The politics of terrorism
Mohammad Jamil
Despite the elimination of TTP top level leadership and shooting down of hundreds of other militants in Swat and Waziristan operations, there seems to be no let up in terrorism in Pakistan. Every day brings a new tragedy of bloodbath with the loss of hundreds of causalities and destruction of public and private properties. Regrettably, the war against terrorism waged by the US soon after 9/11 has proved more destructive for the survival of Muslim states than to the terrorists themselves. Furthermore, the war that started in Afghanistan has not only spilled over to Pakistan but major cities of the world’s important geo-strategic state. Unfortunately, Pakistan presents the same picture of chaos and gory, which has become the destiny of Iraq and Afghanistan after US intervention.
If religion is the sole factor in the bloody episode of suicide bombings, why do these so-called ‘jihadis’ use Indian and US made weapons and explosives to make their way to jannah (heaven)? The fact of the matter is that terrorism is just not as simple to understand as it seems to be; rather it has become a complicated phenomenon in today’s world politics. It would not be wrong to assume that terrorism is just not the hobby of religious fundamentalists as it is being opined by some western intellectuals; but more plausibly it is an effective gimmick to be used by world players to secure and advance their own interests. It is true that there are Muslim militant organizations which are found guilty in most of the incidents of terrorism worldwide, but we cannot rule out the possibility that they are just the puppets used by hegemonists and imperialists and are not the real players. Alas! There has been no dearth of traitors in Muslim community who always bargained away the interests of their fellow beings for a few pennies. Today, the puppet government of Hamid Karazai in Afghanistan is the best example of such a scenario. The situation in Pakistan and some Arab countries is also not different where the leaders are just at beck and call of the US govt. instead of being united for the benefits of their fellow Muslims.
With this background in mind if we analyze the phenomenon of terrorism in Pakistan, it seems to be multi dimensional. At lowest front it might be an undertaking of some religious fanatics who are brainwashed to die with the wrong assumption of securing an eternal life in paradise. In such a case, misinterpreted religious ideology is probably inculcated in the minds of illiterate and deprived youth to prepare a specific mindset which is blind to perceive the consequences of their barbaric acts. However there is no denying the fact that the masterminds of terrorism are neither religiously motivated nor have they any ideological objective to achieve, but they are being manipulated by some foreign elements.
Thus, it can be said with certainty that at the highest level, the terrorists’ network in Pakistan is being run with the support of foreign intelligence agencies. The involvement of RAW, an Indian spy agency, in fuelling terrorism in Pakistan is not just mere allegation, but sufficient proofs have been handed over to the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh by Pakistan prime minister Yusuf Raza Gillani at their meeting at Sharm el Sheikh. One could hardly ignore the statement of Afghan Government’s Advisor, Ehsanullah Aryanzai which he made at Pak-Afgan Parliamentary Jirga on April 2, 2009. He stated clearly, “India is using Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan.”
Unfortunately, we just see the barbarity of the perpetrators and ignore the hidden hands. A suicide bomber ultimately perishes with his evil and horrible act of explosion but the real culprits remain alive to hook other persons to execute another series of bloodbath. Probably for that very reason terrorism in Pakistan seems to have no end despite the killings of thousands of terrorists. History is evident that India has been indulging in destructive activities against Pakistan since its very inception. The RAW had not only played a crucial role in the dismemberment of Pakistan but the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan is also largely sponsored by India’s notorious intelligence agency. However, we should not be oblivious to the fact that India is not alone in its policy to dismantle Pakistan but it is fully patronized by the US. Evidently, the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971 was not entirely a RAW’s venture, but it was fully sanctioned in Washington before being executed.
Today, the situation is no more different. Indo-US ties after 9/11 and India’s consulates and intelligence network in Afghanistan with the full support of the US is a cause of great concern for Pakistan since these consulates are being used for providing full support and training to militants for executing their destructive activities in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the government of Pakistan has totally failed to move forward its case effectively simply because there are no ‘positive signals’ from Washington. However the time has come when we should address the root causes of terrorism and expose the hidden hands involved in the destruction of Pakistan. This means that Pakistan has to eliminate extremism in every form and manifestation and ensure socio-economic justice in the society with a view to alleviating poverty so that poor people do not become fodder for the religious shysters who misinterpret Islam and its teachings.
Last but not the least, our foreign office should perform its duties efficiently, as it has been found wanting on many counts. Whenever there is a terrorist act in India and Pakistan is accused of it, our foreign office is on the defensive and starts giving explanations. On the other hand, when Pakistan has the concrete proof of India’s involvement behind an act or acts of terrorism, it neither takes up the matter with India nor it tells the international community about Indian machinations. Even Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the other day that Pakistan has sufficient proof of Indian’s involvement in Balochistan and FATA but Pakistan will disclose it at appropriate time. One does not understand what does he mean by ‘appropriate time’? Sixty-two years have passed and we are waiting for an ‘appropriate time’ to expose the hidden hands. It is really ridiculous.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Bangladesh, a wasteland of tomorrow, A victim of Indian Water Aggression
Bangladesh, a wasteland of tomorrow, A victim of Indian Water Aggression
Ali Sukhanver
Located on the banks of the winding pair of rivers Surma and Jaintia and surrounded by Khasi and Tripura hills, Sylhet, the beautiful paradise of Bangladesh, is very soon going to turn into a vast barren wasteland. this city is situated in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh. The Sylhet region is well known for its tea gardens and tropical forests. The valley has good number of big natural depressions, called ‘haors’. During winter these haors are vast stretches of green land, but in the rainy season they turn into turbulent seas. These haors provide a sanctuary to the millions of migratory birds who fly from Siberia across the Himalayas to avoid the severe cold there. India has started the construction of the Tapaimukh on the Barrak River in Manipur State just 100 km off the Bangladesh border.
It is likely to affect two major rivers of Bangladesh; Surma and Kushiarra which are life line for the Sylhet region. The Dam will be 390 meters long and 162.8 meters high. It will be at an altitude of about 180 meter above mean sea level with a maximum reservoir level of 178 meters. The construction of this dam has stirred a lot of fear in Bangladesh because the whole economic prosperity of Bangladesh depends upon the river system. Since 1975 the sharing of river waters has been a bone of contention between India and Bangladesh. The construction of Farraka and Teesta barrage from India has already added salt to injury on the part of Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has protested the construction of these two dams by calling it a violation of bilateral water sharing agreements between the two countries but the Indian government paid no heed to this hue and cry and started construction of the Tapaimukh dam. In the beginning the project was kept secret. The people of Bangladesh came to know of this dam when in April 2009 the Indian Foreign Secretary visited Bangladesh and requested the government to send a delegation to visit the Dam site. Since then various political parties, environment groups, and people from Dhaka and Sylhet and other cities are in a state of protest against this construction.
The Dam was originally designed to contain flood waters in the lower Barrak valley, but hydro power generation was later incorporated. The project will have an installation capacity of 1500 MW and a firm generation of 412 MW. The Dam will permanently submerge an area of 275.50 square kilometers. Reportedly a pick up barrage is also being planned, 95 Km down stream of Dam site. Bangladeshi experts are of the opinion that the construction of Dam will disrupt the seasonal flow of river and will have an adverse effect on downstream agriculture and fisheries. Some experts fear the desertification of Sylhet region due to decrease of water flow in Meghna basin comprising River Surma, Kushiarra and Meghna. Majority of Bangladeshis are in anticipated fear of the probable damage that may be created after construction of Dam.
Not only in Bangladesh but also in India the construction of this dam is facing a very strong opposition. More than twenty influential social and political organizations in Manipur state have united under the banner of “Action Committee against Tapaimukh Project”. These organizations have termed it as, “Water Bomb” due to its adverse effects on environment in Barrak Valley. It means that this dam is going to cause a lot of damage not only to the economy of Bangladesh but also to the people of the Manipur State. The politicians from Manipur are of the opinion that as a result of the construction of this dam about 286.20 Sq Km area will be submerged for ever. More than 40 thousands people will be rendered homeless. Eight villages situated in Barrak valley will be completely under water. More than 90 villages will be adversely affected. About 27,242 hectors of cultivable land will be lost. The construction of the Tapaimukh Dam is being opposed by the People of Southern Assam also. Various social organizations in Southern Assam are opposing the construction of Dam due to devastating environmental impact on down stream Barrak basin. The Silchar based Society of Activist and Volunteer for Environments (SAVE) is leading the resistance movement against the construction of this dam in the Southern Assam. People, civil society, NGOs and environmentalists of Bangladesh, Manipur and the Southern Assam have joined hand together against the construction of this dam. They are strongly criticizing the proposed constructions through seminars, rallies and demonstrations. The experts fear that construction of the Dam will affect the livelihood of about 50 million people spanning sixteen districts in Sylhet region and many more in Manipur and the Southern Assam.
Faced with public protests, the government of India has adopted a “wait and see” policy with several ministers citing Indian claims that dam would not be harmful to anyone. To pacify the people of Bangladesh a parliamentary delegation was invited to India in August 2009, to visit the dam site but the tour to the dam site was ironically cancelled due to bad weather. Building dams and reservoirs on rivers flowing towards Bangladesh would have serious environmental and survival implications for Bangladesh. This increasing gravity of water issue can bring the two South Asian countries to the brink of war. By violating the water treaties India is designing to choke Bangladesh economically. It is the high time to put a check on heinous Indian desires of depriving its neighbours of the basic human rights. It would be in the interest of both India and Bangladesh to resolve the water issue amicably otherwise India will be responsible for any negative consequences.
Ali Sukhanver
Located on the banks of the winding pair of rivers Surma and Jaintia and surrounded by Khasi and Tripura hills, Sylhet, the beautiful paradise of Bangladesh, is very soon going to turn into a vast barren wasteland. this city is situated in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh. The Sylhet region is well known for its tea gardens and tropical forests. The valley has good number of big natural depressions, called ‘haors’. During winter these haors are vast stretches of green land, but in the rainy season they turn into turbulent seas. These haors provide a sanctuary to the millions of migratory birds who fly from Siberia across the Himalayas to avoid the severe cold there. India has started the construction of the Tapaimukh on the Barrak River in Manipur State just 100 km off the Bangladesh border.
It is likely to affect two major rivers of Bangladesh; Surma and Kushiarra which are life line for the Sylhet region. The Dam will be 390 meters long and 162.8 meters high. It will be at an altitude of about 180 meter above mean sea level with a maximum reservoir level of 178 meters. The construction of this dam has stirred a lot of fear in Bangladesh because the whole economic prosperity of Bangladesh depends upon the river system. Since 1975 the sharing of river waters has been a bone of contention between India and Bangladesh. The construction of Farraka and Teesta barrage from India has already added salt to injury on the part of Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has protested the construction of these two dams by calling it a violation of bilateral water sharing agreements between the two countries but the Indian government paid no heed to this hue and cry and started construction of the Tapaimukh dam. In the beginning the project was kept secret. The people of Bangladesh came to know of this dam when in April 2009 the Indian Foreign Secretary visited Bangladesh and requested the government to send a delegation to visit the Dam site. Since then various political parties, environment groups, and people from Dhaka and Sylhet and other cities are in a state of protest against this construction.
The Dam was originally designed to contain flood waters in the lower Barrak valley, but hydro power generation was later incorporated. The project will have an installation capacity of 1500 MW and a firm generation of 412 MW. The Dam will permanently submerge an area of 275.50 square kilometers. Reportedly a pick up barrage is also being planned, 95 Km down stream of Dam site. Bangladeshi experts are of the opinion that the construction of Dam will disrupt the seasonal flow of river and will have an adverse effect on downstream agriculture and fisheries. Some experts fear the desertification of Sylhet region due to decrease of water flow in Meghna basin comprising River Surma, Kushiarra and Meghna. Majority of Bangladeshis are in anticipated fear of the probable damage that may be created after construction of Dam.
Not only in Bangladesh but also in India the construction of this dam is facing a very strong opposition. More than twenty influential social and political organizations in Manipur state have united under the banner of “Action Committee against Tapaimukh Project”. These organizations have termed it as, “Water Bomb” due to its adverse effects on environment in Barrak Valley. It means that this dam is going to cause a lot of damage not only to the economy of Bangladesh but also to the people of the Manipur State. The politicians from Manipur are of the opinion that as a result of the construction of this dam about 286.20 Sq Km area will be submerged for ever. More than 40 thousands people will be rendered homeless. Eight villages situated in Barrak valley will be completely under water. More than 90 villages will be adversely affected. About 27,242 hectors of cultivable land will be lost. The construction of the Tapaimukh Dam is being opposed by the People of Southern Assam also. Various social organizations in Southern Assam are opposing the construction of Dam due to devastating environmental impact on down stream Barrak basin. The Silchar based Society of Activist and Volunteer for Environments (SAVE) is leading the resistance movement against the construction of this dam in the Southern Assam. People, civil society, NGOs and environmentalists of Bangladesh, Manipur and the Southern Assam have joined hand together against the construction of this dam. They are strongly criticizing the proposed constructions through seminars, rallies and demonstrations. The experts fear that construction of the Dam will affect the livelihood of about 50 million people spanning sixteen districts in Sylhet region and many more in Manipur and the Southern Assam.
Faced with public protests, the government of India has adopted a “wait and see” policy with several ministers citing Indian claims that dam would not be harmful to anyone. To pacify the people of Bangladesh a parliamentary delegation was invited to India in August 2009, to visit the dam site but the tour to the dam site was ironically cancelled due to bad weather. Building dams and reservoirs on rivers flowing towards Bangladesh would have serious environmental and survival implications for Bangladesh. This increasing gravity of water issue can bring the two South Asian countries to the brink of war. By violating the water treaties India is designing to choke Bangladesh economically. It is the high time to put a check on heinous Indian desires of depriving its neighbours of the basic human rights. It would be in the interest of both India and Bangladesh to resolve the water issue amicably otherwise India will be responsible for any negative consequences.
Mystery of India's IPL drama stands solved
Mystery of India’s IPL drama stands solved
Shiv Sena comes up with open threats to Shah Rukh Khan over moral support to Pak cricketers
Hindu extremists tear-off the posters of SRK’s upcoming movie for his pro-Pak players comments
The Daily Mail’s investigative report over RAW, Shiv Sena hand behind IPL auction drama stands 100% confirmed
The Daily Mail reported of Shiv Sena threats to bidders including filmstars, showbiz tycoons for refraining from hiring Pak players
From Kapil Verma
Mumbai—The RAW sponsored Hindu extremist and militant organization Shiv Sena on Friday came up with open threats to film and business celebrities and started by attacked India’s ltop movie star and one of the bidders at the Indian Premier League (IPL),Shah Rukh Khan for lamenting exclusion of Pakistani players from IPL and dared him to take the players in his team Kolkata Knight Riders.
“If Shah Rukh wants Pakistani players to play here, he should go to Karachi and Islamabad to play with them...If he includes Pakistani players in his team, he should be aware of the consequences,” Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut told reporters here on Friday.
Reacting to the non-selection of Pakistani players in the IPL auction, Bollywood star and co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders Shah Rukh Khan had recently said that they (Pakistani players) should have been welcomed.
“I truly believe they (Pakistan players) should have been chosen,” Khan had said.
“We would have loved to have Pakistani players if they were made available legally,” he had said.
Meanwhile, reacting extremely over the actor’s comment that he made as a goodwill gesture to promote Pak-India peace, Shiv Sena activists tore posters of SRK’s upcoming movie ‘My Name Is Khan’ at Eternity Mall premises in neighbouring Thane.The activists handed over a letter to the owner of the mall asking to stop release of the movie. Shiv Sena formally announced that the actor’s upcoming film My name is Khan will not be allowed to be screened in movie theaters.
Earlier, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Thursday said that Shah Rukh’s response in the row had a lot to do with his religion.
“This is not Shah Rukh, but the Khan in him that’s saying all this. Let Shah Rukh go and stay in Lahore, Karachi or Islamabad. He is not needed in Mumbai. (Shiv Sena chief) Balasaheb has made it clear that Pakistani players wouldn’t be allowed to play in the IPL or set foot in Maharashtra,” Raut said.
Shiv Sena had earlier also openly threatened another bidder of the IPL, the Chairman of India’s Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani when the octogenarian Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackery minced no words telling Ambani to refrain from even thinking of hiring Pakistani Cricketers.
The Daily Mail, in its detailed investigative report over the snubbing of Pakistani cricket stars by the bidders at the IPL auction had proved that it was Shiv Sena and RAW’s underworld goons who threatened the bidders and the IPL Chief to refrain from inducting Pakistani players in the 3rd session of the IPL
The Daily mail reported that the peace dove with the name of Aman Ki Asha ( Hope of Peace), flown by a local media group The Times of India, jointly with a Pakistani Media group a couple of weeks back, was slaughtered brutally by the Indian Business tycoons, Showbiz and cricket celebrities when none of the 11 Pakistani cricketers’ name was even given a look at the IPL3 cricket auction giving a big blow to peace overtures through sports and left millions of Indian and international cricket fans in a big shock as even world’s most sizzling all-rounder of the world in the T-20 form of cricket Shahid Afridi found no bidders.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicated that the Pakistani cricketers were axed in a rather humiliated manner from the IPL through a premeditated campaign, organized jointly by RAW underworld Mafia wing and Mumbai-based extremist Hindu outfit Shiv Sena while the IPL Chief Lalit Kuma Modi was the key actor of the whole drama and played a major role in not only motivating the bidders to refrain from hiring Pakistani Cricketers but also created a variety of documentary problems and doubts about the participation of Pakistani players in the 3rd IPL. The Daily Mail’s findings did reveal that the move to oust Pakistani Cricketers from Indian Premier League’s 3rd session started soon after the 2nd session of IPL ended last year. However, the drive gained momentum by the end of last year when RAW directed its Underworld Mafi Gang, known as Chhot Rajan Gang to start its operation to keep Pakistani cricketers out of the IPL. These findings reveal that in the meantime, RAW also activated its other baby outfit Shiv Sena to launch a parallel ‘crusade against participation of Pakistani cricketers by persuading the IPL organizers and the bidders.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicated that in this direction, Chhota Rajan gang’s local chief Paulson Joseph started contacting Lalit Modi and asked him to initiate a drive to block the entry of Pakistani cricketers into IPL. These investigations also indicate the gang’s Cape Town-based South Africa Chief Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu also paid at least six visits to India and haled meetings with Lalit Modi in Mumbai to persuade him to create some technical reasons to block Pak Cricketers’ participation in the 3rd IPL. The Daily Mail’s investigation also disclosed that Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu is not handling drugs related affairs in South Africa but is also the head of the betting and Match Fixing racket of the Gang and generated billions of rupees for the gang during the last IPL edition that was held in South Africa.
The Daily Mail’s investigations had revealed that Lalit Modi finally informed Pappu and Joseph that he could arrange certain documents related problems to keep Pak cricketers away. These findings indicate that following this, Lalit Modi on December 10, 2009 announced that the Pakistani cricketers had missed the deadline for the third IPL and the only way they can be part of the Twenty20 tournament is through the January 19 auction. Modi said the Pakistani cricketers missed the bus by failing to get visas by the December 7 deadline and the IPL franchises have already replaced them with fresh recruits. It was followed by certain visa problems by the Indian authorities for Pak players. But it appears that it was not enough as both the Rajan Gang as well the Shiv Sena militants wanted to seal-off all the possibilities of participation of Pak players.
The Daily Mail’s findings had further revealed that when Modi expressed his inability to do anything more in this direction, he was threatened severely on phone by the Shiv Sena Bal Thackeray, who after losing the general elections for the third successive term, was desperate to play anti-Pakistan card to regain some popularity and thus had already announced after the tragic Mumbai terror attack that his party wont allow any Pakistani Cricketer to play in India. These Findings reveal that when Modi ignored the Shiv Sena chief’s threats, the Shiv Sena activist organized to burn Modi’s house to give him a final warning to meet their demands.
The Daily Mail’s investigations did indicate that on 19th December 2009, Shiv Sena operatives set Modi’s home, Anand Bungalow in the upscale Gandhigram Road area of Juhu, close to the ISKCON Temple, in north-west Mumbai ablaze and warned him to come up with some imitate steps to bar Pak cricketers, though it is still “officially” reported that Modi’s house caught fire due to certain electric short circuiting. But Mumbai’s underworld knows very well as to who was behind this mysterious blaze.
The Daily Mail’s investigations had indicated that the development scared Modi to the maximum and he embarked upon another journey to solve the problem he was facing. This journey it is revealed, started from Mumbai and ended up at Cape town South Africa where Modi held a detailed meeting with Rajan gang’s Pappu and forwarded him a proposal, following which, the Rajan Gang was to use its terrorizing influence to help Modi in convincing the bidders of the IPL auction to refrain from bidding for Pak players during the auction. Pappu agreed to the same while on his return, to Mumbai, Modi was able to convince Shiv Sena Chief for the same.
The Daily Mail’s findings had indicated that after this development, Modi started the mission of discouraging the IPL bidders, including business tycoons like Ambani and showbiz celebrities like Shlipa Shetty, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta etc. Modi tried to convince the bidders that there were very little possibilities of Pak cricketers being able to make to the IPL due to certain documents related issues and security reasons. These findings indicate that in the beginning, the bidders, particularly Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta were not convinced by Modi’s philosophy but when Shiv Sena and Rajan Gang chipped in, the trick worked and it resulted in humiliated ouster of all the aspiring Pakistani cricketers from the IPL-3
The Daily Mail’s findings did indicate that despite following the orders of the bosses at Lodhi Road New Delhi, the Rajan Gang didn’t miss the opportunity of making millions of dollars by winning bets over no Pak player playing in IPL-3. According to sources in betting networks, Pappu-led betting mafia of Rajan Gang won around three billion US dollars by betting on ouster of Pak players from IPL-3.
The Daily Mail’s findings did reveal that Modi himself has been a facilitator of Chhota Rajan gang’s match fixing and drug mafia wings. These findings indicate that Modi was promoted to the current position by the Rajan gang and it was on the behest of Rajan Gang that the venue for the 2nd IPL session was shifted to South Africa from India by Lalit Modi, hiding behind the notions of security threats in India after the 26/11 incident. It is believed that the Rajan gang not only minted billions of dollars through match fixing and betting during IPL tourney last year in South Africa but huge drug deals were also finalized on the sidelines of the tournament, with the notice of Lalit Modi.
The Daily Mail’s findings did indicate that owing to Rajan Gang’s strong hold over Modi. IPL never opted to introduce anti-match fixing practices in the IPL and infect it refused an offer by the ICC in this direction. These findings indicated that to facilitate the Pappu and company, the IPL rejected an offer to use ICC’s anti-corruption and security experts in South Africa for the tournament, preferring to use its own staff.
The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit is used for international tournaments, but the body does not make it mandatory for domestic competitions. However since it attracts highly paid leading players from all over the world, The IPL and the BCCI are bound to apply the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and ant-match fixing system.
The Daily Mail’s findings did further indicate that as the IPL landed in the hands of the underworld mafia in South Africa, the match fixing and corruption started emerging rapidly. Former Pakistan Captain Javed Miandad feels there is a serious possibility of matches being fixed in the cash-rich Twenty20 events of IPL. Miandad said the league in South Africa was witnessed to some surprising results where teams surprisingly lost from clearly winning positions. “There is a definite smell of match-fixing coming from the IPL where strange things are happening,” said Mindad.
“I don’t consider the IPL as cricket, it is a joke. It is strange that players who are not regular bowlers have taken hat-tricks in the league. Teams are losing matches from winning positions,” he said.
Miandad feels the International Cricket Council (ICC) needs to step in and check possible corruption in the event. “If at all such Twenty20 cricket leagues must be held they should be held under the direct supervision of the ICC or else there will always be fear of corruption taking place in matches,” he said.
Miandad said it was strange that the ICC’s anti-corruption unit was not present in the IPL despite the big money at stake and the number of foreign players involved in the competition.
The Daily Mail’s findings did indicate that Lalit Modi has a history of being involved in drug trafficking and fraudulent activities. The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that In 2005, Modi figured in a power struggle that resulted in Sharad Pawar, an influential politician and national cabinet minister, ousting former Indian cricket supremo and ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya in BCCI elections .But, Modi’s bid for membership of India’s main cricket body hit a snag. The outgoing board appointed a committee to investigate drug charges against Modi when he was a student at a US university in 1985.
The Daily mail’s findings reveal that Lalit Modi was charged and pleaded guilty to drug possession, assault and kidnapping case in 1985 while he was a student in Duke University, USA. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison and came back to India after being released on probation.
In 2007 a PIL was filed in Mumbai High court challenging his position in BCCI on pretext of his criminal history. Though the court refused to unseat Modi, it asked the BCCI “to implement stringent regulatory measures so that those involved in criminal cases, not just illegal drugs but other serious charges have no place in administration”. But unsurprisingly BCCI paid no heed to the court’s advice.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveardl that Lalit Modi was once at Lord’s to launch the charitable British Asian Cup but he was embarrassed to a Luke warm response as the Indian Premier League commissioner’s previous commitments to good causes were the subject of a court case in India.
These findings indicate that in an on-the-field ceremony Modi handed over a cheque for £780,000 to the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. But not all the money cleared in its bank account and Nagrik Morcha, a nongovernmental organisation, brought accusations to the Rajasthan high court in March 2008 that Modi was guilty of “cheating and forgery”. Modi was granted “anticipatory bail”, ensuring he would not be held in custody for what is otherwise a non-bailable offence.
Modi’s lawyers told the court that the cheque was merely “symbolic” of the IPL’s intention to contribute to the fund, and that all but £26,000 had reached its destination. The rest, they added, “could have been paid in total but due to financial crises two of the sponsors, namely Citibank and Kingfisher, withheld the amount due to be paid.”
The Daily Mail’s findings did further indicate that in February 2009, Modi got a three-week interim protection against arrest from the Bombay High Court in a criminal case against him in Rajasthan.
The High Court allowed Modi to approach appropriate court in Rajasthan for seeking further relief within three weeks, directing that he not be arrested in this period. Modi feared arrest by Rajasthan police after an FIR was lodged against him for cheating, impersonation, and fabrication of documents at Nagaur, Rajasthan on January 27, 2009.
Modi, had purchased land in Nagaur in September 2004, but it was alleged that he was not present in the office of deputy registrar when sale deed in his favour was registered.
The IPL chief therefore filed an anticipatory bail application at Bombay High Court, alleging that FIR was lodged only to “pressurize him” and stop him from contesting forthcoming elections of Rajasthan Cricket Association, of which he is the incumbent president.
Shiv Sena comes up with open threats to Shah Rukh Khan over moral support to Pak cricketers
Hindu extremists tear-off the posters of SRK’s upcoming movie for his pro-Pak players comments
The Daily Mail’s investigative report over RAW, Shiv Sena hand behind IPL auction drama stands 100% confirmed
The Daily Mail reported of Shiv Sena threats to bidders including filmstars, showbiz tycoons for refraining from hiring Pak players
From Kapil Verma
Mumbai—The RAW sponsored Hindu extremist and militant organization Shiv Sena on Friday came up with open threats to film and business celebrities and started by attacked India’s ltop movie star and one of the bidders at the Indian Premier League (IPL),Shah Rukh Khan for lamenting exclusion of Pakistani players from IPL and dared him to take the players in his team Kolkata Knight Riders.
“If Shah Rukh wants Pakistani players to play here, he should go to Karachi and Islamabad to play with them...If he includes Pakistani players in his team, he should be aware of the consequences,” Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut told reporters here on Friday.
Reacting to the non-selection of Pakistani players in the IPL auction, Bollywood star and co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders Shah Rukh Khan had recently said that they (Pakistani players) should have been welcomed.
“I truly believe they (Pakistan players) should have been chosen,” Khan had said.
“We would have loved to have Pakistani players if they were made available legally,” he had said.
Meanwhile, reacting extremely over the actor’s comment that he made as a goodwill gesture to promote Pak-India peace, Shiv Sena activists tore posters of SRK’s upcoming movie ‘My Name Is Khan’ at Eternity Mall premises in neighbouring Thane.The activists handed over a letter to the owner of the mall asking to stop release of the movie. Shiv Sena formally announced that the actor’s upcoming film My name is Khan will not be allowed to be screened in movie theaters.
Earlier, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Thursday said that Shah Rukh’s response in the row had a lot to do with his religion.
“This is not Shah Rukh, but the Khan in him that’s saying all this. Let Shah Rukh go and stay in Lahore, Karachi or Islamabad. He is not needed in Mumbai. (Shiv Sena chief) Balasaheb has made it clear that Pakistani players wouldn’t be allowed to play in the IPL or set foot in Maharashtra,” Raut said.
Shiv Sena had earlier also openly threatened another bidder of the IPL, the Chairman of India’s Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani when the octogenarian Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackery minced no words telling Ambani to refrain from even thinking of hiring Pakistani Cricketers.
The Daily Mail, in its detailed investigative report over the snubbing of Pakistani cricket stars by the bidders at the IPL auction had proved that it was Shiv Sena and RAW’s underworld goons who threatened the bidders and the IPL Chief to refrain from inducting Pakistani players in the 3rd session of the IPL
The Daily mail reported that the peace dove with the name of Aman Ki Asha ( Hope of Peace), flown by a local media group The Times of India, jointly with a Pakistani Media group a couple of weeks back, was slaughtered brutally by the Indian Business tycoons, Showbiz and cricket celebrities when none of the 11 Pakistani cricketers’ name was even given a look at the IPL3 cricket auction giving a big blow to peace overtures through sports and left millions of Indian and international cricket fans in a big shock as even world’s most sizzling all-rounder of the world in the T-20 form of cricket Shahid Afridi found no bidders.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicated that the Pakistani cricketers were axed in a rather humiliated manner from the IPL through a premeditated campaign, organized jointly by RAW underworld Mafia wing and Mumbai-based extremist Hindu outfit Shiv Sena while the IPL Chief Lalit Kuma Modi was the key actor of the whole drama and played a major role in not only motivating the bidders to refrain from hiring Pakistani Cricketers but also created a variety of documentary problems and doubts about the participation of Pakistani players in the 3rd IPL. The Daily Mail’s findings did reveal that the move to oust Pakistani Cricketers from Indian Premier League’s 3rd session started soon after the 2nd session of IPL ended last year. However, the drive gained momentum by the end of last year when RAW directed its Underworld Mafi Gang, known as Chhot Rajan Gang to start its operation to keep Pakistani cricketers out of the IPL. These findings reveal that in the meantime, RAW also activated its other baby outfit Shiv Sena to launch a parallel ‘crusade against participation of Pakistani cricketers by persuading the IPL organizers and the bidders.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicated that in this direction, Chhota Rajan gang’s local chief Paulson Joseph started contacting Lalit Modi and asked him to initiate a drive to block the entry of Pakistani cricketers into IPL. These investigations also indicate the gang’s Cape Town-based South Africa Chief Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu also paid at least six visits to India and haled meetings with Lalit Modi in Mumbai to persuade him to create some technical reasons to block Pak Cricketers’ participation in the 3rd IPL. The Daily Mail’s investigation also disclosed that Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu is not handling drugs related affairs in South Africa but is also the head of the betting and Match Fixing racket of the Gang and generated billions of rupees for the gang during the last IPL edition that was held in South Africa.
The Daily Mail’s investigations had revealed that Lalit Modi finally informed Pappu and Joseph that he could arrange certain documents related problems to keep Pak cricketers away. These findings indicate that following this, Lalit Modi on December 10, 2009 announced that the Pakistani cricketers had missed the deadline for the third IPL and the only way they can be part of the Twenty20 tournament is through the January 19 auction. Modi said the Pakistani cricketers missed the bus by failing to get visas by the December 7 deadline and the IPL franchises have already replaced them with fresh recruits. It was followed by certain visa problems by the Indian authorities for Pak players. But it appears that it was not enough as both the Rajan Gang as well the Shiv Sena militants wanted to seal-off all the possibilities of participation of Pak players.
The Daily Mail’s findings had further revealed that when Modi expressed his inability to do anything more in this direction, he was threatened severely on phone by the Shiv Sena Bal Thackeray, who after losing the general elections for the third successive term, was desperate to play anti-Pakistan card to regain some popularity and thus had already announced after the tragic Mumbai terror attack that his party wont allow any Pakistani Cricketer to play in India. These Findings reveal that when Modi ignored the Shiv Sena chief’s threats, the Shiv Sena activist organized to burn Modi’s house to give him a final warning to meet their demands.
The Daily Mail’s investigations did indicate that on 19th December 2009, Shiv Sena operatives set Modi’s home, Anand Bungalow in the upscale Gandhigram Road area of Juhu, close to the ISKCON Temple, in north-west Mumbai ablaze and warned him to come up with some imitate steps to bar Pak cricketers, though it is still “officially” reported that Modi’s house caught fire due to certain electric short circuiting. But Mumbai’s underworld knows very well as to who was behind this mysterious blaze.
The Daily Mail’s investigations had indicated that the development scared Modi to the maximum and he embarked upon another journey to solve the problem he was facing. This journey it is revealed, started from Mumbai and ended up at Cape town South Africa where Modi held a detailed meeting with Rajan gang’s Pappu and forwarded him a proposal, following which, the Rajan Gang was to use its terrorizing influence to help Modi in convincing the bidders of the IPL auction to refrain from bidding for Pak players during the auction. Pappu agreed to the same while on his return, to Mumbai, Modi was able to convince Shiv Sena Chief for the same.
The Daily Mail’s findings had indicated that after this development, Modi started the mission of discouraging the IPL bidders, including business tycoons like Ambani and showbiz celebrities like Shlipa Shetty, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta etc. Modi tried to convince the bidders that there were very little possibilities of Pak cricketers being able to make to the IPL due to certain documents related issues and security reasons. These findings indicate that in the beginning, the bidders, particularly Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta were not convinced by Modi’s philosophy but when Shiv Sena and Rajan Gang chipped in, the trick worked and it resulted in humiliated ouster of all the aspiring Pakistani cricketers from the IPL-3
The Daily Mail’s findings did indicate that despite following the orders of the bosses at Lodhi Road New Delhi, the Rajan Gang didn’t miss the opportunity of making millions of dollars by winning bets over no Pak player playing in IPL-3. According to sources in betting networks, Pappu-led betting mafia of Rajan Gang won around three billion US dollars by betting on ouster of Pak players from IPL-3.
The Daily Mail’s findings did reveal that Modi himself has been a facilitator of Chhota Rajan gang’s match fixing and drug mafia wings. These findings indicate that Modi was promoted to the current position by the Rajan gang and it was on the behest of Rajan Gang that the venue for the 2nd IPL session was shifted to South Africa from India by Lalit Modi, hiding behind the notions of security threats in India after the 26/11 incident. It is believed that the Rajan gang not only minted billions of dollars through match fixing and betting during IPL tourney last year in South Africa but huge drug deals were also finalized on the sidelines of the tournament, with the notice of Lalit Modi.
The Daily Mail’s findings did indicate that owing to Rajan Gang’s strong hold over Modi. IPL never opted to introduce anti-match fixing practices in the IPL and infect it refused an offer by the ICC in this direction. These findings indicated that to facilitate the Pappu and company, the IPL rejected an offer to use ICC’s anti-corruption and security experts in South Africa for the tournament, preferring to use its own staff.
The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit is used for international tournaments, but the body does not make it mandatory for domestic competitions. However since it attracts highly paid leading players from all over the world, The IPL and the BCCI are bound to apply the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and ant-match fixing system.
The Daily Mail’s findings did further indicate that as the IPL landed in the hands of the underworld mafia in South Africa, the match fixing and corruption started emerging rapidly. Former Pakistan Captain Javed Miandad feels there is a serious possibility of matches being fixed in the cash-rich Twenty20 events of IPL. Miandad said the league in South Africa was witnessed to some surprising results where teams surprisingly lost from clearly winning positions. “There is a definite smell of match-fixing coming from the IPL where strange things are happening,” said Mindad.
“I don’t consider the IPL as cricket, it is a joke. It is strange that players who are not regular bowlers have taken hat-tricks in the league. Teams are losing matches from winning positions,” he said.
Miandad feels the International Cricket Council (ICC) needs to step in and check possible corruption in the event. “If at all such Twenty20 cricket leagues must be held they should be held under the direct supervision of the ICC or else there will always be fear of corruption taking place in matches,” he said.
Miandad said it was strange that the ICC’s anti-corruption unit was not present in the IPL despite the big money at stake and the number of foreign players involved in the competition.
The Daily Mail’s findings did indicate that Lalit Modi has a history of being involved in drug trafficking and fraudulent activities. The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that In 2005, Modi figured in a power struggle that resulted in Sharad Pawar, an influential politician and national cabinet minister, ousting former Indian cricket supremo and ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya in BCCI elections .But, Modi’s bid for membership of India’s main cricket body hit a snag. The outgoing board appointed a committee to investigate drug charges against Modi when he was a student at a US university in 1985.
The Daily mail’s findings reveal that Lalit Modi was charged and pleaded guilty to drug possession, assault and kidnapping case in 1985 while he was a student in Duke University, USA. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison and came back to India after being released on probation.
In 2007 a PIL was filed in Mumbai High court challenging his position in BCCI on pretext of his criminal history. Though the court refused to unseat Modi, it asked the BCCI “to implement stringent regulatory measures so that those involved in criminal cases, not just illegal drugs but other serious charges have no place in administration”. But unsurprisingly BCCI paid no heed to the court’s advice.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveardl that Lalit Modi was once at Lord’s to launch the charitable British Asian Cup but he was embarrassed to a Luke warm response as the Indian Premier League commissioner’s previous commitments to good causes were the subject of a court case in India.
These findings indicate that in an on-the-field ceremony Modi handed over a cheque for £780,000 to the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. But not all the money cleared in its bank account and Nagrik Morcha, a nongovernmental organisation, brought accusations to the Rajasthan high court in March 2008 that Modi was guilty of “cheating and forgery”. Modi was granted “anticipatory bail”, ensuring he would not be held in custody for what is otherwise a non-bailable offence.
Modi’s lawyers told the court that the cheque was merely “symbolic” of the IPL’s intention to contribute to the fund, and that all but £26,000 had reached its destination. The rest, they added, “could have been paid in total but due to financial crises two of the sponsors, namely Citibank and Kingfisher, withheld the amount due to be paid.”
The Daily Mail’s findings did further indicate that in February 2009, Modi got a three-week interim protection against arrest from the Bombay High Court in a criminal case against him in Rajasthan.
The High Court allowed Modi to approach appropriate court in Rajasthan for seeking further relief within three weeks, directing that he not be arrested in this period. Modi feared arrest by Rajasthan police after an FIR was lodged against him for cheating, impersonation, and fabrication of documents at Nagaur, Rajasthan on January 27, 2009.
Modi, had purchased land in Nagaur in September 2004, but it was alleged that he was not present in the office of deputy registrar when sale deed in his favour was registered.
The IPL chief therefore filed an anticipatory bail application at Bombay High Court, alleging that FIR was lodged only to “pressurize him” and stop him from contesting forthcoming elections of Rajasthan Cricket Association, of which he is the incumbent president.
India blamed China for RAW generated cyber terrorism
India blamed China for RAW generated cyber terrorism
• RAW’s Black Snakes asked Delhi to accuse China for hacking, cyber espionage in 2009 too
• Black Snakes’ operation was aimed at disrupting Pak-China ties, giving bad name to both
• India blamed Pakistan for generating cyber terrorism in 2002
• The given websites were found repeatedly hacked by RAW itself
• Pakistan government’s websites were hacked the same time it was blamed of hacking
• RAW’s top cyber assassins remain Black Snakes, Milworm, Rsnake groups, DoctorNuker and Mr. Sweet
• RAW found involved in Cyber Stalking & Cyber harassment too
• Also found involvement in money laundering, heinous crimes over cyberdome
• RAW’s official Manish Kathuria arrested by Delhi Police for Cyber stalking but then released without any further action
By Uzma Zafar
Just when it was being thought that the rift between Black Snakes and Green Force had rested, the former did what snakes are best at doing, biting, and so did the Black Snakes, the cyber terror wing of Indian Intelligence Agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW, following the methodology that when the prey least expects it and to put it more straight, what the RAW’s coward Black Snakes have always been best at doing, bite in the dark so that their face remains hidden, and chose a most unexpected time, and ever so ruthlessly that even their own blood is shed in the way to make it look like a genuine attack on them, blaming some carefully thought up foe, attaining the mission at all costs. Many a times, the blame had been thrown on ISI’s Green Force while all it does is self-protection in the cyberdome. One feels pity on the RAW who still think that they can befool the world and continue to play havoc, generating terrorism in Cyberdome as well. Thanks to the IT age we live in, now the world knows better and each time the Black Snakes lift their heads to bite and blame others, their identity is revealed by their very serpent nature, reveal the detailed investigations, carried out by The Daily Mail into the Indian blames that their official computer networks were hacked by China’s official hackers.
Everyone must have gone through India’s latest claim, blaming China for hacking it’s various websites and secret data. But what some might have forgotten and let me remind you of it, it was in fact early 2009 that the news got lose of China tapping into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of Pakistan. The same moment, Conficker Worm threat got out too, set to bite computers on April Fools’ Day. The latter proved to be a hoax though but the former, when investigated by The Daily Mail, was found to be a plunder created by Black Snakes in fact; a pack of crackers of India’s agency RAW. Though all evidence gained by the white hackers across the globe pointed towards China as the main source of the network, they failed to conclusively detect the exact identity or motivation of the crackers which was later on found to be that of the Snakes, disclose the findings of The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal further that a cyber espionage network involving over 1,295 compromised computers from the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan, as detected. Systems were found to be hacked of the embassies of Pakistan, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany. Everyone knows the cordial ties between Pakistan and China. Thus apparently, one couldn’t see any motive there and so, through a little further Cat and Mouse chase, the truth shone out finally, anyway. And we knew better than to fall under the boobie trap thrown by the Indians!
The Daily Mail’s investigations further indicate that as for the most recent oh-so-distressful Indians remains that Chinese hackers tried to penetrate computers in the offices of National Security Adviser MK Narayanan, a British paper quoted him as saying. Narayanan said that his office and other government departments were targeted on 15th, the same date that US defence, finance and technology companies, including Google, reported cyber attacks from China. As if not satisfied by blaming China, India again revealed it’s true face when Narayan further said in the same statement, while he expected China to be an increasingly high security priority for India, the main threat still came from militants based in Pakistan. He said that Islamabad had done nothing to dismantle militant groups since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and criticised Britain for accepting it’s excuse that such groups were beyond it’s control while everyone knows that Pakistan has been the frontrunner in countering terrorism. “The British are still blinkered on this. We believe Pakistan’s policy of using terror as a policy weapon remains”, Narayanan said, adding that India is anxious to prevent an attack from Pakistan during the Commonwealth Games in October. The effort was, it seems, simply aimed at to shift focus from their own mischief in the Cyberdome, towards something else, even if untrue, throwing dry mud over Pakistan, again hiding it’s face behind false expressions.
“From Pakistan’s point of view, it’s important to disrupt the Games so you can claim that India is not a safe place”, Narayanan said. Now speaking of Cyberdome, where the hell did militancy in Pakistan came from? This really meant that all the advisor was doing or is rather paid to do is throw dirt on Pakistan and really didn’t know anything about the cyber world to say the least. And of course, it was later revealed by the probe done by The Daily Mail that RAW’s Black Snakes cracked Indian websites, just to give China and Pakistan a bad name and to create misunderstandings between the two countries sharing cordial ties.
Take another step backward, to 2002, and here’s another accusation. ‘Pakistani hackers have made several attempts to hack into Indian sites—especially those containing data on sensitive information relating to nuclear test management—to access sensitive information related to the India’s security, said sources in the Intelligence Bureau’, claimed a website. It further stated, ‘Although the Indian websites were repeatedly hacked in the past, according to IB officials, the recent attempts were aimed at accessing crucial data secured under severely firewalled servers.’ In fact, it was revealed through the findings of The Daily Mail that the Indian websites were repeatedly hacked by the RAW’s Black Snakes as a practice before they actually made their big target, completely hacking the data while putting the blame on Pakistan of course.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that it was the same time when the websites of Pakistan government were being hacked. How could the ISI’s G-Force hack Indian websites and get it’s own cracked as well, all at the same time? The accusation didn’t rest here. ‘The hackers, according to officials, may be on the payroll of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence; ISI’, the source stated, identifying the cracker groups of Pakistan as Milworm, G-Force and individuals such as Rsnake, DoctorNuker and Mr Sweet, who had all, time and time again, been targeting Indian and US sites alike. However, by the way, US has no clue to this bullshit, yet the RAW does not rest blaming Pakistan and trying endlessly to gain attention. The findings of The Daily Mail, on the other hand, reveal that Indian agency RAW’s cyber criminals use pseudo nicks like Black Snakes, Milworm, Rsnake and in fact the individuals DoctorNuker and Mr. Sweet have been a couple of such IDs that they have been using to hack websites and blame Pakistan for it. Using Spoofing technique, these cyber crackers have been able to hide their identities which the ISI’s Green Force has been able to catch, through thorough probe over the cyberdome, time and time again.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that the cyber terrorism does not just remain confined to cracking codes of essential websites but in fact there’s many other forms of cyber terrorism that the Black Snakes are good at, one of the many being Cyber Stalkingl. Typically, the cyber stalker’s victim is new on the web, and inexperienced with the rules of netiquette & internet safety. Their main targets are the mostly females, children, emotionally weak or unstable, etc. It is believed that Over 75% of the victims are female, but sometimes men are also stalked. The figures are more on assumed basis and the actual figures can really never be known since most crimes of such natures go unreported.
The common obsessional stalker refuses to believe that their relationship is over. Do not be misled by believing this stalker is harmlessly in love. The next type is the delusional stalker. They may be suffering from some mental illness like schizophrenia etc & have a false belief that keeps them tied to their victims. They assume that the victim loves them even though they have never met. A delusional stalker is usually a loner & most often chooses victims who are married woman, a celebrity or doctors, teachers, etc.. Those in the noble & helping professions like doctors, teachers etc are at often at risk for attracting a delusional stalker.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further indicate that delusional stalkers are very difficult to shake off. These cyber stalkers are angry at their victim due to some minor reason- either real or imagined. Typical examples are disgruntled employees. These stalkers may be stalking to get even & take revenge and believe that “they” have been victimized. Ex-spouses can turn into this type of stalker.
Two different kinds of cyber stalking situations which can occur. Online harassment & cyber stalking that occurs & continues on the internet and Online harassment and stalking that begins to be carried on offline too. This is when a stalker may attempt to trace a telephone number or a street address. Always be careful what details you give out over the web and to whom. This should not surprise anyone, especially women, since sexual harassment is also a very common experience offline. The internet reflects real life & consists of real people. It’s not a separate, regulated or sanctified world. The very nature of anonymous communications also makes it easier to be a stalker on the internet than a stalker offline. Sexual Harassment, Obsession for love, Revenge & Hate and Ego & Power Trips Ego have been identified as the many reasons for generation of cyber stalking instances in India.
The Daily Mail’s further investigations reveal that in India’s most recent case of cyberstalking, Manish Kathuria, actually an undercover official of RAW was arrested by the New Delhi Police. He was stalking an Indian lady, Mrs.Ritu Kohli by illegally chatting on the website MIRC using her name. He used obscene and obnoxious language, and distributed her residence telephone number, inviting people to chat with her on the phone. As a result of which, Ritu kept getting obscene calls from everywhere, and people promptly talked dirty with her. In a state of shock, she called the Delhi police and reported the matter. The police department, after a little harassment themselves and enjoying for awhile, only traced the culprit when her husband went to the high-ups and used influence. A case was ultimately slammed under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code for outraging the modesty of Ritu Kohli.
Gone are the days when fun and fame were the sole aim of cyber hijackers, making fast buck is the key motive of today’s cyber crackers. These nerds can outsmart cracker king Kevin David Mitnick. The tech savvyness attached to the profession makes it proliferate in terms of value and volume, said a leading cyber expert. A case of a Chandigarh bank executive Mr. Vasudeva can easily make one realize the reality and power of cyber crime and their mafias. He logged on to a social networking site, a couple of months ago. “Soon, I started receiving mails from unknown sources asking about my health and home loan details. I thought someone who knows us well was playing a prank, until a tech-savvy friend realised my computer was hijacked and turned into a BOT (a hijacked computer), a captive. In this case, when Vasudeva logged on a virus called as malware/spyware download itself automatically in the system and started sending the files to the outsider even passwords too from where it came. Over 10,000 computers are converted into BOTs a day and are linked into large networks of such computers, called BOTnets. On an average, around 400 BOTs are created a day in India by RAW’s cyber criminals, says a recent study. The country has over 40 command-and-control servers having 38,465 distinct BOTs. Among the cities, Mumbai reported a share of 33 percent, followed by Delhi at 25 per cent, Chennai 17 percent and Bangalore 13 percent. Cyber criminals sell stolen information be it credit cards, credit verification values, bank accounts on the underground economy servers. The buyer is then required to pay cash. Unwilling to risk exposure, buyers use cashiers agents who convert the stolen information into true currency in the form of e-gold (wherein the process is instantaneous and the payments are final, ensuring no charge-backs) or through money transfers.
The Daily Mail’s investigations prove that it is high time that Pakistan’s ISI’s Green Force takes note of the cyber crimes and in fact, the world notices the cyber terrorism going on around by the Cyber terrorists of RAW and just not take preventive measures for the cause but go an extra mile in saving women and kids from harassment. Websites should be made more secured and closely monitored on a regular basis whereas attention should also paid on cyber havoc played by the same promoting flesh trade over the net after abducting ladies and various other unseen crimes that are heinous but mostly untrackable as spoofed. Black Snakes is just one mafia of RAW but there are many infecting and hiding in various dark nooks of the so vast cyberdome. We believe that it is high time the menace be countered and the claws of RAW serpents be arrested so that the cyberdome and in fact the world be a safer place to surf around. That’s a long shot but till then, happy surfing and watch out for all the bugs and snakes!
• RAW’s Black Snakes asked Delhi to accuse China for hacking, cyber espionage in 2009 too
• Black Snakes’ operation was aimed at disrupting Pak-China ties, giving bad name to both
• India blamed Pakistan for generating cyber terrorism in 2002
• The given websites were found repeatedly hacked by RAW itself
• Pakistan government’s websites were hacked the same time it was blamed of hacking
• RAW’s top cyber assassins remain Black Snakes, Milworm, Rsnake groups, DoctorNuker and Mr. Sweet
• RAW found involved in Cyber Stalking & Cyber harassment too
• Also found involvement in money laundering, heinous crimes over cyberdome
• RAW’s official Manish Kathuria arrested by Delhi Police for Cyber stalking but then released without any further action
By Uzma Zafar
Just when it was being thought that the rift between Black Snakes and Green Force had rested, the former did what snakes are best at doing, biting, and so did the Black Snakes, the cyber terror wing of Indian Intelligence Agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW, following the methodology that when the prey least expects it and to put it more straight, what the RAW’s coward Black Snakes have always been best at doing, bite in the dark so that their face remains hidden, and chose a most unexpected time, and ever so ruthlessly that even their own blood is shed in the way to make it look like a genuine attack on them, blaming some carefully thought up foe, attaining the mission at all costs. Many a times, the blame had been thrown on ISI’s Green Force while all it does is self-protection in the cyberdome. One feels pity on the RAW who still think that they can befool the world and continue to play havoc, generating terrorism in Cyberdome as well. Thanks to the IT age we live in, now the world knows better and each time the Black Snakes lift their heads to bite and blame others, their identity is revealed by their very serpent nature, reveal the detailed investigations, carried out by The Daily Mail into the Indian blames that their official computer networks were hacked by China’s official hackers.
Everyone must have gone through India’s latest claim, blaming China for hacking it’s various websites and secret data. But what some might have forgotten and let me remind you of it, it was in fact early 2009 that the news got lose of China tapping into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of Pakistan. The same moment, Conficker Worm threat got out too, set to bite computers on April Fools’ Day. The latter proved to be a hoax though but the former, when investigated by The Daily Mail, was found to be a plunder created by Black Snakes in fact; a pack of crackers of India’s agency RAW. Though all evidence gained by the white hackers across the globe pointed towards China as the main source of the network, they failed to conclusively detect the exact identity or motivation of the crackers which was later on found to be that of the Snakes, disclose the findings of The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal further that a cyber espionage network involving over 1,295 compromised computers from the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan, as detected. Systems were found to be hacked of the embassies of Pakistan, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany. Everyone knows the cordial ties between Pakistan and China. Thus apparently, one couldn’t see any motive there and so, through a little further Cat and Mouse chase, the truth shone out finally, anyway. And we knew better than to fall under the boobie trap thrown by the Indians!
The Daily Mail’s investigations further indicate that as for the most recent oh-so-distressful Indians remains that Chinese hackers tried to penetrate computers in the offices of National Security Adviser MK Narayanan, a British paper quoted him as saying. Narayanan said that his office and other government departments were targeted on 15th, the same date that US defence, finance and technology companies, including Google, reported cyber attacks from China. As if not satisfied by blaming China, India again revealed it’s true face when Narayan further said in the same statement, while he expected China to be an increasingly high security priority for India, the main threat still came from militants based in Pakistan. He said that Islamabad had done nothing to dismantle militant groups since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and criticised Britain for accepting it’s excuse that such groups were beyond it’s control while everyone knows that Pakistan has been the frontrunner in countering terrorism. “The British are still blinkered on this. We believe Pakistan’s policy of using terror as a policy weapon remains”, Narayanan said, adding that India is anxious to prevent an attack from Pakistan during the Commonwealth Games in October. The effort was, it seems, simply aimed at to shift focus from their own mischief in the Cyberdome, towards something else, even if untrue, throwing dry mud over Pakistan, again hiding it’s face behind false expressions.
“From Pakistan’s point of view, it’s important to disrupt the Games so you can claim that India is not a safe place”, Narayanan said. Now speaking of Cyberdome, where the hell did militancy in Pakistan came from? This really meant that all the advisor was doing or is rather paid to do is throw dirt on Pakistan and really didn’t know anything about the cyber world to say the least. And of course, it was later revealed by the probe done by The Daily Mail that RAW’s Black Snakes cracked Indian websites, just to give China and Pakistan a bad name and to create misunderstandings between the two countries sharing cordial ties.
Take another step backward, to 2002, and here’s another accusation. ‘Pakistani hackers have made several attempts to hack into Indian sites—especially those containing data on sensitive information relating to nuclear test management—to access sensitive information related to the India’s security, said sources in the Intelligence Bureau’, claimed a website. It further stated, ‘Although the Indian websites were repeatedly hacked in the past, according to IB officials, the recent attempts were aimed at accessing crucial data secured under severely firewalled servers.’ In fact, it was revealed through the findings of The Daily Mail that the Indian websites were repeatedly hacked by the RAW’s Black Snakes as a practice before they actually made their big target, completely hacking the data while putting the blame on Pakistan of course.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that it was the same time when the websites of Pakistan government were being hacked. How could the ISI’s G-Force hack Indian websites and get it’s own cracked as well, all at the same time? The accusation didn’t rest here. ‘The hackers, according to officials, may be on the payroll of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence; ISI’, the source stated, identifying the cracker groups of Pakistan as Milworm, G-Force and individuals such as Rsnake, DoctorNuker and Mr Sweet, who had all, time and time again, been targeting Indian and US sites alike. However, by the way, US has no clue to this bullshit, yet the RAW does not rest blaming Pakistan and trying endlessly to gain attention. The findings of The Daily Mail, on the other hand, reveal that Indian agency RAW’s cyber criminals use pseudo nicks like Black Snakes, Milworm, Rsnake and in fact the individuals DoctorNuker and Mr. Sweet have been a couple of such IDs that they have been using to hack websites and blame Pakistan for it. Using Spoofing technique, these cyber crackers have been able to hide their identities which the ISI’s Green Force has been able to catch, through thorough probe over the cyberdome, time and time again.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that the cyber terrorism does not just remain confined to cracking codes of essential websites but in fact there’s many other forms of cyber terrorism that the Black Snakes are good at, one of the many being Cyber Stalkingl. Typically, the cyber stalker’s victim is new on the web, and inexperienced with the rules of netiquette & internet safety. Their main targets are the mostly females, children, emotionally weak or unstable, etc. It is believed that Over 75% of the victims are female, but sometimes men are also stalked. The figures are more on assumed basis and the actual figures can really never be known since most crimes of such natures go unreported.
The common obsessional stalker refuses to believe that their relationship is over. Do not be misled by believing this stalker is harmlessly in love. The next type is the delusional stalker. They may be suffering from some mental illness like schizophrenia etc & have a false belief that keeps them tied to their victims. They assume that the victim loves them even though they have never met. A delusional stalker is usually a loner & most often chooses victims who are married woman, a celebrity or doctors, teachers, etc.. Those in the noble & helping professions like doctors, teachers etc are at often at risk for attracting a delusional stalker.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further indicate that delusional stalkers are very difficult to shake off. These cyber stalkers are angry at their victim due to some minor reason- either real or imagined. Typical examples are disgruntled employees. These stalkers may be stalking to get even & take revenge and believe that “they” have been victimized. Ex-spouses can turn into this type of stalker.
Two different kinds of cyber stalking situations which can occur. Online harassment & cyber stalking that occurs & continues on the internet and Online harassment and stalking that begins to be carried on offline too. This is when a stalker may attempt to trace a telephone number or a street address. Always be careful what details you give out over the web and to whom. This should not surprise anyone, especially women, since sexual harassment is also a very common experience offline. The internet reflects real life & consists of real people. It’s not a separate, regulated or sanctified world. The very nature of anonymous communications also makes it easier to be a stalker on the internet than a stalker offline. Sexual Harassment, Obsession for love, Revenge & Hate and Ego & Power Trips Ego have been identified as the many reasons for generation of cyber stalking instances in India.
The Daily Mail’s further investigations reveal that in India’s most recent case of cyberstalking, Manish Kathuria, actually an undercover official of RAW was arrested by the New Delhi Police. He was stalking an Indian lady, Mrs.Ritu Kohli by illegally chatting on the website MIRC using her name. He used obscene and obnoxious language, and distributed her residence telephone number, inviting people to chat with her on the phone. As a result of which, Ritu kept getting obscene calls from everywhere, and people promptly talked dirty with her. In a state of shock, she called the Delhi police and reported the matter. The police department, after a little harassment themselves and enjoying for awhile, only traced the culprit when her husband went to the high-ups and used influence. A case was ultimately slammed under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code for outraging the modesty of Ritu Kohli.
Gone are the days when fun and fame were the sole aim of cyber hijackers, making fast buck is the key motive of today’s cyber crackers. These nerds can outsmart cracker king Kevin David Mitnick. The tech savvyness attached to the profession makes it proliferate in terms of value and volume, said a leading cyber expert. A case of a Chandigarh bank executive Mr. Vasudeva can easily make one realize the reality and power of cyber crime and their mafias. He logged on to a social networking site, a couple of months ago. “Soon, I started receiving mails from unknown sources asking about my health and home loan details. I thought someone who knows us well was playing a prank, until a tech-savvy friend realised my computer was hijacked and turned into a BOT (a hijacked computer), a captive. In this case, when Vasudeva logged on a virus called as malware/spyware download itself automatically in the system and started sending the files to the outsider even passwords too from where it came. Over 10,000 computers are converted into BOTs a day and are linked into large networks of such computers, called BOTnets. On an average, around 400 BOTs are created a day in India by RAW’s cyber criminals, says a recent study. The country has over 40 command-and-control servers having 38,465 distinct BOTs. Among the cities, Mumbai reported a share of 33 percent, followed by Delhi at 25 per cent, Chennai 17 percent and Bangalore 13 percent. Cyber criminals sell stolen information be it credit cards, credit verification values, bank accounts on the underground economy servers. The buyer is then required to pay cash. Unwilling to risk exposure, buyers use cashiers agents who convert the stolen information into true currency in the form of e-gold (wherein the process is instantaneous and the payments are final, ensuring no charge-backs) or through money transfers.
The Daily Mail’s investigations prove that it is high time that Pakistan’s ISI’s Green Force takes note of the cyber crimes and in fact, the world notices the cyber terrorism going on around by the Cyber terrorists of RAW and just not take preventive measures for the cause but go an extra mile in saving women and kids from harassment. Websites should be made more secured and closely monitored on a regular basis whereas attention should also paid on cyber havoc played by the same promoting flesh trade over the net after abducting ladies and various other unseen crimes that are heinous but mostly untrackable as spoofed. Black Snakes is just one mafia of RAW but there are many infecting and hiding in various dark nooks of the so vast cyberdome. We believe that it is high time the menace be countered and the claws of RAW serpents be arrested so that the cyberdome and in fact the world be a safer place to surf around. That’s a long shot but till then, happy surfing and watch out for all the bugs and snakes!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
India’s Dirty Secret Flushed Out
India’s Dirty Secret Flushed Out
India is committing a billion US dollars in Afghanistan. This Indian generosity is not seen anywhere else. Not even inside India itself, where the world’s largest poverty and health problems exist. The US is now inviting India to send cheap soldiers to Afghanistan to rescue the Americans where NATO and the British won’t help. The argument that US and Indian officials often make is about how humanitarian this Indian aid is. What they forget to mention is that it is purely driven by India’s desire to secure Afghan soil for espionage against Pakistan. The Americans know this and it is obvious that want India in Afghanistan in order to maintain this occupied country as a military and intelligence outpost to destabilize the region.
More than half of Indian population defecate in the open. More households have TV than toilets.
Rhys Blakely | Times UK
Jason Gayle, Bloomberg
It is possibly the worst job in the world, a task so disgusting, demeaning and dangerous that it has been illegal for 17 years.
However, at least 340,000 Indians (a conservative government estimate – other experts reckon the figure is close to a million) are forced to scrape a living by cleaning up other people’s excrement.
In 1993, the practice of employing a “manual scavenger” – a job description that masks the rank grossness of the work with an Orwellian flourish – was outlawed in India. So was the building of “dry latrines” – the kind that have no flush, have to be emptied by hand, and breed diseases.
The dirty truth, however, is that three government deadlines to eradicate manual scavenging, the most recent on March 31 2009, have passed. Dry latrines are still being dug all over the country, in both rural and urban areas.
A shortage of water and space and a lack of reliable sewage systems often make them the easiest, cheapest option.
At issue, however, is more than the woeful state of infrastructure in India, a country where 660 million people still defecate in the open and more households have TV sets than have proper toilets. For the persistence of scavenging speaks to the robustness of the centuries-old caste system as much as to a chronic lack of basic sanitation.
A new report by WaterAid, an NGO, highlights the how almost all manual scavengers are Dalits, the group at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, who were formerly known as Untouchables. About 80 per cent are women.
“They will often have inherited their ’scavenging rights’ and been tasked from an early age with removing human waste from public or private toilets, which have no flushing system, to dispose of elsewhere. Men who are scavengers usually have to manually clean out sewers and septic tanks. Scavengers are paid a pittance and treated with disdain and social stigmatism,” the study says.
Ninety per cent of scavengers have no protective equipment. Diseases such as dysentery, malaria, typhoid and tuberculosis are common. Men sent down the sewers in T-shirts and loincloths often die from inhaling toxic fumes.
Social taboos complicate the business of rehabilitation. In a small village, it is hard for a former scavenger to shrug off her past. If she tries to start a small business, it is likely to be boycotted by members of higher castes.
Even before she gets that far, however, there is the issue of self worth to overcome. “Imagine how a life spent picking up s*** affects your confidence,” says Indira Khurana, the report’s co-author and WaterAid’s head of policy in India. “For these people to stand up for their rights is a difficult thing.”
Some activists suggest that what scavengers really need is relocation programmes, so they can start new lives in places where they are not known and not burdened by the accident of their birth. It sounds like something out of a spy novel, but the stigma that follows these people around is that great, they suggest.
In some areas, imaginative thinking has produced results. The mothers of the northern state of Haryana, for instance, have adopted a simple message for men who call on their daughters: “No toilet; no bride”.
The government-initiated slogan – often lengthened in Hindi to something like “if you don’t have a proper toilet in your house, don’t even think about marrying my daughter” – has been plastered on hoardings across the region’s villages as part of a drive to boost the number of proper flush lavatories.
The campaign is one of the most successful efforts to combat India’s chronic shortage of proper plumbing, local officials claim – probably because a skewed sex ratio (there are more 8 per cent more men than women) means brides are gaining more leverage in marital bargaining while women have come to resent having to defecate outside under the cover of darkness.
About 1.4 million toilets have been built in the state since it was begun in 2005, many of them with significant government subsidies. “We have more toilets, less shame among women and less disease,” said S. K. Monda, the local government official in charge of the programme.
The Haryana project offers a ray of hope that helps explain why Ms Khurana is optimistic. She says that the new India – the India that has a world-class IT industry and a space programme – is ashamed of its caste-defined past. She thinks that political pressure – Dalits constitute a powerful vote bank – is mounting and can force change – and that schemes where community members pitch in to build proper flush lavatories have been proven viable.
She also reckons that an extensive study that will document the number of scavengers in detail will expose false claims by several state governments that they have eradicated the practice and force them to act.
It is to be hoped that she is right. But even if she is, the world’s worst job seems certain to exist for some years yet.
Fewer than 10 percent of Indian cities have a sewage system. Some 665 million Indians practice open defecation, more than half the global total. In China, the world’s most populous country, 37 million people defecate in the open, according to UNICEF. Incredible Indeed.
Jason Gayle, Bloomberg
India Failing to Control Open Defecation Blunts Nation’s Growth
India Failing to Control Open Defecation Blunts Nation’s Growth
By Jason Gale
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Until May 2007, Meera Devi rose before dawn each day and walked a half mile to a vegetable patch outside the village of Kachpura to find a secluded place.
Dodging leering men and stick-wielding farmers and avoiding spots that her neighbors had soiled, the mother of three pulled up her sari and defecated with the Taj Mahal in plain view.
With that act, she added to the estimated 100,000 tons of human excrement that Indians leave each day in fields of potatoes, carrots and spinach, on banks that line rivers used for drinking and bathing and along roads jammed with scooters, trucks and pedestrians. Devi looks back on her routine with pain and embarrassment.
“As a woman, I would have to check where the males were going to the toilet and then go in a different direction,” says Devi, 37, standing outside her one-room mud-brick home. “We used to avoid the daytimes, but if we were really pressured, we would have to go any time of the day, even if it was raining. During the harvest season, people would have sticks in the fields. If somebody had to go, people would beat them up or chase them.”
In the shadow of its new suburbs, torrid growth and 300- million-plus-strong middle class, India is struggling with a sanitation emergency. From the stream in Devi’s village to the nation’s holiest river, the Ganges, 75 percent of the country’s surface water is contaminated by human and agricultural waste and industrial effluent. Everyone in Indian cities is at risk of consuming human feces, if they’re not already, the Ministry of Urban Development concluded in September.
Economic Drain
Illness, lost productivity and other consequences of fouled water and inadequate sewage treatment trimmed 1.4-7.2 percent from the gross domestic product of Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in 2005, according to a study last year by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program.
Sanitation and hygiene-related issues may have a similar if not greater impact on India’s $1.2 trillion economy, says Guy Hutton, a senior water and sanitation economist with the program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Snarledtransportation and unreliable power further damp the nation’s growth. Companies that locate in India pay hardship wages and ensconce employees in self- sufficient compounds.
The toll on human health is grim. Every day, 1,000 children younger than 5 years old die in India from diarrhea, hepatitis- causing pathogens and other sanitation-related diseases, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
‘Sanitation Crisis’
For girls, the crisis is especially acute: Many drop out of school once they reach puberty because of inadequate lavatories, depriving the country of a generation of possible leaders.
“India cannot reach its full economic potential unless they do something about this sanitation crisis,” says Clarissa Brocklehurst, Unicef’s New York-based chief of water, sanitation and hygiene, who worked in New Delhi from 1999 to 2001.
When P.V. Narasimha Rao opened India to outside investment in 1991, the country went on a tear. For most of this decade, India has placed just behind China as the world’s fastest- growing major economy. Revenue from information technology and outsourcing jumped more than 300-fold to $52 billion a year as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Technologies Ltd.and other homegrown giants took on computer-related work for Western corporations.
Annual per-capita income more than doubled to 24,295 rupees ($468) in the seven years ended on March 31, 2008, before the full force of the financial meltdown kicked in. Even during the current global recession, India’s economy will expand 5.1 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund projects.
Hygiene Breakdown
Yet India’s gated office parks with swimming pools and food courts and enclaves such as the Aralias in Gurgaon, outside New Delhi, which features 6,000-square-foot (557-square-meter) condominiums, mask a breakdown of the most basic and symbolic human need -- hygiene.
Devi, who installed her neighborhood’s first toilet, a squat-style latrine in a whitewashed outhouse, created a point of pride in a village where some people empty chamber pots into open drains in front of their homes. Like most of Kachpura’s residents, more than half of India’s 203 million households lack what Western societies consider a necessity: a toilet.
India has the greatest proportion of people in Asia behind Nepal without access to improved sanitation, according to Unicef. Some 665 million Indians practice open defecation, more than half the global total. In China, the world’s most populous country, 37 million people defecate in the open, according to Unicef.
‘It’s an Embarrassment’
“It’s an embarrassment,” says Venkatraman Anantha- Nageswaran, 45, an Indian working in Singapore as chief investment officer for Asia Pacific at Bank Julius Baer & Co., which managed $234 billion at the end of 2008. “It’s a country that aspires to being an international power and which, according to various projections, will be the third-largest economy in 20-30 years.”
India has the highest childhood malnutrition rates in the world: 44 percent of children younger than 5 are underweight, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
“Malnourished children are more susceptible to diarrheal disease, and with more diarrheal disease they become more malnourished,” says Jamie Bartram, head of the World Health Organization’s water, sanitation, hygiene and health group. “If we collectively could fix the world’s basic water and sanitation problems, we could reduce childhood mortality by nearly a third.”
Half of India’s schools don’t have separate toilets for males and females, forcing young women to use unisex facilities or nothing at all. Twenty-two percent of girls complete 10 or more years of schooling compared with 35 percent of boys, a national family health survey finished in 2006 found.
Indignity, Infections
Devi says she was concerned that her 14-year-old daughter would suffer the indignity and infections she herself endured due to poor menstrual hygiene. That was a major reason she bought a toilet, taking out a 7,000 rupee, interest-free loan from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which enabled her to pay for her new latrine over 18 months.
The agency also gave her a 3,000 rupee grant and a 2,500 rupee-a-month job with its Cross-Cutting Agra Project, which promotes hygiene and sanitation in her village. Until then, she, like her husband, was unemployed. Her daughter’s situation has also improved, Devi says.
“When she has her period, it’s especially difficult for her to go out into the fields,” she says. “It’s better to have a toilet at home -- as it is for every female.”
Girls’ Education
Barriers that keep girls from equal education compromise the nation’s future, says Renu Khosla, director of CURE India, a New Delhi group that works to improve water and sanitation for the poor, including in Kachpura.
“We will have a less skilled population of youth,” she says. “Every year of schooling reduces household poverty by bringing down the family size and increasing skill levels.”
So far, companies looking to locate in India haven’t been turned off by the sanitation shortcomings, says Anshuman Magazine, chairman of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s South Asian unit, which manages about 62 million square feet of property in the country. “India is a completely different planet,” he says.
As such, employees know not to drink tap water, and employers provide clean washrooms.
“As far as offices are concerned, I have never come across anyone raising these concerns. Businesses run on making money and opportunities. Since 2004, we have seen huge interest from foreign investors and businesses.”
Hardship Allowances
International corporations that set up branches in Mumbai and New Delhi compensate by paying hardship allowances of 20-25 percent of employees’ salary compared with 10-15 percent in Beijing and Shanghai, says Lee Quane, the Hong Kong-based Asian general manager of ECA International Ltd., a human resources advisory firm.
Some big Indian companies count on private utilities, bottled water and walled compounds with electric fences. Infosys’s resort-style campus on the outskirts of Bangalore has manicured lawns, a Japanese garden, a swimming pool, a golf course and a Domino’s Pizza in its multinational food court.
Unlike most households in the nearby city of 6.8 million, India’s No. 2 software maker’s headquarters doesn’t suffer water or power interruptions, says Bhawesh Kumar, its facilities manager.
Poverty Trap
Infosys stores water from the public network in three underground reservoirs that can hold 2.2 million liters (580,000 gallons), or two days’ supply. The water passes through sand and carbon filters and purifiers, making it cleaner than what’s available to local people, he says. Attendants clean the brown- tiled bathrooms and refresh supplies of paper hand towels hourly during the business day. Infrared sensors ensure that toilets are flushed after each use.
Outside such compounds, dirty water and poor hygiene can trap communities in a cycle of disease, malnutrition and poverty, Bartram says. Worldwide, 18 percent of the population, or 1.2 billion people, rely on open defecation and about 884 million drink unsafe water, according to Unicef.
Every year, more than 200 million tons of human sewage goes uncollected and untreated, fouling the environment. Each gram of feces can contain 10 million virus particles, 1 million bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs, the UN found.
Fetid Waters
In Devi’s village, sewage and household wastewater flow along open drains that line both sides of narrow alleyways. The fetid water gathers in a shallow channel choking with plastic containers, discarded footwear and household trash. A woman carrying a folded mattress on her head steps deftly along a narrow bridge spanning the mire. A mechanical pump chugs on the bank, sucking up the liquid to dispense over a nearby vegetable patch. Children play around the edge, alongside tethered, cud- chewing water buffalo.
A man walks past, clutching a water-filled plastic bottle, presumably on his way to defecate. The rest of the slurry empties into a trench coursing along a feces-dotted path through a field of cauliflowers. A shoeless boy uses a long-handled spade to create a new sluice for the black sludge to ooze over the vegetable field.
What’s not drained from the trench empties into a cesspool on the flood plain of the Yamuna River, which flows through Delhi and then Agra before joining the Ganges at Allahabad, 1,370 kilometers (850 miles) from its pristine source in the Himalayan mountains.
‘Remorseless Drain’
“If you’ve got feces all around you, it will find its way into your mouth,” Bartram says. “Cholera and typhoid are always dramatic because they come through as outbreaks, and outbreaks catch the news. The real burden is this long, remorseless drain of straightforward, simple diarrheal disease.”
Like Devi’s village, less than a fifth of Agra is connected to a sewage system. The 1.3 million people generate more than 150 million liters of effluent each day. The city has the capacity to treat 60 percent of the sewage. There are plans to build three more treatment plants by 2012 with funding from the state and federal governments and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, according to the Agra Municipal Corporation.
The U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Cross- Cutting Agra Project and other programs are trying to bridge the sanitation gap. The project helped Devi and 39 other households in her village get toilets during the past two years.
Spurring Desire
The Indian government is also contributing. Rural families living below the poverty line are eligible for a 1,500 rupee subsidy to build household latrines under the Total Sanitation Campaign. The decade-old program focuses on educating people about the link between good hygiene and health to change behavior and spur their desire for toilets.
UN agencies such as Unicef provide technical information and recommendations on toilet systems.
Governments and aid groups have strived for decades to overcome India’s sanitation challenges. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the movement for freedom from foreign domination, grappled with the issue almost a century ago: “The cause of many of our diseases is the condition of our lavatories and our bad habit of disposing of excreta anywhere and everywhere,” Gandhiwrote in 1925. “Sanitation is more important than political independence,” he declared.
Taboo Topic
Gandhi focused on the Hindu caste system that subjugated the lowest social stratum to the unsavory realm of latrines. For some 4,000 years, so-called bhangis or untouchables earned a modest living by scraping “night soil” from the cavernous household toilet pits of higher castes and carrying it away in pans balanced on their heads.
“Culturally, it was taboo in Indian society to talk about human excreta, night soil and all these things,” says Bindeshwar Pathak, who started Sulabh International Social Service Organization, a Delhi-based group whose name means “readily accessible.” The organization has built public toilets and campaigned on human emancipation issues since 1970.
Pathak says the tradition of scavenging removed the impetus of society, and especially policy makers, to acknowledge and address the sanitation problem.
A.K. Mehta, joint secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development, says India’s close-lipped tradition is changing.
“If you have a legacy of thousands of years, you don’t expect it to go away in a decade or so,” Mehta says. “Progress is significant and in the right direction.”
Millions Waiting
Today, 59 percent of the people in India’s countryside have access to a toilet, compared with 27 percent in 2004, the Department of Drinking Water Supplysays. Ten million toilets have been built annually since 2007. More than 30 million households are waiting.
Urban dwellers aren’t spared substandard hygiene. In Mumbai, Delhi and other cities where billboards advertise the latest mobile phones and trendy young women sport Prada handbags, the water that’s piped into homes and apartments must be filtered before drinking. And in most homes it’s available only a few hours each day.
“Even the biggest cities still have that problem,” says Vishwas Udgirkar, 46, executive director of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s government and infrastructure division in New Delhi.
More unsettling, 17 percent of city residents, or 50 million people, don’t have toilets. Fewer than 10 percent of Indian cities have a sewage system. About37 percent of urban wastewater flows into the environment untreated, where such pathogens as rotavirus, campylobacter and human roundworm can spread via water, soil, food and unwashed hands.
‘Huge Challenge’
“Not attending to this has a cost,” Mehta says. “Between 2001 and ’26, we would be adding another 246 million people to the urban system. How would we meet that huge challenge is the issue.”
India is still struggling to find the best way to clean up the mess.
“A lot of money has been given for constructing the infrastructure,” says Ajith C. Kumar, an operations analyst with the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program in New Delhi. “The predominant experience has been that none of this has worked.”
The southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh is a good example. Earlier this decade, the state government helped build 2.95 million household latrines in rural areas. Residents got subsidies worth about $16 in cash plus coupons for 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of rice. Half the toilets went unused or were being used for other purposes, a February 2007 World Bank report found.
Roomier Than Homes
In the western state of Maharashtra, 1.6 million subsidized toilets were built from 1997 to 2000. About 47 percent are in use.
Many toilets are designed without thinking about who’s going to use them, says Payden (who goes by one name), the WHO’s New Delhi-based regional adviser on water, sanitation and health. Some of the new toilets were roomier than homes.
“The toilets were much stronger and safer, so they used them for storing grain instead,” she says.
Now India is trying a different kind of cash reward to encourage toilet use. TheNirmal Gram Puraskar, or “clean village prize,” gives 50,000-5 million rupees to local governments that end open defecation. Thirty-eight villages qualified in 2005. A year later, 760 villages and 9 municipalities got the prize. In 2008, more than 12,000 awards were presented.
Toilets That Pay
Santha Sheela Nair, India’s secretary of drinking water supply, is assessing another monetary incentive. In a spacious New Delhi office with a white-tiled floor and white walls, Nair thumbs through a leaflet from a desk stacked with foot-high files and books on sanitation. She stops suddenly and points excitedly to a picture of a white toilet adorned with brightly- colored writing.
“This is the first toilet in the world -- in the world -- where you use the toilet and you get paid,” Nair says.
The public toilet, in the town of Musiri in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, gives users as much as 12 U.S. cents a month for their excreta. Feces arecomposted and urine, which is 95 percent water and has already passed through the body’s own filter, the kidneys, is collected, stored in drums and used as fertilizer for bananas and other food crops in a two-year research project by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
“The day that I can use your toilet and you pay me instead of me paying you, that will be the day when we have really learned to reuse our waste,” Nair says.
Menstrual Hygiene
Nair, India’s eighth drinking-water chief in less than a decade, is passionate about her job. On this day in November, the sari-clad government veteran chimes in on baby feces, menstrual hygiene, the use of excrement as fertilizer and other topics few bureaucrats have dared to broach.
From 2001 to ’03, Nair was responsible for the water supply in Chennai, formerly called Madras, southern India’s biggest city. Then, as rural development secretary for Tamil Nadu, she helped in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.
Nair is challenging the accepted wisdom on everything from modern sewers to flushable toilets, to the value of human waste. She says Western-style toilets are inappropriate for India, especially in areas that lack fresh water and have limited funds for sewage treatment plants. Instead, she says, the country has to find cheaper, more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies.
Lunar Mission
Inspired by the successful landing in November of the Moon Impact Probe, India’s first unmanned lunar mission, Nair is looking skyward for ideas.
“In space, you have the most vulnerable situations,” she says, playing a 2-minute YouTube video of an astronaut explaining how to manage bodily functions 100,000 miles from Earth. “They are separating the urine from the feces and drying it,” she says, pointing to her computer monitor. “The urine is processed for re-drinking because they just can’t carry that much water.”
Nair says modern sewers aren’t the answer for India. The country can’t afford to waste water by flushing it down a latrine. Instead, she’s encouraging airplane-style commodes that are vacuum cleared or toilets that are attached to contained pits rather than systems that pipe the effluent miles away for treatment. In Nair’s world, recycling human excrement for use as fertilizer is preferable.
‘Our Own Devices’
“We need to invent our own devices which are cost- effective, environmentally sustainable and go with our people,” she says. “We cannot afford the things which are simply things that some civil engineer learned somewhere.”
Converting excreta that have been properly dried for 6-24 months into plant food uses less water than traditional sewage systems and is less likely to pollute waterways, Payden says.
Bartram says composted sewage that’s been handled correctly can be used in agriculture and for other beneficial purposes with negligible risk to human health. The challenge is to sanitize it so that disease-carrying organisms are eliminated.
“Different pathogens vary widely in terms of inactivation,” he says. “Large, robust parasite eggs like the human roundworm, Ascaris, tend to be the longest lived and can remain infectious for years in soil.”
Closing the Gap
The government has a goal of eliminating open defecation by 2012. Nair says it might happen earlier.
“It’s important for us to do it quickly,” she says. Right now, the number of open defecators is roughly double the number of India’s middle class. “This gap will keep widening,” she says. “That is the challenge for us.”
For the Devi family, one household in one of India’s thousands of villages, the gap has narrowed. The health and dignity of five people have improved. More of Devi’s neighbors are trying to emulate her example by installing a household latrine and washing their hands with soap.
“We have gone from home to home to talk about sanitation and cleanliness,” Devi says, standing on the bank of the Yamuna River as cattle drink from its fetid waters. “The solution to a thousand household problems is getting a toilet.”
As India strives to build on two decades of growth, the nation’s sanitation struggle reveals how complicated Devi’s goal remains -- and how damaging the failure to meet it may be.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore atj.gale@bloomberg.net
By Jason Gale
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Until May 2007, Meera Devi rose before dawn each day and walked a half mile to a vegetable patch outside the village of Kachpura to find a secluded place.
Dodging leering men and stick-wielding farmers and avoiding spots that her neighbors had soiled, the mother of three pulled up her sari and defecated with the Taj Mahal in plain view.
With that act, she added to the estimated 100,000 tons of human excrement that Indians leave each day in fields of potatoes, carrots and spinach, on banks that line rivers used for drinking and bathing and along roads jammed with scooters, trucks and pedestrians. Devi looks back on her routine with pain and embarrassment.
“As a woman, I would have to check where the males were going to the toilet and then go in a different direction,” says Devi, 37, standing outside her one-room mud-brick home. “We used to avoid the daytimes, but if we were really pressured, we would have to go any time of the day, even if it was raining. During the harvest season, people would have sticks in the fields. If somebody had to go, people would beat them up or chase them.”
In the shadow of its new suburbs, torrid growth and 300- million-plus-strong middle class, India is struggling with a sanitation emergency. From the stream in Devi’s village to the nation’s holiest river, the Ganges, 75 percent of the country’s surface water is contaminated by human and agricultural waste and industrial effluent. Everyone in Indian cities is at risk of consuming human feces, if they’re not already, the Ministry of Urban Development concluded in September.
Economic Drain
Illness, lost productivity and other consequences of fouled water and inadequate sewage treatment trimmed 1.4-7.2 percent from the gross domestic product of Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in 2005, according to a study last year by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program.
Sanitation and hygiene-related issues may have a similar if not greater impact on India’s $1.2 trillion economy, says Guy Hutton, a senior water and sanitation economist with the program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Snarledtransportation and unreliable power further damp the nation’s growth. Companies that locate in India pay hardship wages and ensconce employees in self- sufficient compounds.
The toll on human health is grim. Every day, 1,000 children younger than 5 years old die in India from diarrhea, hepatitis- causing pathogens and other sanitation-related diseases, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
‘Sanitation Crisis’
For girls, the crisis is especially acute: Many drop out of school once they reach puberty because of inadequate lavatories, depriving the country of a generation of possible leaders.
“India cannot reach its full economic potential unless they do something about this sanitation crisis,” says Clarissa Brocklehurst, Unicef’s New York-based chief of water, sanitation and hygiene, who worked in New Delhi from 1999 to 2001.
When P.V. Narasimha Rao opened India to outside investment in 1991, the country went on a tear. For most of this decade, India has placed just behind China as the world’s fastest- growing major economy. Revenue from information technology and outsourcing jumped more than 300-fold to $52 billion a year as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Technologies Ltd.and other homegrown giants took on computer-related work for Western corporations.
Annual per-capita income more than doubled to 24,295 rupees ($468) in the seven years ended on March 31, 2008, before the full force of the financial meltdown kicked in. Even during the current global recession, India’s economy will expand 5.1 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund projects.
Hygiene Breakdown
Yet India’s gated office parks with swimming pools and food courts and enclaves such as the Aralias in Gurgaon, outside New Delhi, which features 6,000-square-foot (557-square-meter) condominiums, mask a breakdown of the most basic and symbolic human need -- hygiene.
Devi, who installed her neighborhood’s first toilet, a squat-style latrine in a whitewashed outhouse, created a point of pride in a village where some people empty chamber pots into open drains in front of their homes. Like most of Kachpura’s residents, more than half of India’s 203 million households lack what Western societies consider a necessity: a toilet.
India has the greatest proportion of people in Asia behind Nepal without access to improved sanitation, according to Unicef. Some 665 million Indians practice open defecation, more than half the global total. In China, the world’s most populous country, 37 million people defecate in the open, according to Unicef.
‘It’s an Embarrassment’
“It’s an embarrassment,” says Venkatraman Anantha- Nageswaran, 45, an Indian working in Singapore as chief investment officer for Asia Pacific at Bank Julius Baer & Co., which managed $234 billion at the end of 2008. “It’s a country that aspires to being an international power and which, according to various projections, will be the third-largest economy in 20-30 years.”
India has the highest childhood malnutrition rates in the world: 44 percent of children younger than 5 are underweight, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
“Malnourished children are more susceptible to diarrheal disease, and with more diarrheal disease they become more malnourished,” says Jamie Bartram, head of the World Health Organization’s water, sanitation, hygiene and health group. “If we collectively could fix the world’s basic water and sanitation problems, we could reduce childhood mortality by nearly a third.”
Half of India’s schools don’t have separate toilets for males and females, forcing young women to use unisex facilities or nothing at all. Twenty-two percent of girls complete 10 or more years of schooling compared with 35 percent of boys, a national family health survey finished in 2006 found.
Indignity, Infections
Devi says she was concerned that her 14-year-old daughter would suffer the indignity and infections she herself endured due to poor menstrual hygiene. That was a major reason she bought a toilet, taking out a 7,000 rupee, interest-free loan from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which enabled her to pay for her new latrine over 18 months.
The agency also gave her a 3,000 rupee grant and a 2,500 rupee-a-month job with its Cross-Cutting Agra Project, which promotes hygiene and sanitation in her village. Until then, she, like her husband, was unemployed. Her daughter’s situation has also improved, Devi says.
“When she has her period, it’s especially difficult for her to go out into the fields,” she says. “It’s better to have a toilet at home -- as it is for every female.”
Girls’ Education
Barriers that keep girls from equal education compromise the nation’s future, says Renu Khosla, director of CURE India, a New Delhi group that works to improve water and sanitation for the poor, including in Kachpura.
“We will have a less skilled population of youth,” she says. “Every year of schooling reduces household poverty by bringing down the family size and increasing skill levels.”
So far, companies looking to locate in India haven’t been turned off by the sanitation shortcomings, says Anshuman Magazine, chairman of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s South Asian unit, which manages about 62 million square feet of property in the country. “India is a completely different planet,” he says.
As such, employees know not to drink tap water, and employers provide clean washrooms.
“As far as offices are concerned, I have never come across anyone raising these concerns. Businesses run on making money and opportunities. Since 2004, we have seen huge interest from foreign investors and businesses.”
Hardship Allowances
International corporations that set up branches in Mumbai and New Delhi compensate by paying hardship allowances of 20-25 percent of employees’ salary compared with 10-15 percent in Beijing and Shanghai, says Lee Quane, the Hong Kong-based Asian general manager of ECA International Ltd., a human resources advisory firm.
Some big Indian companies count on private utilities, bottled water and walled compounds with electric fences. Infosys’s resort-style campus on the outskirts of Bangalore has manicured lawns, a Japanese garden, a swimming pool, a golf course and a Domino’s Pizza in its multinational food court.
Unlike most households in the nearby city of 6.8 million, India’s No. 2 software maker’s headquarters doesn’t suffer water or power interruptions, says Bhawesh Kumar, its facilities manager.
Poverty Trap
Infosys stores water from the public network in three underground reservoirs that can hold 2.2 million liters (580,000 gallons), or two days’ supply. The water passes through sand and carbon filters and purifiers, making it cleaner than what’s available to local people, he says. Attendants clean the brown- tiled bathrooms and refresh supplies of paper hand towels hourly during the business day. Infrared sensors ensure that toilets are flushed after each use.
Outside such compounds, dirty water and poor hygiene can trap communities in a cycle of disease, malnutrition and poverty, Bartram says. Worldwide, 18 percent of the population, or 1.2 billion people, rely on open defecation and about 884 million drink unsafe water, according to Unicef.
Every year, more than 200 million tons of human sewage goes uncollected and untreated, fouling the environment. Each gram of feces can contain 10 million virus particles, 1 million bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs, the UN found.
Fetid Waters
In Devi’s village, sewage and household wastewater flow along open drains that line both sides of narrow alleyways. The fetid water gathers in a shallow channel choking with plastic containers, discarded footwear and household trash. A woman carrying a folded mattress on her head steps deftly along a narrow bridge spanning the mire. A mechanical pump chugs on the bank, sucking up the liquid to dispense over a nearby vegetable patch. Children play around the edge, alongside tethered, cud- chewing water buffalo.
A man walks past, clutching a water-filled plastic bottle, presumably on his way to defecate. The rest of the slurry empties into a trench coursing along a feces-dotted path through a field of cauliflowers. A shoeless boy uses a long-handled spade to create a new sluice for the black sludge to ooze over the vegetable field.
What’s not drained from the trench empties into a cesspool on the flood plain of the Yamuna River, which flows through Delhi and then Agra before joining the Ganges at Allahabad, 1,370 kilometers (850 miles) from its pristine source in the Himalayan mountains.
‘Remorseless Drain’
“If you’ve got feces all around you, it will find its way into your mouth,” Bartram says. “Cholera and typhoid are always dramatic because they come through as outbreaks, and outbreaks catch the news. The real burden is this long, remorseless drain of straightforward, simple diarrheal disease.”
Like Devi’s village, less than a fifth of Agra is connected to a sewage system. The 1.3 million people generate more than 150 million liters of effluent each day. The city has the capacity to treat 60 percent of the sewage. There are plans to build three more treatment plants by 2012 with funding from the state and federal governments and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, according to the Agra Municipal Corporation.
The U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Cross- Cutting Agra Project and other programs are trying to bridge the sanitation gap. The project helped Devi and 39 other households in her village get toilets during the past two years.
Spurring Desire
The Indian government is also contributing. Rural families living below the poverty line are eligible for a 1,500 rupee subsidy to build household latrines under the Total Sanitation Campaign. The decade-old program focuses on educating people about the link between good hygiene and health to change behavior and spur their desire for toilets.
UN agencies such as Unicef provide technical information and recommendations on toilet systems.
Governments and aid groups have strived for decades to overcome India’s sanitation challenges. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the movement for freedom from foreign domination, grappled with the issue almost a century ago: “The cause of many of our diseases is the condition of our lavatories and our bad habit of disposing of excreta anywhere and everywhere,” Gandhiwrote in 1925. “Sanitation is more important than political independence,” he declared.
Taboo Topic
Gandhi focused on the Hindu caste system that subjugated the lowest social stratum to the unsavory realm of latrines. For some 4,000 years, so-called bhangis or untouchables earned a modest living by scraping “night soil” from the cavernous household toilet pits of higher castes and carrying it away in pans balanced on their heads.
“Culturally, it was taboo in Indian society to talk about human excreta, night soil and all these things,” says Bindeshwar Pathak, who started Sulabh International Social Service Organization, a Delhi-based group whose name means “readily accessible.” The organization has built public toilets and campaigned on human emancipation issues since 1970.
Pathak says the tradition of scavenging removed the impetus of society, and especially policy makers, to acknowledge and address the sanitation problem.
A.K. Mehta, joint secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development, says India’s close-lipped tradition is changing.
“If you have a legacy of thousands of years, you don’t expect it to go away in a decade or so,” Mehta says. “Progress is significant and in the right direction.”
Millions Waiting
Today, 59 percent of the people in India’s countryside have access to a toilet, compared with 27 percent in 2004, the Department of Drinking Water Supplysays. Ten million toilets have been built annually since 2007. More than 30 million households are waiting.
Urban dwellers aren’t spared substandard hygiene. In Mumbai, Delhi and other cities where billboards advertise the latest mobile phones and trendy young women sport Prada handbags, the water that’s piped into homes and apartments must be filtered before drinking. And in most homes it’s available only a few hours each day.
“Even the biggest cities still have that problem,” says Vishwas Udgirkar, 46, executive director of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s government and infrastructure division in New Delhi.
More unsettling, 17 percent of city residents, or 50 million people, don’t have toilets. Fewer than 10 percent of Indian cities have a sewage system. About37 percent of urban wastewater flows into the environment untreated, where such pathogens as rotavirus, campylobacter and human roundworm can spread via water, soil, food and unwashed hands.
‘Huge Challenge’
“Not attending to this has a cost,” Mehta says. “Between 2001 and ’26, we would be adding another 246 million people to the urban system. How would we meet that huge challenge is the issue.”
India is still struggling to find the best way to clean up the mess.
“A lot of money has been given for constructing the infrastructure,” says Ajith C. Kumar, an operations analyst with the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program in New Delhi. “The predominant experience has been that none of this has worked.”
The southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh is a good example. Earlier this decade, the state government helped build 2.95 million household latrines in rural areas. Residents got subsidies worth about $16 in cash plus coupons for 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of rice. Half the toilets went unused or were being used for other purposes, a February 2007 World Bank report found.
Roomier Than Homes
In the western state of Maharashtra, 1.6 million subsidized toilets were built from 1997 to 2000. About 47 percent are in use.
Many toilets are designed without thinking about who’s going to use them, says Payden (who goes by one name), the WHO’s New Delhi-based regional adviser on water, sanitation and health. Some of the new toilets were roomier than homes.
“The toilets were much stronger and safer, so they used them for storing grain instead,” she says.
Now India is trying a different kind of cash reward to encourage toilet use. TheNirmal Gram Puraskar, or “clean village prize,” gives 50,000-5 million rupees to local governments that end open defecation. Thirty-eight villages qualified in 2005. A year later, 760 villages and 9 municipalities got the prize. In 2008, more than 12,000 awards were presented.
Toilets That Pay
Santha Sheela Nair, India’s secretary of drinking water supply, is assessing another monetary incentive. In a spacious New Delhi office with a white-tiled floor and white walls, Nair thumbs through a leaflet from a desk stacked with foot-high files and books on sanitation. She stops suddenly and points excitedly to a picture of a white toilet adorned with brightly- colored writing.
“This is the first toilet in the world -- in the world -- where you use the toilet and you get paid,” Nair says.
The public toilet, in the town of Musiri in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, gives users as much as 12 U.S. cents a month for their excreta. Feces arecomposted and urine, which is 95 percent water and has already passed through the body’s own filter, the kidneys, is collected, stored in drums and used as fertilizer for bananas and other food crops in a two-year research project by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
“The day that I can use your toilet and you pay me instead of me paying you, that will be the day when we have really learned to reuse our waste,” Nair says.
Menstrual Hygiene
Nair, India’s eighth drinking-water chief in less than a decade, is passionate about her job. On this day in November, the sari-clad government veteran chimes in on baby feces, menstrual hygiene, the use of excrement as fertilizer and other topics few bureaucrats have dared to broach.
From 2001 to ’03, Nair was responsible for the water supply in Chennai, formerly called Madras, southern India’s biggest city. Then, as rural development secretary for Tamil Nadu, she helped in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.
Nair is challenging the accepted wisdom on everything from modern sewers to flushable toilets, to the value of human waste. She says Western-style toilets are inappropriate for India, especially in areas that lack fresh water and have limited funds for sewage treatment plants. Instead, she says, the country has to find cheaper, more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies.
Lunar Mission
Inspired by the successful landing in November of the Moon Impact Probe, India’s first unmanned lunar mission, Nair is looking skyward for ideas.
“In space, you have the most vulnerable situations,” she says, playing a 2-minute YouTube video of an astronaut explaining how to manage bodily functions 100,000 miles from Earth. “They are separating the urine from the feces and drying it,” she says, pointing to her computer monitor. “The urine is processed for re-drinking because they just can’t carry that much water.”
Nair says modern sewers aren’t the answer for India. The country can’t afford to waste water by flushing it down a latrine. Instead, she’s encouraging airplane-style commodes that are vacuum cleared or toilets that are attached to contained pits rather than systems that pipe the effluent miles away for treatment. In Nair’s world, recycling human excrement for use as fertilizer is preferable.
‘Our Own Devices’
“We need to invent our own devices which are cost- effective, environmentally sustainable and go with our people,” she says. “We cannot afford the things which are simply things that some civil engineer learned somewhere.”
Converting excreta that have been properly dried for 6-24 months into plant food uses less water than traditional sewage systems and is less likely to pollute waterways, Payden says.
Bartram says composted sewage that’s been handled correctly can be used in agriculture and for other beneficial purposes with negligible risk to human health. The challenge is to sanitize it so that disease-carrying organisms are eliminated.
“Different pathogens vary widely in terms of inactivation,” he says. “Large, robust parasite eggs like the human roundworm, Ascaris, tend to be the longest lived and can remain infectious for years in soil.”
Closing the Gap
The government has a goal of eliminating open defecation by 2012. Nair says it might happen earlier.
“It’s important for us to do it quickly,” she says. Right now, the number of open defecators is roughly double the number of India’s middle class. “This gap will keep widening,” she says. “That is the challenge for us.”
For the Devi family, one household in one of India’s thousands of villages, the gap has narrowed. The health and dignity of five people have improved. More of Devi’s neighbors are trying to emulate her example by installing a household latrine and washing their hands with soap.
“We have gone from home to home to talk about sanitation and cleanliness,” Devi says, standing on the bank of the Yamuna River as cattle drink from its fetid waters. “The solution to a thousand household problems is getting a toilet.”
As India strives to build on two decades of growth, the nation’s sanitation struggle reveals how complicated Devi’s goal remains -- and how damaging the failure to meet it may be.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore atj.gale@bloomberg.net
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A Balochi Beating India's Manmohan
hi Beating India's Manmohan
This picture was taken recently in Chaman, the small Pakistani town on the border with southern Afghanistan. While the US and Indian media promote terrorism in the southwestern Pakistani province ofBalochistan, a terror which is supported by US and Indian intelligence operatives using the Afghan soil, the reality on the ground is far from the image that American and Indian spinmasters wish to convey. [US think tanks are the latest entrants in the psy-ops against Pakistan, promoting the idea of the separation of resource-rich Balochistan from Pakistan.]
In this picture, a Pakistani Balochi is beating a donkey-shaped effigy of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Indians and Karzai's intelligence, with tacit approval of CIA operatives in Afghanistan, have been luring young poor Pakistani Balochis to training camps in Afghanistan and brainwashing them to launch a wave of terror inside Pakistan in the guise of a separatist ethnic insurgency. As soon as US military and intelligence landed in Afghanistan, a long-dead terrorist group called BLA, created by the Soviet KGB in the 1970s, was brought back from the dustbin of history and reorganized. The Indians helped by bringing agents from India fluent in the Urdu language. These language experts were tasked with composing press statements and sending them to Pakistani media offices across Pakistan.
To turn this into a real separatist war, unknown terrorists were sent to Quetta, the provincial capital, to target-kill non-Balochi Pakistanis in an effort to stir an ethnic backlash. There isn't much 'ethnic' difference among Pakistanis, but inept politicians have been using minor language differences, which do exist, to create the aura of different ethnicities for political reasons.
Unfortunately, former President Pervez Musharraf turned a blind eye to US, Indian and Karzai puppet regime's meddling in Pakistani Balochistan. The incumbent pro-US government of President Asif Zardari is doing the same. No one in today's Pakistani ruling structure appears willing to fend off the Americans and their Indian and Afghan poodles.
But despite all these efforts, Pakistani Balochis remain staunch Pakistanis, just like their fathers and grandfathers who fought off the Indian massacre of Pakistani migrants during Pakistan's War of Independence in 1947.
The biggest proof of this came last June, when the entire Pakistani Balochi tribe of Mari came out for the funeral of Lieutenant Safiullah Mari, who died fighting the Afghan-backed terrorists in the Pakistani tribal belt. Not only did the Maris chant pro-Pakistan slogans, the father of Lt. Baloch announced he was ready to give his other son to defend Pakistan. This was a slap in the face of terrorist feudal leaders like Harbiyar Mari, who enjoys British protection in London, and Brahamdagh Bugti, who enjoys American and Karzai's protection in Kabul. Both have been trying to radicalize the Mari tribe against their own country.
[See the video of Lt. Baloch's funeral.]
The Insider column is posted at Ahmed Quraishi’s The Lounge.
A Two-Front Threat Emerging For Pakistan
A Two-Front Threat Emerging For Pakistan
* What was India's intelligence chief doing in Afghanistan last week? Why did Pakistan support the US war if Pakistani interests were going to be trampled like this?
The moment of truth for those in Islamabad who continue to trust the Americans is nearing and might have already arrived. Pakistan needs to respond to the provocations by India and by those who are supporting India. Pakistan also needs to consider withdrawing from the coming London conference on Afghanistan if its legitimate security interests are further ignored by the United States and the United Kingdom. Additionally, Pakistani forces need to be positioned along the border with southern Afghanistan, where some elements within the US establishment seem to be planning limited incursions.
By Shireeen M Mazari
The Nation.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-A nightmare security scenario for Pakistan seems to be emerging - that of a two-front military conflict. Pakistan is already facing an internal militancy aided and abetted from Afghanistan and is threatened with all manner of likely US boots actually coming into Pakistan.
Already, the drone attacks on Pakistani soil have increased. For all these reasons, Pakistan has moved a large chunk of its forces away from its Eastern border with India and along the LoC, and moved them to the Western front along the international border with Afghanistan as well as into FATA.
Now India has upped the military ante against Pakistan after meetings between Indian officials and America's Holbrooke and Gates. Hence we are seeing the unprovoked Indian military firing at Pakistani forces across the international border, the working boundary and across the LoC, which has resulted in death and injury for Pakistani soldiers. What can possibly be the Indian intent at this time to undertake such military adventurism? Had it been given some go-ahead by the Americans?
This new military provocation comes when there seems to have been a decision made by the British and Americans to give India a major military role in Afghanistan. The two allies are all set to spring this nasty decision onto Pakistan at the international conference on Afghanistan in London at the end
of this month when it will be proposed that India train the Afghan National Army - something it is already doing at a small level covertly and on that pretext already has its operatives in Afghanistan. It is these operatives who are conducting the aid and assistance to militants within Pakistan.
In view of these developments, what are the immediate options for Pakistan which will protect its interests as well as signal an effective message to both the US and India?
First and most immediate, Pakistan needs to move its troops back to its Eastern front and cease operations in FATA. We need to distinguish between our militancy problem, which is certainly threatening and very real, but has multiple dimensions, and the misguided US 'War on Terror'. On the Western front, it needs to realign its forces along the Chaman border area with Afghanistan where it is expected US boots may enter Pakistan on the ground.
Second, it needs to tell the US in no uncertain terms that it will not tolerate these Indian military incitements and may well up the ante also choosing its own time, place and type of response.
Third, Pakistan needs to categorically refuse to participate in the London Conference if the plan to train the Afghan National Army by India is even discussed informally. In fact, under the circumstances, if India participates in the Conference, Pakistan should consider the option of boycotting it. Let us see how far the US and UK get in Afghanistan without Pakistan's active cooperation!
Fourth, it is time to demand that Indian operatives move out of Afghanistan and Indian consulates in Afghanistan along the border area with Pakistan be closed.
The fact that the Indian aggression has come immediately in the aftermath of the discussions between the Indians and visiting Americans including Defense ecretary Gates, and following on the heels of the visit to Kabul by India's DG MI, hows only too clearly the Indo-US nexus in terms of presenting Pakistan with a possible two-front threat.
* What was India's intelligence chief doing in Afghanistan last week? Why did Pakistan support the US war if Pakistani interests were going to be trampled like this?
The moment of truth for those in Islamabad who continue to trust the Americans is nearing and might have already arrived. Pakistan needs to respond to the provocations by India and by those who are supporting India. Pakistan also needs to consider withdrawing from the coming London conference on Afghanistan if its legitimate security interests are further ignored by the United States and the United Kingdom. Additionally, Pakistani forces need to be positioned along the border with southern Afghanistan, where some elements within the US establishment seem to be planning limited incursions.
By Shireeen M Mazari
The Nation.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-A nightmare security scenario for Pakistan seems to be emerging - that of a two-front military conflict. Pakistan is already facing an internal militancy aided and abetted from Afghanistan and is threatened with all manner of likely US boots actually coming into Pakistan.
Already, the drone attacks on Pakistani soil have increased. For all these reasons, Pakistan has moved a large chunk of its forces away from its Eastern border with India and along the LoC, and moved them to the Western front along the international border with Afghanistan as well as into FATA.
Now India has upped the military ante against Pakistan after meetings between Indian officials and America's Holbrooke and Gates. Hence we are seeing the unprovoked Indian military firing at Pakistani forces across the international border, the working boundary and across the LoC, which has resulted in death and injury for Pakistani soldiers. What can possibly be the Indian intent at this time to undertake such military adventurism? Had it been given some go-ahead by the Americans?
This new military provocation comes when there seems to have been a decision made by the British and Americans to give India a major military role in Afghanistan. The two allies are all set to spring this nasty decision onto Pakistan at the international conference on Afghanistan in London at the end
of this month when it will be proposed that India train the Afghan National Army - something it is already doing at a small level covertly and on that pretext already has its operatives in Afghanistan. It is these operatives who are conducting the aid and assistance to militants within Pakistan.
In view of these developments, what are the immediate options for Pakistan which will protect its interests as well as signal an effective message to both the US and India?
First and most immediate, Pakistan needs to move its troops back to its Eastern front and cease operations in FATA. We need to distinguish between our militancy problem, which is certainly threatening and very real, but has multiple dimensions, and the misguided US 'War on Terror'. On the Western front, it needs to realign its forces along the Chaman border area with Afghanistan where it is expected US boots may enter Pakistan on the ground.
Second, it needs to tell the US in no uncertain terms that it will not tolerate these Indian military incitements and may well up the ante also choosing its own time, place and type of response.
Third, Pakistan needs to categorically refuse to participate in the London Conference if the plan to train the Afghan National Army by India is even discussed informally. In fact, under the circumstances, if India participates in the Conference, Pakistan should consider the option of boycotting it. Let us see how far the US and UK get in Afghanistan without Pakistan's active cooperation!
Fourth, it is time to demand that Indian operatives move out of Afghanistan and Indian consulates in Afghanistan along the border area with Pakistan be closed.
The fact that the Indian aggression has come immediately in the aftermath of the discussions between the Indians and visiting Americans including Defense ecretary Gates, and following on the heels of the visit to Kabul by India's DG MI, hows only too clearly the Indo-US nexus in terms of presenting Pakistan with a possible two-front threat.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Indians Kill ‘Aman Ki Asha’ Campaign At IPL Auction
Indians Kill ‘Aman Ki Asha’ Campaign At IPL Auction
—None of the 11 Pakistani cricketers hired by Indian celebrities in IPL auction
—Chhota Rajan’s mafia Gang of RAW, Shiv Sena forced bidders, organizers to ignore Pak cricketers
—IPL Chief Lalit Modi dances to the tunes of Hindu Extremists, drug racketeers & match fixing mafia
—Modi emerges as Mafia’s top facilitator for drugs trafficking —IPL Chief convicted in drug cases while charged for cheating, forgery
—Shiv Sena men torched Modi’s home for pressurizing him to arrange slaying of Pak cricketers from IPL-3
—Rajan Gang’s Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu remained attached with Modi in South Africa edition of IPL
From Kapil Verma & Priyanka Joshi in Mumbai
and Smantha Phillip & Suraj Patel in Johannesburg
The Daily Mail of Pakistan
The peace dove with the name of Aman Ki Asha (Hope of Peace), flown by a local media group The Times of India, jointly with a Pakistani Media group a couple of weeks back, was slaughtered brutally here on Tuesday by the Indian Business tycoons, Showbiz and cricket celebrities when none of the 11 Pakistani cricketers’ name was even given a look at the IPL3 cricket auction giving a big blow to peace overtures through sports and left millions of Indian and international cricket fans in a big shock as even world’s most sizzling all-rounder of the world in the T-20 form of cricket Shahid Afridi found no bidders.
All-rounder Kieron Pollard was the star attraction with the bidding going into a tie-breaker. Pollard was finally bagged by Mumbai Indians for $750,000 but the amount for the tie-breaker has not been disclosed.
Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers were involved in another tie-breaker for ex-ICL player Shane Bond. The bid was finally won by Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders for $750,000(Rs 3.41 crore) but again the tie-breaker amount wasn’t disclosed. Rajasthan Royals bought ex-ICL player from Australia Damien Martyn for $100,000. West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach was bought by Deccan Chargers for $720,000. Chennai Super Kings won the bid for Sri Lankan Thissara Perera for $50,000. Rajasthan Royals bagged Australian Adam Voges for $50,000.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that the Pakistani cricketers were axed in a rather humiliated manner from the IPL through a premeditated campaign, organized jointly by RAW underworld Mafia wing and Mumbai-based extremist Hindu outfit Shiv Sena while the IPL Chief Lalit Kuma Modi was the key actor of the whole drama and played a major role in not only motivating the bidders to refrain from hiring Pakistani Cricketers but also created a variety of documentary problems and doubts about the participation of Pakistani players in the 3rd IPL.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that the move to oust Pakistani Cricketers from Indian Premier League’s 3rd session started soon after the 2nd session of IPL ended last year. However, the drive gained momentum by the end of last year when RAW directed its Underworld Mafi Gang, known as Chhot Rajan Gang to start its operation to keep Pakistani cricketers out of the IPL. These findings reveal that in the meantime, RAW also activated its other baby outfit Shiv Sena to launch a parallel ‘crusade against participation of Pakistani cricketers by persuading the IPL organizers and the bidders.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that in this direction, Chhota Rajan gang’s local chief Paulson Joseph started contacting Lalit Modi and asked him to initiate a drive to block the entry of Pakistani cricketers into IPL. These investigations also indicate the gang’s Cape Town-based South Africa Chief Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu also paid at least six visits to India and haled meetings with Lalit Modi in Mumbai to persuade him to create some technical reasons to block Pak Cricketers’ participation in the 3rd IPL. The Daily Mail’s investigation also disclose that Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu is not handling drugs related affairs in South Africa but is also the head of the betting and Match Fixing racket of the Gang and generated billions of rupees for the gang during the last IPL edition that was held in South Africa.
The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that Lalit Modi finally informed Pappu and Joseph that he could arrange certain documents related problems to keep Pak cricketers away. These findings indicate that following this, Lalit Modi on December 10, 2009 announced that the Pakistani cricketers had missed the deadline for the third IPL and the only way they can be part of the Twenty20 tournament is through the January 19 auction. Modi said the Pakistani cricketers missed the bus by failing to get visas by the December 7 deadline and the IPL franchises have already replaced them with fresh recruits. It was followed by certain visa problems by the Indian authorities for Pak players. But it appears that it was not enough as both the Rajan Gang as well the Shiv Sena militants wanted to seal-off all the possibilities of participation of Pak players.
The Daily Mail’s findings further reveal that when Modi expressed his inability to do anything more in this direction, he was threatened severely on phone by the Shiv Sena Bal Thackeray, who after losing the general elections for the third successive term, was desperate to play anti-Pakistan card to regain some popularity and thus had already announced after the tragic Mumbai terror attack that his party wont allow any Pakistani Cricketer to play in India. These Findings reveal that when Modi ignored the Shiv Sena chief’s threats, the Shiv Sena activist organized to burn Modi’s house to give him a final warning to meet their demands.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that on 19th December 2009, Shiv Sena operatives set Modi’s home, Anand Bungalow in the upscale Gandhigram Road area of Juhu, close to the ISKCON Temple, in north-west Mumbai ablaze and warned him to come up with some imitate steps to bar Pak cricketers, though it is still “officially” reported that Modi’s house caught fire due to certain electric short circuiting. But Mumbai’s underworld knows very well as to who was behind this mysterious blaze.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that this development scared Modi to the maximum and he embarked upon another journey to solve the problem he was facing. This journey it is revealed, started from Mumbai and ended up at Cape town South Africa where Modi held a detailed meeting with Rajan gang’s Pappu and forwarded him a proposal, following which, the Rajan Gang was to use its terrorizing influence to help Modi in convincing the bidders of the IPL auction to refrain from bidding for Pak players during the auction. Pappu agreed to the same while on his return, to Mumbai, Modi was able to convince Shiv Sena Chief for the same.
The daily Mail’s findings indicate that after this development, Modi started the mission of discouraging the IPL bidders, including business tycoons like Ambani and showbiz celebrities like Shlipa Shetty, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta etc. Modi tried to convince the bidders that there were very little possibilities of Pak cricketers being able to make to the IPL due to certain documents related issues and security reasons. These findings indicate that in the beginning, the bidders, particularly Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta were not convinced by Modi’s philosophy but when Shiv Sena and Rajan Gang chipped in, the trick worked and it resulted in humiliated ouster of all the aspiring Pakistani cricketers from the IPL-3
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that despite following the orders of the bosses at Lodhi Road New Delhi, the Rajan Gang didn’t miss the opportunity of making millions of dollars by winning bets over no Pak player playing in IPL-3. According to sources in betting networks, Pappu-led betting mafia of Rajan Gang won around three billion US dollars by betting on ouster of Pak players from IPL-3.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that Modi himself has been a facilitator of Chhota Rajan gang’s match fixing and drug mafia wings. These findings indicate that Modi was promoted to the current position by the Rajan gang and it was on the behest of Rajan Gang that the venue for the 2nd IPL session was shifted to South Africa from India by Lalit Modi, hiding behind the notions of security threats in India after the 26/11 incident. It is believed that the Rajan gang not only minted billions of dollars through match fixing and betting during IPL tourney last year in South Africa but huge drug deals were also finalized on the sidelines of the tournament, with the notice of Lalit Modi.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that owing to Rajan Gang’s strong hold over Modi. IPL never opted to introduce anti-match fixing practices in the IPL and infect it refused an offer by the ICC in this direction. These findings indicate that to facilitate the Pappu and company, the IPL rejected an offer to use ICC’s anti-corruption and security experts in South Africa for the tournament, preferring to use its own staff.
The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit is used for international tournaments, but the body does not make it mandatory for domestic competitions. However since it attracts highly paid leading players from all over the world, The IPL and the BCCI are bound to apply the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and ant-match fixing system.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that as the IPL landed in the hands of the underworld mafia in South Africa, the match fixing and corruption started emerging rapidly. Former Pakistan Captain Javed Miandad feels there is a serious possibility of matches being fixed in the cash-rich Twenty20 events of IPL. Miandad said the league in South Africa was witnessed to some surprising results where teams surprisingly lost from clearly winning positions. “There is a definite smell of match-fixing coming from the IPL where strange things are happening,” said Mindad.
“I don’t consider the IPL as cricket, it is a joke. It is strange that players who are not regular bowlers have taken hat-tricks in the league. Teams are losing matches from winning positions,” he said.
Miandad feels the International Cricket Council (ICC) needs to step in and check possible corruption in the event. “If at all such Twenty20 cricket leagues must be held they should be held under the direct supervision of the ICC or else there will always be fear of corruption taking place in matches,” he said.
Miandad said it was strange that the ICC’s anti-corruption unit was not present in the IPL despite the big money at stake and the number of foreign players involved in the competition.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that Lalit Modi has a history of being involved in drug trafficking and fraudulent activities. The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that In 2005, Modi figured in a power struggle that resulted in Sharad Pawar, an influential politician and national cabinet minister, ousting former Indian cricket supremo and ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya in BCCI elections .But, Modi’s bid for membership of India’s main cricket body hit a snag. The outgoing board appointed a committee to investigate drug charges against Modi when he was a student at a US university in 1985.
The Daily mail’s findings reveal that Lalit Modi was charged and pleaded guilty to drug possession, assault and kidnapping case in 1985 while he was a student in Duke University, USA. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison and came back to India after being released on probation.
In 2007 a PIL was filed in Mumbai High court challenging his position in BCCI on pretext of his criminal history. Though the court refused to unseat Modi, it asked the BCCI “to implement stringent regulatory measures so that those involved in criminal cases, not just illegal drugs but other serious charges have no place in administration”. But unsurprisingly BCCI paid no heed to the court’s advice.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveal that Lalit Modi was once at Lord’s to launch the charitable British Asian Cup but he was embarrassed to a Luke warm response as the Indian Premier League commissioner’s previous commitments to good causes were the subject of a court case in India.
These findings indicate that in an on-the-field ceremony Modi handed over a cheque for £780,000 to the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. But not all the money cleared in its bank account and Nagrik Morcha, a nongovernmental organisation, brought accusations to the Rajasthan high court in March 2008 that Modi was guilty of “cheating and forgery”. Modi was granted “anticipatory bail”, ensuring he would not be held in custody for what is otherwise a non-bailable offence.
Modi’s lawyers told the court that the cheque was merely “symbolic” of the IPL’s intention to contribute to the fund, and that all but £26,000 had reached its destination. The rest, they added, “could have been paid in total but due to financial crises two of the sponsors, namely Citibank and Kingfisher, withheld the amount due to be paid.”
The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that in February 2009, Modi got a three-week interim protection against arrest from the Bombay High Court in a criminal case against him in Rajasthan.
The High Court allowed Modi to approach appropriate court in Rajasthan for seeking further relief within three weeks, directing that he not be arrested in this period. Modi feared arrest by Rajasthan police after an FIR was lodged against him for cheating, impersonation, and fabrication of documents at Nagaur, Rajasthan on January 27, 2009.
Modi, had purchased land in Nagaur in September 2004, but it was alleged that he was not present in the office of deputy registrar when sale deed in his favour was registered.
The IPL chief therefore filed an anticipatory bail application at Bombay High Court, alleging that FIR was lodged only to “pressurise him” and stop him from contesting forthcoming elections of Rajasthan Cricket Association, of which he is the incumbent president.
—None of the 11 Pakistani cricketers hired by Indian celebrities in IPL auction
—Chhota Rajan’s mafia Gang of RAW, Shiv Sena forced bidders, organizers to ignore Pak cricketers
—IPL Chief Lalit Modi dances to the tunes of Hindu Extremists, drug racketeers & match fixing mafia
—Modi emerges as Mafia’s top facilitator for drugs trafficking —IPL Chief convicted in drug cases while charged for cheating, forgery
—Shiv Sena men torched Modi’s home for pressurizing him to arrange slaying of Pak cricketers from IPL-3
—Rajan Gang’s Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu remained attached with Modi in South Africa edition of IPL
From Kapil Verma & Priyanka Joshi in Mumbai
and Smantha Phillip & Suraj Patel in Johannesburg
The Daily Mail of Pakistan
The peace dove with the name of Aman Ki Asha (Hope of Peace), flown by a local media group The Times of India, jointly with a Pakistani Media group a couple of weeks back, was slaughtered brutally here on Tuesday by the Indian Business tycoons, Showbiz and cricket celebrities when none of the 11 Pakistani cricketers’ name was even given a look at the IPL3 cricket auction giving a big blow to peace overtures through sports and left millions of Indian and international cricket fans in a big shock as even world’s most sizzling all-rounder of the world in the T-20 form of cricket Shahid Afridi found no bidders.
All-rounder Kieron Pollard was the star attraction with the bidding going into a tie-breaker. Pollard was finally bagged by Mumbai Indians for $750,000 but the amount for the tie-breaker has not been disclosed.
Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers were involved in another tie-breaker for ex-ICL player Shane Bond. The bid was finally won by Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders for $750,000(Rs 3.41 crore) but again the tie-breaker amount wasn’t disclosed. Rajasthan Royals bought ex-ICL player from Australia Damien Martyn for $100,000. West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach was bought by Deccan Chargers for $720,000. Chennai Super Kings won the bid for Sri Lankan Thissara Perera for $50,000. Rajasthan Royals bagged Australian Adam Voges for $50,000.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that the Pakistani cricketers were axed in a rather humiliated manner from the IPL through a premeditated campaign, organized jointly by RAW underworld Mafia wing and Mumbai-based extremist Hindu outfit Shiv Sena while the IPL Chief Lalit Kuma Modi was the key actor of the whole drama and played a major role in not only motivating the bidders to refrain from hiring Pakistani Cricketers but also created a variety of documentary problems and doubts about the participation of Pakistani players in the 3rd IPL.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that the move to oust Pakistani Cricketers from Indian Premier League’s 3rd session started soon after the 2nd session of IPL ended last year. However, the drive gained momentum by the end of last year when RAW directed its Underworld Mafi Gang, known as Chhot Rajan Gang to start its operation to keep Pakistani cricketers out of the IPL. These findings reveal that in the meantime, RAW also activated its other baby outfit Shiv Sena to launch a parallel ‘crusade against participation of Pakistani cricketers by persuading the IPL organizers and the bidders.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that in this direction, Chhota Rajan gang’s local chief Paulson Joseph started contacting Lalit Modi and asked him to initiate a drive to block the entry of Pakistani cricketers into IPL. These investigations also indicate the gang’s Cape Town-based South Africa Chief Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu also paid at least six visits to India and haled meetings with Lalit Modi in Mumbai to persuade him to create some technical reasons to block Pak Cricketers’ participation in the 3rd IPL. The Daily Mail’s investigation also disclose that Ramesh Gupta alias Pappu is not handling drugs related affairs in South Africa but is also the head of the betting and Match Fixing racket of the Gang and generated billions of rupees for the gang during the last IPL edition that was held in South Africa.
The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that Lalit Modi finally informed Pappu and Joseph that he could arrange certain documents related problems to keep Pak cricketers away. These findings indicate that following this, Lalit Modi on December 10, 2009 announced that the Pakistani cricketers had missed the deadline for the third IPL and the only way they can be part of the Twenty20 tournament is through the January 19 auction. Modi said the Pakistani cricketers missed the bus by failing to get visas by the December 7 deadline and the IPL franchises have already replaced them with fresh recruits. It was followed by certain visa problems by the Indian authorities for Pak players. But it appears that it was not enough as both the Rajan Gang as well the Shiv Sena militants wanted to seal-off all the possibilities of participation of Pak players.
The Daily Mail’s findings further reveal that when Modi expressed his inability to do anything more in this direction, he was threatened severely on phone by the Shiv Sena Bal Thackeray, who after losing the general elections for the third successive term, was desperate to play anti-Pakistan card to regain some popularity and thus had already announced after the tragic Mumbai terror attack that his party wont allow any Pakistani Cricketer to play in India. These Findings reveal that when Modi ignored the Shiv Sena chief’s threats, the Shiv Sena activist organized to burn Modi’s house to give him a final warning to meet their demands.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that on 19th December 2009, Shiv Sena operatives set Modi’s home, Anand Bungalow in the upscale Gandhigram Road area of Juhu, close to the ISKCON Temple, in north-west Mumbai ablaze and warned him to come up with some imitate steps to bar Pak cricketers, though it is still “officially” reported that Modi’s house caught fire due to certain electric short circuiting. But Mumbai’s underworld knows very well as to who was behind this mysterious blaze.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that this development scared Modi to the maximum and he embarked upon another journey to solve the problem he was facing. This journey it is revealed, started from Mumbai and ended up at Cape town South Africa where Modi held a detailed meeting with Rajan gang’s Pappu and forwarded him a proposal, following which, the Rajan Gang was to use its terrorizing influence to help Modi in convincing the bidders of the IPL auction to refrain from bidding for Pak players during the auction. Pappu agreed to the same while on his return, to Mumbai, Modi was able to convince Shiv Sena Chief for the same.
The daily Mail’s findings indicate that after this development, Modi started the mission of discouraging the IPL bidders, including business tycoons like Ambani and showbiz celebrities like Shlipa Shetty, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta etc. Modi tried to convince the bidders that there were very little possibilities of Pak cricketers being able to make to the IPL due to certain documents related issues and security reasons. These findings indicate that in the beginning, the bidders, particularly Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta were not convinced by Modi’s philosophy but when Shiv Sena and Rajan Gang chipped in, the trick worked and it resulted in humiliated ouster of all the aspiring Pakistani cricketers from the IPL-3
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that despite following the orders of the bosses at Lodhi Road New Delhi, the Rajan Gang didn’t miss the opportunity of making millions of dollars by winning bets over no Pak player playing in IPL-3. According to sources in betting networks, Pappu-led betting mafia of Rajan Gang won around three billion US dollars by betting on ouster of Pak players from IPL-3.
The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that Modi himself has been a facilitator of Chhota Rajan gang’s match fixing and drug mafia wings. These findings indicate that Modi was promoted to the current position by the Rajan gang and it was on the behest of Rajan Gang that the venue for the 2nd IPL session was shifted to South Africa from India by Lalit Modi, hiding behind the notions of security threats in India after the 26/11 incident. It is believed that the Rajan gang not only minted billions of dollars through match fixing and betting during IPL tourney last year in South Africa but huge drug deals were also finalized on the sidelines of the tournament, with the notice of Lalit Modi.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that owing to Rajan Gang’s strong hold over Modi. IPL never opted to introduce anti-match fixing practices in the IPL and infect it refused an offer by the ICC in this direction. These findings indicate that to facilitate the Pappu and company, the IPL rejected an offer to use ICC’s anti-corruption and security experts in South Africa for the tournament, preferring to use its own staff.
The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit is used for international tournaments, but the body does not make it mandatory for domestic competitions. However since it attracts highly paid leading players from all over the world, The IPL and the BCCI are bound to apply the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and ant-match fixing system.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that as the IPL landed in the hands of the underworld mafia in South Africa, the match fixing and corruption started emerging rapidly. Former Pakistan Captain Javed Miandad feels there is a serious possibility of matches being fixed in the cash-rich Twenty20 events of IPL. Miandad said the league in South Africa was witnessed to some surprising results where teams surprisingly lost from clearly winning positions. “There is a definite smell of match-fixing coming from the IPL where strange things are happening,” said Mindad.
“I don’t consider the IPL as cricket, it is a joke. It is strange that players who are not regular bowlers have taken hat-tricks in the league. Teams are losing matches from winning positions,” he said.
Miandad feels the International Cricket Council (ICC) needs to step in and check possible corruption in the event. “If at all such Twenty20 cricket leagues must be held they should be held under the direct supervision of the ICC or else there will always be fear of corruption taking place in matches,” he said.
Miandad said it was strange that the ICC’s anti-corruption unit was not present in the IPL despite the big money at stake and the number of foreign players involved in the competition.
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that Lalit Modi has a history of being involved in drug trafficking and fraudulent activities. The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that In 2005, Modi figured in a power struggle that resulted in Sharad Pawar, an influential politician and national cabinet minister, ousting former Indian cricket supremo and ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya in BCCI elections .But, Modi’s bid for membership of India’s main cricket body hit a snag. The outgoing board appointed a committee to investigate drug charges against Modi when he was a student at a US university in 1985.
The Daily mail’s findings reveal that Lalit Modi was charged and pleaded guilty to drug possession, assault and kidnapping case in 1985 while he was a student in Duke University, USA. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison and came back to India after being released on probation.
In 2007 a PIL was filed in Mumbai High court challenging his position in BCCI on pretext of his criminal history. Though the court refused to unseat Modi, it asked the BCCI “to implement stringent regulatory measures so that those involved in criminal cases, not just illegal drugs but other serious charges have no place in administration”. But unsurprisingly BCCI paid no heed to the court’s advice.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveal that Lalit Modi was once at Lord’s to launch the charitable British Asian Cup but he was embarrassed to a Luke warm response as the Indian Premier League commissioner’s previous commitments to good causes were the subject of a court case in India.
These findings indicate that in an on-the-field ceremony Modi handed over a cheque for £780,000 to the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. But not all the money cleared in its bank account and Nagrik Morcha, a nongovernmental organisation, brought accusations to the Rajasthan high court in March 2008 that Modi was guilty of “cheating and forgery”. Modi was granted “anticipatory bail”, ensuring he would not be held in custody for what is otherwise a non-bailable offence.
Modi’s lawyers told the court that the cheque was merely “symbolic” of the IPL’s intention to contribute to the fund, and that all but £26,000 had reached its destination. The rest, they added, “could have been paid in total but due to financial crises two of the sponsors, namely Citibank and Kingfisher, withheld the amount due to be paid.”
The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that in February 2009, Modi got a three-week interim protection against arrest from the Bombay High Court in a criminal case against him in Rajasthan.
The High Court allowed Modi to approach appropriate court in Rajasthan for seeking further relief within three weeks, directing that he not be arrested in this period. Modi feared arrest by Rajasthan police after an FIR was lodged against him for cheating, impersonation, and fabrication of documents at Nagaur, Rajasthan on January 27, 2009.
Modi, had purchased land in Nagaur in September 2004, but it was alleged that he was not present in the office of deputy registrar when sale deed in his favour was registered.
The IPL chief therefore filed an anticipatory bail application at Bombay High Court, alleging that FIR was lodged only to “pressurise him” and stop him from contesting forthcoming elections of Rajasthan Cricket Association, of which he is the incumbent president.
India’s unwarranted knee-jerk reaction
India’s unwarranted knee-jerk reaction
Mohammad Jamil
A day after the meeting between US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier and issue of the joint statement wherein US and China had welcomed all efforts conducive to peace, stability and development in South Asia and vowed to support efforts for improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said that India did not envisage a role by a third party in what was essentially a bilateral dispute. Despite the fact that there was nothing objectionable in the joint statement Indian statement read: “The Government of India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue in accordance with the Simla Agreement. We also believe that a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can take place only in an environment free from terror or the threat of terror.” Perhaps to appease India, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s arrival in Washington on November 24th will mark the first official state visit by a foreign leader since the Obama inauguration. He went on to say that the US would acknowledge India as a world power during Manmohan Singh’s visit.
US Ambassador in India was also apologetic. To pacify India he clarified that it was not the intention to play role of a mediator but desire to see peace in South Asia. The problem is that world powers have an eye on India’s big market, and they are impressed by the sheer size, population and so-called largest democracy in the world. The US should have asked India a question as to how long it will take to resolve the issues especially the core issue of Kashmir which has remained unresolved for the last six decades. The composite dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues that had started in 2004, no progress was made on Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, and on disputes over water under Indus Basin Treaty. It means that there is not even a remote possibility of success of bilateral negotiations on the Kashmir dispute. India seems to be perfectly happy by discussing all the issues under the sky, but balks at real issues: reduction of Indian army in occupied Kashmir, working out the methodology or considering various options to resolve the core issue of Kashmir to the satisfaction of India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leadership.
In fact India does not want mediation effort by the third party because it knows that it is on a very weak wicket; and any honest mediator would ask India to honour her commitments. Even now India has taken the position that it will not restart the stalled composite dialogue till the threat of terrorism ends and there is appropriate environment. Again the question can be asked what progress had been made in the composite dialogue when there was no threat from the terrorists. India’s litany of terrorists’ threat is intended to ward off any world pressure to scale down its brutal military deployment in Kashmir, and improve its human rights record. It is a matter of record that whenever Pakistan demanded of India to expedite the matters and resolve the issues festering South Asia, India found some excuse or created circumstances to stall the dialogue. If pressed a little Indian leaders came out with statements that for India Kashmir issue was resolved in 1947 when Maharaja of Kashmir had opted to join India, but Pakistan had taken the position that it was unresolved. The question is that if there is no issue between the two countries then what is to be resolved in the dialogue?
Last year, Pranab Mukherjee in an interview had said: “India is hesitant to withdraw its army from Siachin because it does not wish to see Kargil history repeated because if India withdraws from Siachin, Pakistan would occupy it”. So far as Kashmir dispute is concerned, international community is the witness to the resolutions passed by the UN Security Council acknowledging the right of self-determination of Kashmiries. In fact, armed struggle of Kashmiris that started in 1989 and Pakistan’s quid pro quo to India’s detonating nuclear devices in 1998 had forced India to come to the negotiating table. It is true that after 2005 earthquake in NWFP and Azad Kashmir some progress was made with regard to communications to facilitate people to people contact but there was absolutely no progress on resolution of Kashmir issue. To resolve the Kashmir dispute, former President Pervez Musharraf had more than once suggested that Pakistan and India should resile from the position of Atut Ang but Indian leadership did not budge an inch from its stated position that Kashmir was an integral part of India.
The fact of the matter is that in 1948, people of Kashmir had started armed struggle with support of their brethren from across the border, and it was India that had taken the Kashmir issue to the United Nations Security Council, which had passed the resolutions stating that Kashmiris would decide to join India or Pakistan in the plebiscite to be held under the aegis of the UN. The first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had accepted the resolution and asseverated on the floor of Indian parliament that India will honour that commitment. Having all said, the US and the West should realize that India’s refusal to implement the Security Council resolution is reflective of utter disregard to the UN Security Council resolutions. Unfortunately, the US, the West, Russia and even China and the Muslim countries now ask both India and Pakistan to resolve the issue through bilateral negotiations, knowing full well that a quite a few rounds of negotiations were held during the last 60 years after short and long hiatuses between the two countries, but to no avail. They seem to have accepted India’s logic that according to Tashkent declaration in 1965 and Simla agreement signed after 1971 war between India and Pakistan, both countries are obliged to resolve the issue through bilateral negotiations.
But the world should understand that those agreements were signed under duress and do not hold ground. Secondly, article 103 of Chapter XVI of the UN Charter clearly states: “In the event of a conflict between the obligations of the members of the United Nations under the present Charter or any other international agreement, their obligation under the present charter shall prevail”. It has to be said that people to people contact, cultural exchanges and economic cooperation are not alternatives to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. It should, therefore, help resolve the Kashmir dispute to avert the impending disaster in case of war between the two atomic powers. Since 2004, Pakistan had showed flexibility though domestic considerations did not allow that to any government in the past.
But for its part, India did not show flexibility, and the only redeeming feature was that the dialogue had continued, but it was after Mumbai terrorist attack that India suspended the talks. Keeping in view India’s intransigence one could presage that India would neither give any concession nor consider any other proposal that would alter the borders or Line of Control, and would insist on settling the issue within the framework of India’s constitution. Pakistan then would have no option but to approach the United Nations for implementation of UNSC resolutions.
Mohammad Jamil
A day after the meeting between US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier and issue of the joint statement wherein US and China had welcomed all efforts conducive to peace, stability and development in South Asia and vowed to support efforts for improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said that India did not envisage a role by a third party in what was essentially a bilateral dispute. Despite the fact that there was nothing objectionable in the joint statement Indian statement read: “The Government of India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue in accordance with the Simla Agreement. We also believe that a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can take place only in an environment free from terror or the threat of terror.” Perhaps to appease India, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s arrival in Washington on November 24th will mark the first official state visit by a foreign leader since the Obama inauguration. He went on to say that the US would acknowledge India as a world power during Manmohan Singh’s visit.
US Ambassador in India was also apologetic. To pacify India he clarified that it was not the intention to play role of a mediator but desire to see peace in South Asia. The problem is that world powers have an eye on India’s big market, and they are impressed by the sheer size, population and so-called largest democracy in the world. The US should have asked India a question as to how long it will take to resolve the issues especially the core issue of Kashmir which has remained unresolved for the last six decades. The composite dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues that had started in 2004, no progress was made on Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, and on disputes over water under Indus Basin Treaty. It means that there is not even a remote possibility of success of bilateral negotiations on the Kashmir dispute. India seems to be perfectly happy by discussing all the issues under the sky, but balks at real issues: reduction of Indian army in occupied Kashmir, working out the methodology or considering various options to resolve the core issue of Kashmir to the satisfaction of India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leadership.
In fact India does not want mediation effort by the third party because it knows that it is on a very weak wicket; and any honest mediator would ask India to honour her commitments. Even now India has taken the position that it will not restart the stalled composite dialogue till the threat of terrorism ends and there is appropriate environment. Again the question can be asked what progress had been made in the composite dialogue when there was no threat from the terrorists. India’s litany of terrorists’ threat is intended to ward off any world pressure to scale down its brutal military deployment in Kashmir, and improve its human rights record. It is a matter of record that whenever Pakistan demanded of India to expedite the matters and resolve the issues festering South Asia, India found some excuse or created circumstances to stall the dialogue. If pressed a little Indian leaders came out with statements that for India Kashmir issue was resolved in 1947 when Maharaja of Kashmir had opted to join India, but Pakistan had taken the position that it was unresolved. The question is that if there is no issue between the two countries then what is to be resolved in the dialogue?
Last year, Pranab Mukherjee in an interview had said: “India is hesitant to withdraw its army from Siachin because it does not wish to see Kargil history repeated because if India withdraws from Siachin, Pakistan would occupy it”. So far as Kashmir dispute is concerned, international community is the witness to the resolutions passed by the UN Security Council acknowledging the right of self-determination of Kashmiries. In fact, armed struggle of Kashmiris that started in 1989 and Pakistan’s quid pro quo to India’s detonating nuclear devices in 1998 had forced India to come to the negotiating table. It is true that after 2005 earthquake in NWFP and Azad Kashmir some progress was made with regard to communications to facilitate people to people contact but there was absolutely no progress on resolution of Kashmir issue. To resolve the Kashmir dispute, former President Pervez Musharraf had more than once suggested that Pakistan and India should resile from the position of Atut Ang but Indian leadership did not budge an inch from its stated position that Kashmir was an integral part of India.
The fact of the matter is that in 1948, people of Kashmir had started armed struggle with support of their brethren from across the border, and it was India that had taken the Kashmir issue to the United Nations Security Council, which had passed the resolutions stating that Kashmiris would decide to join India or Pakistan in the plebiscite to be held under the aegis of the UN. The first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had accepted the resolution and asseverated on the floor of Indian parliament that India will honour that commitment. Having all said, the US and the West should realize that India’s refusal to implement the Security Council resolution is reflective of utter disregard to the UN Security Council resolutions. Unfortunately, the US, the West, Russia and even China and the Muslim countries now ask both India and Pakistan to resolve the issue through bilateral negotiations, knowing full well that a quite a few rounds of negotiations were held during the last 60 years after short and long hiatuses between the two countries, but to no avail. They seem to have accepted India’s logic that according to Tashkent declaration in 1965 and Simla agreement signed after 1971 war between India and Pakistan, both countries are obliged to resolve the issue through bilateral negotiations.
But the world should understand that those agreements were signed under duress and do not hold ground. Secondly, article 103 of Chapter XVI of the UN Charter clearly states: “In the event of a conflict between the obligations of the members of the United Nations under the present Charter or any other international agreement, their obligation under the present charter shall prevail”. It has to be said that people to people contact, cultural exchanges and economic cooperation are not alternatives to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. It should, therefore, help resolve the Kashmir dispute to avert the impending disaster in case of war between the two atomic powers. Since 2004, Pakistan had showed flexibility though domestic considerations did not allow that to any government in the past.
But for its part, India did not show flexibility, and the only redeeming feature was that the dialogue had continued, but it was after Mumbai terrorist attack that India suspended the talks. Keeping in view India’s intransigence one could presage that India would neither give any concession nor consider any other proposal that would alter the borders or Line of Control, and would insist on settling the issue within the framework of India’s constitution. Pakistan then would have no option but to approach the United Nations for implementation of UNSC resolutions.
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