Iran Is Not A Push Over

Media and Intelligence reports suggest that US is planning for a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. But, how much feasible is anyone's guess taking into consideration the vast land mass Iran consists of and the secrecy in which it maintains its nuclear and other military facilities.

But a question arises - Why cannot Iran have a Nuclear Weapon when countries like India, Israel and Pakistan who have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have ??

Pakistan has given a completely new meaning to Proliferation as it manages a huge Nuclear industry supplying nuclear material to countries like North Korea and Iran clandestinely through its infamous Nuclear Scientist, A.Q. Khan. Countries who have nuclear capabilities have either openly or clandestinely been transferring nuclear technology to its friendly countries. So, NPT has lost its meaning - the main reason why India didn't sign it.

Coming to the main issue - when a country like Israel, which is just around 500KM from end to end can possess a nuclear weapon, why cannot Iran ?? Israel is been actively aided by US in its pursuit for nuclear and other military hardware. Now, Israel is in a position to export military hardware to countries like India. Incidentally, Israel occupies second position with regard to military imports by India, just after Russia, India's closest friend since the cold war years.

If US or Israel attacks Iran, it would lead to wide spread protests from many countries - including India. Majority of India's oil imports come from Iran and when the economy is on a high, India cannot risk losing it's vital input for driving its economy.

On September 6th,Israeli jets attacked Syria and destroyed a building. There is no official word on the incident from Israel and Syria also retaliated with very mild protests. So, what did Israel bombed ?? Analysts say that it might be a nuclear facility which is in its initial stages of construction or either a Chemical Bomb related facility. Syria concluded that it is an un-used military facility.
Israel had sent a message to Iran through the bombing that it would not let any country in its periphery which develops weapons that might lead to its destruction.

How many more years should Israel live like this - attacking its neighbors, occupying their lands, living in danger and waiting for another suicide blast ?? Since Israel is the occupier, it has the responsibility to make peace with its neighbors.
The only solution looks to me is a Free Palestine !!
Because of this one reason, Muslims all over the world hate Israel and US. If this problem is solved, then there would be no hatred.

Let us all give peace a chance !

Collective Punishment by Israel

Since Sunday, entire Gaza Strip in the Palestinian State went out of power as the only power plant owned by the Hamas-led Government is suffering from fuel shortage. The Gaza City plunged into darkness as the turbines were shut off.


As of now, the Hospitals, Offices, Schools and everything is running on generators and once the diesel used for generators also get finished, then the lives of hundreds of people in the hospitals would be in jeopardy. While the emergency machines are running, it seems it is very cold inside the hospitals.

A local health official, said hospitals faced a catastrophic choice between cutting "electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients" or stopping operating theaters.

Israel supplies around 60% of Fuel to Palestine while 8% of fuel is supplied by Egypt and the rest is developed by Palestinians. Israel is insisting the Hamas-led Government to stop shooting Qassam Rockets into the Occupied Areas and into Israel. Once that is done, they would immediately re-start fuel transportation.


Palestinians have very few weapons to fight the modern technology Israeli Army uses and one of them is the highly unstable and ineffective Qassam Rockets. These rockets could able to cause very limited damage and very very rare death. Whenever a rocket lands in Israel, Israel is responding with its modern weaponry and blasting out buildings without caring for the civilians inside it.

The 2006 skirmishes with Hamas led to death of more than 1200 Palestinians (majority of them are civilians) and around 169 Israelis dead (majority of them are from the Army). Instead of stopping Israel of its barbaric acts, the West is happily co-operating with it.

India is also not far behind. We are buying latest technology and arms from Israel and today, Indian Space Research Organization put one of the most sophisticated spy satellite belonging to Israel into Polar Orbit so that Israel can better spy on Iran.


Due to these acts, Israel is only encouraging Hamas and pushing public support to it. Israel has to come out with Confidence Building Measures (CBM's) if it really wants peace with Palestine. How many more years can Palestinians live Occupied ? There should always be a "give-and-take" policy. It is time Israel understands that before it is too late.

Both sides should give peace a chance and Israel being stronger country, needs to be more accommodating and magnanimous.

Is Bharat India ??

Strange Title. But it suddenly striked me as I started thinking about India and its (as most people say), glorious past. Why is past always glorious ? I dont know.
Maybe, we always love to live in the past. Since we dont like the present, we imagine that past was glorious. Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha! Good enough reason. I patted myselves in the back getting this idea.
What prompted me to write this post is the discussion I had with a few of my colleagues in the office cafeteria today evening. This post is the continuation of the discussion along with the other discussions (or rather say heated arguments) with my eldest brother, Kiran, past many years. One of my grand father's is a rightist and the other is quite a famous communist. So, we were brought up with the best of the two by our parents who have given us freedom to express our thoughts and feelings.

Now, coming to the title. Bharatvarsha consists of present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and parts of Afghanistan. Please post your comments and correct me if I am wrong. So, Bharat is NOT India. Frankly, India was never one nation - until Mahatma Gandhi proposed it.
Shifting the topic to Mahatma Gandhi........people always misunderstood him and disliked (and sometimes hated) him for what he has not done to the country and in the
process, forgetting what this great human being had done.
Albert Einstein once quoted "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth". If we donot follow the
non-violence theory of Mahatma Gandhi, I sincerely believe our coming generations would forget about the existence of such a person who had become a role model to other great people like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, etc.

It is quite easy to list out the reason why people like Mahatma Gandhi. There is only one reason why people dislike Mahatma Gandhi - Partition of the Indian Sub-continent. Hindus who dislike Gandhi ask "Why did Gandhi let Muslims stay back in India?". This is the only one reason why people dislike him. Simple question but difficult to answer. For that, we need to have vast knowledge of our history and ofcourse the biography of Mahatma Gandhi too. I will try to summarize with my limited knowledge. Please correct me where ever I had gone wrong through your comments.

India is made up of hundreds of princely states and a majority of the rulers always cared about increasing their riches then for the empowerment of their subjects.
One of the main reasons for the failure of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 (people call it as "First War Of Independence" although I consider not) is that only the kings revolted with a very limited support from their subjects. For the common man, end of the day, whether it is their own king or the British, there going to be no change in their status. That's the main reason they didnt took part it the Mutiny actively. Also, the East and South India are least affected by the affairs of the North.

South India is a bit lucky to have better kings and that since it is not near the borders, could not be touched by the Ghaznavis or the Ghouris or the Nadir Shah's.
The British conqured India only becuase India was never united against a foreign aggressor. We were fighting among ourselves and small countries like Britain, France and even Protugal dared to rule us. The British gave boundaries to the country and named it as India. The land on the other side of the River Indus is India.

Indus is derived from "River Sindhu". From Sindhu came Hindu. Iam not sure from where we got the name "Bharat". But, Bharat is the son of King Dushyanth and Shakuntala from the Hindu Mythology. Another Bharat is the younger brother of Lord Rama.

Mahatma Gandhi always believed that if we Indians (both Hindus and Muslims) lived together, Britishers would themselves leave the country. Even though the western press calls him a Hindu Spiritual Leader, Gandhi himselves never considered one. He never expected Mohammad Ali Jinnah to demand a separate state for Muslims. He was never ready for the separation of the country and he once said that India would be partitioned upon his corpse. But Jinnah was not willing and planned a "Direct Action Day" (for the achievement of Pakistan) on 16th August 1946. Jinnah declared "We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed". Riots started in Calcutta pitting the Muslim League Government in the Bengal against Hindus. The local government declared holiday on the Direct Action Day and thus let loose a reign of terror by the Muslim League on Hindus. The death toll is put at 6000 dead - mostly Hindus. Such events as these sowed seeds for the eventual Partition of India.
Partition was a painful chapter in the history of the country. The result of the Direct Action Day have a significant impact on Gandhi. That may be one main reason why he okayed for the separation. If India was not partitioned, there would have been a internal civil war which might have destroyed the belief that Indians can rule themselves. But when partition was inevitable, as a true Hindu, Gandhi demanded that Jinnah be given equal rights.


When India was celebrating Independence, Gandhi was busy putting down the communal fires throughout the country. That shows Gandhi's humility. Since Gandhi believed that Hindus and Muslims should live together, he made sure that India be a Secular nation rather than a Hindu country as Hindus are always secular at Heart. Hindus put country before religion. That is what Gandhi did.

Another reason why people dislike Gandhi is that he didnot ask for the pardoning of Bhagat Singh, Raj guru and Sukhdev's execution from the British Government. We need to understand that Gandhi is a messenger of peace and non-violence and Bhagat Singh and his friends believed that India can achieve Independence through violence. I believe, there is no reason why Gandhi should plead for the lives of someone whose ideals directly go against his own.
Bhagat Singh believed that Indians would revolt against the British upon their execution. But, nothing of that sort happened. This only proved that they judged the
mentality of Indians wrongly. The same goes for Chandrasekhar Azad and also that of Subhas Chandra Bose.


Since I mentioned Bose........when the entire world is united in fighting Hitler (Germany), Benito Mussolini (Italy) and Hirohito (Japan), Bose requested help from
these three people who have been perfectly performing ethnic cleansing of Jews and Chinese. If Iam wise enough, I dont go and ask help from the losing side !!


Violence would only lead to further violence. Non-violence is the only way we have. Gandhi was a perfect weapon against the British. He was like a Brahmastra (Nuclear Weapon) for the Indians. No wonder he is aptly decorated as "Father Of The Nation".

I bow to thee O Mahatma !! Kindly forgive my fellow countrymen who have got you wrong!!

Situation Of Muslims In India

Population of Muslims in India is around 138 Million which is next highest to Indonesia and Pakistan. We had three Muslim Presidents and we have excellent Muslim actors in Bollywood and also in Cricket.

A recent study showed that Muslims percentage in Government is just 5% and Largest Employer in the country, Indian Railways has just 4.5% of Muslims. Indian Civil Service has just 3% while Indian Foreign Service has a paltry 1.8% and only 4% in the Indian Police Service. They also account for 7.8% of the Judiciary.

They are sometimes called as "Anti-National" as they keep religion before the country and sometimes accused as "Appeased" as most political parties try to get the crucial votes of Muslims during elections.

One of the main reasons for their backwardness is that Muslims dont have a credible representation. Muslims who are elected to the state assemblies and the parliament have rarely paid back anything to the community that elected them. And those Muslims who are famous in political parties seldom have people support. They get elected to the Parliament through the back door - Rajya Sabha.

Parties like the Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM), People's Democratic Party (one of the political parties in Kerala) have just played the Muslim Card for the votes and done nothing to the community.

Muslim community needs able administrators like Zakir Hussain, good politicians like Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (also known as Frontier Gandhi as he hails from North West Frontier Province) and great scientists like Abdul Kalam who can drive the entire community in right direction.

Unless we dont have good representatives from the community, the future looks bleak. This is not good for the country as a whole! The faster the country awakes to this reality, the better it is.