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it didn’t take very long for this to happen did it? barely has the ink dried on the post warning against Prachanda’s Charm offensive where this blogger contended that Maoist leader is merely trying to lull his enemies into complacency while aiming to seize absolute power for himself and his motley crew comes the news that the slimy snake that he is he has already began to hiss and bare his fangs.

Maoist chairman Prachanda, expected to lead the next government in Nepal, has warned the media against criticising his party, saying that “we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people”.

Addressing a rally to celebrate the declaration of republic in Kathmandu Prachanda said his CPN-Maoist will not tolerate further criticism by the media and warned of serious consequences if it continued to criticise the party.

Targeting the Kantipur publication that brings out the largest circulated dailies Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, the former rebel leader said, “You journalists did well to continuously criticise the Maoists before the constituent assembly polls, otherwise the election would not have taken place at all.”

“Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people,” he said, adding that the other newspapers criticising the Maoist will also meet the same fate.[link]

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that it didn’t take him long to start operationalising the standard operating procedures manual used by the communists worldwide to incrementally seize absolute power by first threatening the Free and thriving Nepali media. simply because a free media with its ability to scrutinise their working is what the Communists universally dislike. since it is a huge obstacle in executing the next step of their manual, viz blowing off the heads of all the opposition leaders and supporters, subverting the autonomous institutions of the state such as the Judiciary, the Election commission and the Nepali Army, and installing a banana republic in place where a small privileged elite called the politburo led by himself ofcourse get to dictate the lives of millions of Nepalis.

and all this While the left-liberal Indian and Western media go gaga over Prachanda’s charm offensive and give him and his band of thuggies a free pass and look the other way while they get down to the work of destroying Nepal and terrorising its people into submission.

It is therefore imperative on all free thinking people both in Nepal and the rest of the world to frustrate the dubious Maoist-Communist agenda in Nepal. The Nepali people unfortunately conceded far too easily on the Maoist demands to abolish the monarchy which was a very big mistake. I believe they should have instead replaced Gynanedra with a more acceptable individual and retained the institution as a constitutional monarchy which would have been a symbol of stability for Nepal.

But now that the deed has been done it is doubly important that they do not concede ground on the Right to freedom of speech and expression. Prachanda’s contention that the Media should not criticise him and his party because now they have been elected by the people is laughable. if that is the case then no one should criticise George bush or Gordon brown or Manmohan singh or any of the parties they belong to since even they were elected by the people.

The Nepali mediamen did the right thing by immediately condemning Prachanda’s statement and asking him and his party to demonstrate their commitment to the democratic process.

On India’s part it is absolutely imperative that the Indian government should openly come out in support of the Right to Freedom of Speech and association in Nepal and roundly condemn this statement by Prachanda and demand that he disarm his militia and submit to the democratic political process in Nepal.

Update: Nepal’s newly minted Propoganda minister seems to have disappeared and is suspected to have gone to China on an all expenses paid trip sponsored by the Chinese embassy ostensibly perhaps for some advanced training on the nuances of terrorising the Nepali media into toeing the party line. coincidentally at the same time as his boss Prachanda has begun to threaten the Nepali media of “serious consequences” if they continued to hold him and his motley crew accountable for their actions.

One another item to add to the long list of inglorious achievements of the UPA regime that will haunt India in the coming decades is helping establish a pro-China regime in neighbouring Nepal which effectively brings the communist sickle right upto India’s heartland endangering its security in ways that will only become apparent as time rolls by.

One of the first acts of the Maoists after seizing power in the recently held elections was to dictate the end of Nepal’s 240 year old monarchy thus removing a sizeable thorn in the way of their ultimate aim of seizing absolute power in Nepal in incremental steps. They haven’t yet disbanded their militia and reports are that they used them extensively to intimidate opposition party candidates and supporters in the recent elections.

In the meanwhile the Maoist leader is on a charm offensive. In an interview with Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate he has laid out his vision for the future course of Indo-Nepal relations. It is a very charming interview where Prachanda or Pushpa Kumar Dhamal has tried to make all the right noises and lull his enemies into a false sense of security. In that he has learnt from the example of his predecessors from across the globe ranging from Stalin to Mao to Castro and others on how to charm the gullible left-liberals and use the enemy’s own free media against him. that in itself begs the need to keep an eye out for this hooded serpent.

Read the rest…

NEW DELHI: In a strange move, at a time when the government is promoting “Come to India — Walk with the Buddha” to attract foreign tourists to Buddhist circuit in the country, five foreigners have been given Quit India notice to leave the country within seven days “for participating in a religious activity”.

James Petersen, Lex Pelger and David Huang from US, Maryla Cross from UK and Paul Christians Buntz from Norway were given the notices for “violating the visa rules” by Pithoragarh SP Puran Singh Rawat on Friday as they reached Banspatan in Uttarkhand’s border district with the Tibetan marchers who have been walking towards Tibet since March 10.[source- Quit India notice to five foreign marchers]

As is obvious from the above passage these men were detained for participating in a peace march- a political activity. and maybe just maybe even that is a violation of the rules of the tourist visas issued to them. but the haughty idiots that man India’s foreign policy citadels simply cannot be bothered to even refer back to the very rulebook under which they claim to be operating.

The government insists that the five have violated visa rules. “On tourist visa, you cannot take part in a religious activity. If we allow that, you will have people coming here to propagate their religion. It’s only for travelling and sightseeing, etc. So, they have violated the visa rule by participation in the march,” said Ashim Khurana, joint secretary (Foreigners) in the ministry of home affairs. Read the rest…

The Indian Embassy in Beijing seems to be compromised and penetrated to the hilt by Chinese intelligence agencies. According to this report this is the second such occassion in recent years when a top official at the embassy has been caught in the arms of a female Chinese handler.

BEIJING/NEW DELHI: An official posted at the Indian Embassy in Beijing has been sent back to Delhi in the wake of allegations that he had developed some liaison with a Chinese woman.

First Secretary M M Sharma, originally from the RAW, was shifted after his alleged connections with the Chinese language teacher came to light recently, sources said.

Considering the sensitive nature of post held by Sharma, an inquiry is being conducted to ascertain what kind of liaison he had with the Chinese woman and whether or not any sensitive information had been pilfered[link].

Sharma worked as a first secretary dealing with issues relating to science and technology at the Embassy. That it has now been publicly revealed that Sharma was actually a RAW officer throws some light on the government’s ability to keep its own secrets, a source pointed out.

There was no immediate reaction from the Chinese government on the issue. This is the second occasion in recent years that a senior government official serving at the embassy here has been charged with romantic liaison with a local woman.

A source said New Delhi was concerned that the woman in question could have been an informant of the Chinese government. If true, it could mean the Chinese side knew about India’s moves and counter-moves on the border talks over the past one year when Sharma served in the Embassy in Beijing [link].

That the Chinese make extensive use of “honeytraps” and other underhand means to snare senior Indian government officials, politicians, journalists and assorted intellectuals is well known. Even George Fernandes, former defence minister recently in an interview to Karan pointed out this disturbing aspect.

And Considering that the pro-Chinese rhetoric of a certain well known editor from a very famous newspaper published from Chennai and prominent members of a party which provides outside support to keep the UPA afloat becomes more frantic in direct proportion to their frequency of trips to China this phenomenon might be more deep-rooted than ever thought.

This is not an one-off incident but a part of a determined and sustained attempt by Chinese intelligence services to compromise the Indian establishment from within and any complacency on this aspect would prove very costly to Indian interests in the medium to long-term. The Indian security establishment should ruthlessly crush all such attempts at penetrating and compromising Indian security to the point of acting decisively against any and all such Chinese plants and compromised sources regardless of their so called position or status.

The Hindu, the unofficial communist mouthpiece in India cannot hide its glee at what it calls a “meticulously planned attack” by the Naxals on a police armoury, station and a training school in Nayagarh, Orissa last night which killed more than 14 people and injured many more including many civilians.

Maoists kill 14 in meticulosly planned attack in Orissa 

Nayagarh (Orissa) (PTI): Maoists killed 14 people, including 13 policemen, and took away a huge quantity of arms and ammunition in a meticulously planned attack on a police station, police training school and armoury here in Nayagarh district late Friday night.

A group of nearly 100 maoists, including women cadre armed with guns and bombs launched the attack at 11:00 pm last night, the first attack in coastal Orissa a mere 90 km from the state capital, and a rerun of the March 2006 attack on a sub-jail in Udaygiri in Gajapati district and looting of an armoury in Koraput town earlier in February 2004.

Nayagarh Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar said while 10 policemen were were shot dead by the maoists at the police training school, a civilian died after being caught in the crossfire at the Daspalla police station, 30 km away.

The two other police casualties occurred when the maoists, retreating after attacking the Mahipur police outpost shot them dead, the SP said.

The maoists took away all the arms in the district armoury and the police training school in a truck and a hijacked bus.

Landmines laid by the maoists while retreating at Majuriapali near here injured one person.

Very difficult to miss the triumphant language used while recounting the body count of this gruesome incident and the spoils taken away by the marauders. there is absolutely no sympathy for the innocent people killed in the barbaric attacks anywhere in this article by this newspaper. It makes one wonder where the sympathy of this paper really lies? what kind of an India do they envision if they condone violence and lawnessness in this manner? Is this how a “respectable” newspaper should behave in this hour of tragedy?

At the beginning of the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress Hu Jintao’s protege Li Keqiang was widely expected to be positioned as the next in line to succeed Hu  as President in 2012. But when the Politburo standing committee was unveiled it was Xi Jiapeng who stepped out on the Podium ahead of Li. This was blamed on the machinations of the Jiang’s camp during closed door party meetings to deny Hu the satisfaction of having anointed his favourite disciple as his successor.

But then this reuters report sheds some light into the murky waters of Chinese politics. It was Li’s own background as a Liberal during his college days along with connections to many radical student leaders some of whom  went on to become radical dissidents against one party rule must have given the Communist appartchiks reason to pause. Whatever the rivalry among the two camps of Jiang and Hu their primary goal is to maintain the supremacy of the Communist party rule in China. And surely they wouldn’t want to experiment with someone who could turn out to be a watered down Chinese version of Gorbachev.

So prudence would demand that Li Keqiang be placed in the care of a more reliable Xi Jiapeng. so for all practical purposes barring a major upheaval or some unexpected developments Xi Jiapeng and Li Keqiang will be anointed as President and Prime Minister of China respectively when Hu and Wen Jiabao step down from their posts in 2012.

This shows the trauma that the events of 1988-89 that swept China and the rest of the Communist world has inflicted on the Communists in China. Many of them fear that if they loosen control even a little bit or the blistering economic growth slows down even slightly they could be in danger of being swept out of power, thrown in prison or even possibly killed. that explains their paranoid obsession with what they call social “stability”, “harmonius” society etc… only time will tell how long this farce works out for them. The clock seems to be ticking away furiously for them.

The largest rubber stamp body in the World meets for the 17th time since the founding of the CCP in July 1921 in Shanghai by a group of 13 Chinese delegates including a young librarian by the name of Mao Zedong. The Party congress is held every 5 years and usually elects or more accurately puts its stamp of approval on decisions that have already been decided upon by the top leaders of the party before hand.

The 17th Congress is a gathering of China’s most powerful people: incumbent state leaders, cabinet ministers, top generals, provincial Party chiefs and governors, mayors of major cities as well as managers of large state-owned enterprises.

– A total of 2,213 delegates are attending this year’s Congress.

– About 30 percent of the delegates were carefully selected by regional officials as “grassroots” role models from all walks of life, including farmers, workers, teachers, doctors and scientists. The Party has more than 73 million members.

– There are also some 20 private entrepreneurs among the delegates, Chinese media say, compared with the seven attending the 16th Congress when the Party opened its doors to capitalists.

– Celebrity delegates include China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, and table tennis world champion Zhang Yining.

The Current Party Congress is expected to confirm Hu Jintao for the second term as the President of the country and the Party General secretary. Besides that it will confirm pre approved appointments of nearly 350 party members to various posts in the powerful Central Committee whose members occupy various prominent positions in the party hierarchy and also “elect” or once put their stamp of approval on the new Politburo- The power elite of China.

But the people to watch out for this time round are Mr Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang widely expected to be successors to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao in 2012 as President and Prime Minister respectively and as a first step are scheduled to be inducted into the Powerful Politburo for the first time.

In the guise of “Public opinion”. Buy it here

The UPA Govt is considering imposing an UK style Annual TV tax of Rs 500 for a colour TV and Rs 200 for a B&W TV to bail out its sick state owned entities such as Doordarshan and AIR collectively called the Prasar Bharati.

The point to remember here is that we the Aam Janta(in whose name the socialists in India and all over the world pretend to fight for while lining their own pockets and their families nest eggs) are being asked to pay not for some high quality programming which is becoming more and more expensive to produce over the years as in the case of the UK TV tax, but for the Prasar Bharati’s collective incompetence and inability to provide some good programming and compete for some respectable marketshare in the open market where the private players over the years have virtually captured the entire market in the past 15 years and pay its own way.

And the government is not even pretending that the money going to be collected in this manner is going to be utilised to set the house right and hereafter compete effectively with the private TV and FM channels. No, they are collecting this money to pay the babus in DD and AIR according to government pay scales, retirement and pension benefits, facilities like government accommodation and health benefits. And all this for not doing their job!

The Question is why should we the people pay even if it is to finance some “high quality programming”(UK, i’am looking at you) let alone to finance the nest eggs of some non-working babus? And why is the government in the broadcasting business in the first place?

Barkha Dutt in an article on Mayawati’s victory in the UP elections has besmirched the entire blogging community as

Log on to the Internet, and you will be stunned to discover how many bloggers — anonymous, or otherwise — have worn their obvious bias on their computer screens. Some even write about wanting to “leave India if Mayawati ever became Prime Minister” — all this without a trace of irony or shame. Their delusion is not just offensive; it’s positively frightening.

Barkha dutt is plain wrong. There is no such unanimous hostility among the bloggers towards Mayawati that Barkha dutt refers to. On the other hand this was one of the many blogs which welcomed Mayawati’s election victory either cautiously or wholeheartedly even taking into account all her faults and along with the realisation that she won’t be any better a politician than most of her counterparts across the rest of the political spectrum. A balance Ms Barkha towards the end of her article hopes that her own journalistic fraternity will be able to strike. Thus her generalisation of all bloggers as anti-Mayawati falls flat right here.

Perhaps Ms Barkha Dutt would do well to specifically say who are the ones she considers to be at fault. Like any blogger worth his/her salt it would be nice if she actually links to the posts of those she is critiquing. Otherwise such “hit and run” type of yellow Journalism where she makes a sweeping generalisation of such a vast and varied group of individuals simply doesn’t reflect well on her either as an ethical person or professionally as a journalist.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Ms Barkha dutt has tried to smear the entire blogging community with no evidence to back up her claims and this probably might not be her last. But this latest antic of hers has only strengthened the widespread public perception that the Indian mainstream media is already ploughing the depths of depravity and simply cannot be trusted to provide objective coverage of any subject whatsoever. This is one of the reasons for the continuing rise of the blogs as an alternative medium to the 24/7 drivel dished out by the mainstream media and could well be the beginning of the end of the mainstream media’s monopoly on shaping public opinion which they have enjoyed till recently. The sooner that happens the better.

Update- Prasanna Vishy has tracked down the person who made the comment which Barkha dutt found so offensive. Here it is in all its glory.

Priyanka Gandhi is far away. Rahul Gandhi has failed. Manmohan Singh is a puppet. I am aware that were a Lalu or a Mayawati were ever to become PM, I would have to choose to leave the country.

And this one does not come from any random blogger who in Barkha dutt’s own words is either anonymous or otherwise but a well known journalist from her rival channel CNN-IBN. His name is Hindol Sengupta and he wrote this article titled ‘Why I’am afraid of Mayawati’ in his signed blog hosted on the CNN-IBN website.

Looks like Barkha dutt is trying to kill two birds with one stone. She gets to hit back at her professional rival and also at the same time tries to malign the entire blogging community. Smart girl.very, very cunning i must say.