian occupied Punjab – the Sikh homeland) who poured onto the streets late last month, with the words ‘Khalistan, Khalistan’ on their lips and saffron colored miniature Khalistani flags in their hands, (and the synchronized sympathetic protest rallies organized by their 3 million strong prosperous brothers/ sisters, in the Sikh diaspora, living free all over the world – North America, Europe & Australasia et al. – also with the word ‘Khalistan; on their lips) has made the world’s print and electronic media to take notice of the plight of the 28 million strong Sikh ‘nation’ captive in India, since 1947, when an exhausted Imperial Britain quit South Asia in haste, after the end of World War II, and passed on the instruments of state power to an evil nexus of the polytheistic minority Brahmin and Bania castes of Hinduism, who now claim that India is the world’s largest democracy. Some demoNcracy!

Since the British left the South Asian subcontinent in August 1947, this morally repugnant Indian ruling elite has been using state terrorism against India’s monotheistic minorities like the Sikhs, Christians and Muslims to keep them under control. The Sikhs, unlike the others, have a clearly demarcated Homeland in India – Punjab – which is food and water-rich (with a flag, national anthem, language, history, light industries etc., etc.) and is a nation in every sense of the word and therefore, aspires to become a democratic buffer state, strategically located between warring India and Pakistan, which will be called Khalistan. It would be a Sikh majority buffer state which is destined to act as a bridge of commerce between the nations of South Asia and the many oil-rich Stans of Central Asia – Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbeckistan, Tajikistan, Turkmanistan, Kyrgistan, Kazakistan and Pakistan.

This above mentioned world wide protests last month have forced the international media to investigate and tell its viewers and readers about the Sikhs, the history of India’s state-supervised anti-Sikh pogroms – June 1984 and November 1984 – and its record of using state-sponsored terrorism against its Sikh, Christian and Muslim monotheistic minorities. This Indian state terror against the Sikhs, from 1984 to 1995, made Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana – serving in the Punjab Police at that time – and his brave comrades to do what they did in 1995 when they resisted tyranny by dispatching India’s ‘Quizling’, the Punjabi tyrant, Beant Singh, to kingdom come, whose death immediately put a stop to the decade-long killing spree of thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children in the Sikh homeland of Indian occupied Punjab. Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana and his comrades were obviously inspired by the words of great men like President Thomas Jefferson whose motto read, “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

Illiterate Beant Singh, the puppet Chief minister of Indian occupied Punjab, the Sikh Homeland, was a tyrant of the worse kind as he had given corrupt mercenary police officers in the Punjab the authority to carry-out extrajudicial executions, targeting and killing civilian Sikhs on the spot – thousands were murdered – as the Sikhs demanded justice for the June & November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms and wanted punishment for the guilty. No wonder the Sikh religion’s highest authority in the Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, India, a witness to the decade-long ‘Beant Singh’s’ state terror, has bestowed the title of Zinda Shaheed – living martyr – on Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, when he bravely announced that he was indeed ‘guilty’ and would not defend himself in any Indian court, as the corrupt Indian judiciary was incapable of dispensing justice and that he would willingly and gladly offer himself for hanging. Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana was sentenced to death, as was expected, by a Kangaroo court in India for his 1995 action. Unlike his other comrades he filed no appeal, hired no lawyer and did not defend himself in court and said that he was indeed guilty and he rather hang as the unjust Indian judicial system has failed the Sikhs by not punishing the guilty who carried out the anti-Sikh pogroms of June and November 1984 during which thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children were murdered. Despite passage of nearly twenty eight years no one has been found guilty by the Indian judicial / political system for the two anti-Sikh pogroms of June 1984 and November 1984 till date.

The things remained in limbo for years after the death sentence was passed on Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana until March 2012, when a Chandigarh court, for some reason, all of a sudden issued a death warrant and fixed 31 March, 2012, as the day of hanging of Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana who remained unrepentant and unapologetic and declared time and again that he was ready to face the hangman’s noose on 31 March, 2012. This high drama aroused the Sikh masses in the Punjab who came out in the streets in the thousands with saffron flags in their hands in protest. The 3 million strong Sikh diaspora was also touched and they too organized public protests in Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver in North America and various cities in Europe, Asia and Australia. The Indian government sensing the Sikh anger, cancelled the death warrant for the 31 March, 2012, hanging. Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana once again declared that he was indeed guilty, was proud of his actions, and preferred to hang than hire an attorney for his own defence or file a mercy petition addressed to India’s corrupt judiciary or its figurehead President, in all of whom he had no confidence as they have done nothing to find the guilty who organized the anti-Sikh pogroms of June and November 1984, in which thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children were murdered.
A concerned Canadian Sikh academic has written in the Canadian Post newspaper, on March 30, 2012, that Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana case is about the rule of law in India. (> http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/03/30/counterpoint- balwant-singh-rajoana-case-is-about-the-rule-of-law-in-india/ >) He writes that, “There are many questions surrounding the stay of execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was sentenced for his involvement in the 1995 assassination of Beant Singh — the former chief minister of Punjab who spear headed the genocide against Sikhs in the region. Beant Singh gave police officers the authority to carry-out extrajudicial executions, targeting and killing civilian Sikhs on the spot. This led to fake ‘encounter’ killings, illegal detention, torture and rape. Beginning in 1984, and continuing until his assassination, an estimated 9,000-30,000 Sikhs were murdered in Punjab. During Beant Singh’s reign, thousands of Sikhs were killed for being ‘suspicious,’ despite claims that there were only approximately 300 armed Nationalist Sikhs. After the death of Beant Singh in 1995, the senseless murders of Sikhs stopped. Why is the Sikh population displaying insurmountable support and rallying to stop the execution of Rajoana, who many consider a terrorist? The fact of the matter is that Sikhs do not support terrorists or terrorism, but are looking for equal treatment and justice in the so-called secular democracy known as India… Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana’s death sentence has since been stayed at the last minute by the Indian government. He, now a ‘zinda shaheed’ living martyr, still stands tall, ready to face death.

Washington D.C. Wednesday March 28, 2012: Sikh Freedom fighter Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, (whose defiance, courage, and dedication to the Khalistani cause, under the shadow of a death sentence, has touched the hearts of millions of admiring Sikhs all over the world, who have come out in his support by the thousands in public rallies held in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Seatle, Vancouver, Ottawa, London, Frankfurt, Geneva, Brussels, Sydney, Nankana Sahib Pakistan and other cities) has curtly and bluntly responded to the special ‘wishy washy’ statement issued, last Monday, by Punjab Chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal, in the Punjab state assembly, “on the Balwant Singh Rajoana ‘hanging’ issue”.

The special statement, in the Punjab state assembly, released by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had claimed that, there were various legal and technical impediments for the ‘hanging’ of Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana on the soil of Punjab. Sardar Balwant Singh is currently incarcerated in a Patiala jail, waiting to be hanged on Saturday, March 31, 2012, as per the ruling of a prejudiced Chandigarh ‘Kangaroo’ court, in punishment for his involvement in the 1995 assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, an illiterate criminal and a ‘Quizling’, who deserved to be punished for ordering the murder (in cahoots with Police chief K.P.S. Gill) of thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children during the Punjab insurgency in the 1990’s. Badal has suggested that he plans to call upon President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek clemency for Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana.

In a quick and angry response to the Badal statement, the brave Khalistani Freedom fighter, Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, has made it clear (as per a report in the Tribune newspaper: > http:// www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120327/punjab.htm#2 <) that he does not want anybody to beg for clemency on his behalf as “he wants to get hanged as per the Chandigarh court’s order.” In a letter addressed to the Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib, (delivered through Sardar Balwant Singh’s sister Ms. Kamaldeep Kaur, following their meeting at the Patiala Central Jail) Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana has clarified that there was no need to seek clemency for him. He wrote that, “I have fought for my rights all through my life. I do not want to give away my principles for anyone”. Criticizing politicians, like the Akalis, Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana wrote that, “he neither trusts them (Akalis) nor believes them as they have failed to get justice from the rulers in New Delhi for the June 1984 attack on the Durbar Sahib, Amritsar or the state-supervised pogrom in November 1984, in which over ten thousand innocent Sikh men, wimen and children were murdered all over India but mainly in Delhi the capital city. These leaders were mum till date and suddenly they are speaking for my clemency. All know how they have made money and what their reality is”. In the letter he sarcastically suggests that, “the Akalis should give away their blue turbans and instead don khaki turbans (a la the neo- fascist RSS) for failing to get justice from New Delhi time and again”. Badal’s assembly statement claimed that the Punjab state government was taking all possible legal and constitutional measures to secure clemency for Balwant Singh Rajoana. Badal’s statement had also said that the government had received a copy of the mercy appeal sent by the SGPC to the President of India.

Khalistani freedom fighter, Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, also refused to accept any sympathy from the right wing BJP, or from Capt. Amarinder Singh or from late CM Beant Singh’s family members. Balwant Singh wrote in the above mentioned letter that, “Asking for mercy from any of them is not even in my distant dreams.” Earlier, Badal said in the assembly that the state government was taking all possible legal and constitutional measures to secure clemency for Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana.
The time line in the case against Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana is as follows:- July 31, 2007 when a special court awards death sentence to Balwant Singh Rajoana and Jagtar Hawara. On March 13, 2012 the court of Additional District and Sessions judge, in Chandigarh issues execution warrants for Rajoana’s hanging; which are sent to Patiala jail where Sardar Balwant Singh is incarcerated. On March 16, 2012, the warrants are returned by the Patiala jail stating inability on the part of the Jails Department to hang Singh Rajoana. On March 20, 2012, the court re-sends the warrants to Patiala jail to hang Balwant Singh Rajoana on March 31, 2012. In a setback to the Punjab government, the Chandigarh court on Tuesday, March 27, 2012, again returned the warrant of death to Patiala Jail for hanging Balwant Singh Rajoana, in the Beant Singh assassination case on March 31, 2012. The Chandigarh court also issued notice to Superintendent of Punjab Jails for contempt of court. Meanwhile, the Union Law Minister, Salman Khurshid, is reported to have said in New Delhi, on last Monday, that neither the central government nor Punjab government could stay outside the system. Khurshid is also reported to have said that it was up to the Supreme Court to decide on the matter as there are many precedents where the apex court has commuted the sentences. The Law minister also pointed out that the President of India has also granted clemency in a few cases, over the years.

In the latest development, media reports say that ‘the Punjab state government suffered a setback when the Chandigarh court on Tuesday returned the orders to Patiala jail regarding ‘death warrant’ ordering the hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, on March 31, 2012, convicted in the Beant Singh assassination case. The Chandigarh court has also issued notice to the Superintendent of Jails, Punjab, for contempt of court. The Union Law Minister, Salman Khurshid, is also reported to have said in New Delhi, last Monday, ‘that neither central nor the Punjab government could go outside the system’. He said that all parties have to work as per the system. However he added that it was up to the Supreme Court to do everything and anything in the matter.

Law minister Khurshid also said that in several major judgments, the apex court has commuted the sentences. “Besides this, the President of India has also granted clemency in a few cases!

In another development,Akal Takhat Sahib Jathedar has directed Sikhs to oppose the decision to hang Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, and under the light of this general guideline a joint committee has chalked out follow up programs of three mass level marches from three Takhat Sahibs situated in Punjab, to Patiala on March 29, 2012, and said that Dharnas willl also take place at Patiala on 30 and 31 March, 2012. According to Indian media reports, “Joint Committee leaders have issued an appeal to the masses of Punjab to support this movement to prevent hanging of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana. Meanwhile, security has been beefed up across Indian occupied Punjab with armed police taking out flag marches in different parts of the state including Ludhiana, Moga, Jalandhar, Patiala and some other areas. District police heads have been directed by Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini to keep close vigil and take all necessary steps to ensure the maintaining of law and order. Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal and deputy chief minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal have also appealed to the people of Punjab state to maintain peace and harmony.

The six million dollar question is, ‘what kind of role will India’s Sikh Prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, play to save the life of a determined Sardar Balwant Singh. Will he see to it that, that young man, who has already spent more than a decade in jail, is released unconditionally from the infamous Patiala jail so that he can live from now on as free as a bird.

The Sikh Nation rallies around its defiant hero – solidarity rallies scheduled in Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Munich, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Rome, Sydney, Melbourne, Amritsar, Patiala and Chandigarh

Washington D.C. Wednesday March 21, 2012: Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, is one of the great Sikh freedom fighters, who along with the late Shaheed Dilawar Singh, (and a few other brave Sikh patriots) helped to rid the Sikh homeland, of Indian occupied Punjab, of the then tyrannous quisling Chief minister of Punjab, Beant Singh, by ‘executing’ that criminal with a bomb, on August 31, 1995. Additional District and Session Judge, Chandigarh, Ms. Shalini Nagpal has last week issued a death sentence warrant against Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana. According to the court warrant, Balwant Singh could be hanged on March 31, 2012, in the Patiala Central Jail. Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana has once again electrified the 28 million strong Sikh nation by his upright stand. bravely refusing, (in true centuries-old Sikh martial tradition) to appeal for mercy, from the hated oppressive Indian regime, before his scheduled hanging by the Indian authorities, on 31 March, 2012, ten days from now. We salute a truly brave soul. Bravo!

Nearly every Sikh respectfully salutes Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana for publicly showing his contempt for India’s morally repugnant rulers. The brave soul has refused to file an appeal to the Indian authorities as it is no secret, for the Sikhs, that India’s morally repugnant rulers – an evil nexus of the crafty Brahmin and the greedy Bania – practice state terrorism against India’s minorities, specially the monotheistic Sikh, Christian and Muslim minorities. No civilized state on this planet would or could cover up massive state-supervised pogroms, like the Sikhs endured in June and November 1984, when thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children were mercilessly murdered raped and burnt all over India, just because they were Sikhs or looked like Sikhs. The Sikh victims of that cold-blooded state-sponsored and state-supervised 1984 pogroms have been crying for justice for nearly twenty eight long years in vain. Despite the passage of time no one has been found guilty. Yet, as many older Sikhs know, many of the guilty Army officers and Congress party thugs who organized the June and November 1984 pogroms have been seen strutting around in the palaces and corridors of power in the British-built city of New Delhi, the capital of India.

As many older readers will recall that, in the 1990’s Beant Singh, was appointed Chief minister of Indian Occupied Punjab. Beant Singh was an illiterate Indian puppet who presided over the many-years-long state sponsored terrorism in Indian occupied Punjab which saw the murder of thousands of innocent young Sikh men and women. As a consequence of his provocative policies well-protected Punjab Chief minister Beant Singh was assassinated, nay executed, on August 31, 1995, when a suicide bomber (the late Shaheed Dilawar Singh gave his life for that) detonated an explosive device at the VIP entrance of the Punjab and Haryana civil secretariat in Chandigarh. Deciding the case inside the Burail jail, a special Indian Central Bureau of Investigation court, in August 2007, handed down death sentences to freedom fighters Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana and Sardar Jagtar Singh Hawara. Hawara’s sentence was later changed to life imprisonment. The other co-accused in the case Sardar Shamsher Singh, Sardar Gurmeet Singh and Sardar Lakhwinder Singh were also awarded life imprisonment.

According to the Indian media, “the order of hanging for Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, the co-accused in the 1995 killing of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, has taken political overtones in the state of Punjab, with top leadership of main parties, Shromani Akali Dal and Congress, treading cautiously on the issue. Before the commencement of the first session of the newly elected Punjab state assembly, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was circumspect while replying to media queries on the issue. Badal was quoted as telling the media (with a ‘forked tongue’) that the crime did not take place in the Punjab. It happened in the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana states. “Any decision on hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana will therefore, have to be taken by the Union Territory”, Badal told reporters in Chandigarh, while refusing to make any further remarks on the subject. Punjab Congress party chief, and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said that, he was not clear on this legal issue and so he would first go into its detail before making any statement.
Meanwhile, Jathedar Gurbachan Singh, the Jathedar of Akal Takhat Sahib, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, has convened a meeting of different Sikh organizations on March 23, 2012, to take a decision on the Balwant Singh Rajoana issue.

The defiant attitude, mental integrity, love for an independent buffer state of Khalistan, and physical courage displayed, in the face of a death sentence, by Sardar Balwant Singh Rajoana, incarcerated in an Indian jail, has touched not only the three million strong FREE Sikh diaspora with admiration and respect but, has aroused the Sikh masses in villages and towns all over the Sikh homeland of Indian occupied Punjab. The public there is defiantly showing its support for the great freedom fighter, and Khalistan, by displaying hundreds of saffron colored flags on their houses, and cars, in hundreds of villages, in the Sikh homeland of Punjab. The three million strong diaspora Sikhs are organizing public rallies all over the world, under the banner of “The Global Movement for Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana” which will be held at NOON, on Friday, March 23, 2012, in the following cities:-Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, London, Munich, Frankfurt, Rome, Sydney, Melbourne, Amritsar, Patiala and Chandigarh.

Washington D.C. Wednesday, March 14, 2012: A vast majority of well informed observers of the political scene in the world’s largest ‘over-populated dystopian demoNcracy’, are generally of the opinion that, after India’s recent equivalent of mid-term elections, (in which an extra 24 million people voted in five states where elections were held) prospects have become dim for the Congress party and general economic reform, in that miserable land – INDIA – where nearly 70% of the population (over 700 million souls), is ‘unwashed’, living in misery and squalor, without clean drinking water, latrines, schools or dispensaries and even shoes, etc., etc.

The London-based ECONOMIST weekly magazine, widely respected for its prescient and wise commentaries for (http://www.economist.com/node/21549954) over a century, in an article in its latest issue (of 10-16 March, 2012), headlined, “India’s state elections; A welcome slap in the face”, has, given some blunt advice to Rahul Gandhi, the 42 years old effeminate, bachelor, under-matric, grandson of that evil incarnate, the late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, (who was dispatched to kingdom-come on 31 October, 1984), that, “IF HE had any other surname, Rahul Gandhi, commonly mentioned as ‘a prime minister-in-waiting’, would surely be pondering a new career. His ill-starred record as a political campaigner reached a new low on March 6th, when he accepted the blame for his party’s dreadful showing in assembly elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). In the recent election Congress party won only 28 of the 403 seats in India’s largest state (population 200 million), up just six from the 2007 poll. Mr. Rahul Gandhi must regret his personal effort, which he grandly dubbed ‘Mission 2012’ for which he campaigned full-time, with lavish funds, for over a year. He spurned an offer to join Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government in New Delhi. Instead he picked gargantuan UP, the old family fief, hoping that success there would compensate for Congress’s fading fortunes in another big state, Andhra Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka Vadra Gandhi, (married to wheeler dealer, Anglo-Indian, nouveauriche, multibillionaire in the making, Robert ‘Zardari’ Vadra) joined him in the campaign, urging voters to stay loyal to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and her brother, Rahul Gandhi. They ignored her.”

It was further reported in the media that, there were similar drubbings in two other assembly elections in the five states that voted. A rally by Sonia Gandhi, Congress’s boss, swayed nobody in Goa, where the predominantly Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) snatched victory with Catholic support. And Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s efforts to rejuvenate the party also failed in the Sikh majority state of Punjab: a local BJP ally, Akali Dal, romped back to office, the first time since the 1980s that a Punjabi incumbent has held on. India’s ruling party – the Congress – should be deeply worried. A general election looms in 2014 and the near- feudal power of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is waning. Congress cheered a narrow electoral win in Uttarakhand in the north and a more emphatic one in Manipur, a poor and troubled north-eastern state. But regional power- brokers, such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party (SP) won by a landslide in UP, hold increasing sway. Indian politics has long been fragmenting. The SP’s mighty victory with 224 seats, for example, merely displaces another dominant local figure, Ms. Mayawati – who makes no secret of her lower caste Dalit background. Voters were offended by her government’s flagrant corruption and fondness for erecting grandiose public statues of herself and other dalit (low caste) symbols. She quit as chief minister after her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) came second, with 80 seats and 26% support. Still, that was only just below the 30% that brought her a landslide in 2007. Most political observers think that, ‘She will doubtless be back’.

Perhaps most hopeful of all, according to the Economist write up is that, first studies of the results show signs of a shift away from identity politics, in which voters lump together by caste or religion to back one of their own. Mayawati’s loss in UP was one example of the trend. The landslide re-election of Nitish Kumar as chief minister of Bihar state in 2010 was another. He has sought to stand above caste politics and focus on wider development goals. Better educated or more demanding voters holding politicians to account would be hugely beneficial. Congress has but one consolation: fragmenting politics could be an even bigger threat to its only national rival. The BJP also did badly this week. Its tally of seats fell not only in UP, but in Punjab and in Uttarakhand. It once again got none in Manipur. Tiny Goa aside, it has done nothing to persuade regional allies it has momentum or ideas for a strong challenge in 2014. All this, however, may be rather cheering for democracy. An election analyst, argues that local strongholds are “the foundation of Indian unity”. He reckons the robustness of India’s state, in a region of otherwise fragile ones, relies on a “thick” idea of nationhood made up of “regional parties and centers with their own cultures” rubbing along together. Far better that, he suggests, than trying to impose everything from the centre.

One does not have to be an expert to say that the recent election in the five states was a wretched show put up by Rahul Gandhi on behalf of his mother’s Congress party. The results of the elections in the (Punjab and U.P) assemblies reveal that the regional parties have fired the imagination of the electorate as the corrupt national parties (Congress and the right wing Neo-Nazi BJP have aroused contempt of the voters. The two important states (Indian occupied Punjab and the huge state of U.P.) have been won over by regional parties – Badal & Son’s Shromini Akali Dal & Mulayam Singh Yadav & Son’s SamajwadiParty(SP).Itisobvious that Rahul Gandhi was no match for the two shrewd politicians – Badal and Yadav. More than that Rahul Gandhi was living in cuckoo land, lacks the organizational ability to muster the voters for Sonia Gandhi & Son’s Congress party which could have enabled a serious comeback in UP and Indian occupied Sikh Punjab. The Congress party could form a government only in Manipur, one of the smallest states in Eastern India. The spate of corruption cases tarnishing the Congress dominated coalition central government in New Delhi, and the remoteness of their senior leadership from the problems of the common man, have also led to the marginalization of the Congress party. The arrival of Rahul’s sister Priyanka to help her btother Rahul in the field with a high profile campaign also did not help as the Congress party in U.P could win only 10% of the seats in that state. The bottom line is that Sonia Gandhi & son’s Congress party will now be too week to stop a slow down of economic reforms.

Various winners this week appealed beyond their core supporters. The Hindu BJP lured Catholic Goans. The SP usually gets backing from Muslims and yadavs (lowish caste) but this time educated, urban dalits swung behind it too. Similarly the Akali Dal, in Punjab, which long relied on prosperous and landowning jats, reached out to dalits. The most successful politicians are regional figures who persuade different sorts of voter that they can bring better rule. The hapless Mr. Rahul Gandhi, a national figure and scion of a ruling party in paralysis, never had a chance. He should take the advice given by the Economist and pander for a new career.

Will he undo Indira Gandhi’s unjust & insulting 1950’s ‘exile’ of Sikh Regimental Center from Meerut Cantt., 48 miles from Delhi, to the snake-infested Ramgarh Cantt., near Ranchi, in the state of Jhark-hand, 600 miles East of Delhi?

Washington D. C. Wednesday March 7, 2012: The February 2012, decision of the Indian Supreme Court has put an end to the drama and intrigue launched – to his eternal shame – by the current emotionally unbalanced Indian Army Chief, General Vijay Kumar Singh about his two dates of birth – May 10 1950 and May 10, 1951 – maintained in the Army records. The four star general, (under the ‘umbrella’ of a controversy he himself created) wanted to finagle an extra year of service but the Supreme court slapped him down and ruled that the General’s date of birth will henceforth be May 10, 1950. Period! The above behavior by the General has forced the Indian Defence ministry, infamous for its’ dishonest intrigues in the past at promotion time of a new Army Chief, to remain honest this time.The ministry, headed by gutsy Defence Minister A. K. Antony, who seems to be an honest individual, a Christian convert from a humble lower caste Dalit background in the world’s largest demoNcracy, where Caste trumps everything, has avoided any favoritism this time, by selecting the next senior most Lt. General, who happens to be a turbaned Sikh, Lt. General Bikram Singh, as the new Indian Army Chief. The retirement date of the present Army Chief had led to all sorts of theories in the past few months. It was only on February 10 this year that the Supreme Court firmly refused to reconcile the date of birth of General Vijay Kumar Singh, who had stupidly filed a suit in the apex court making such an outlandish request.

The Indian Supreme Court ruled, on February 10, 2012, that the date of birth would remain as May 10 1950 and would not be changed to May 10, 1951, as claimed and requested by the egocentric Indian Army Chief, Gen. V. K Singh, a dimwitted individual, belonging to the Jat tribe, from the state of Haryana. The surprise announcement by the Indian Defence Ministry, about a new Army Chief came earlier this week, on Saturday, 3 March, 2012, about 90 days ahead of the scheduled day of assumption of charge – on 31 May, 2012 – as against the 60-day norm the government has been following in such matters in the past. The Defence ministry’s move removes uncertainty over the successor, following a rash of speculative reports, in the media, that the current Army Chief, Gen. Vijay Kumar Singh, a spiteful individual after the Supreme Court ruling, could put in his retirement papers early, which could open a ‘Pandora’s box of intrigues’, to alter the defence ministry’s ‘honest’ succession plan of the senior-most Lt. General taking over as the next Indian Army Chief from retiring egotistic Indian Army chief, General Vijay Kumar Singh.

The newly appointed Army Chief, Lt Gen Bikram Singh currently heads the Indian Army’s Eastern Army Command and is stationed in Kolkata in West Bengal. The insurgency-ridden states of North-Eastern India are under his domain of duties. Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh, the Army-chief-designate during his long career has headed various formations in the Srinagar-based 15 Corps of the Indian Army in Indian occupied Kashmir. It is the same area where thirty five innocent Kashmiri Sikhs were murdered in cold-blood in a state sponsored act of terrorism, by uniformed Indian intelligence agents, on 20 March, 2000. The gory incident was synchronized with the arrival of U.S. President Bill Clinton, on a state visit to India, to have maximum media effect. Lt Gen Bikram Singh has also served as deputy force commander of a multi-nation UN peace keeping mission in Congo. He has also served as UN observer in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the early 1990s. According to Indian media reports Gen. Bikram Singh was commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry Regiment, on March 31, 1972, and during the last four decades, he has served in a variety of Command and Staff appointments. Besides having commanded a Corps in the Northern Command, he served as Deputy Force Commander of the multination U.N. Peace Keeping Mission in Congo. Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh has studied at the Indian Defence Services Staff College, the Army War College and the U.S. Army War College, Pennsylvania in the United States. He also has an M. Phil degree in Defence Management from Indore University. He is a recipient of various Indian military medals.

When the British Colonials left South Asia, in August 1947, the Sikh Regimental Center, like a number of other Regimental Centers which are still there, was located about 50 miles North East of New Delhi in the second largest military Cantonment on the subcontinent, in Meerut in U.P. Meerut cantonment lies between 28°57’ to 29°02’N latitude and 77°40’ to 77°45’E longitude in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India. It is bound on the north by Muzaffarnagar, in the south by Bulandshahr while Ghaziabad and Baghpat districts form the southern and western limits. The river Ganga forms the eastern boundary and separates the district from Moradabad and Bijnor. Meerut has seven railway stations: Meerut City, Meerut Cantt, Partapur, Sakoti Tanda, Daurala, Mohiuddinnpur and Pabli Khas. Meerut City station is the busiest in the city. Meerut Cantt was founded in 1865 and serves as a secondary railway station. Meerut lies on the Delhi–Saharanpur railway line.

For the information of the readers it is the same Meerut Cantonmemnt where the the famous cry of “Dilli Chalo” (“Let’s march to Delhi!”) was first raised to start the 1857 rebellion against the British Colonials. Meerut cantonment was also the place where the 1857 rebellion started in earnest when Hindu and Muslim soldiers were given rifle cartridges rumored to have a coating, which had to be removed by biting it, rumored to be made of cow and pig fat. These historical facts made the new rulers, the “Nehrus the Patels and Gandhis’ the founding fathers of ‘free’ India – the evil nexus of the Brahmin and the Bania – nervous about a Sikh military presence so close to Delhi the capital city of ‘New’independent India. Within a few years of Indian independence in 1947 the morally repugnant Indian rulers wanted to put the martial Sikhs in their place, with ‘studied insults’, which actions exposed their Anti-Sikh attitude. It was about the time when instructions were circulated to civil administrators in India to consider the Sikhs as a criminal tribe. It was also the time when the Indian Constitution showed the Sikhs as being Hindus. It is obvious, the new morally repugnant rulers felt safe by ordering the then Army Chief to move the Sikh Regimental Center out of Meerut Cantonment, and relocate it to a new under construction Cantonment – the Ramgarh Cantonment which is surrounded by snake-infested thick jungles. Ramgarh Cantt., is located 30 km (19 mi) from Ranchi, which is the capital of the new Indian state of Jharkhand. Ramgarh Cantonment is located six hundred miles East of New Delhi.

Time alone will tell if the newly appointed Indian Army Chief, General Bikram Singh, will have the moral courage to use his authority to undo these studied insults, these wrongs, aimed at the pride of the twenty eight million strong proud Sikh nation captive in the Indian ‘map’ since 15 August, 1947 when Imperial Britain quit South Asia in haste. General Bikram Singh has the authority, as Army chief, to move the Sikh Regimental Center back to Meerut or where ever in India. The chances are that the new Army Chief will twiddle his thumbs and do nothing about these studied insults to the Sikhs! Obviously, there is only ONE solution for the Sikhs – a democratic food and water rich Sikh buffer state of Khalistan – stretching from the Jumna river in the East, to the Pakistan border in the West, acting as a bridge of commerce between the seven Stans of Central Asia and the countries of South Asia.

Washington D.C. Wednesday February 29, 2012: It is obvious to any constitutionalist observer that, the Indian Supreme Court Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia, when he ordered the Union government, last Monday, (February 27, 2012) to start work on the hair-brained national river-linking project (proposed a decade ago by the then ‘day-dreaming’ BJP Vajpai government) and, also appointed a committee, to supervise and ensure that work started on the half-baked project quickly, was in fact legally stepping out of line. Any legal/ constitutional expert, or even a layman, who believed in the sanctity of preserving the Constitution-mandated authority of the executive, the power of the legislature and the independence of the judiciary, could have told Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia that, Monday’s (27 February, 2012) Supreme Court judgment/ order (Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia, Justice A. K. Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar) on the national River-linking project was illegal.

The Supreme Court Chief Justice should have known that, under the Indian constitution, whether or not to adopt and implement a particular program or project is entirely the choice of the executive, irrespective of the party or an alliance of parties in power. The Government of the day is fully empowered and justified in either accepting or rejecting programs or projects, including those conceived by the previous regime. If there are any questions to be raised about the executive’s decision, then that prerogative goes to the legislaturewhere the executive can be asked to explain what prompted it to act in a particular manner. India’s judiciary has no role what-so-ever in either decision-making or questioning the decision-makers, unless a decision is in violation of the law of the land or negates provisions of the Indian Constitution. Period.
A thought comes to mind that, perhaps, Chief Justice Kapadia, who should know all about the Indian constitution, when he was writing Monday’s Supreme Court judgment did not realize that his common sense had fled because he was probably itching to take a cue from the proactive legal actions of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry of the Pakistani Supreme Court. Pakistan’s Chief Justice Chaudhry has earned a unique position in South Asia as he is a fearless, God-fearing, humble, honest, iron-willed popular judge, who was reinstated to his Chief Justice job by a historical, peaceful mass movement of the Pakistani people – something unprecedented in the judicial history of any country on this planet. Justice S. H. Kapadia, before he got carried away, last Monday, should have had the sense to realize that he was no Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, as the Indian masses do not know him and had nothing to do with his appointment as Chief Justice of India, even if he has arranged, as is rumored, for his photographs to be published/circulated (something not done) by prestigious Indian publications like the HINDU newspaper. among other publications and also other print and electronic, outlets in the media: (> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2937800.ece?homepage=true <)
Another thought that comes to mind is that, another anti-Punjab, anti-Sikh, intrigue, to steal Punjab’s river water, is in the offing with a ‘wink and nod’ from India’s Brahmin caste-dominated judiciary. Last Monday’s (February 27, 2012) timing of the hearing of this petition, filed in public interest, in the Punjab/Haryana High Court, seemed to be synchronized with the Supreme Court order of Monday 27 February, 2012. The question arises, as to how come both these cases were heard on the same day – Monday, 27 February, 2012 after lying dormant for quite some time? A bench of the Indian Supreme Court (Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia, Justice A. K. Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar) passed an illegal judgment/order (mentioned in paragraph one above) which will effect the status of not only the abandoned SYL (Sutlej-Jumna link) canal but also the illegal Hansi-Butana canal, arbitrarily built by the State of Haryana with the intention of siphoning water from the Bhakra mainline canal? A report in the Chandigarh-based TRIBUNE newspaper, headlined, “Sharing of Water - Haryana accuses Punjab of non- cooperation, (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120228/ haryana.htm#3 <) published on Monday, 27 February, 2012, lets the ‘cat out of the bag’. This Tribune Chandigarh-datelined report, by Tribune correspondent Saurabh Malik, states that, the relationship between Punjab and Haryana over the issue of sharing water today took another twist, with Haryana— mentioing the Hansi-Butana case - accusing Punjab of not cooperating with it in the matter. The fresh criticism came on Monday, 27 February, 2012, “as a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court took up a petition filed in public interest on commissioning new phases of the Kajauli water works. The PIL has been filed by Mohali’s former municipal counselor, Kuljit Singh Bedi. Mr. Bedi is seeking directions to expedite the completion of phases five and six of the Kajauli water works, which would bring an additional 40 million gallons of water every day to the Tri-city areas. In its affidavit placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover, Harmail Singh, Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation Department, Haryana, minced no words to say: “Punjab did not permit Haryana to siphon even a small quantity of 500 cusecs of water from the Bhakra mainline for carriage through the Hansi-Butana multipurpose link channel to meet the drinking water
requirements of residents of southern Haryana”. The Punjab/ Haryana High Court has adjourned the hearing in the case to April 17, 2012.

It is obvious to every observer of the South Asian scene that the hair-brained national river linking scheme is still-born and it cannot take off without the permission and collaboration of China (the mighty Brahmaputra river comes from Tibet, China) and consent and collaboration of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. As the Chandigarh-based TRIBUNE pointed out yesterday (28 February, 2012) in a report from its legal correspondent, R Sedhuraman, that there are major problems with the proposed National River Linking scheme, in Indian occupied Punjab. He listed the first problem, from (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120228/ main1.htm <) the Hindu prospective, as the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal (SYL) which was to link both Sutlej and Yamuna through a 214-km long canal. The problem is that, Haryana has completed construction of its portion of this canal. Construction stopped on the Punjab side since militancy days. The second problem according to him is that, Punjab Govt in 2004 passed the ‘Termination of Agreements Act’ that ended all earlier water sharing agreements with neighboring states. Under the heading of MAJOR RIVER ROWS the Hindu gentleman lists the following problems:- Krishna-Godavari dispute: Involves Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. The Cauvery row: relates to re-sharing of waters between Karnataka &Tamil Nadu while Ravi-Beas dispute: involves Punjab and Haryana; which dispute started with the reorganization of Punjab in 1966.

This Tribune correspondent, a Hindu, failed to mention that an independent buffer Sikh state of Khalistan, (stretching from the Jumna river on the East to the Pakistan border on the West) after it has raised its national flag can and will earn hundreds of million of dollars annually from sale of surplus water, to water-short riparian, Pakistan and water short non-riparian Indian states of Haryana and Rajasthan. Therefore, Sikh Punjab even in its present temporary Indian-occupied-status, has no interest in any Indian sponsored national river-linking scheme which would deprive it of its river waters.

A contract was promptly drawn up, and signed by Sri Lanka and China in October 2007. Within three months hundreds of Chinese engineers and construction crews arrived and began work in earnest on Sri Lanka’s new major seaport, called Hambantota, astride the world’s busiest shipping sea-lanes, South of Sri Lanka, in the Indian Ocean. Phase one of that new Hambantota port was completed on time, by China’s Harbour Engineering Company, by 2010, as planned, at a cost of U.S. $.360 million. The first phase of the new sea-port includes provisions for a high-quality passenger terminal, cargo handling, warehousing, bunkering, provisioning, maintenance & repair, medical supplies and customs clearing facilities.

To save face, and in a phony effort to match the Chinese gesture, India’s Prime minister Manmohan Singh had promised Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in June 2010, that India would construct 50,000 houses for internally displaced persons (read Hindu Tamils) in Northern Sri Lanka. That snail-paced Indian housing project was finally cleared by New Delhi in 2011 and construction on the 50, 000 houses might start some time this year in 2012. In marked contrast to India, China having completed phase one of the Sri Lanka’s U.S. $. 360 million Hambantota port project, in November 2010, has now provided an additional soft loan of U.S. $.808 million, for the second phase of the Hambantota sea-port project. The second phase calls for a railway line, oil and gas pipelines, facilities for containers, transit warehouses, rest and crew change. A ship repair facilities is also in the works. A total of 18 tank farms were completed in December 2011. A Chinese- aided U.S. $.190 million Maththala International Airport will be ready nearby, by the end of calendar year 2012. Four-lane highways, hotels and an industrial hub are also planned which will transform Hambantota, famous for salt flats and a hot and arid climate, into a bustling tourist and business center. Another U.S. $.176 million has also been provided, by China, for construction of LPG, aviation and bunkering tanks in the vicinity of the new sea-port of Hambantota in Southern Sri Lanka. In marked contrast, the promised Indian aided 50, 000 house-building project is expected to start construction in Nothern Sri Lanka soon. When exactly, no one knows!

The new world-class Sri Lankan sea port of Hambantota, being built by China, with its aid, loan, technology and four hundred engineers is destined to become the prime port of call in Sri Lanka. It will be the world’s first in-built harbor, carved out of land, strategically located astride the world’s busiest East-West shipping lanes. Once it is fully developed, by 2020, the new sea port of Hambantota will surpass Sri Lanka’s other sea port of Colombo and will pose a serious challenge to the primacy of Singapore Port. The new 16 meter deep harbor connected to the Indian Ocean via a channel with two breakwaters will be deepened to 17 meters, by 2014. At present Hambantota port can accommodate four medium-sized general cargo ships with space for 18 ships but ultimately it will be able to accommodate 33 ships at any one time. The Chinese having already granted U.S. $.360 million will provide another sum of U.S. $.808 million, in soft loans, for the second phase of the Hambantota sea-port project. A yet another U.S. $.176 million loan has been provided by China for construction of LPG, aviation and bunkering tanks near the new port. A railway line, oil and gas pipelines, facilities for containers, transit warehouses, rest and crew change, and ship repair facilities are all in the works. A total of 18 tank farms have also been made ready by Chinese engineers in the vicinity of the new sea port since December 2011.

It is interesting to note that the widely-read British news magazine, the ECONOMIST, London, has (http://www.economist.com/node/2154779) published an excellent article, in its latest issue (February 18-25, 2012) headlined, “India and its’ near abroad. The Elephant in the region. Competition with China is making it nicer, but India could do still more to sweeten relations with its neighbors,” which reveals that SOUTH ASIA, in its opinion, is about the least integrated part of the world. India’s neighbors supply just 0.5% (yes 0.5%) of India’s imports, and consume less than 4% of India’s exports. The Economist commentary says that, “India and Pakistan, mutually antagonistic, account for a fifth of all living humans on this planet, yet their bilateral trade is puny, at less than $3 billion a year. The main regional body, the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation, (SAARC) is an irrelevance. Diplomatic torpor usually reigns in the region: last week, when the elected president of one member country, the Maldives, was toppled in a coup, there was a resounding silence from the neighbors. India, the regional superpower, is largely to blame. Though it is a democracy and has easily the biggest economy and armed forces in South Asia, it has rarely been a force for good. Instead it has treated the neighbors, by turns, with negligence and high-handedness”….

The above quoted ECONOMIST commentary concludes by saying that, “But there is much more that India could do. It should unilaterally boost regional trade by unclogging roads, and by building better ports and freight parks at its borders. Non-tariff barriers—including the one that insists Pakistani cement crosses the border only by train, not lorry—should go. And India could take lessons from other big emerging powers, such as South Africa and Brazil, on how to build relationships in the region. Elephants must learn to move carefully, for fear of causing damage in the neighborhood”.

The advice contained in the above paragraph, from the London-based ECONOMIST news magazine addressed to India’s morally repugnant rulers (an evil dynastic nexus of the Brahmin and the Bania) will most probably go no where, as the Editors of Economist magazine have wrongly concluded that India is an ‘Elephant’ when it is only a ‘Goat’.

How much money has Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert ‘Zardari’Vadra and Messrs Parkash Singh Badal & Son stacked abroad in numbered accounts in Tax Havens?

Washington D.C. Wednesday February 15, 2012: Reports in the Indian print media (also reported by the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17013314) quoted India’s CBI Director, A. P. Singh, as telling the inaugural session of first Interpol Global Program On Anti-corruption and Asset Recovery, held in New Delhi yesterday, that, “Indians are the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated 500 billion U.S. dollars (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in Tax Havens abroad”.
CBI Director A. P. Singh confessed (to his and India’s eternal shame) that, “India, in particular, has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin islands et al., where it is estimated that around 500 billion U.S. dollars of illegal money, belonging to Indians, is deposited. The biggest secret depositors in Swiss Banks, he ‘boasted’ are Indians. He disclosed that, “53 per cent of the countries said to be least corrupt by the Transparency International Index are the biggest offshore tax havens, where most of the corrupt money goes. These tax havens include New Zealand which is ranked as the least corrupt country in the world, Singapore is ranked number five and Switzerland is at number seven. He said, therefore, there is a lack of political will in the leading tax haven states (which happen to be known as the least corrupt countries) to part with any information because, these states are aware of the extent to which their own economies have become dependent to this ‘flow of illegal cash’ coming in from the poorer corrupt countries, like India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and other third world countries.

CBI Director A. P. Singh also informed the above mentioned conference in New Delhi that, global financial markets allow money to travel faster and further making tracking the money trail in such cases even more difficult. Success here, he said, requires the organization of global training programs which enhance the knowledge of investigators in tracking assets created out of corrupt and criminal acts. Getting information about such illegal transactions is a time taking process, said the CBI director, as investigators have to ‘peel each layer’ by sending judicial requests to the country where such deposits have been made.

CBI Director A. P. Singh also told the conference that there are many obstacles to asset recovery. Not only is it a specialized legal process filled with delays and uncertainty, but there are also language barriers and a lack of trust when working with other countries. Tracing, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of stolen assets is a legal challenge as it is a complex process which requires expertise and political will. Managing the asset recovery investigation is therefore, time consuming, costly and most importantly also requires expertise.

The CBI Director further said that, ‘in some of the recent important cases being investigated, by the CBI, such as 2G, CWG and Madhu Koda, one finds that the money is taken to Dubai or Singapore or Mauritius from where it goes to Switzerland and other such Tax Havens. For the criminals all it involves is, setting up of a few ‘shell companies’ and then making layered transfers from one account to another, in a matter of hours, as there are no boundaries in banking transactions. He said the World Bank estimates the cross border flow of money from criminal activities and tax evasion is around 1.5 trillion US dollars world wide, of which 40 billion US dollars is bribe paid to government servants in developing countries. CBI Director A. P. Singh quoted the World Bank which says that only five billion U.S. dollars of this 1.5 trillion stolen money has been repatriated back during the past 15 years. How many of these stolen five billion U.S. $ were returned to India, is anybody’s guess!

The BBC reporting on the first Interpol Global Program on Anti-corruption and Asset Recovery meeting, held in New Delhi last Monday, quoted analysts who claimed that, flight of capital from India has helped widen inequality in India. The BBC report headlined “India loses $500bn to tax havens” quoted the Chief of India’s federal investigation agency, CBI Director A. P. Singh, as telling the New Delhi meeting that, “Indians had (> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17013314 <) deposited an estimated U.S. $. 500 billion in overseas tax havens like Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and the British Virgin Islands among other and that the largest depositors in Swiss Banks are reported to be Indians”. Mr. A.P. Singh said that getting information about such illegal transactions was a time-consuming and expensive process as each country where money had been sent, had to be approached for help with investigations.

The above mentioned BBC write-up also said that, “a report, in November 2010, by the US-based group, Global Financial Integrity, had said that, India had lost more than U.S. $. 460 billion between 1948, a year after Independence, and 2008, because of companies and the rich illegally funneling their wealth overseas. India’s underground economy accounted for 50% of the country’s gross domestic product. The Global Financial Integrity report further said that the illicit outflows of money out of India had increased after economic reforms began in 1991. In recent months, India’s Congress party-led Manmohan Singh government has been on the back foot on the issue of black money and corruption. The Indian Supreme Court has also chided the Indian government for not doing enough to unearth illicit money”.

Well informed observers of the Indian scene are pessimistic about India as corruption is everywhere, from the organization of the Commonwealth Games to Cricket match fixing, from getting a driving license to getting a divorce. Everyone is playing the dirty game. Indeed, some wise and well informed commentators have argued that there is no such thing as corruption in India because, what people in the West define as corruption is simply ordinary way of life in the subcontinent. India’s ruling Congress party has been hit by a series of damaging corruption scandals over the past year.

One has to wonder how much money has Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert ‘Zardari’ Vadra (Paryanka Gandhi’s ‘wheeler dealer’ husband and Rahul Gandhi’s loving brother-in-law) and Messrs Parkash Singh Badal & Son, stacked abroad in their numbered accounts in various Tax Havens? No wonder the opposition has made regular calls for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign, only adding to the difficulties of a ‘politician’ once seen as India’s most honest.

Will PM Dr. Manmohan Singh OBLIGE?

Swedish author & columnist Jan Myrdal has arrived in India to launch his book ‘Red Star over India’

Title inspired by ‘Red Star over China’ which predicted the victory of the poorly armed rural Red Chinese rebel movement, and the 1949 rise of Communist China

Washington D.C. Wednesday February 8, 2012: According to ‘doctored’ reports published in the Indian media, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or armed drones are being used in the Visakha agency, and the border districts of Andhra Pradesh state, against the Naxalites rebels ‘to help in intelligence gathering on a real-time basis’. An unmanned aerial vehicle base has been set up at Madurapuddi, near Rajahmundry, says a Times of India report, headlined, ‘Drones set to assist cops in Naxal operations’, published last Monday. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Drones- set-to-assist-cops-in-Naxal-operations/articleshow/11771877.cms?intenttarget=no) The UAV helps capture images even in dense forest areas and relays them in real-time to the base for security forces to be speedily mobilized. However, our sources report that Israeli-built drones, armed with missiles, acquired by the Indian government, have been deployed for sometime now, which have fired many times in ‘anger’ killing scores of Naxalites and their innocent families living in their jungle hideouts.

A senior official of Special Intelligence Branch (SIB), an elite anti-Maoist wing, was quoted as telling the Times of India, that drones were being used on an experimental basis in Andhra Pradesh and neighboring state of Chhattisgarh and the results were positive enough for the drones to be introduced in anti-Maoist operations. Over the last few months, Maoists have stepped up their activities in the Visakha agency and in Vizianagaram. Already, the UAV has been tested in Warangal and certain districts of Chhattisgarh. The UAV, sponsored by the Union Ministry of Home affairs (MHA) and procured at a cost of Rs. 30 crore each, will be used in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh but will have their base in Madurapuddi. Their role will be mainly to provide infrastructure for the setting up of the UAV base in Madurapuddi. However, Andhra Pradesh police claims it has no direct role in the operation of the UAV since states which want to use it have to put in a request to the Ministry of Home Affairs in Delhi. In any case observers feel it is a major escalation, by the central government against the decades old Naxalite rural movement which wants land reforms not missiles.
In a related development 85 years old Swedish author and columnist Jan Myrdal – known for his close interaction with Indian Maoists (Naxalites) since the ’80s, is in India for the launch of his latest book, titled, “Red Star over India”, which is an account of his visit to the Red zone in Bastar and includes his analysis of the situation. Jan Myrdal, (born:1927; is the son of the famous Nobel laureates Alva and Gunnar Myrdal) has penned over 80 books, including fiction and plays. Jan Myrdal admits, according to a report in the Times of India headlined, “Maoist movement may end up as a bloody civil war’, (> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Maoist-movement-may-end-up-as-a-bloody-civil-war/articleshow/ 11761495.cms?intenttarget=no <) that he is unable to gauge where the radical Left movement, led by CPI (Maoist) chief Ganapathy, is headed. He is quoted as saying that, “There is even a negative possibility…it could even end as a bloody civil war in which they (the Maoists) may not survive…” Yet the ‘positive’ title of his above mentioned latest book, “Red Star over India” is inspired by the positive title of the 1937 classic, “Red Star over China” written by American author and journalist, Edgar P. Snow (B.1905-D.1972) who was the only writer/ journalist to correctly predict the rise of China, way back in 1937, when no one gave a chance to the rag tag rural revolutionaries led by the Chinese Communist party under Chairman Mao Zedong and Chou En Lai, of ever succeeding against the American-backed Chiang Kai Shek’s Koumingtang government entrenched in the then Chinese capital of China, Nanking.
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Jan Myrdal (85) who had traveled to Bastar’s core area two years ago, and interacted extensively with cadres and leaders, (including party general secretary Ganapathy) is quoted as saying in his Times of India interview that, “There is even a negative possibility…it could even end as a bloody civil war in which they (the Maoists) may not survive…” While giving an insightful account of his experience to Times of India on Saturday, Myrdal’s face fell for a moment as he blamed himself to some extent for the killing of Maoist leader Azad. “I have a bad feeling… partly responsible for the killing of Azad. “We had mentioned what Ganapathy said about the ceasefire… Azad took it up and it is possible that the situation was used to trap him,” Myrdal was reported to have said in retrospect. Myrdal stresses that he quit the Communist party since he felt that it has taken a wrong direction, but does not consider himself to be a ‘renegade.’ When asked if he, “was a chronicler of the Maoist movement or a sympathizer? He retorted that, “I follow my father” who insisted that a social scientist or writer cannot be unbiased. ‘I am not an unbiased observer’, is his common refrain. Myrdal points out a potential area of tension between the atheist Maoist leadership and their constituency tribals and non-tribal farmers and rural folks, who are entrenched in religious and cultural rituals and customs. No wonder, he says, the Red ultras are “very careful about religious shrines etc and on account of hurting local sentiments they are trying to address the issue. “But, this could develop into an area of conflict in spreading the movement,” he warns. When asked what does he perceive to be the way forward for the movement? He replies that, “The support of urban middle class is sorely lacked”. He has three tips for the Naxalites to woo the middle class. They are: “highlight human rights violations committed by security forces, inclusive development in rural areas and persist with social struggle in urban pockets”.
Jan Myrdal (born 19 July 1927 in Bromma, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish author, leftist-political writer and columnist. He is an honorary doctor of literature at Upsala College in New Jersey, USA, and a Ph.D. at Nankai University in Tianjin, in China. He has lived at various times in the United States, Afghanistan, Iran and India. He is the son of the Social Democrats and Nobel Laureates Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal; he broke completely with both, at an early age for personal reasons, while keeping them in esteem for their public achievements. Myrdal strongly opposed the Vietnam War. In Asian Drama, Myrdal predicted that land reform and pacification would fail in Vietnam and urged the United States to begin negotiations with North Vietnam. After returning to Sweden, he headed the Swedish Vietnam Committee and became co-chair of International Commission of Inquiry into U.S. War Crimes in Indochina. He also presided over the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an international watch-dog for the international arms trade.

In the final analysis, the positive title of his latest book, “Red Star over India,” says a ‘book’ about where India’s Naxalite movement of ‘unwashed’ Indians is headed, (in the world’s largest caste-ridden demoNcracy – INDIA) in the considered opinion of Jan Myrdal, the 85 year old Swedish scholar.

According to media reports, the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond has just (January 24, 2012) revealed the question he wants to ask in the referendum he has promised: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” It seems to be a simple question, but it’s psychologically loaded. The answer to a question often depends on how you ask it, and Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond is doing all he can to get a “yes”. A more neutral question would offer the Scottish voters two choices: “Scotland should become independent” or “Scotland should remain in the United Kingdom.” Tick one box. But if he did that, most experts are of the view that the voters would surely vote for the status quo. According to one expert, people don’t usually choose to leap into the unknown unless they are brimming with self- confidence or living in intolerable misery. Neither applies to the Scots, so Salmond twists the question a bit: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” People also don’t like to contradict the (implicit) majority, so putting it that way might win a few thousand extra “yes” votes. One English journalist believes that, ‘In his heart, Salmond would probably prefer a more inflammatory question like “Do you want to seize Scotland’s independence back from the Sassenach (Saxon, i.e. English) oppressors, or would you rather live as slaves?” That would delight the tartan super-patriots who are his core constituency, but it would alienate the moderate middle whose support he must gain to win the vote’.
The Scottish Parliament is a unicameral legislature comprising 129 Members, 73 of whom represent individual constituencies and are elected on a first past the post system; 56 are elected in eight different electoral regions by the additional member system, serving for a four year period. The British Queen appoints one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), on the nomination of the Parliament, to be First Minister – Alex Salmond. Other Ministers are also appointed by the Queen on the nomination of the Scottish Parliament and together with the First Minister they make up the Scottish Government, the executive arm of government. In the 2011 election, the Scottish National Party (SNP) formed a majority government after winning 69 of the 129 seat Parliament; This was the first majority government since the modern post- devolutionary Scottish Parliament was established. The leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Alex Salmond, continued as First Minister. The Labour Party continued as the largest opposition party, with the Conservative Party the Liberal Democrats, and the Green Party also represented in the Parliament. Margo MacDonald is the only independent Member of the Scottish Parliament.

The latest issue (of Jan. 28 – Feb. 3, 2012) of the London-based Economist recognizes the seriousness of the talk of Scottish independence with a commentary headlined, “More than just words – Alex Salmond announces the details of his longed for referendum”. It says that if (> http://www.economist.com/node/21543531 <) Alex Salmond gets his way the question will be, “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” That will be the main question which will confront his compatriots in the autumn of 2014. Scotland’s Nationalist first minister set the timing of the referendum on the nation’s independence earlier this month. But its wording, which was announced in a consultation document on January 25th, will be more important to the eventual result. Mr. Salmond’s announcement is merely the latest punch in a fight between Edinburgh and London over the handling of the referendum. The first minister insists that the arrangements are for Scotland to decide, while the British government, which has published its own consultation document, says that it is a matter for the union as a whole. On the timing and wording of the ballot, the two sides have disagreed on whether the voting age should be lowered for the referendum (Mr. Salmond says that it should) and whether it should be overseen by the Electoral Commission, which Nationalists testily point out is answerable to the Westminster Parliament. Mr. Salmond’s consultation, which will close in May, gives ground on the latter but not the former. Mr. Salmond used a speech in front of a left-leaning audience in London on January 24th to argue that an independent Scotland would be a “beacon for progressive opinion south of the border”. He cited free university tuition and free medical prescriptions for the elderly as social-democratic achievements by the Scottish Parliament. But the three main parties in Westminster are united in their opposition to Scottish independence. For the British Labour party, which would struggle to win an election without its Scottish MPs, it is a matter of almost existential import.

Although Mr. Salmond is an imperious figure in Scotland, where his Scottish National Party governs alone, the skirmishes between London and Edinburgh that have taken place this month have emboldened unionists. Many in the coalition government detect that Mr. Salmond, for all his tactical wiles, has no persuasive answers to the big questions that have been put to him so far. It is not clear, for example, whether an independent Scotland would adopt the euro, which is unpopular thanks to the unfolding crisis on the continent, or sterling, which would mean interest rates still being set in London. Neither is it obvious whether Scotland’s large banks would be bailed out by the independent nation or (as Mr. Salmond suggests) the UK. These conundrums are worrying for the Scottish National Parliament. Opinion polls suggest most Scots will base their vote on whether they think independence will make Scotland richer or poorer. Having initially craved an early referendum to take advantage of low support for independence, some unionists think a two-year campaign will expose flaws in the Nationalist argument. Mr. Salmond has always played a long game. He is no longer alone in that.

While discussing Scotland the case of Canadian Quebec comes to mind. Just two months before the independence referendum in Quebec, Canada, only one-third of Quebecers planned to vote “yes”. On the day, almost half did (49.5 percent). Even more than in normal politics, questions of national independence tend to be decided on emotional grounds – and once the question is on the table, it is there forever. Quebec has held two referendums on independence, in 1980 and 1995. The voters rejected it both times, but the separatists are still waiting for a third opportunity. English-speakers in Quebec sarcastically call it the “neverendum”.

Some English observers, with Canadian Quebec on the back of their mind, are of the view that ‘Scottish independence’ would lose by a majority of almost two-to- one if the referendum were held today. The 1995 referendum in Canadian Quebec came close to yielding a majority for “yes”. The then Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, responded by passing a “Clarity Act,” which stated that the question in any future referendum on secession must be accepted as clear by the federal House of Commons; that any question not referring solely to secession would be considered unclear; and that a simple majority of 50 percent of the votes plus one would not be enough to mandate such a large and irreversible change. The Canadian “Clarity Act” has subsequently become the international standard for secession referendums. It is regularly cited in Spain, for example, as the standard that a Basque or Catalan referendum on independence would have to meet, and in Belgium with regard to Flemish or Walloon secession. It has similarly limited Alex Salmond’s freedom to shape the Scottish referendum question, which is why it is relatively clear. On July 22, 2010, the International Court of Justice delivered an advisory opinion concerning the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo. The court had to decide if the declaration did not violate general international law. The court concluded that the unilateral declaration of independence did not violate international law, because it was not issued by any official body bound by Serbian or UN administration rules, and international law does not contain a prohibition against declarations of independence. However, the ICJ’s opinion did not conflict with Canada’s Clarity Act, because the former only addresses the ability to “issue a declaration”, and the Clarity Act does not prohibit any person from issuing a declaration of independence. The advisory opinion also stated that it was up to individual states whether or not to recognize independence of a state so declared, and thus permitting the Canadian government, by the Clarity Act, to refuse or set conditions on recognition of independence.

Salmond still has two cards up his sleeve. One is a proposal to let 16 and 17- year-olds vote in the referendum, on the calculation that the younger they are, the likelier they will be to support radical change. (The normal voting age in the UK is 18.) Salmond is also still talking about adding a further option in the referendum for “maximum devolution” of power to the Scottish government, a halfway house that would leave the United Kingdom government responsible for little except defence and foreign affairs. But he will probably end up trading that for an agreement with London to postpone the referendum until late in 2014.

In reality Salmond needs to postpone the referendum because if he has more than two years to pick quarrels with London it will incense Scottish nationalists, and strengthen his hand for Scottish independence.