Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
IN MEMORY OF I.K. SHUKLA, WHOSE PEN AGAINST HINDUTVA FASCISM AND OTHER REACTIONARIES WAS SHARPER THAN A SWORD! SHUKLAJI DIED ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
NUCLEAR DEAL IN THE MIDST OF THE INDIAN POLITICAL CAULDRON
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
INSAF Bulletin has editorially supported the deal since it was proposed based on a basic, rational, technical judgment; for a number of reasons, many of them having to do with climate change and the environment, nuclear electric generation has a role to play in India’s energy future.
ATROCITIES AGAINST MINORITIES, PRE-ELECTION STRATEGY OF HINDUTVA FORCES
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
Elections for the Indian Parliament are due in less than a year. The Hindutva forces are doing every thing they can, including dangerously destabilizing and polarizing the Indian polity by their attacks on minorities, to get their political front, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), elected to form the next government with Advani of the notorious Babri Mosque episode as the next Prime Minister.
DELHI BLASTS: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA
New Delhi, September 15, 2008,
Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,
The blasts in Delhi (September 12, 2008) are another in the series of tragic blasts in which scores of people have been killed. We strongly condemn the blasts and demand a proper, unbiased investigation into the same. We demand that the guilty be punished. At the same time it seems that our investigating agencies are ignoring some thing very crucial in the matters of investigating the acts of terror.
RECONCILIATION MAY BE EASY, ACCEPTING THE TRUTH IS TRICKIER
Jawed Naqvi
Saturday’s (September 13, 2008) blasts in Delhi killed 20 innocent people, terrorised the city of 14 million and threatened to deepen its social fault lines. In fact the terrorists, going by an email apparently sent by the shadowy Indian Mujahideen, are now planning to wreak more havoc in Mumbai.
THEN THEY CAME FOR CHRISTIANS…
Ram Puniyani
Orissa is witnessing unprecedented violence against the tiny Christian minority. On August 23, 2008, Swami Laxmananand along with his four followers was killed, probably by a group of Maoists. Immediately, anti-Christian violence began on big scale.
SECOND LINK IN THE CHAIN
K.N. Panikkar
The incidents of August show that communalisation of Orissa is taking place very fast. Communal violence is not new in Orissa, or for that matter in any part of the country. But the latest incident is different, just as what happened in Gujarat in 2002. It is by far the most violent, brutal and widespread incidence of communal attack in the history of Orissa.
THE GLOVES ARE OFF IN PAKISTAN
Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI – Pakistani authorities have compared Saturday evening’s devastating truck suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in the capital Islamabad to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Pakistani security guards and employees at the devastated Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on September 22, 2008. Pakistan’s top leadership was set to dine at Islamabad’s luxury Marriott hotel when it was bombed at the weekend but was saved after changing venue at the last minute.(AFP/Pedro Ugarte)
OF OATHS AND PROMISES – ASIF ZARDARI AS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN
Kiran Omar
On 9th September Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the deceased leader of the PPP, Benazir Bhutto, was sworn in as the 12th President of Pakistan. The PPP won the February election together with their chief political rivals the PML-(N).
NEPAL: PRACHANDA — `NO ILLUSIONS ON THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF SOCIALIST COMMUNISM’
September 3, 2008 — In his first interview since he became Nepal’s prime minister, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” spoke to Rabindra Mishra of BBC’s Nepali Service about the strategies of his new government.
NEPALI YOUTH IN CANADA HOST FLAGSHIP RADIO PROGRAM
Pramod Dhakal
Ottawa, Canada (September 16, 2008) – Canada Forum for Nepal (CFFN) has launched CFFN Radio, a new audio network where listeners can access radio programs produced by or distributed by the organization. The audio programs can be downloaded or played directly from CFFN Radio’s website (http://radio.cffn.ca).
NEPAL: STATE AND PEOPLE: WHO IS SOCIALIST?
Pramod Dhakal
Every politician in Nepal seems to be a fierce socialist these days! In the last few days, two Nepali Congress (NC) leaders told us that they are the true socialists as opposed the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist (CPNM), which also claims to be a socialist.
NANAVATI COMMISSION HAS FORGOTTEN THE REAL STORY OF THE GUJARAT CARNAGE
The Nanavati Commission has conveniently misunderstood Mr. Modi and his Government without examining them. Mr. Modi and his Government got Full Marks without appearing in the Exam of the Nanavati Commission. We strongly feel that the Nanavati Commission has forgotten the real story of the Gujarat Carnage 2002, publicly admitted and proudly advocated by the Mr. Modi and his BJP. – Rohit Prajapati & Trupti Shah – Activists, Gujarat.
NANAVATI COMMISSION INTERIM REPORT CONDEMNED
Kaleem Kawaja
On behalf of the large number of Muslims from India who live in North America, the Association of Indian Muslims of America condemns in the strongest terms the recent release of the first part of the Justice Nanavati Commission report, into the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in February/March 2003.
NANAVATI REPORT ON GODHRA TRAGEDY: ERASING THE OBVIOUS TRUTHS
Ram Puniyani
Recently Justice Nanavati-Mehta (N-M) submitted their report to Govt. (Sept 2008). What it has done must be very close to the desire of the ruling establishment, which reaped a rich harvest due to the Godhra train burning and the anti Muslim pogrom in the aftermath of the same.
TERRORISM, POLICE AND MINORITIES
Asghar Ali Engineer
The police has had a strong bias against minorities right from the dawn of freedom. Our freedom came at the cost of partition and partition further increased Hindu-Muslim divide and the police could not remain unaffected by communalization of society.