thecatapult.in

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.

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…

One can only hope that the relevant Indian agencies are keeping an eye on this problem. Any random Chinese student, executive, tourist, journalist, businessman or consular official can be an agent of the Chinese state. It is always better to be safe than sorry and keep an eye on these people and also so called “progressive” Indians who readily go on Chinese embassy sponsored guided tours and then subsequently start singing paens of Praise to the CCP.

FRANCE—On June 21, Sound of Hope (SOH) interviewed Ms. Chen Ying, the former wife of a staff member of the Chinese Embassy in France. Chen revealed how the Chinese communist regime manipulates the overseas student associations and turns them into spy agencies.

“The education section in the Embassy is responsible for overseas student-related work. Many student associations and some scholar associations were established under the direction of the Embassy’s education section. Those organizations are actually the communist regime’s organizations,” said Chen.

According to Chen, in France, those organizations include the Chinese Scholar & Student Union of France (Union Des Chercheurs et des Etudiants Chinois En France—UCECF), The Association of Chinese Scientists and Engineers of France (Association des Scientifiques et des Ingénieurs Chinois en France—ASICEF), The Association of Chinese Jurists and Economists of France (Association des Juristes et des Economistes Chinois en France, — AJECF), to name a few.

“Those associations were established and developed under the direction of the Embassy’s education section.” said Chen.

Besides these organizations, there are also other associations directly organized by the Embassy education section. Although students participate in these associations, these organizations are in fact branches of the communist regime, only they take on the form of a student organization, Chen said.

“The Chairmen of those student associations are normally government funded students. The regime supplies money for them to study abroad; there are many requirements and restrictions in place for them.” said Chen.

“The Chairmen are appointed by the embassy, normally funded by the Overseas Student Service Centre, or Committee of Overseas Student Foundation. They have to sign a contract. The embassy believes those students are more reliable and have ‘party spirit’ to some degree. They need to follow the regime’s requirements. The regime specifies how they [should] behave to comply with regime’s standard of how overseas students should be.”

Whenever there is an important activity, the diplomats from the Embassy education section would contact the leader of the student association to arrange activities to cooperate with the Embassy’s deployment.

“In general, the order is passed down level by level, from the central regime to the embassy, then to the education section, then to those leaders of the student association, then to the rest of the student members,” said Chen.

Perhaps this is the same pattern followed by the Chinese embassy and consulates in India with regard to some political parties and certain media outlets.There is also an urgent need to check under the hood in communist cesspools like the JNU and certain red hued student organisations and trade unions, as also the bank balances and the travel itinerary of some so called “progressive” Indians.

Students Associations- Front Organizations of China - 1

Students Associations- Front Organizations of China - 2

Students Associations- Front Organizations of China - 3

Students Associations- Front Organizations of China - 4

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.

A former member of an radical Islamist terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiya, a group affiliated to Al-Qaeda, Dr Tawfik Hamid has severely criticised the liberal “intellectuals” and self proclaimed “progressives” for obfuscating the threat of radical Islamist ideology to the world at large and also being an obstacle to reformation in the Islamic world.His criticism also holds good for our own homegrown “intellectuals”.

Yet it is ironic and discouraging that many non-Muslim, Western intellectuals–who unceasingly claim to support human rights–have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah’s inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western “progressives” pave the way for Islamist barbarity? Indeed, if the problem is not one of religious beliefs, it leaves one to wonder why Christians who live among Muslims under identical circumstances refrain from contributing to wide-scale, systematic campaigns of terror.

Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.

Ouch! that hurts especially when it is one of those former “misguided youths” who is taking a potshot at thee.

The First issue of our new publication Pragati is ready. Pragati is an effort of the Indian National Interest community which includes all the bloggers here on INI and some renowned outside experts.

One of the aims of Pragati is to reach out to the vast majority of Indians and involve them in the debates related to the issues of India’s national interest. This we feel is very important since an informed citizenry is imperative to the smooth functioning of our country as a democratic republic. Without active participation from the vast majority of the people there is a real danger of the instruments of state and government being monopolised by a tiny political, bureaucratic and “intellectual” elite and used to further their own narrow political and ideological agendas even to the detriment of the interests of the nation and the vast majority of the Indian people, which is the case happening today.

Pragati therefore has been launched in a format where it can easily be downloaded for free and one is encouraged to forward it to one’s circle of friends, even make copies of it and circulate them. We also plan to bring out Indian language versions of the same in the near future.

p.s- Pragati’s Opening editorial and Confused’s announcement.

This week saw three events in quick succession involving India’s accursed communists, the first was the beastly act in Nandigram in West Bengal where the communists are in power and using the machinery of the state butchered the common man in the dozens with all the accompanying claptrap, gaudy red rhetoric that it was for their own good in true classical Soviet-Chinese-Khmer Rouge style, the next in Chhattisgarh where another more “purer” and virulent strain of the same gutter virus, this one known to toxicologists as the ‘Naxalite(Maoist)’ strain murdered more than 50 policemen in cold blood because they were agents of the state, and ofcourse the one involving the more domesticated, scotch and soda sipping, suave, but always obstructive and a no do-gooder “mainstream” political outfit which this time contented itself by “merely trying” to assault and manhandle a minister of the Union government in the very heart of Indian democracy- the hall of the parliament itself!

As repulsive and disgusting as the above incidents are the response of the so called watchdog of democracy, the mainstream media and the self appointed “secular” conscience keepers of the country, the “intellectuals”, assorted NGO’s and the human terrorist rights mafia is even more disgusting. Their one line excuse on behalf of their comrades for each one of the above incidents -It is the other guy’s fault.

Read the rest…

Five years after the horrific Godhra incident and its aftermath, there has been created according to Mr K.P.S. Gill, a virtual ‘Gujarat Riots industry’ consisting of left leaning politicians, NGO’s, the Media and assorted “intellectuals” who indulge in whipping up flagging passions at every opportunity, and manufacturing a range of ‘products’ that are marketed principally to foreign ‘buyers’. He says that

During and after the Gujarat riots, the role of political actors, non-governmental organisations and ‘activists’, was nothing short of shameful. There was a lot of posturing, a great deal of tamasha, but little was done to bring relief to the victims. Group after group flew into Ahmedabad, went through the motions of ‘investigation’, held press conferences and brought out ill-informed reports, but nobody stayed long enough to deliver concrete services and succour to those whose lives had been shattered and dislocated. In certain political quarters, there was almost an implicit hope that the violence would continue, so that it could be exploited electorally.

All this while the incident that started it all, i.e., Godhra train burning which killed nearly 58 Hindu pilgrims, including 35 women and children is sought to be played down or denied by this very same actors. But why is one set of victims given all the attention and sympathy while the suffering of the other set is sought to be played down, denied, glossed over or even vilified? One such politically motivated report by the Banerjee commission was ruled illegal by the Gujarat High court.

Read the rest…