Bloscope Bonanaza: Chettiar Chidamparam Steals your Money, Livelihood and Life. Twenty Five Percent Job Cut Threat Exploits Indian Economy as RBI and FINMIN Open the Floodgates of Relief and Concession. Parliament Bypassed to Enhance SEZ and FDI. Superslave Manmohan Appeases the Corporate MNC Heads! Hindutva Superpower Does Everything to Kill the Masses. Thakre Defends Hindutva Bomb!Time for Homosexuality! Media Mogul Murdoch Preaches Against Protectionism and Opposses Barrack hussein Obama!
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 99
Bernanke Says the U.S. Needs to Maintain a Role in Mortgage Securities
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sketched out a blueprint for handling the mortgage-securitization crisis -- an issue both presidential candidates have cited as a priority.
Speaking to a mortgage-finance symposium in Berkeley, Calif., by videoconference Friday, Mr. Bernanke said policy makers may need to maintain a key role in mortgage securitization regardless of the fate determined for government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Among the options he outlined was creating a government bond insurer for mortgage funding.
"Government likely has a role to play in supporting mortgage securitization, at least during periods of high financial stress," Mr. Bernanke said.
Fear factor: Assam limps back with caution
IBNLive.com - 2 hours ago
Guwahati: Thursday's serial blasts have shaken Guwahati like never before. Parts of the city were under curfew as unruly mobs protested against the terror strike.
Times Online
Euphoria alone won’t win the White House for Barack Obama
Times Online - 19 hours ago
The roar of engines and flashing lights of 71 police motorbikes herald the arrival of Barack Obama in Kissimmee where, on an unusually cold Florida night, a vast, expectant crowd is waiting for him.
The greatest political show on earth BBC News
Uganda: Obama Assassination; It's Time to Pray AllAfrica.com
Telegraph.co.uk - Times of India - International Herald Tribune - The Associated Press
Barack Obama: An 'improbable' journey into history
The Associated Press - 1 hour ago
CHICAGO (AP) - It was just before midnight last November when Barack Obama stepped on stage in a darkened auditorium in Iowa, trailing in the polls, taking on one of the biggest names in Democratic politics - and facing a make-or-break moment.
Obama makes a final pitch in radio address guardian.co.uk
An Australian working in the Republican camp The Age
McCain's veep choice sailed into a holy gale
The Associated Press - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - The lower 48 haven't seen the last of Sarah Palin, win or lose. The presidential campaign has had an odd effect on Palin's unsettled place in political life.
Will Sarah Palin's charm work in US polls? NDTV.com
Win or Lose, Many See Palin as Future of Party New York Times
Reuters India - Times of India - International Herald Tribune - guardian.co.uk
all 1,336 news articles » ?????? ??? »
News Line 365
Nokia N79 launched in India, an ultimate phone for entertainment
Mobiletor.com - 30 Oct 2008
Nokia unveiled N79 a new sleek phone that adds to the NSeries range of multimedia phone that combines bright and customizable design with a complete package of multimedia computer.
Nokia N79 - Another Nseries Phone launched in India TechShout!
Nokia Rolls-Out ‘N79’ In The India @ Rs 22939 TopNews
News Line 365 - Stock Watch - IT Examiner - Indiatimes
all 10 news articles »
Govt nod for ‘Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded ...
TopNews - 11 hours ago
The government has decided to enact a legislation relating to the protection and utilization of Intellectual Property in the Public Funded Research and Development.
Cabinet nod for Bill giving scientists share in IPRs Hindu
Royalty share for scientists Calcutta Telegraph
Boston Globe
China: Feed makers defied rule in adding chemical
The Associated Press - 2 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) - Animal feed makers deliberately added an industrial chemical to their products, ignoring a year-old government rule meant to protect China's food supply, a government official said.
China tightens control over animal feed amid new melamine scare RIA Novosti
Animal feed scare as toxin found in eggs Sydney Morning Herald
AFP - International Herald Tribune - BBC News - China Daily
all 1,999 news articles »
Former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who holds the moon mission close to his heart, today expressed happiness over the first photographs of Earth taken by the terrain mapping camera on board Chandrayaan-1.
Hindutva Superpower Nuclear launched at last! But tragically enough the Periphery may not prosper if the CORE is Sick! FREEsenSEX Swings on Tune of DOW ZONES FREEFALL street may be the best hint.
How do you feel friends? What about the Americanised Bastardised Money Market?
Media Mogul Murdoch Preaches Against Protectionism and Opposses Barrack hussein Obama!
Evidence of a recession piled ever higher on Friday, with new figures showing Americans are spending less and gloomy about the economy, w hile the government signaled it won't buy stock in the financing arms of auto companies to prop them up. The Commerce Department reported consumer spending dropped a sharp 0.3 per cent in September while their incomes, the fuel for future spending, managed only a small 0.2 per cent gain. That followed a report a day earlier that the US economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter. The accepted definition of a recession is two straight quarters of a shrinking economy. Closing out the worst October in 21 years but one of the best weeks ever, investors did some bargain shopping on Wall Street, snapping up stocks that have plunged in value. The Dow Jones industrial average gained nearly 145 points.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Bush administration sent signals to automakers and other industries hoping for government purchases of their stock that they probably won't qualify for the program. Administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program is still being put together, said it was unlikely the auto companies would be able to qualify for direct government purchases of stock in their auto-financing arms as part of the $250 billion stock purchase program. They could still be eligible for government purchases of bad assets, such as auto loans, under a separate program that is expected to spend $100 billion initially. The government plans to buy stock in banks and lift bad assets on their books as part of the financial system bailout.
But we have to land on either MOON or MARS! We have to follow the washington dictations. we have to justify the Indo US Nuke deal and Strategic Realliance in US lead. Indian Polity, NDA UPa Left combined stands united rock Solid behind every fascist Imperilist move intiated by White House, Pentagon, World Bank, IMF, WTO, NASA, GATT, EC!
After infusing Rs 1,85,000-crore liquidity into the banking system, the RBI on Saturday effected yet another 100 basis points cut in cash reserve ratio (CRR) and a 0.5 per cent reduction in key short-term lending (repo) rate, signaling softening of interest rates to prop up growth. The one percentage point cut in CRR, the amount which banks have to park with the apex bank, has been brought down to 5.5 per cent to infuse additional liquidity of Rs 40,000 crore into the system. The CRR cut will be in two tranches and the first one of 0.5 per cent will be effective retrospectively from October 25 and the second from November 8.
Stocks rose on Friday as foreign institutional investors turned net buyers after a straight fortnight of fierce selling.
FIIs were net buyers of Indian equities for Rs 1,237 crore on Friday, while domestic institutions were net sellers for Rs 116 crore.
The Sensex was up 743.55 points or 8.22 per cent to close at 9788.06, and the broader Nifty was up seven per cent at 2,885.6.
The domestic market was also catching up with world markets, which looked up on Thursday when markets were closed here, said analysts.
Taking October as the reference month, the largest increase in FII investments was between 2004 and 2005 when net investments by FIIs rose by $ 36 billion. “But the Sensex in October 2005 was at the 8000-levels, which we are approaching now. The bull run started in 2004 with FII investments, and there is a fear that the bear run led by these FIIs, could take the Sensex back to the October 2004 level of 5700,” said a senior official with a stock broking firm.
If the Indian stocks are being both taken up and pulled down by FIIs, this indicates there is little depth in our markets, said Mr Arun Kejriwal who heads Kejriwal Research and Information Services. “Our markets are not mature. We have allowed FIIs to dictate both the rise and fall of our markets.”
How much more will FIIs sell, and how much will Indian stocks sink? Experts suggest shunning real estate instruments. A sense of sinking has suddenly gripped the local market as the Wall Street financial market crisis increasingly appeared an all-encompassing bottomless pit.
On the other hand, a week after its launch, Chandrayaan-1 is now more than halfway towards the Moon with the fourth orbit raising manoeuvre executed flawlessly The Earth as viewed by the terrain-mapping camera on board Chandrayaan-1, from a distance of 70,000km. (PTI)
More Pictures
at 7.38am on Wednesday. The mission lifted off at Sriharikota on October 22. ( Watch )
Isro's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) director S K Shivakumar told TOI during the critical manoeuvre, that the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for nearly three minutes resulting in the Moon-bound Chandrayaan-1 entering into a more elliptical orbit.
It's apogee (farthest point from Earth) lies at 2,67,000km, while the perigee (nearest point to Earth) is at 465km. Thus, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's present orbit extends more than half the way to the Moon, he said.
In this orbit, the spacecraft takes about six days to go round the Earth once. Shivakumar said the next firing will be on Monday which will further raise the spacecraft's altitude to 3,84,000km. The motor will be fired for 2.5 minutes. "This will be the last earthbound firing before the spacecraft enters the lunar orbit on November 8," he said.
He said for the much-awaited lunar orbit insertion (LOI) on November 8, which will take place at 5pm, the engine will be fired for 800 seconds. Though Shivakumar says all the manoeuvres are equally crucial, others in the Chandrayaan team say the LOI will be the most nail-biting and nerve-racking. Even a minor deviation in the timing of the engine's firing can doom the mission, they say.
Shivakumar, often called the architect of India's space communications, said that contrary to earlier plans, no shipborne communication terminals were used for the Moon mission as it was not considered necessary.
It is quite a Bloscope Bonanza on the Corporate occassion of Happy birthday Aishwarya Rai Bachchan! The Bacchan Bahu is the most Durable commodity in Money Market today!Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who turned 35 on Saturday, celebrated her birthday shooting for Mani Ratnam's film 'Ravan' in Kerala. In Karan Johar’s ‘Dostana’ that releases next month, the Bollywood hunks and lead actors, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham, pretend to be a couple in a bid to rent an apartment in Miami. Madhur Bhandarkar’s recent release, Fashion, in one of its sub-plots, has Harsh Chayya and Samir Soni play a homosexual fashion designer-couple. It is time for Homosexuality!
Mind you! Chettiar Gangsters of LPG steals your Pocket! Your livelihhod! Your savings! Your Home! Your Land! And Your Life! You may not defend your self. As the Constitution of India is killed. Democracy turned into IPL or ICL Cricket Reality Show and the Parliament has become the BIG BOSS House anchored by Shantiniketan DON!
ASSOCHAM threat of Twenty Percent Job Cut works miracle as RBI and FINMIN open the Floodgates of relief and concessions unprecedented to feed the Money Machine living on our Blood, Our Flesh and our Bone! You never know when your savings, salary and pension will go to Mutual Funds. I had to pay RS 842 for a default of an EMI amounting Rs 2021, as my account is changed and ECI change is delayed by the concerned bank technical failure. It is not my fault. but I had to pay the penalty ! I could go to the Consumer Court. But the proceeding is so lengthy! We have to pay so much and so long for our smal loans! But RBI is liberal enough to come with cuts in RR and Repo rates so repeatedly just to bail out the top guns of India Incs!
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will meet top business and corporate leaders here on Monday to explore the options for limiting the impac
t of global financial crisis on the Indian economy facing slowdown.
According to sources, Industry leaders who are expected to attend the meeting include Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Shashi Ruia, KP Singh and Naresh Goyal.
Presidents of the three apex chambers including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) will also participate in the meeting.
As a prelude to the meeting with the Prime Minister, the CII on Friday held a meeting of 16 past Presidents to finalise recommendations for the government.
Just see the global Recession Scene and assess the rle of Indian Ruling Hegemony playing all out to save the capitalists!
Shares in Asia and Europe fell on Friday, heading for their worst month ever, while the low-yielding yen surged as Japan's interest rate cut failed to erase concerns about the deteriorating global economic outlook.
The Bank of Japan joined a global easing cycle by trimming interest rates by 20 basis points to 0.3 per cent, but disappointed many who had expected a bigger quarter point cut.
The move followed the Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates to 1 per cent -- its lowest level since June 2004 -- to stave off a prolonged recession. China, Hong Kong and Taiwan also lowered the cost of borrowing this week, with the euro zone, Australia and Britain seen following suit next week.
However, investors feared a round of rate cuts was not enough to stem the flow of worsening corporate earnings and bolster consumer consumption in major economies which might be already in recession.
The Parliament is bypassed to enhance 26 percent Insurance FDI to maximum 49 percent. SEZ drive goes on despite nandigram, singur and Kalingnagar Insurrections!
Now, the Superslave Washington planted Prime Minisiter meets the Greedy Tycoons to oil the Money Machine further.
Contrarily, we get no relief!
Hindutva sUPER POWR does everything to kill the masses. North India Identity in Maharashtra is endangered much more as RSS Ally Bal Thakre defends the Hindutva Bomb!
What Hindutva!We have Experienced a Month Long Durga Puja Festival sponsered by the Market Forces. Durga is an incarnation for mass destruction of Indigenous communities in india. Now, we have been witnessing Immersion of Kali for three days! Circular Rly cancels all trains for every Immersion occassion. it will remain cancelled as well on Chhath!
No other Religion is so liberal to play with religious belief of the people as we witness in Hindutva. Market forces invoke the Incarnation of EROTICA. Filmstars are made Idols of Gods and goddesses! Ressistance Leaders are made Asuras. As they made a MAHISASHUR of Ms Mamata Bannerjee. As and in the same manner as CPIM declares Taslima out or brnds Mahashweta Debi as mNaxalite!
Every Puja has its Time Limit. But the Corporate Puja is unlimited as the Shopping Mall, Multi Ples, Promoter, MNC, Retail Chain combined has become the best expression of HINDUTVA allied with fascism as well as Corporate Imperialism! Public Nuisence is allowed to creat disturbance in Normal Life all in the name of Religion. Obscene Idols are used to worship the most revered gods and goddesses and you call it HINDUTVA!
Coming out in support of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and other Malegaon blasts accused, Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray lashed out at pro-Hindutva elements for "disowning" them and asked the legal community to come forward to defend the trio. On the other hand, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane has said that youth in Maharashtra should get their due share of jobs in industries set up in the state. Stressing that industries in Maharashtra should try to give at least eighty per cent of its jobs to youths in the state, Rane said that such demands for 'sons of the soil' should be made through democratic means and not by resorting to violence. Rane was speaking at a function in Thane on Friday after inaugurating the Malwani Jatrotsav, an annual festival held across Mumbai and Thane. At het same time ,The Hindu Mahasabha has decided to provide legal aid to the Malegaon blast suspects from Pune — Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay and Sameer Kulkarni — and not the umbrella organization Abhinav Bharat of which the two are members. This was confirmed to The Indian Express today by Himani Savarkar, national president of Hindu Mahasabha, also based in Pune. Both the accused refused to hire lawyers when produced before the Nashik court on Wednesday. Savarkar is the daughter of Gopal Godse, brother of Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin. She was married to late Ashok Savarkar, nephew of freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had launched Abhinav Bharat before Independence for raising an armed struggle against the British government. The organisation was dissolved in 1952. Savarkar claimed that she had become the national president of Abhinav Bharat only eight months ago and did not know anything about the website of the organisation, she said.
Funniest newsbreak! The state unit of Congress in Maharashtra on Saturday refuted the charge that the party was pursuing an agenda to split Shiv Sena votes by using MNS chief Raj Thackeray. We never differentiate between NDA and UPA tagged with the Hypocrite most , Indian Parliamentary Communists and socialists along with the gandhians! These are different faces of hindutva!
What a HATE Campaign launched.
See this report:
ULFA, Bangladesh's DGFI join hands to wreak havoc
Sumon K Chakrabarti / CNN-IBN
New Delhi: The serial bomb blasts in four cities of Assam on Thursday point to a new chapter of terror by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
The investigating agencies say that ULFA is being backed by Bangaldesh's military intelligence wing, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) which has been modelled on Pakistan's ISI.
Chief of Bangladesh's Army General Moeen Uddin Ahmed has been at the centre of India's diplomatic efforts in Bangladesh in the last eight months.
Indian agencies say DGFI's head till early this month Major General ATM Amin has always been close to ISI. Major General ATM Amin was also instrumental in giving advanced training in bomb making to a new batch of ULFA cadres in Maximhat near Chittagong in from April to June this year.
The camp also trained new boys of other tribal insurgent groups from North-East and West Bengal like the All Tripura Tiger Force and Kamtapur Liberation Organisation.
"The ISI and the DGFI are behind these things. Their new strategy is to use the local outfits. They design and plan the entire thing," GM Srivastav, former ADG (Ops), Assam Police, says.
Indian investigators allege that several separatist militant groups from North-East are flexing their muscle from hideouts in Dhaka.
According to a list given by India to Bangladesh, nearly 100 insurgent camps, hideouts and safe houses of militant groups operating in the North-East are based in Bangladesh.
The document clearly shows that the ULFA leads the pack of separatist groups that operate from Bangladesh. The group also maintains seven active training camps in Bangladesh and its chief Paresh Barua is also hiding there.
"If you look at the history of violence in Assam perpetrated by ULFA from 80s, there have been a number of blasts people have died in large numbers," Srivastav says.
ULFA's character is also changing. The group's armed wings do not recruit only Assamese men anymore. They hire anyone who will carry out their agenda, for a price and their commander-in-chief Paresh Barua insists that the new band of boys don't discuss political ideology in the training camp.
While insurgency has degenerated into urban terrorism, now the ULFA has gained the eyeballs and attention they have craved for several years.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ulfa-bangladeshs-dgfi-join-hands-to-wreak-havoc/77251-3.html
Indian TV Channels are the best Tool of Hindutva with every bit of Astrology, Comedy, reality show, Soap Opera, Laughter Show and crime!
Round the Clock Hindutva! round the Clock Manusmriti! round the clock Aparteid! round the clock LPG! round the clock HATRED Campaign Iconised! Against Muslims! Against Untouchables! Against Blacks! Against Indigenous and Abooriginal communities !
Cast Hindu rituals and Myths, superstitions with Cocktail linguistics phonetics desi plus English is projected well as Americanised Indian Culture of super Power FREEsenSEX India!
Now see another Hindutva Version of the Tragedy on NDTV!
Assam police unprepared for crisis?
Bano Haralu
Saturday, November 01, 2008, (Bongaigaon, Assam)
A five-minute delay would have spelt disaster on Thursday in the heart of Bongaigaon town. But the action of an alert shopkeeper who informed a constable of an abandoned bike on AOC road saved the day.
"I constantly monitor all cars and motorcycles parked out side my shop for unattended articles or items. In this case, the man saw me, and came into my shop as well. My suspicion grew after I found the bike lying there for over an hour and then I alerted the constable," said Banthia, the shopkeeper.
A bomb was found attached to this bike on AOC Road which was moved in the nick of time to a safe location. Soon after, the police removed the device encased in an ammunition box from the bike's carrier. Later, it exploded.
The explosion synchronised with the timing of the blasts in Guwahati, Kokrajhar and Barpeta that killed 77 people and injured over 300 persons.
"It was our fortune that we could shift the motorbike to another location. We did not have any idea at what time it will explode. It is natural for us because we don't have any expertise in this regard. We have to depend on the Army disposal squad usually. We were waiting for them after detaching the bomb but it bomb exploded," said Bapreta Lachit Baruah, Superintendent of Police.
The police response may have saved the day but it still exposes a big handicap the forces face in the area where they have been fighting militancy for over two decades.
Bridges, railway tracks and oil pipelines of the Bongaigaon Oil Refinery in the area have long been targets by the Bodos and the ULFA militants, but the government's response has been one of indifference.
Three years ago, a sub inspector in Bongaigaon district died while diffusing a bomb but since then no one has come to replace him.
"We want a strong bomb disposal team and a bomb trailer also. This is a bomb prone area and after Guwahati this is the premier township in lower Assam," said Bapreta Lachit Baruah.
Perhaps the motorcycle will hold a clue. With the chassis and engine number now being traced back to an automobile shop in Guwahati, police are hopeful that this will lead to revealing the identity of the group.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080070782&ch=11/1/2008%201:02:00%20PM
"The entire Hindu community should support the Sadhvi, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni who are being framed by the ATS," Bal Thackeray said in his trademark fiery editorial in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana'.
Thackeray said he did not support any kind of terrorism that "weakens the country and we regret the loss of life in the Malegaon incident.
"But if the pseudo secularists in the country are supportive of Afzal Guru (Parliament attack convict), why should we not love and be proud of Sadhvi Pragya, Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni?"
"Every day Islamic terrorists are planting bombs to kill Hindus in India. The latest blasts in Assam too were engineered by Bangladeshi migrants. If a Sadhvi Pragya or a Ramesh Upadhyay or a Samir Kulkarni is born in the present milieu, they cannot be blamed," it added.
Alleging that the ATS machinery was being used at the behest of the Congress which is practicing politics of Muslim appeasement, it said, "the arrests of cultured and educated individuals in connection with the Malegaon blasts is an effort to crush Hindus to please Muslim fanatics in the country."
The editorial also lambasted pro-Hindutva organisations for what it called "disowning" the trio. "If Chhatrapati Shivaji and Veer Savarkar were alive today, they would suffer bouts of depression to see the passive tolerance of Islamic intimidation by Hindus," the Sena chief said.
The editorial ends with a poser. "If a Majid Memon puts on the black coat to defend brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in a court of law, can we expect another Memon to stand up to argue for Sadhvi Pragya, Upadhyay and Kulkarni?"
SYDNEY: A Democrat in the White House after next week's presidential election could usher in a round of protectionism that would do further damage to
the world economy, media baron Rupert Murdoch warned Saturday.
The chairman and chief executive of US-based News Corp. said imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports could be the blue touch paper for a trade war.
"For the past three or four years some Democrats have been threatening to do things like put on extra tariffs (against Chinese imports) if they don't change their currency," he told The Australian newspaper.
"If it happened, it could set off retaliatory action which would certainly damage the world economy seriously."
Australian-born Murdoch, who is now a US citizen, said that if senator Barack Obama won the presidency he could be pressured to implement protectionist measures.
"Presidents don't often behave exactly as the campaign might have suggested because they become prisoners of all sort of things - mainly circumstances and events," he said. Murdoch labelled as "rubbish" Obama's plan to give tax rebates of 95 percent of Americans. "Forty percent don't pay taxes, so how can he give them a tax cut?" he said.
Murdoch said a rise in protectionism "could add to all sorts of tensions in the world financial system and the world trading system and eventually all the way down to employment."
He warned against believing it was in the power of governments to heal the financial system. "You are going to find that the politicians are very limited in what they can do: they can make it worse but they can't stop it."
WBIC asks all parties to appear for hearing on Tata deal
2008-11-01 [15:19:00 hrs]
Following the Calcutta High Court’s stay on its order to disclose the details of the Singur deal between Tata Motors and the Bengal government under an RTI appeal, the West Bengal Information Commission (WBIC) has requested all parties involved to appear before it on November 19 for a hearing.
The WBIC letter has been sent to 11 parties, including the chief secretary, principal secretary (commerce and industries), managing director, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee and Tata Motors Ltd.
“We have asked all to send in their written submissions by November 10. While granting a stay on full disclosure of the deal in the public domain, the HC directive had asked us to hold a hearing in which Tata Motors would also be represented,” WBIC secretary Nandan Roy said on Friday.
On September 12, the HC had restrained the government and the WBIDC from making the two annexures of the agreement public, which they had signed with Tata Motors on the Singur project. The automaker had taken the government and the WBIDC to court after the latter posted the text of the “general” agreement on its website upon the direction from the WBIC. The commission had received an RTI plea for such disclosure.
The Tatas’ lawyer had argued that the WBIC had violated the RTI Act, 2005 by asking the state to display the agreement, citing Section 11(1) of the Act which states in case a third party other than the petitioner and the government is involved — in this case Tata Motors — a submission from is needed for any information to be revealed. The second argument was that the agreement between the three parties was a “trade secret”, and that the Nano small car project was in effect a private commercial venture.
Second airport to come up in Howrah
2008-11-01 [15:10:00 hrs]
The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBIA) might finally be relieved of the heavy traffic of passengers with the proposal of a second airport coming up in Howrah.
Speaking at a function in Howrah yesterday, Subhash Chakraborty, West Bengal Transport Minister said, “There has been a considerable increase of passengers at the NSCBIA and so it was necessary to develop another airport and Howrah was the appropriate place for the purpose.”
Laying the foundation stone of a bus terminus at Ramrajatala in Howrah, Chakraborty informed, “Currently, a consultancy agency deputed by the state government is doing the survey work and once they give the report, the whole project will be finalised. There is land belonging to the Eastern Railway beside the Kona Expressway, but there is some dispute with the land and so we are thinking of some other land. We have directed all the MPs and the MLAs of the district to look for land and once they give a report, we will finalise it.
When asked on why Howrah has been chosen for Kolkata’s second airport, Chakraborty said, “Howrah is the twin city of Kolkata and an airport in this town was necessary. Moreover Howrah's proximity to Kolkata will also help in developing this airport.”
Buddha welcomes north indians, minorites to WB
2008-11-01 [15:03:00 hrs]
Calling the spat between the north Indians and Maharashtrians as “parochialism”, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has assured that such incidents will never occur in the state.
Addressing a gathering of minorities at the foundation laying ceremony of an Urdu-medium school in Rajabazar, Bhattacharjee wondered as to how such restrictions could be imposed within ones own country.
“No one can say that people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar cannot come to Kolkata. The situation in West Bengal and Kolkata is different. We are proud that Kolkata is a metropolitan city,” he said.
The chief minister very clearly expressed his displeasure over the schism that has occurred due to the communal strife in various parts of the country.
“I cannot imagine such a thing happening in West Bengal where Muslims and Christians are attacked. Earlier they were destroying mosques, now they are burning churches,” he said.
Bhattacharjee said he has written to the Centre for taking action against the people involved in such crimes.
Talking about the condition of minorities in the state, Bhattacharjee said the government was aware that minorities in the state were lagging behind even before the Sachar Committee report was published.
About 25 per cent of the population in the state are minorities and they are lagging behind because of historical reasons, he added.
“For three years repeatedly I have asked the Centre to have a sub-plan for the development of minorities. But the Centre did not respond and so we have come up with the minority action plan in 12 districts across the state where the Muslim population is high,” said Bhattacharjee implying that the state government is keen on the development of the minorities.
The chief minister added that in West Bengal the state government has spent the maximum resources for the development of the minorities in the state compared to any other state in the country.
Rajasthan-Bengal Maitri Paishad
As the country is being torn apart on the basis of regional identities, the CPM is all set to keep such sentiments within the state at bay. This time, it is the Rajasthani community, which the Marxists intend to impress in Kolkata. The first step towards this was the formation of the Rajasthan-Bengal Maitri Paishad that will be formally launched on November 3.
RBI cuts CRR by 1%, repo rate by 0.5%
Home, consumer and corporate loan rates are likely to ease in the near future, with RBI announcing a slew of monetary measures including a one per cent cut in cash reserve and stautory liquidity ratios besides a 0.5 per cent cut in its short term lending rate.
The CRR, the percentage of amount banks are required to keep with the apex bank, has been cut in two tranches of 0.5 per cent effective from October 25 and November 8 to infuse Rs 40,000 crore in to the banking system.
The central bank had already cut CRR by 2.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent last month injecting Rs one lakh crore in to the system. With this cut, the apex bank could have injected Rs 1.4 lakh crore through CRR cut which is now pegged at 5.5 per cent.
The SLR, which is the amount banks have to keep with the RBI in the form of cash, gold or approved securities, was cut temporarily by one per cent earlier to 24 per cent and this cut has been made permanent effective from Novebmber 8.
The RBI also cut its key short term repo rate, the rate at which Reserve Bank lends overnight funds to bank, by 0.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent. Last month repo rate was cut by 1 per cent from 9 per cent to 8 per cent.
With today's measures along with several monetary steps taken last month, the apex bank has so far injected over Rs 2.5 lakh crore in to the system.
Hailing the policy measures, bankers said that they would soon look at reducing their lending and deposit rates in the near future.
Economists said the slew of measures would help to prop up growth, particulalry considering that the inflation has started falling drastically on the back of declining global crude oil and other commodity prices.
RBI's move to help SMEs to get affordable credit
The Reserve Bank has addressed the problem of affordable credit for small and medium enterprises by cutting reserve ratios and short term
lending rate, Repo, the Prime Minister's economic panel said on Saturday.
"Credit was getting costlier for SMEs as large companies were managing from their internals. From the cut, their problem has been addressed," Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman Suresh Tendulkar said.
He said liquidity was getting tighter last week, prompting RBI to inject additional liquidity.
Inter-bank call money rates have jumped last week on tighter money supply. The rates closed at 17.5-18 per cent in the weekend.
"I think last week liqudity position was getting tighter, quite clearly. It was necessary therefore to that additonal liquidity is injected into the system. So the cut is a right move," Tendulkar said.
He said the rates cut will not fuel inflation as prices were the problem on the cost side and by the rate cut the costs are expected to come down.
"Demand is there. The problem was cost side, so by the rate cut the costs are expected to come down. International commodity prices are also coming down. So the rate cut will not impact inflation," the noted economist said.
He said the panel's forecast of economic growth rate would remain unchanged at 7.7 per cent so far and it remains unchanged. We may relook at it after looking at FDI and other figures.
Rajiv Kumar, Director of economic think-tank ICRIER, said along with improving the investment sentiments, the RBI measures will boost growth, which has slowed down.
Foreign law firms set to operate in India: CJI
Foreign law firms would soon be allowed to operate from India and the Bar Council shall not be able to resist their entry, says Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan.
"I don't think the Bar Council of India can continue to resist (the proposal to allow foreign law firms to operate in India)," the Chief Justice said here last evening while delivering the keynote address on 'Judicial Reforms in India' organised by the Indo-EU Business Forum.
"I cannot give you a time-frame but this (the proposal) is being handled at the senior level and it will be done," the CJI said.
Law minister H R Bhardwaj had recently said that the legal fraternity in India should view the possibility of the entry of foreign law firms as an opportunity to grow and enjoy the ‘fruits of litigation’ by setting up partnership firms.
Asked if UK law firms can be allowed to do transactional work with the objective of facilitating foreign investment in India, Justice Balakrishnan said, "It should be decided by the BCI. I am sure it will come soon. Discussion between the BCI and its British counterpart has started. It may happen shortly and it will be helpful."
India's High Commissioner to the UK Shiv Shankar Mukherjee struck an optimistic note saying ‘of course it is going to happen’.
Justice Balakrishnan also dwelt at length on the large number of cases pending in Indian courts and steps taken to deal with the issue.
Justice Arijit Pasayat of Supreme Court voiced concern over the heavy backlog of cases in various Indian courts and felt unless something was done about it ‘the whole judicial system may get crushed under the weight of arrears’.
RBI allows NBFCs to raise up to USD 10 mn in foreign currency
Reserve Bank on Friday allowed non- deposit taking NBFCs to raise short-term funds in foreign currency up to USD 10 million under the approva
l route to meet liabilities.
"It has been now decided as a temporary measure, to permit non-deposit taking NBFCs to raise short-term foreign currency borrowings," RBI said in a release.
The resource should be used only for refinancing of short-term liabilities and no fresh asset should be booked out of resources, it said.
The borrowing should be fully swapped into rupee for the entire maturity, it said, adding, the maturity of the borrowing should not exceed three years.
The facility would be available to those NBFCs which are complying with prudential norms on capital adequacy.
RBI said that the maximum amount should not exceed 50 per cent of the net owned funds or USD 10 million which ever is higher.
The fund could be raised from multilateral or bilateral financial institutions, international banks and foreign equity holders with minimum direct equity holdings of 25 per cent, it added.
Earlier this week, RBI had allowed non-deposit taking NBFCs to raise capital by issuing perpetual debts.
Taking into consideration, the need for enhanced funds for increasing business and meeting regulatory requirements, it has been decided the non-deposit taking non-banking financial companies may augment their capital funds by issue of perpetual debt, RBI had said in a notification.
RBI measures to induce rate cuts: Bankers
The Reserve Bank's move to further cut reserve ratios and short term lending rate (Repo) would induce banks to cut lending rates like commercial, home, auto loans as well as deposit rates, but it may take some time to materialise, bankers said.
"Liquidity per se, ideally speaking or rationally speaking, should bring down the interest rates...But this will take may be a month or two because the banks which have a lot of sanctions in the pipeline, which are yet to crystallize into disbursements," Indian Bank's Association Chairman T S Narayanasami said.
RBI today announced 1 per cent cut in mandatory cash requirement for banks CRR and short-term lending rate repo by 0.5 per cent.
It also announced cut in the requirement for banks to keep proportion of their deposits in government securities SLR by 1 per cent. The 1 per cent cut in CRR and Statutory Liquidity Ratio would infuse another Rs 85,000 crore into the system over and above Rs 1,85,000 crore already injected by the RBI.
ICICI Bank Joint Manging Director Chanda Kochhar said the RBI's move will bring down interest rates.
"Second it is showing the mindset of the regulator that is continuously monitoring the situation and coming up with measures on dynamic basis. I think these are two positives," she said.
CMD of Delhi-based Punjab National Bank, which yesterday cut benchmark prime lending rate, saw single digit rate coming soon. "We see single digit deposit rates soon," PNB CMD K C Chakrabarty.
Chakrabarty had yesterday promised to cut maximum deposit rate by 0.50 per cent to 10 per cent from December one.
Mittal lost $50 bn in ArcelorMittal shares
NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has suffered a USD 50 billion decline in the value of shares he holds in the ArcelorMittal following the global financial meltdown, a leading economic daily has claimed.
Mittal, who owns 45 per cent of the stock in ArcelorMittal, has seen the value of his personal shareholding fall since late June from USD 66 billion to USD 16 billion, ‘The Financial Times’ claimed in an analysis of the effect of global financial crisis on the steel industry.
"When Mittal talks to investors and analysts next week, he is likely to come in for tough questioning about how much he will cut production in the next few months. He will also be asked to explain the status of the company's expansion programme, in particular two big plants being planned for India, which look likely to be scaled back," the report said.
Noting that Mittal, Chairman and Chief Executive of ArcelorMittal, next week faces the biggest test of his career, the report said "the Indian metals magnate will try to convince investors that his vision of the steel industry still has merit, in spite of the battering the sector has received amid the global financial crisis."
When he presents the third-quarter results of ArcelorMittal on Wednesday from the company's imposing headquarters in the centre of Luxembourg, Mittal will do his best to put a "brave face on a 72 per cent decline in the share price of the world's biggest steelmaker over the past four months."
Markets buoyant, Sensex up 744 points
Extending gains for the third day in a row, stock markets staged an impressive come back rally with the benchmark Sensex closing the day higher by nearly 750 points on brisk buying by funds.
Marketmen said slew of favourable factors boosted investor sentiment which was at its lowest ebb after sustained heavy selling in bourses across the world for about a month.
The 30-share index settled the day higher by 743.55 points at 9,788.06, after opening strong and even posted a gain of over 825 points during intra-day.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also rose by 188.55 points at 2885.60.
Brokers said besides a fall in inflation to below 11 per cent, anticipation of rate cut by the central bank revived invesotrs's interest in buying as they feel that both lower lending and inflation rates bode well economic growth.
Inflation has come down to 10.68 per cent for mid-October. Besides, US central bank Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan have massively cut rates, prompting many to believe that RBI will follow suit.
Rating agency Standard & Poor's reaffirming stable outlook for India also intensified buying support, they said.
Analysts said the bellwether index still recovering from the 23 per cent massive drop it has seen this month, the most on record, which saw the Sensex pluning below 8,000 level.
IMG decision to almost double borrowing limits for emerging markets and waive demands for economic austerity measures also helped turn around the sentiments on bourses.
The rally came after a day's break, when the MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 9 per cent, after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rate by 0.50 basic points and agreed to provide 30 billion dollar each to central banks in Brazil, Mexico and South Korea.
Oil slips to $63, set for record monthly slide
Oil fell more than $2 to below $64 a barrel on Friday and in line with other markets was on track to post its biggest monthly fall yet.
The slide followed weak US economic data that provided the latest indication of sharply reduced demand for fuel from the world's biggest energy consumer.
US light crude for December delivery fell $2.66 to $63.30 a barrel by 1019 GMT, just off a session low of $63.12.
It has fallen by around 35 per cent this month, its steepest decline to date.
London Brent crude was down $2.89 to $60.82.
"Oil is falling on a poor outlook for demand and the realisation that rate cuts will take a long time to lead to a recovery," said Christopher Bellew at Bache Commodities.
Data released on Thursday showed US gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 0.3 per cent for the third quarter.
It was the sharpest fall in the world's largest oil consumer in seven years and provoked further falls across commodities and global stock markets, which were also poised for their worst month yet. On Friday resource companies posted some of the steepest declines on the equity markets.
A stronger US dollar, which makes dollar-denominated assets less attractive to buyers, added to the pressure on commodities.
In three months oil has wiped out gains that took more than a year to build. It has lost more than half of its value since it struck a record high of $147.27 in July.
While focused on mounting evidence demand has been destroyed by economic weakness across the world, the market has largely ignored signs of tighter supplies.
Following a decision last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), evidence has begun to emerge the group means what it said.
Nigeria informed customers of a 5 per cent cut in exports in November and December following on from an announcement earlier in the week by the United Arab Emirates. Top exporter Saudi Arabia has yet to inform customers of any fresh curbs.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Thursday OPEC should cut oil output by another 1 million bpd -- possibly before its next scheduled meeting in December -- and should set a minimum price target of $70 or $80 a barrel.
Tata Motors Q2 net down 34 pct
Tata Motors Ltd, India's top vehicle maker, reported a lower-than-expected 34 per cent fall in quarterly profit on Friday, as higher interest rates dented demand for its trucks and buses and costlier raw materials hit margins.
The company, which expects to launch the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, in early 2009, said net profit fell to 3.47 billion rupees ($70.2 million) in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 from 5.27 billion rupees a year earlier.
The company said it had notional foreign exchange losses of 2.85 billion rupees in the quarter.
Net sales rose to 70.29 billion rupees from 65.95 billion.
A Reuters poll had estimated net profit at 3.3 billion rupees on net sales of 70 billion rupees.
"The automobile industry remains severely impacted with continued lack of financing and high interest rates," the company said in a statement.
"The quarter was also impacted by high input costs, and the company is aggressively pursuing its cost reduction initiatives."
Tata Motors, which controls about 60 per cent of India's truck and bus market, the world's fifth-biggest, sold 135,037 vehicles in the quarter, down 1.1 per cent from a year earlier.
Tata, which in March bought Ford Motor Co's Jaguar and Land Rover brands for $2.3 billion, struggled to raise $850 million through a rights issue in October due to a stock market slump and the offering was bailed out by the founders and underwriters.
Shares in Tata Motors, worth nearly $1.4 billion, fell 16.7 per cent in the September quarter, while the auto sector sub-index rose 2.5 per cent and the benchmark index shed 4.5 per cent.
IOC to earn profit on petrol sales again!
State-run fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation on Friday said it will again start earning profit on sale of petrol from Saturday, as the international crude prices have come down.
"Petrol margins will turn positive from tomorrow. Based on the average crude price of second fortnight of October, it (margin) should be around Rs 4 a litre," IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said in New Delhi.
However, the company would continue to make losses on diesel sales at about Rs one a litre.
Losses on sale of kerosene would be Rs 22 a litre and on LPG (cooking gas) Rs 343 per cylinder.
Global crude prices, which touched a record USD 147 a barrel in July, have since receded to USD 64 level on fears of a global recession.
Arrest Mayawati for razing Patel's statue, SP to Centre
Samajwadi Party on Saturday demanded the arrest of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and District Magistrate of Pratapgarh for allegedly razing a statue of India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.
"A statue of Sardar Patel was to be unveiled on his birth anniversary on October 31. But the district magistrate ordered that the statue and the platform on which it was built be razed. We demand from the Union Govt that the district magistrate and the Chief Minister be arrested," SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said.
Yadav alleged that District Magistrate Sainthal Pandiyan C had issued the order at Mayawati's behest.
He alleged that though the land on which the statue was built belongs to the Gram Sabha, the state government has tried to create an issue out of it.
"The process of putting up the statue was started four months back but nobody had objected then," he said.
SP general secretary Amar Singh, who was also present at the press conference, read out a letter written by Pratapgarh MP Akshay Pratap Singh, in which the latter maintained that the Gram Sabha had given permission for using the land.
Yadav said if his party came to power, "it would jail the district magistrate and Mayawati for this act".
"Sardar Patel stood by Mahatma Gandhi and fought with him shoulder to shoulder against the British. He should not be shown disrespect," Yadav said.
The statue was to be inaugurated by MLA from Kunda assembly constituency and Pratap's cousin Raghuraj at Katra Gulab Singh, about 30 kms from Pratapgarh.
Loan waiver could have been handled better: Plan panel member
The government's Rs.710-billion farm loan waiver could have been done in a "better manner", says Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen.
Drawing a distinction between a situation-specific loan write-off with mass debt waiver, Sen told IANS: "My preference has always been for assessing why a loan should be waived, and not for general waiver."
Sen's statement comes in the wake of the recent farm loan write-off by the central government; in February, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced the waiver of Rs.600 billion to bail out nearly four million small and marginal farmers. This was later increased to around Rs.710 billion.
"I do not grudge the debt waiver, but what I would say is that it could have been done in a better manner, which was not general, and was linked to some kind of assessment," Sen, also a professor of economics at the premier Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here, said in an interview.
"Some sort of debt assessment council or a debt tribunal should be in place where you make an application and give the reason why your debt should be waived off. In most such cases, the bank itself should waive off debts," he said.
"That is, it (debt waiver) should have been on a case-to-case basis, in which case the same amount of money could have been used to ensure that those who really suffered would get much more than what they really got."
Sen said there are situations that warrant loan write-offs, especially when developments beyond human control make repayment impossible.
Citing an example, he said two or three years of continuous drought can ruin farmers. There could also be individual-specific cases, like a farmer falling ill and being unable to farm.
Sen said any across-the-board debt waiver is a "bad idea", and added: "If you keep doing that, the culture of banking itself is destroyed."
But the economist said he didn't actually disapprove of the recent farm loan waiver. "I have no real grudge. The period between 1996 and 2004 was bad for agriculture. It was bad as the rate of growth was low, and prices were low. So, farmers did suffer."
We are not going soft on terror: PM
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Agencies
Posted: Nov 01, 2008 at 1721 hrs IST
Guwahati, November 1: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected charges that the UPA government was soft on terror.
"We are not going soft on terror. There can be no compromise with terror," Singh said after visiting the victims of Thursday's serial blasts in Assam.
"Whosoever is responsible for these dastardly act, we will take effective measures," he said.
Asked about involvement of other governments, Singh said, "if other governments are involved we will take up this matter with them also".
The Prime Minister said investigators will look at all the clues that they have and it would not be proper on his part to comment on the probe.
Main Opposition BJP has accused Singh and the UPA government of being soft in dealing with terror.
Assam blasts: Car bombs used, 3 detained
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Agencies
Posted: Nov 01, 2008 at 1549 hrs IST
Guwahati, November 1: Three Maruti cars with ammonium nitrate, plasticisers and programmable time devices (PTDs) planted in them were used in the bomb blasts in Guwahati, police said.
Three persons, including Nazir Ahmed, from whose mobile the SMS claiming responsibility for the blast by Islamic Security Force (Indian Mujahideen) was sent, have so far been arrested, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta said.
The bombs were planted in three Maruti 800 cars at Fancy Bazaar, Pan Bazaar and Ganeshguri in Guwahati, while a motorbike was used to carry out the blast in Bongaigaon, he said.
The car used in the Pan Bazaar blast was badly damaged and the last two digits of the chassis number were missing.
Investigations were being carried out with the help of Maruti Udyog Limited, Mahanta said.
The car used in the Ganeshguri blast has been traced to Itanagar and the Arunachal Pradesh DIG (SB) has been approached to help in the investigations, he said.
Two PTD switches were found from Ganeshguri.
The owner of the car with number AS-01-0327 used in Fancy Bazaar blast, Tikendra Saikia from Nagaon, has been arrested, he said.
Police in Itanagr said that the car used in the Ganeshguri blast was sold by a distributor at Naharlagoon in the Arunachal capital to a bank official in New Delhi in 1996.
The white car was paid for by cheque by the bank official, they said.
A pulsar motorbike used in the Bongaigaon blast has been traced to Kahilipara area of Guwahati and a person named Biswa Borgohain has been arrested, the IGP said.
Mahanta said Nazir Ahmed was arrested from Moirabari in Nagaon district. The SMS could be a ‘diversionary tactic or it could be a lead. We are not ignoring it and keeping all our options open. There is not much information on the outfit besides that it was formed in 2000-01 by a section of Muslims to counter bodo militant outfits, BLT and NDFB’.
Mahanta said that the CID was also preparing sketches of two persons who were seen moving around suspiciously near the chief judicial magistrate's office.
He appealed to the people to come forward with information that could help the investigation.
Murder case filed against Raj Thackeray in Bihar
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Agencies
Posted: Oct 24, 2008 at 1553 hrs IST
Biharsharif (Bihar), October 24: The father of 25 year-old railway job aspirant who was allegedly killed by an MNS mob in Mumbai, filed a murder case against Raj Thackeray in Bihar on Friday.
Seeking initiation of criminal proceedings against the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief and his henchmen, Jagdish Prasad, Pavan Kumar's father, filed the case in the court of CJM Abhimanyu Lal Srivastava in Biharsharif in Nalanda district.
A case has been filed under different sections of IPC including murder and criminal conspiracy. Three persons have been named as witnesses in the petition.
While two of them had accompanied the youth to Mumbai as guardians and were witness to the assault on Bihari examinees by MNS activists on October 19, another, an acquaintance living in Pune, had received the body of Pavan after post mortem. The case is likely to be taken up for hearing on Saturday.
Raj Thackeray, whose alleged inflammatory anti-north Indian tirade has led to frequent attacks on Hindi-speaking people in Maharashtra, is facing a number of cases in Bihar.
An advocate, Sudhir Kumar Ojha, has filed a murder and sedition case against the MNS leader in Muzaffarpur, while a Dalit examinee Raj Kumar Chaudhary, who suffered a fractured hand in the MNS attack, has filed an FIR in Vaishali against Thackeray for instigating an MNS mob to attack Biharis.
Keshav Kumar Sinha, a lawyer, has filed a complaint case against Raj Thackeray and Shirish Parkar, MNS spokesman, under sections relating to culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder.
Rate hike, meltdown shut liquidity window for MFIs
31 Oct, 2008, 0020 hrs IST,Trushna Udgirkar, ET Bureau
HYDERABAD: Financing for the poor is getting more frugal now, with the micro-finance institutions (MFIs) facing the heat of the global financial mel
tdown. There has been a virtual halt in fresh disbursements to MFIs by banks and financial institutions coupled with over 200 basis points hike in interest rates.
It does not end at credit squeeze alone. Banks are also asking for personal guarantees of directors of MFIs. A few banks have hiked security margins from 10% to 25%, over the loan amount sanctioned to banks. As a result, MFIs are unable to use even sanctioned funds.
According to sector trackers, MFIs may have trouble raising loans till January, as banks will try to complete their priority-sector lending targets more aggressively only in the last quarter of the fiscal.
The total disbursements to MFIs aggregate to around Rs 1 lakh crore and the South is the hub of micro-finance activity in India. Hyderabad-based Share Microfin managing director M Udaia Kumar says: “The situation is alarming in India for MFIs, since it affects the credibility of the organisation. Further, it strains the relationship of trust built with clients and may result to clients not making timely repayments.”
Adds Padmaja Reddy, managing director, Spandana, “Banks are tightening credit lines. Current sanctions are available but disbursements are getting delayed. Interest rates have predominantly gone up by over 200 basis points. But we have been able to absorb the rise in interest cost as our operating costs are low,” she said.
Spandana has a diversified debt portfolio that could help cushion the impact of higher interest costs. “We are preparing to diversify our debt raising capabilities, through bonds issuance and securitisation, capital market and structured debt funding,” said Shiv Narain, CFO, Spandana.
State-owned banks that ET spoke to, however, deny a slowdown in lending to MFIs and self-help groups. “One doesn’t see a reason for reduction in the quantum of lending to these institutions. The rate at which we lend to MFIs is dependent on a number of factors, including the rating of such agencies.
These rates may have marginally gone up due to the prevailing liquidity situations,” said one banker. Also, given nearly 100% repayment of such loanees, banks say, lending to such entities like MFIs makes imminent commercial sense. “PSU banks have clearly mandated social banking goals and we have to achieve it,” said another.
Kerala govt asks Centre to permit direct NRI deposits
1 Nov, 2008, 1928 hrs IST, PTI
KOZHIKODE: The Centre should permit Non-Resident Keralites to invest in the state-owned chit funds as there was no provision for the state to accept
such deposits directly, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said on Saturday.
"More and more Keralites living abroad are showing interest to deposit in the chit funds run by the Kerala State Financial Enterprises but there is no provision for the state to receive such deposits directly," he told reporters here.
KSFE has introduced new chits following the overwhelming support received after its earlier schemes, he said.
The interest rate on NRI deposits should also be increased to attract foreign investments to the state, Isaac said.
Referring to the global economic crisis, the Minister said though tourism and IT, regarded as two dynamic sectors of the state, had remained unaffected so far, the scenario might change in the coming years.
"We have flight bookings for this entire year in the tourism sector but the situation may not remain same from next year," he said.
India, China wary of global economic crisis
1 Nov, 2008, 1950 hrs IST, REUTERS
LONDON: Two powerhouse emerging market countries felt the sting of the global financial crisis on Saturday as India unexpectedly cut its main short-term lending rate
Survive credit crisis
again and China said it was now feeling a slowdown.
The developments followed signs elsewhere this week that world markets were stabilising, with interbank rates falling and US stocks posting their best week in 34 years.
"The impact of the crisis on China has just started to appear as China has already seen a sharp slowdown in industrial profit growth and fiscal income," a senior Bank of China (BOC) executive said in Shanghai on Saturday.
The global economy will likely enter recession next year with the United States, Europe and Japan posting negative growth, Executive Vice President Zhu Min told a financial conference.
"That will have a huge impact on China," he said. Zhu also said currency volatility was expected to add further pressure on China's banks, which have enjoyed robust profits for years as the country boomed. Earnings growth is now slowing as the economy cools from the impact of the crisis.
"The uncertainties in the world's currency markets have exposed the Chinese banking sector to higher foreign asset risk," Zhu said.
A central bank spokesman said Beijing was no longer imposing strict limits on bank lending as it sought to preserve growth in its economy, in which the overseas market is important.
ACTION ON THE LIQUIDITY FRONT
In India - like China, a magnet for foreign investment investment in recent years as their economies roared - the Reserve Bank of India cut its main lending rate for the second time in as many weeks to ease a cash squeeze and spur economic growth.
Analysts said the surprise move showed India's concern that strains on Asia's third-largest economy were quickly becoming more severe.
"These actions were necessary (and had) to be taken on the liquidity front...the situation was getting worse," said Vikas Agarwal, strategist at JP Morgan.
The central bank cut the repo rate or its main short-term lending rate by 50 basis points to 7.5 per cent and banks' cash reserve requirements by 100 basis points to 5.5 per cent.
It also cut banks' bond reserve requirements by 1 percentage point to 24 per cent of their deposits, the central bank said.
"The global financial turmoil has had knock-on effects on our financial markets; this has reinforced the importance of focusing on preserving financial stability," the bank said.
Policymakers around the world have slashed interest rates in recent weeks and injected huge amounts into their banking systems to try to combat the spillover effects of the global crisis, which is causing credit markets to freeze up and threatens to plunge the world economy into recession.
Indian bankers said they would adopt a wait-and-see stance before deciding on lowering their lending and deposit rates.
The root cause of credit crisis is greed
1 Nov, 2008, 0604 hrs IST,K S Ram,
Governments are trying to bail out failed big businesses with the taxpayers’ money in what is being referred to as capitalist socialism. Will the damage-control exercise work? Why are those in governance reluctant to acknowledge that at the root of the crisis is greed that is throwing all caution to the winds?
Talk of correction in markets is always in monetary terms; there is no mention of the need for spiritual solutions. Are moneycentric bailouts a stable solution to problems born of greed? It might be interesting and instructive here to recollect the story of Shumbha’s battle with Durga in the Markandeya Purana.
In the Vedantic context , the term ‘Idam’ refers to ‘This’ and ‘Tat’ to ‘That’ . The physical world is This. What lies beyond the This is That. The This owes its existence to That. The essence of spiritual corruption is when This seeks to exclude That and Dharma begins to decline and conditions ripen for the That to incarnate Itself to reset the cosmic balance. This in a nutshell is the course of cosmic evolution. The Shumbha-Durga battle is one among countless instances of the fall and rise of the spiritual quotient.
Shumbha and his brother Nishumbha were mighty rulers who had conquered all, including the gods. Having acquired so much power, they assumed that their success was due to their physical prowess; no thought was given to the need for Divine Grace. The dispossessed gods invoked Devi, the power of That, to overcome the brothers intoxicated with power to restore cosmic equilibrium.
Devi assumed the form of a bewitching beauty and seated herself atop a hill. She was seen by the servants of Shumbha who duly reported her presence to him. Shumbha sent a messenger to Devi, inviting her to become his queen because he was, he claimed, lord of everything excellent in creation. Devi replied that it was not so easy to attain her; she would have to be won in battle.
Shumbha, infatuated by bounteous This, felt it was kid’s play for him to win her. He sent out Dhumralochana to fetch her by diplomacy or force. But the warrior was easily slain by Devi. Herein was signal enough for Shumbha to mend himself. But he disregarded That and trusted the strength of his physical resources. He sent two generals, Chanda and Munda, with a large army. They were soon routed. Rather than respecting That, more of This was mobilised by Shumbha. A larger army with the selfproliferating Raktabija was sent. Even he was annihilated. Nishumbha was then deployed. He too fell.
Shumbha finally arrived and threw all his remaining resources into the battle, only to lose his life and all. Why? Because he over-trusted This. He totally disregarded That. When Devi had effortlessly vanquished his generals and army, Shumbha still failed to appreciate that herein was a hopeless contest between the That and the This. He persisted with reinforcing his army, rather like adding numerous zeroes to a zero.
In the imagery used in the poem, this was like throwing hay into the fire to douse it! When the hay got consumed at once, more hay was thrown in. Why did Shumbha not recognise the absurdity of the exertion? Why did he not recognise the need for spiritual insight? The Purana says that it was so because he was overwhelmed by Mahamaya , the Great Illusion. Is that perhaps what ails global business today?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3661014.cms
It’s no more rustic aloofness
1 Nov, 2008, 0155 hrs IST, ET Bureau
About six years ago, panchayats of three villages around Gurgaon’s ‘Mall’ Road picketed entrances to the four malls that were operating then (current number is over 20) and threatened to shut all pubs and night clubs located inside if the managements allowed village youth to come in. They complained that their youth were stealing money, and even their mother’s jewellery, to be able to pay for what they thought was the high life.
These columns had then argued that the development pointed to a looming socio-economic problem. Most landowners in these new boomtowns had sold their land to developers at what seemed like a lot of money then. A fair number bought cars, several travelled to Singapore and Thailand on holidays, and a large number started frequenting pubs and clubs and generally tried hard to be like the ‘in’ crowd.
Multitude of TV channels and their depiction of high life seemed like the best thing to follow. However, in the absence of any guidance on how to wisely invest their money, several of them soon realised their windfall from land sale had dried up.
Most had also seen by now how developers had marketed, what was once their land, as a dream destination for the growing middle class, and at rates that were in multiples of what they had been paid. While several felt they had been stupid to sell out so cheap, some actually believed they had been short-changed.
In any case, the hunger for good life had not satiated, but with no money, the impressionable had started resorting to unlawful activities, as was exemplified by the happening at the malls.
However, even with the money and minus the nefarious activities, in a hugely class conscious Indian society, they were still not considered good enough to be a part. One major cog missing was their inability to speak English. And while most think the erstwhile landowners’ is a story that doesn’t have a happy ending, the realisation that English is necessary for them to survive is one silver lining.
Realising that money alone would not get them the acceptance, a number of elders urged their kids to learn English. To them, these kids would get them the recognition in the society that they themselves may have aspired for but never hoped to get. The added bonus was that it would give these kids a higher status even among their peers.
It is this class consciousness that has been captured beautifully by a recent mobile advert where an NRI asks a village boy in accented Hindi, directions to someone’s house, only to look incredulous as the child rattles off the direction in perfect English, before rounding off with “Have a good day sir”.
And, as I realised last week, this is not limited to the advertisement alone. We have a cycling club and were riding through a village beyond Gurgaon late last month and stopped at one point to get directions. It was early morning and a couple of youngsters gathered around us, admiring our bicycles. These could be kids from any Indian village — unkempt, excited, and impressionable.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Its_no_more_rustic_aloofness/articleshow/3661090.cms
State must support economic activity
1 Nov, 2008, 0219 hrs IST, ET Bureau
When the private sector spending slows, the government must step in to support economic activity. Reports suggest, among others, construction of roa
ds awarded to private sector players is suffering due to increased cost of funds.
At one level, one could argue the public-private-participation contracts should have accounted for such increase in costs, including interest rates. However, the events of recent months were unprecedented and unanticipated. Although there has been reasonable monetary easing by the RBI over the past fortnight, that alone is not enough to arrest further slowing of economic activity or decline in demand.
Targeted fiscal measures that would have more immediate impact on economic activity are needed. And, the government would do well to identify big projects in some sectors where it should step up spending, create productive assets and generate demand as well as employment. These projects should be designed to benefit the rural economy.
After all, the rural economy, including agriculture, supports about 74% of the population. It could be done by accelerating the pace of implementing projects under the Bharat Nirman programme such as rural roads, housing and irrigation. On the flip side, protecting and growing rural incomes from the slowdown can help sustain demand for goods even as urban centres experience a contraction.
The fallout of raising government spending at this stage would be felt on the fisc, particularly so as growth of tax revenues is also slowing. The government at this stage has to choose between fiscal consolidation and running up a higher deficit to protect the growth momentum.
It may seem a difficult decision, but the Indian government, like governments across the world, would need to choose the growth option. Particularly so, as inflationary pressures have eased. Addressing the slowdown at this stage would obviate the need for stronger remedy at a later stage when much damage may have been done to the economy.
The country can return to set targets for reducing budget deficits when normalcy returns to global and domestic economy. The process of achieving FRBM targets can always pause for a while to deal with extraordinary circumstances.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/State_must_support_economic_activity/articleshow/3660489.cms
Investors wary of creeping acquisition rules
31 Oct, 2008, 0723 hrs IST,Nishanth Vasudevan, ET Bureau
MUMBAI: The recent move by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to relax the creeping-acquisition norms may have cheered company promot
ers, but it has sparked resentment among a section of the minority shareholders. The displeasure is not against the easing of rules per se, but the absence of prompt disclosure norms when promoters hike their stakes during a particular period.
Currently, the shareholding pattern of a company is disclosed only at the end of each quarter, except for a major change in the promoter shareholding. According to minority shareholders, including some fund managers, a quarter is too long to know about changes in the promoter shareholding. Shares could be cheaply valued at the beginning of a quarter, but the situation need not be the same when the shareholding disclosure is made.
It is felt that the stock exchange should be intimated about any change in promoter shareholding, irrespective of the quantity, on the very same day. Many investors consider open market share purchases by the promoters as a positive indicator about the company’s future prospects.
“Promoters are in the best position to know the value of their shares...there are a few retail shareholders who can understand the value of a company similarly,” said a fund manager at one of the top mutual fund houses. “There is a need for mandatory promoter shareholding disclosure immediately after any change in the shareholding, just like any developed markets.” he added.
Promoters and major shareholders in the US are required to disclose any changes in their shareholding on the very same day. In India, any such changes, below the Sebi-mandated levels, are disclosed only voluntarily and by select companies that observe better corporate governance practices. “Mandatory disclosures will certainly improve the corporate governance of companies in India,” said SP Tulsian, a Mumbai-based investment advisor.
Earlier this week, the Sebi allowed promoters to hike stakes in their companies through open market purchases by 5% annually and up to 75% of the total shareholding, as against the previous 55%.
The move is expected to encourage promoters to buy battered shares of their companies from the open market, thereby cushioning against a sharp decline in the prices. Several blue-chip stocks have fallen 60-90%, while mid and small-cap shares have been hammered by nearly 100% since the beginning of this bear-phase in January.
Gold futures down on weak crude, strong dollar
31 Oct, 2008, 1130 hrs IST, REUTERS
MUMBAI: Gold futures fell on Friday as crude oil weakened on recession fears and improved sentiment aided gains in the dollar and stocks, and signs w
ere the sentiment may stay weak during the day, analysts said.
"A lot of steps have been taken to improve liquidity in the markets that have helped stocks to some extent, so people are selling gold," said K.N. Rahaman, deputy research head at Way 2 Wealth Securities Ltd.
Foreign gold, that guides the local market, was on course for its biggest monthly decline since 1983 with crude oil down and a rebound in the dollar.
Gold generally has an inverse relation with the dollar as the two compete for funds. But the metal usually tracks crude oil as the latter signals inflation, which gold negates.
The benchmark December gold on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) was expected to range within 11,600 rupees per 10 grams and 11,900 rupees, said Subodh Gupta, analyst at Anand Rathi Commodities.
December silver on MCX was expected to trade within 16,100 rupees per kg and 16,900 rupees, Rahaman said.
Falling rupee to make imported pulse costlier
30 Oct, 2008, 2346 hrs IST,Ishta Vohra, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Import of pulses is expected to increase steadily over the next ten years as demand is growing while domestic production is stagnant. Thi
s could be bad news for consumers as the rupee is depreciating, pushing up the price of imported pulses.
Global producers are also taking advantage of India’s pulse shortfall by hiking their prices, according to Assocham’s Pulse Production Report 2008. According to the study, imports would increase to 27 lakh tonnes by 2019-20. Canada, Australia, Myanmar would be major suppliers of the commodity to India, benefiting from growing demand and rising prices.
Since virtually every household in the country uses pulses, the report is significant. The government is also concerned since prices of urad, moong, masur and gram has shot up due to shortage in domestic supplies and higher import prices.
This is affecting the per capita consumption of pulses, which has plummeted to 12.7 kg/year now from a peak of 27.3 kg/year attained in 1958-59. The negative CAGR of 1.58% is a cause of concern, according to Assocham’s director general D S Rawat. Pulses are a key source of protein for the vegetarian sections of the population.
India is the world leader in pulses production, contributing about 24% or 14.5 mn tonnes to the global production of 61.33 mn tonnes in 2007. However, production has registered a paltry growth at CAGR of 0.26% over the last five decades. Production has been virtually stagnant over the past decade, he added.
The lack of growth in production has led to growth in imports, leaving the country dependent on overseas suppliers for the past 30 years. India’s pulses imports have risen at a CAGR of 10.38%, with net imports rising from 4.6 lakh tonnes in 1998-99 to 20.4 lakh tonnes in 2006-07.
Canada, Myanmar, Australia, and the US contribute about 40%, 27%, 9% and 6%, respectively, to the country’s pulses basket. The quantum of pulse import from Canada has more than doubled during the last five years. In 2006-07, Canada’s share in pulses import touched 905.325 tonnes, out of India’s total imports of 2,255.649 thousand tonnes.
Call rates hit 21% as banks rush for funds
1 Nov, 2008, 0346 hrs IST, ET Bureau
MUMBAI: Call rates touched a high of 21% on Friday, as liquidity starved banks rushed to borrow Rs 65,655 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
through its liquidity adjustment window.
However, the rupee rose, as market sentiment was boosted by a rise in the local as well as other Asian stock markets, following rate cuts by the US Fed and other central banks around the world. The rupee rose to a high of 49.26/27 during the day, as the marker pinned its hopes on fresh dollar inflows. However, month-end dollar demand from importers limited its gains. The rupee finally ended the day at 49.44/46 against the dollar, rising from its previous close of 49.69/70.
“The rupee opened higher, in line with other Asian currencies. This was pretty much expected, following the rate cuts by central banks around the world,” said a trader with a private bank. The rupee had fallen to a record low of 50.29 on Monday. Dealers also said that the rupee gained from soaring call money rates, which jumped to a high of 21%, making it attractive for banks to hold and lend rupees.
According to market participants, cash conditions have gone through a strain in spite of heavy liquidity infusion by the central bank. This is partly because of the heavy intervention by RBI in the forex market in the past week as well. The central bank is estimated to have sold up to $2 billion on days when the rupee threatened to breach the 50-per dollar mark.
Meanwhile, bond-yields dipped during early trade, as cash conditions tightened ahead of RBI’s Rs 10,000 crore auction. Yield on the 10-year benchmark bond, the 8.24% bond maturing in 2018, dipped to an-eight-and-a-half month low of 7.42% during early trade. Yields finally ended the day at 7.50%, a notch below its previous close of 7.51%.
Market participants are also hopeful of a cut in either the CRR or repo rate in the coming week; following rate cuts by central banks across the world, as well as a dip in inflation.
EU nations agree to push back CO2 auto limits to 2015
1 Nov, 2008, 2006 hrs IST, AGENCIES
BRUSSELS: EU member states are ready to grant automakers a three-year delay until 2015 to reduce the CO2 emissions of their new vehicles, in light of
the global economic crisis, negotiators said on Saturday.
During a meeting Friday of representatives of the 27 nations, "a consensus was reached" on pushing back the original 2012 deadline to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, one of the negotiators said.
Several colleagues confirmed his remarks, as European automakers grapple with bloated inventories and falling sales brought on by the credit crunch and a wider economic downturn.
The environmental target remains the same -- for new vehicles sold in the European Union to emit no more than a benchmark 130 grammes of CO2 per kilometre.
Models that exceed the limit would be subject to penalties that would escalate sharply after 2015.
The Volkswagen Golf, which regularly tops the list of Europe's most popular cars, currently emits 119 to 174 grammes of CO2, depending on engine type and size, the automaker's British website (www.volkswagen.co.uk) says.
For all vehicles, the current average is 158 grammes.
EU member states also agreed Friday to an additional target -- to limit CO2 emissions, a major contributor to global warming, to 95 grammes per kilometre in 2020.
The consensus now goes to the European Parliament for its consideration.
"No country opposed the proposal," another negotiator told AFP. "No one is totally satisfied, but we all thought that such a compromise was a sufficient basis to go into negotiations with the parliament."
Britain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands expressed reservations, notably over penalties.
Friday's consensus came as European automakers seek 40 billion euros in preferential-rate loans to develop greener vehicles.
France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, favours such industry support, and this week the European Commission -- normally required by EU law to crack down on state aid to industry -- indicated it was open to the idea.
"The automotive sector is not in great shape, and for some, the commission's proposal amounts to asking a man who weighs 60 kilogrammes to lose 30 kilogrammes on pain of death," a negotiator said.
While cutting CO2 emissions to 130 grammes per kilometre is an industry-wide goal, the limit would vary according to different automakers.
In Italy, Fiat's target will be 122 grammes, while in France, Renault and Peugeot-Citroen are to aim for 126 and 127 grammes respectively. For Volkwagen, the limit would be 132 grammes.
One in five homeowners with mortgages under water
1 Nov, 2008, 1950 hrs IST, REUTERS
NEW YORK: Nearly one in five US mortgage borrowers owe more to lenders than their homes are worth, and the rate may soon approach one in four as housing prices fall
US mortgage crisis: A subprimer
and the economy weakens, a report on Friday shows.
About 7.63 million properties, or 18 per cent, had negative equity in September, and another 2.1 million will follow if home prices fall another 5 per cent, according to a report by First American CoreLogic.
The data, covering 43 states and Washington, D.C., includes borrowers nationwide, even those who took out mortgages before housing prices began to soar early this decade.
Seven hard-hit states - Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio - had 64 per cent of all "underwater" borrowers, but just 41 per cent of US mortgages.
"This is very much a regional problem, and people tend to forget that," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, who expects home prices nationwide to fall another 10 per cent before bottoming late next year.
"Most of the country is not in bad shape," he continued. "Things seem to be stabilizing in Michigan, but the big bubble states - Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada - are still very overpriced."
About 68 per cent of US adults own their own homes, and about two-thirds of them have mortgages.
JPMorgan Chase & Co, one of the biggest mortgage lenders, on Friday offered to modify $70 billion of mortgages to keep a potential 400,000 homeowners out of foreclosure. Bank of America Corp, which bought Countrywide Financial Corp in July, also has a large loan modification program.
HOME PRICES, ECONOMY UNDER PRESSURE
US home prices fell a record 16.6 per cent in August from a year earlier, with declines in all 20 major metropolitan areas measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
Foreclosure filings rose 71 per cent in the third quarter to a record 765,558, according to RealtyTrac.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product fell at a 0.3 per cent rate in the third quarter. Some experts expect the worst US recession since the early 1980s.
Yet despite a series of expensive government programs to spur lending, mortgage rates are rising, making it tougher to borrow or refinance. The rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped this week to 6.46 per cent from 6.04 per cent a week earlier, Freddie Mac said.
Carmakers to lower 2008 target for Germany
1 Nov, 2008, 1758 hrs IST, REUTERS
FRANKFURT: Domestic and international carmakers will lower their target for new car registrations in Germany due to continued reluctance among consum
ers to buy new cars, a German weekly reported.
The VDIK car importers' association is expected to lower its target for this year to less than the previously forecast 3.2 million new registrations, Welt am Sonntag said in an article to be published on Sunday citing confirmation by a VDIK spokesman.
The report said German auto industry association VDA also expected a decline and would lower its outlook when the association reports on October car sales on Tuesday.
VDA head Matthias Wissmann had said in September, new car registrations in Europe's biggest economy should end up "somewhere around 3.2 million" units.
A VDA spokesman declined to confirm the report, saying only: "We will announce October sales on Tuesday and do not want to anticipate that report."
New car registrations totalled 3.15 million in 2007, the worst year for new car sales since German reunification in 1990.
Economy worsened, franc a problem: SNB's Roth
1 Nov, 2008, 1508 hrs IST, REUTERS
ZURICH: The Swiss National Bank is facing the dual challenge of a fast rising Swiss franc and an off-target three-month franc LIBOR at a time when th
e financial crisis is clearly hitting the economy, SNB Chairman Jean-Pierre Roth said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.
"We have two elements which are not pointing in the right direction -- the nominal development in the franc and the three-month LIBOR rate, which is above our target," Roth told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
"This is a big challenge for us." Roth said the central bank's view of the economy had not changed for the better in recent weeks.
"We are more concerned than a month ago," Roth said. "The situation has noticeably worsened because the financial crisis is clearly affecting the real economy."
When asked whether the country was facing a recession next year, Roth said he wanted to wait until the central bank's economists had new forecasts ready before commenting.
Recession fears are mounting in Switzerland after a slew of weak economic data as key Swiss markets slow sharply and the soaring Swiss franc puts an extra drag on exports.
The franc has hit an all-time high against the euro last week, having risen around 10 percent in just one month.
Roth said that the absolute level of the franc was not the problem but the speed of the rise a concern.
The SNB head noted that the three-month LIBOR -- the SNB's target rate which is set by the market -- was now moving in the dirction of the targeted rate of 2.50 percent.
"We see that the trust is increasing slowly and the rates have been falling in recent days," Roth said. "It's not as fast as in the past but the direction is the right one."
The LIBOR was fixed at 2.72 percent on Friday, off recent highs of 3.13 percent, after the SNB launched a number of new measures to ease strains on the money market, including cheap dollar funding and euro/franc swaps.
Markets are pricing in lower interest rates by December, the SNB's next regular quarterly meeting, after the SNB joined other central banks in cutting rates in a coordinated move in early October.
Editorial dalit Voice
When US rejected capitalism why Indian rulers are hugging it ? Free market musketeers warned
The current financial crisis that threatened the world’s richest and the most powerful capitalist stronghold, USA, has proved wrong India’s three notorious free market musketeers — Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Ahluwalia — who are determined to sell this impoverished country to Tatas, Ambanis, Birlas and such other corrupt capitalists.
Our micro-minority upper castes (15%) led by the less than 3% Brahmins are the greatest admirers of the LPG market mantra. They hate governmental control and use their corrupt manuwadi monopoly media to malign and run down public sector, constitutional reservations and any development efforts. And that is how these upper castes have become blind bumlickers of America.
Socialist solution: But what happened in their own dream-land in the middle of Sept.2008? The American capitalism simply collapsed — putting a big question mark on the free market philosophy. So much so, even blind haters of communism and socialism started calling American President “Comrade Bush” for kicking capitalism, discarding the market mantra and following the socialist solution.
Death of capitalism: Is capitalist America going socialist? Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, two of America’s biggest investment banks on Wall Street, are simply humbled, their ears boxed and reduced to mere bankers under the communist-type control by the US Govt. Is it the death of capitalism?
India’s free market Frankensteins, headed by the Khatri Sikh PM and the Tamil Chettiar FM, beware.
America has less than 3% Jews who control the entire economy. They own not only almost all financial institutions, run stock exchange, but even the American Federal Reserve (counterpart of the Reserve Bank of India). All over the world the sole authority to print currency notes is a fully owned govt. institution. But only in America it is totally private and that too in the hands of Jews. To that extent the economy is privatised in USA.
LPG maniacs: The “Jews of India” have launched a powerful drive to privatise everything in India and have almost succeeded. The Khatri Sikh PM, the Chettiar FM and Planning Commission Chief, a world Bank import, as flag-bearers of the LPG marching brigade, have been blindly following the American model. Because globalisation is a zionist manufactured concept. WTO is a zionist creation. We had devoted a chapter itself to this subject in our book, Shape of the Things to Come (DSA-2005). In the second week of September 2008 when the President of America nationalised several world famous banking and financial institutions, it simply shocked the world.
Is it not a clear indication that unbridled capitalism has failed? And that “free economy” will hand over the innocent lambs to the capitalist wolves?
In America, the Jewish capitalist wolves are having a hearty meal and here the “Jews of India” are having a Bada Khana in the name of free economy and democracy.
China safe: The American crisis did hit all the capitalist countries in England and other West European countries but nothing happened in China, a communist country which has a tight control on its economy.
But in India where the Brahminical wolves run the show, merrily eating innocent lambs, the capitalist-roader Manmohan Singh Govt. got a shock. But fortunately the governmental control is fairly strong in India and that is how India is saved.
The latest crisis must warn our LPG lunatics. Free market will give a free ride to Banias and Brahmins and other suckers.
Here is a warning: Financial capitalism is not suitable to India’s caste-ridden society which has already sucked the blood of its over 85% of the weaker sections and fattened the overfed 15% upper castes. Without dismantling this deathless caste system if Manmohan Singh and Co. were to introduce market economy the Marwadis and Manuwadis will make a mince-meat of the Bahujan Samaj.
America saved itself by applying the socialist solution. India, already a beggar nation and socially paralysed, will get economically crippled if we follow the capitalist path. In the name of free enterprise the Marwadis and manuwadis will control even the air, water and squeeze us to death.
Shift of power from West to East: In our different writings we have predicted the fall of America. And such a fall has begun with full force. The Georgian crisis has revealed the shift of power from West to East. Russia gave a kick on the neck of USA and has warned the White Europeans that they must stay neutral. (DV Oct.1, 2008 p.11: “Georgian war divides the world”).
The American boast of unipolar world stands shattered. George W. Bush as the most hated American President is getting ready to go to the International Criminal Court.
Economically US is weakened. And with the imminent entry of a Black into White House the Jews holding the neck of America will be on notice. (DV Sept.16, 2008 p.6: “Will forces of history put a Black man in White House?”)
Homeless “Jews of India”: Will the Jews pack off to Europe with their dollars? Will the emerging super power China, along with Russia, Iran, Venezuela, the entire Muslim and African world bring peace to the strife-torn world under the leadership of Barack Obama?
Then India’s Black Untouchables and the entire Bahujan Samaj (85%) will get a breathing time. Such a situation is sure to make the shocked “Jews of India” to piss in their pants. But we Bahujans are a people with a heart. We realise that none in the world is there to welcome them. The American Jews may manage to settle in Europe — not the zionist Israel which itself will disappear. The “Jews of India” will be homeless. But we will assure their safety and security. And settle the cow-worshippers in the foothills of the Himalayas in their dreamland of Gorakhpur.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/oct_a2008/editorial.htm
MANIPUR CASE
Not Christians, but Hindu terrorists converting Tribals to Hinduism
MADHU CHANDRA, NEW DELHI
Hindutva terrorists have chosen conversion as a yardstick to kill missionaries, rape nuns and vandalize churches. Who actually does fraudulent conversion? Charges made against Christians and made to appear as real because of their Brahminical media.
I am a living example, representing 2.5 million Manipuris where my forefathers were forcibly converted to Hinduism in 19th century. Since then every Manipuri (Meitei) has to add Singh at the end of every name although many youngsters are abandoning it by returning to indigenous Meitei religion.
Casteism and untouchability emerged after Hinduism entered Manipur where caste never existed earlier. Brahminisation (hinduisation) is continuing in different tribal areas. We have witnessed this process in Dang district of Gujarat during Sabri Kumbha Mela in 2006. The Tribals of Jhabua (MP), Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Assam, Arunachal etc. are the example of conversion of non-Hindu Tribals into Hinduism.
Anti-conversion law is forcefully implemented in India and the tribal Christians in Kandhamal dt. of Orissa are in the grip of these forces. To be alive in these village one must become Hindu. Otherwise get out or get killed. This is the law in Orissa. The govt. calls it “freedom of religion”.
Christians in MP, Orissa and other states, where anti-conversion laws exist, are accused of forced conversion when they themselves are the victim of forced conversion at the hands of hindutva forces. So much so the Christian population in the last 20 yeas has declined in India. Where then is the question of more people being converted to Christianity?
The allegations of conversion is a lie. The force, fraud and fraudulent conversion carried out is done by none other than hindutva forces, that too totally against the will of the individuals. (finicy@gmail.com)
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Gujarat Muslims face forcible conversion
SHABNAM HASHMI
On Sept.17, a battery of forest officers and police descended on the village of Nandapeda, near Ahwa, in the Dangs, Gujarat. Nandapeda is the only village with majority Muslim population in the Dangs district considered the poorest district in the whole of India.
The govt. has been forcing the Muslims to convert to Hinduism or face eviction from their land. They moved the Gujarat High Court against the govt. move. The families have been living in the village for over 100 years. Justice Jayant Panchal had in July sought explanation from the govt. After hearing all parties Justice Anant Dave admitted the case on Sept.11, 2008 and ordered status quo on the “disputed land”.
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DV silver jubilee at Lucknow
V.T. RAJSHEKAR
Lucknow: Dalit Voice family members of UP state held a day-long meeting here on Sept.28 to celebrate the silver jubilee of the English fortnightly. Moses Parmar of the OM Northern region hosted the day-long session attended by about 120 people from different parts of the state.
DV representatives from outside the state like Andhra Pradesh, Maharshtra, Haryana, Bihar were also present. A couple of local Muslims attended.
However, it was an all-male affair as usual with the exception of one single woman. Despite specific request our family members even from Lucknow did not bring their wives.
DV wants to bring about Ambedkarite revolution upsetting Brahminism. Is it possible to destroy Brahminism without the support of the youth and women?
Discussions were held on Budhism and particularly Vipassana meditation which was condemned by the entire gathering. Mahar Budhists admitted that the Mahar monopoly of Budhism was the cause of the confusion in their state.
The speech delivered by the Editor will be published later.
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Budhism adulterated
PROF. T.D. KOSE, F-1, ADITYA APTS., NR. PRATHAMESH ENCLAVE, GURUDWAR ROAD, SHASTRI NAGAR, CHANDRAPUR - 442 401
Thank you for reopening the Debate on Budhism. To save Budhism and to liberate it from Brahminism and also to expose the frauds and fakes of Vipassana, we must launch district and taluk-wise camp where relevant literature in local language must be distributed showing clear adulteration of Budhism. This will expose the Brahminical conspiracy. I had discussed this with many bhikkhus but no use. They are all addicted to Vipassana.
Most of the Budhists are emotional about Vipassana. Hence the need to launch a big campaign to save Budhism. DV is doing the right thing — yet it has a limitation. It should spread speedily nationwide. Such a campaign is a must. Otherwise Budhism will be Brahminised and nothing will remain.
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Budhism reduced to farce
PRADIP SETHI, ATHARNALA, PURI 752 002
DV gives us mental muscle to think independently. Because DV goes to the heart of the issue. DV’s famous Debate on “caste identity”, “Dalit-Brahmin alliance” and the current debate on Brahminisation of Budhism are fantastic.
A common man’s religion needs good scriptures, rituals and some dos and don’ts. But Dr. Ambedkar’s Budhism is a religion of rationalism, closer to truth and modern in makeup.
But the votaries of Budhism are sleeping and “eating” dirty meditation with the commercially designed a Vipanasa. Even Budha said that he got nothing from his six-year-long yoga and meditation.
We fail to understand how sitting silently (without any work) for hours will help Dalits or Dalit movement. It is a joke to think that a group of people with shaven heads, uncommon costume chanting Budha Vandana with begging bowl will promote socio-cultural revolution in the present world. Can we turn the clock back?
We would go a little further. Can we say we are giving disproportionate attention to Budhism in the shape of a religion to promote Dalit empowerment?
Have the Budhists started a chain of English-medium schools with modern outlook? Did they groom good number of journalists, advocates or doctors? What is the use of this idle meditation?
The motive behind some mischievous Budhists seems to be pacify a group of troublesome persons. Funding agencies working in this field hold the remote-control. They only know when to go, where to go and how to go. And their cunning representatives are rushing now to rehabilitate themselves in the space created by Dalit movement. But the poor innocent Dalits are becoming vegetarian, keeping Budhist ringtone in mobile phone, using a pen of stickered Budha or pasting photo of Budha here and there in their houses. The list can go on. We can call all these things nothing but a farce of religion.
People who love Budha and Babasaheb are expected to strengthen the basic values of this movement. To conclude with a famous quote: “In our time, we will repent not for the evil deeds of bad people, but the silence of good”.
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Corrupted RPI leaders
BHIMRAO GANVIR,196/421 - BHIMASHA, MAHAVIR NAGAR, AT/PO: RANALA, TQ. KAMPTEE, NAGPUR DT. - 441 002
This refers to DV of Aug.16, 2008, p.23: “Selling Babasaheb beggars become millionaires in Maharashtra”, by Dr. V.D. Chandanshive.
I liked this article very much. The role of RPI leaders like Jogendra Kawade and Mrs. Sulekha Kumbhare needs elaboration.
During the recent graduates constituency election in Vidharbha, Gadkari (BJP) was elected with the support of Kawade and Mrs. Kumbhare. Kawade resigned from his Vidhan Parishad seat in protest against Khairlanji multiple murder of Bhowtmange family. But both these leaders helped the Brahmana Jati Party (BJP) victory.
BAMCEF is also divided into 3-4 factions. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had said that social revolution was must before political revolution. How can we succeed when social revolution is forgotten? All our Dalit leaders are running after political power forgetting social revolution. Kuldip Kumar is perfectly right.
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Brahmin says Dalits are useless idiots
SHANTAM, POLICE OFFICER, RAJMAHAL VILAS, BANGALORE - 560 001
You are a bunch of morons writing bullshit. Get a life you idiots. No one listens to your bullshit seriously. You are a clinical case with high degree of paronia. Need to be admitted to a mental asylum. Morons. This so-called Bahujans are useless idiots. They are the ones who are backward and made the country backward. A bunch of low IQ morons. Look how Dalit pussies are screwed by smart Brahmin boys. Whole media is about smart Brahmins. All the smartest men are Brahmins in India. Bahujans are ugly dicks and pussies. Can never be great. Always will be servants of Brahmins. Even if you give them 100 percent reservation they will be dumbheads. Because Brahmins are smart they will find ways to beat these pussies and idiots like you. How many people read your shit magazine. Only a bunch of loonies. You don’t have any say. Your Mayavathi is completely under the grip of Brahmins. Satish Mishra decides the tunes to which she has to dance and all the while you dumbfucks believe that Dalits are winning and ruling you idiots get a life. (shantam84@yahoo.com)
We like honest Brahmins like you. But you are such a brave man, representing such a heroic community, why did you give a false name, false address, false designation, false email ID? And hide like a rat? Cowards die many times before their death. But the hero dies only once. Anyway, thank you for keeping a watch on our website which holds a mirror before your ugly face. The whole world is also seeing this face in our website. Anyway we are publishing your email so that the world will read and laugh at your cockroach mentality — EDITOR.
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HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY TO LAUNCH VARNA YUDDHA MISSED
Dalits sleep as fake Maoists get ready to clamp fascist dictatorship
COM. AYYANKALI
As predicted long ago, the much feared global economic crisis has finally begun to unfold. The entire Western and zionist capitalist financial framework is collapsing. ICICI Bank run by a Gowda Saraswat Brahmin, K.V. Kamath, has already made losses and all GDPwallahs are silently crying.
Iran or Pakistan may be attacked by the zionist-Western warmongers as a last resort to come out of this crisis using what is known as “military Keynesianism” to create “artificial demand” in the crumbling economy by destroying existing things and grabbing the oil fields. This may lead to World War-3, but this will also fail.
MARXISTS TURN CAPITALISTS
All the IIM-educated Brahmin financial wizards are now being ridiculed and laughed at by Brahmin manuwadi fake marxists.
As DV predicted, all these “financial experts” are now listening to Yechury and CPM, if not Brahminical manuwadi fake maoists. As the situation worsens, more and more such Brahminical capitalist elements will change their colours overnight and rush towards marxist manuwadis.
As the capitalist crisis increases, the fake Maoist Prachanda is rushing towards capitalism taking help from his Indian Brahmin brothers to form SEZs (special exploitation zones). This means several Nandigrams and bloodbath of Nepali Bahujans and nothing else.
Even “Sacred Brahmins” in the RSS may turn fake leftists as the crisis starts biting. Mayawati’s BSP may become the Congress Party of the Dalit-Bahujans.
To tackle Brahminical fake Maoism, a new Maoist Party led by the Negroid Dravidian Dalit-Bahujan proletariat as well as oppressed nationalities is now becoming a very urgent necessity. Such a party has to ideologically adopt what I call V.T. Rajshekar thoughts, Steve Biko thought and Maoism as adopted by the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM). Is Gaddar listening?
It has to be an armed party to launch the long awaited Varna Yuddha (caste war) through mass Gujjar-type caste insurrections using Maoist people’s war strategies.
Events are overtaking us as usual and such revolutionary thinking is lacking. Our Dalit-Bahujans are certain to be taken for a ride for another 100 years, if they fail to realise what is happening and where this economic crisis is leading to.
Dalits may be deceived
Our Dalit-Bahujan mass must understand all this right now — because even their most sincere repentance will be utterly useless after Brahmin fake Maoists succeed and clamp a Brahminical state-capitalist-feudal dictatorship in India under the guise of Maoism.
The question is: Will the Brahminical fake Maoists succeed? Well, the simple answer is a resounding yes.
If the Dalit-Bahujan masses fail to wake up, they will be enslaved by the Socialist Brahmin fake Maoists much more effectively than the “Sacred Brahmin” RSS fascist-terrorists can ever hope to do.
Already, Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena is financing Maoists. Imagine what will happen under a social fascist dictatorship imposed by the “Socialist Brahmins” under the guise of Maoism.
Gaddar’s role
Frankly, no Dalit-Bahujan seems to be understanding the danger. Gaddar is happily in the pockets of the manuwadi Brahmin-Reddy- run fake Maoist party. K.G. Satyamurthy sleeping. Anaimuthu of the Periyarist Communist Party is also sleeping. Sharad Patil is nowhere in the picture.
JHARKHAND JUNGLE
The only Dalit-Bahujan-led Maoist Tritiya Prastusti Committee is somewhere in the Jharkhand jungles. There is no understanding and no co-ordinated action to adopt caste war as the fundamental strategy and apply Maoism to the concrete conditions in India right now. In the absence of any such urgency on the part of revolutionary-minded Dalit Bahujans, the now unfolding economic crisis can only help Brahminical manuwadi fake Maoists win and establish the most horrible social fascist dictatorship that has ever existed under the name of so-called “Maoism”.
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Brahminism & Muslims
V.T. RAJSHEKAR
A 16-page pamphlet in English by Sufi Nazir Ahmad Kashmiri, a noted Muslim scholar from Kashmir (reproduced here), was published way back in 1967. It was published by Jamia Rural Institute, New Delhi - 110 025 and also c/o No.45, Marcoir Labbai St., Madras - 600 001. A photocopy of the text was sent to us long, long back by a DV family member Brother Yoginder Sikand who found it in the library of Henry Martyn Institute, Hyderabad, where he was working then with a request for publication in DV.
The recent Kashmiri Muslim uprising in the Valley made us think of publishing it though every word said in the pamphlet is more relevant even today as Brahminism, gasping for breath, is becoming more and more violent subjecting the country’s overwhelming Bahujan population to great hardship.
Enemy identified: In this English pamphlet titled Revival of Brahminism & its Consequencs”, Sufi Nazir Ahmad rightly identifies Brahminism as the principal enemy facing every section of the Indian society. That is his greatness which we did not find in any other Muslim religious leadership of this country.
Brahminism, he says, is not merely the enemy of Muslims but also the Dalit, Tribals and Backward Castes. Here lies the depth of thinking of the author because we have not come across a single Muslim religious leader of India with such a courage and philosophical insight. There may be some like him today but they dare not identify the enemy oppressor. It is this failure of the Muslim religious leadership (to identify the enemy) that has caused all the confusion among the Muslim masses who suffer daily at the hands of Brahminical persecution. Not only they have been impoverished but denied education and employment opportunities. More than anything they are daily being portrayed in the press and TV as traitors and terrorists and their life and little property destroyed.
Hindu is not our enemy: The Muslim masses no doubt are angry but they don’t know against whom they should be angry.
India’s Muslim religious leadership identifies the enemy as the Hindu but in India even the non-Hindu (if not the anti-Hindu) Dalit, Tribals and Backward Castes are also called Hindu. Brahminical rulers say over 85% of the people in India are Hindu.
The Hindu is not the enemy of the Muslims. The real and the only enemy of the Muslim is Brahminism, which is not only the enemy of SC/ST/BCs but even the Brahmins. Dr. Babasheb Ambedkar, the Father of India, has also identified Brahminism as the one and the only enemy of India.
It is here that Sufi Nazir Ahmad comes to the rescue and clearly identifies Brahminism as the sole enemy of the Indian Muslims. Dalits (20%), Tribal (10%) and Backward Caste (35%) are not Hindu and were never Hindu. Similarly the Christians and Sikhs.
What is Brahminism: Who then are the Brahminical people. They are the 15% upper castes: the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and shudras (20%).
They only are the Hindu. But the Muslim religious leadership identifying Hindu as the oppressors of Muslim has done the greatest disservice and committed the greatest crime against their own innocent Muslim followers.
Another greatness of the Sufi saint is in reminding the Muslims their principal duty. That duty is the Quran calls upon every Muslim to fight for the liberation of all the oppressed — not merely the Muslim. Since the Dalits are the country’s worst oppressed, the Muslims, being converts from the indigenous population, should have treated Dalits as their blood brothers and forged a Dalit-Muslim unity to fight the common oppressor — Brahminism.
Islam and Brahminism cannot co-exist.
Such a clear message has not come from any Indian Muslim religious leader except Moulana Moududi, founder of the Jamate-Islami.
Where is the Umma: Such a poverty of thinking in the Indian Muslim leadership has brought disaster after disaster upon a community that ruled this country for 800 years before the British came. Within 61 years of “independence” India’s single largest community (20%) of Muslims has been totally enslaved and looked at with suspicion as terrorists and traitors. It is this fear complex (cowardliness) that made the entire Muslims of India to become silent spectators when the Kashmiri Muslims were fighting and dying in Aug.2008. Where then is the Muslim umma? What a shame upon the Muslim brotherhood? We don’t know where Sufi Ahmad lives now and how he is. We will be grateful if any person alerts us on reading this — EDITOR.
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How Muslims can help destroy Brahminism
Foreword
The right course of action for the 20th century Brahminism
Human race all over the world is in fact a single community. Man is a moral being as opposed to animals. This peculiar nature of man is a truth universally accepted. There are, however animal urges also in man. The essence of human religion consists in developing this special moral nature and in keeping animal urges with in the moral bounds. This is the basis of universal human brotherhood.
What the Brahmin has, however, done during the last four or 5,000 years to eliminate all possibilities of such a brotherhood and is doing even now, is briefly sketched in the following pages with the intention of getting this in human scene terminated by the hand of Brahmin himself and thereby enabling him to atone for the sins of thousands of years. May God grant success to this effort.
Solution to Kashmir Problem :
Since these lines were originally written in Kashmir it may also be submitted that the problem as understood or as explained outside the state is not the same as exists inside the State. The fact is that while Brahmin intolerance has cleared Muslims from Jammu, the process is now in operation in Kashmir. If this problem is considered while overlooking this real truth it can never be understood. All the Brahmins of the state seem to be determined to conceal this truth.
It may also be submitted that even a just political solution of the problem lies in one direction: that the two parts of the state are forthwith joined together and internal autonomy is given to it and militarily it is made a joint protectorate of India and Pakistan. This will also have a soothing effect on the minorities in India and Pakistan and will possibly bring their foreign policies and even defence nearer to each other.
Nov.11, 1967 Sufi Nazir Ahmad
Kashmir.
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The soul-killing contradiction of the Indian society & the only way to resolve it
These lines are being written just in Srinagar. One can most clearly discern here the working of the age-old contradictions of the Indian society. It seems that in this state the history of thousands of years of Brahminism is being repeated. Although this revivalist movement of Brahminism has been carried on throughout India for the last 20 years, it does not seem to be so clear there as in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
The fact is that on the eve of independence, some nationalist Muslim leaders disregarding the feelings and sentiments of Kashmiri Muslims in general attempted to accede this state to India ( I am not discussing here the question of permanent or temporary accession) which opened the floodgates of Muslim extermination. In the light of these developments a sensitive man can see with his naked eyes the working of Brahminism in the past thousands of years of Indian history.
A WORD OF JUSTICE FOR JINNAH
These Muslim leaders were probably under the illusion that the Hindu-Muslim conflict which a reformer politician like Gandhi and an old nationalist logician like Jinnah could not resolve could be resolved by them under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru. Throughout this Congress-League conflict the friendship of these leaders with Jawaharlal Nehru was probably due to this delusion and it continued to grow instead of diminishing and its consequences became evident in 1948. The result of this friendship which is now manifest as a reality clearly shows that this friendship was suicidal to the Muslims.
Jinnah continued to remain an ardent nationalist through most of his life, but during all this period he felt the reality in all its aspects that the new kind of nationalism which was raising its head in India would leave no place for Muslims or Islam. Hence if Muslims as Muslims were not protected they will disappear from India in the next 50-100 years along with Islam. This was the realisation which prompted the nationalist Jinnah to become the sponsor of Pakistan movement.
BRAHMINS CAPTURE CONGRESS
Nationalism in India which was founded by men like Raja Ram Mohan Ray and which was fostered by Bengal and Maharashtra and completed in Northern India by the Arya Samaj, the Hindu Mahasabha, its study forces a man to the same conclusion which was drawn by Jinnah. Jinnah in his biography when he mentions the death of Pandit Motilal Nehru has also mentioned that thereafter the Congress organisation passed into the hands of those who were the supporters of Brahministic brand of nationalism.
This nationalism was in fact a revival of Brahminism. It was this nationalism whose essential part was negation of Muslims and Islam.
Anyway, a political thinker could certainly arrive at this conclusion only.
GREATEST TYRANNY OF HISTORY
The most palpable tyranny of this new nationalism is that it started its work by making Aryan culture and religion as the basis of Indian renaissance, although history has unmistakably shown that when this Aryan clan came to India it deprived the old inhabitants of the country of their human rights permanently by making them untouchables. They were treated as more unclean than cats and dogs.
And then by making this most heinous fascism of history a religion they imposed it permanently on the people of this country.
But these Brahmin reformers, treating Islam and Muslims as anti-national and alien to the nation and the country, started to put an end to them and to make Brahminism or Aryan fascism as the corner stone of national reformation although wisdom and honesty demanded that the matter should have been reversed.
MUSLIMS APPLY WRONG REMEDY
The remedy which Muslim politicians devised for this hostility to Muslims was itself more than 50% against the purpose of Islam. Islam means an organisation of the entire human race on the belief of a universal creator of the world and a universal human brotherhood. Therefore, all the privileges of a Muslim are subservient to this belief and they ought to be so.
ACTION OF KASHMIR MUSLIM LEADERS
But the Muslim politicians of India entirely separating Muslim rights from the duties started a purely political movement in opposition to the representatives of Brahminism which culminated in the achievement of Pakistan and which even on political lines, instead of solving Hindu-Muslim conflicts has made confusion worse confounded.
Anyway the Kashmiri Muslim leaders partly under the influence of the new religion of nationalism and partly under the delusion that the task which could not be accomplished by the combined efforts of Gandhi and Jinnah could be accomplished by them under the supervision of Nehru, took these steps which were also supported by Gandhi in the hope that probably Kashmir would materialise his dream of Hindu-Muslim unity. They, however, seem to be leading to the annihilation of Muslims from the state. The following facts explain it:
JAMMU CLEARED OF MUSLIMS
It so happened that immediately as the Indian army entered Kashmir, Brahmin brand of nationalism fully established itself there. Jammu came into their control on the very first onslaught and they began to clear it of Muslims without the least fear; and the Muslim population of Jammu is now reduced from 66% to 30%. Now the same operation is being carried on in Kashmir. Whatever flowering platitudes are used the reality is just this. The slogan with which Balraj Madhok started the recent Pandit agitation leaves no room for doubt that the freedom with which a Madhok or a Prem Nath Dogra can operates in this state is not available even in India generally. For whatever oppression is done in India comes to the public in some form or other and its echo is also heard in the world outside.
BRAHMINICAL MEDIA MISCHIEF
But no one is allowed to know what happens in Jammu and Kashmir. The correspondents of the foreign papers who are here are full fledged supporters of the aforesaid Brahman nationalism and upholders of its cause.
So they cannot be such traitors to their country as to present any such fact to the world which might hamper the advance of this nationalism here. They can however represent the fact of a Hindu girl marrying a Muslim to the world as a matter of universal disorder. But they can never think of informing the world as to how the 66% of the Muslim population of Jammu was reduced to 30% in the last 19 years.
NON-MUSLIMS BROUGHT INTO JAMMU
They will not let the world know how many lakhs of non-Muslims were brought from outside. The irony is when Indian Army entered the state of Hyderabad, they drew all the Muslims, who had entered the state from the adjoining areas of India. But in Jammu and Kashmir they are doing the reverse. Yet they will not let the world know a word about what slogan Balraj Madhok used in inaugurating the Pandit agitation. And now when the next target is to be attacked under the leadership of Sankaracharya of Puri instead of Balraj Madhok they are not going to reveal. What preparation have been made to make it a success. As this will be a treason to “nationalism”. Obviously the “nationalist” journalist will not lose any part of his faith or honesty by telling a myriad lies but to speak a single truth against this nationalism will mean a total loss of honesty and faith and so he is ever on guard against it.
UGLY INSTANCE OF NATIONALISM
The birth place of the writer of these lines is the town of Poonch in Jammu province. In 1948 along with other thousands of Muslims my whole family was driven at the point of sword towards the other part of the state. This family had built some residential premises in Kahoota, some 12 miles below Haj Pair, which were burnt to ashes in the disturbance of 1965. In the vicinity of Rajauri, which is in the Indian province of Jammu, I have still some relatives although I had renounced my home in 1933 and began to tour India.
It was my firm conviction that I have to carry out a great mission and had left my home under this pressure. However, in 1961, I established my contact again with this state in furtherance of the same mission and as I was an old inhabitant of Jammu I had gathered so much information as no minister nominated by the Indian Govt. could probably gather. At the same time god has given me a sympathetic heart as well. And so last year I tried to persuade an important Congressite Muslim leader of the state to put the real condition of the state before the whole country and try to change it. But the reply which this Muslim leader gave was such as would cause humanity to weep for centuries.
This leader replied: “This will give a bad name to the country and it will be exploited by Pakistan”.
The Muslim leader who gave the aforesaid reply has been for the last two years first castigated by Jan Sangh workers as a “Pakistani” and later as the “worst Pakistani”. And now intensive propaganda is afoot to oust his party and constitute Madhok Raj.
It is reported in newspapers (Times of India, Oct.26, 1967) that after Madhok and Prem Nath Dogra the supreme supervisor of the Kashmir policy of Jana Sangh will be Sankaracharya of Puri. Under his leadership a committee has been constituted to safeguard the rights of non-Muslim minorities in Kashmir province.
I, therefore, appeal to every Brahmin in particular those who even in this disturbed state can think rightly in the moral light of human conscience and every Dravidian, Adivasi and Untouchable leader to awaken fully his conscience and to ponder whether the two facts stated above are absolute truths. May be the same sun rises again in India which will not only put an end for ever to the age of murder and plunder but will also change the immoral night of the darkness of materialistic oppression and the fraud of secular democracy into light as well.
When Brahminism began its free play in India it classed the old inhabitants of India as unclean and degraded them below the level of animals in its own interest. Thereafter this fascism was elevated into a religion and the people were made to agree to it. It was in the course of this process that a system of high and low caste was devised which buried for ever all possibilities of human quality and its rights and duties. It was now a religion whose violation was not only violence of the law of the land but also made the transgressor fit for hell.
Propagation of Budhism somewhat loosened the grip of Brahminism to some extent but then there was the movement for the revival of Brahminism which did not rest till Budhism was driven out of the country leaving in its wake a reign of social and political anarchy in the land.
This was the historical moment when Islam came to India. But it entered the country in two ways. The first was the Muslim saints, merchants and ulamas came here and this was the right way. Their aim particularly of saints was to propagate Islam. The other was the entry into India of Muslim conquerors. This was a doubtful manner of coming for the aim and purpose of these conquerors was in principle similar to those of Aryan conquerors. They came here to establish their empire.
The battles of Muslim conquerors had their two-fold effect on Islamic history. In the first place the motives of the Muslim saints, ulamas and merchants who could preach Islam with sincerity and selflessness began to be looked upon with suspicion by the common people. If it were not so there are reasons to believe that Islam would have spread here in the same way as it did in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia etc.
The other effect was that due to continuous wars of Muslim conquerors the representatives of Brahminism were able to use the religion of untouchability against Muslims also. But this working of the system of untouchability throughout the Muslim regime was just an undercurrent and Muslim conquerors never treated it as anything but the superstition of non-believers. Although in their essence they were not just superstitions but the undercurrent of the soul of Brahmanic social system.
To regard this system of belief and action as the real ideology of the country and to consider the upholders of unity of god and human brotherhood as enemies of the country was nothing short of uprooting faith, honesty, justice and equality.
If their plans against the Muslims are successful, the rights which they have temporarily given to the Dravidians and Untouchables under the pressure of international democratic forces will also be taken away and they will have to remain content with their old status, as this has been the religion of this country for about 5,000 years.
Police action against the Muslim State of Hyderabad was launched on the ground that a minority in fact cannot be given the right to rule over an absolute majority. And then it was enforced with such perfection that it constitutes its own example. But when Kashmir was brought under control this rule of justice as altered to mean that the Muslim majority cannot in anyway have the right to remain in majority forever and constitute a danger for ever to the supremacy of Brahmins.
Only the last summer Sadiq announced that he was going to constitute a commission for the purpose of giving the right of participation in the Govt. to the various communities in proportion to their numerical strength. But a few days after this statement a great storm was raised which will be remembered in history as the Pandit agitation.
This will be a new national convention and Muslims will become a new class of untouchables. The result will be that while the province of Jammu will be ruled by Jan Sangh, Kashmir province will become the preserve of Kashmiri Pandits. It may be anticipated as a matter of fact that under this system of justice Sadiq and Qasim will remain on their gaddi for another five years. A way may probably be found in this period to clear Kashmir also from the Untouchables. May the disciples of Gandhi just know what is the nature of work undertaken in the name of Gandhi in Kashmir?
This is the revival of Brahmanism after a thousand years and its operation, although it is very difficult for the Brahminical social system to succeed in this age of universal democracy.
No doubt profitable trade of preceptors and disciples are being carried on in their holy names, but there is not the least sign in these preceptors and disciples of any desire to conveying the message of unity of god and human brotherhood to every home. It is this alone that the secret of their humiliation and ruin lies.
And the great and most central duty of a Muslim is to liberate humanity from casteism, untouchability and racial or geographical discriminations and to put them under the banner of the universal brotherhood of Islam.
Thus to eliminate all discriminations of caste and race and colour which make human rights and duties subservient to caste and country is the basic teaching of religion.
As a result of it, it is a matter for thought for every morally sensitive human conscience:
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OUR CORRESPONDENT
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OUR CORRESPONDENT
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A CORRESPONDENT
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OUR CORRESPONDENT
It is Mbeki who made S. Africa the continent’s most important country and also the world’s most respected. And yet the Whites and zionists went on squeezing S. Africa. Finally they found an ideal stooge in Jacob Zuma whom they systematically groomed to take on Mbeki. Poor Mbeki is on the way out.
They used even Mandela, a stooge of the Whites to destroy Mbeki’s reputation. The Jewish Nobel Foundation gave Mandela a Nobel Prize but the Blacks rejected Mandela.
The world outside is not getting a true picture of Africa because the entire media is controlled by the Whites. China has emerged as a trustworthy supporter of Africans but we could not find China doing enough to avert the current S. African crisis.
DV Jan.16, 2008 p.13: “Zionists cause defeat of Mbeki?”
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Bangalore unsafe for women
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(Dr. Ambedkar’s Praise for Islam)
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