Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally

A coffin bearing Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, just seconds before she was assassinated leaving an election rally near the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday.

 

Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto was fired upon by a gunman at close range, quickly followed by a blast that the government said was caused by a suicide attacker.

 

Ms. Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan, was declared dead by doctors at a hospital close to the park where the rally had been taking place. At least a dozen more people were killed in the attack.

 

Amid the confusion after the explosion, the site was littered with pools of blood. Shoes and caps of party workers were lying on the asphalt, and shards of glass were strewn about the ground. Pakistani television cameras captured images of ambulances pushing through crowds of dazed and injured people at the scene of the assassination.

The assassination comes just days after Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, lifted a state of emergency in the country, which he had used to suspend the Constitution and arrest thousands of political opponents, and which he said he had imposed in part because of terrorist threats by extremists in Pakistan.

Ms. Bhutto had been warned by the government before her return to Pakistan that she faced threats to her security. In October, Ms. Bhutto survived another deadly suicide attack in the southern city of Karachi on the day she returned from years of self-imposed exile abroad to contest the parliamentary elections.

 

 

 

Darjeeling Times Launched

An English monthly news-magazine launched in Darjeeling.

Why Godse Killed Gandhi?

Nathuram Ghodse is often a misunderstood character. He is referred to as a Hindu fanatic. It is often hard to understand Godse because the Government of India had suppressed information about him. His court statements, letters etc. were all banned from the public until recently. Judging from his writings one thing becomes very clear – He was no fanatic. His court statements are very well read out and indicate a calm and collected mental disposition. He never even once speaks ill about Gandhi as a person, but only attacks Gandhi’s policies which caused ruin and untold misery to Hindus. Another interesting point to note is that Godse had been working with the Hindu refugees fleeing from Pakistan. He had seen the horrible atrocities committed on them. Many women had their hands cut off, nose cut off, even little girls had been raped mercilessly. Despite this Godse did not harm even single Muslim in India which he could easily have. So it would be a grave mistake to call him a Hindu fanatic.

 

Eyewitness: Mahatma Gandhi Assassination

My Experiments in Animation – Water drops

Big Mouth Studios – Animation in Darjeeling Hills

Animator/Narrator/Concept: Barun Roy

China: Arunachal Pradesh is ours!!!

Diplomatic squabble is taking prominent stage. China keeps claiming Arunachal Pradesh is part of China. India flat out said its all bogus. Arunachal was, and will be part of India forever. This time Indian Army is do yielding even an inch.

China is hoping to counter American influences in Asia with strong strategic and trade relationship with India. China wants a free trade agreement (FTA). India is not quite sure because of restrictive labor laws and expansion of the counterfeit industry in China.

Heated exchange of words between India�s foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chinese Ambassador in India was note worthy. India does not need China as much China needs India. India is irritated with Chinese overt and covert help to Pakistan.

According to media reports, amid India’s strong rejection of Chinese claim of sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh, Beijing sought to downplay the issue and said it was the �strategic goal� of the two countries to find an early, fair and rational solution to the vexed boundary issue.

“I have not seen such a report. I will make a double check,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu said.

Jiang refuse to comment further when asked about New Delhi’s rejection of Beijing’s claim that Arunachal Pradesh was Chinese territory.

Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi on Monday claimed that the east Indian state was Chinese territory.

Speech by Nathuram Ghodse

The judge who convicted Nathuram was on record saying that had the public been the jury, Nathuram Godse would have been surely aquitted. In the pic (L to R) :Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare

Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other.

I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Nairoji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and’ Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.

Why this attitude?

I just started college last week in New York. We all know Asians are bloody smart so there’s a sizeable Indian, Pakistani and Korean population here at university. (I’m not going to talk about Koreans, only desis).

The university I attend, New York University, is a liberal arts college. Basically, whatever you major in, has to be paired with courses like Advanced Essay Writing or Poetry Critical Analysis. The following is only about the Indians who’ve come from India, not one’s who have been living here: