Discovering Surprises Meherabad Way…

November 30, 2011
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Discovering Surprises Meherabad Way…

By Malladi Rama Rao On Meherabad hill, every day offers a surprise. The other day, for instance, a family celebrating the birthday of their grandchild, distributed cookies after the evening prayers along with regular prasad. Every one received a cookie packed neatly in a sachet. And in the sachet is a neatly printed Message. While I missed picking up my sachet being an early bird for the darshan, my friend Ramachandra Gaikwad, a long time resident of Lower Meherabad, proudly displayed his ‘possession’. It read: ‘Baba might reward you with something to meet your expectations or he might give you nothing and that nothing would be everything’. The cookies were uniform in size; their taste was also the same but not the message they delivered. Every single sachet surprised you with a different message. Who said uniformity is order of the day in Meherabad; who said there is a...

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Divide Uttar Pradesh, Rule the Country…!

November 24, 2011
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By Pandit Tushar Charan The ambitions of UP chief minister and BSP supremo, Mayawati, have taken her to demand division of India’s largest state into four separate entities—Paschim Pradesh, Awadh Pradesh, Poorvanchal Pradesh and Bundelkhand. She stumped the opposition when she sought permission in the UP state assembly to carve four states out of Uttar Pradesh. Her supporter have started seeing the vision of BSP, at present a one-state wonder, taking over the reins of four states, giving four chief ministers to the country. Of course, politicians will also be dreaming of vacancies of Governor’s post in four more states. And not forgetting the real estate developers, the most powerful and richest lobby in India, will be salivating at the prospect of grabbing land to expand their construction business and amassing still more wealth. Amidst total confusion and pandemonium Uttar Pradesh assembly gave its permission with a voice vote...

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NEW THREATS FROM MONSTER CALLED LeT

November 23, 2011
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NEW THREATS FROM MONSTER CALLED LeT

by SURENDER KUMAR SHARMA* American journalist Sebastian Rotella’s twin exposes in ProPublica – America’s botched chances to stop the American Lashkar operative David Coleman Headley behind India’s 9/11 and LeT operational head, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi’s jail life with all the trappings of status guest status, have coincided with the release in India of journalist Wilson John’s new book titled “The Caliphate’s Soldiers: The Lashkar-e-Tayyeba’s Long War”.  Read both works together. It becomes clear that despite investing the title of Man of Peace on the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, and despite intense global scrutiny and sanctions, Lashkar-e-Toiba remains a grave threat to the world than ever before not only to the immediate neighbours of the ‘land of pure’ as Pakistan would like to project itself but to the entire world. The LeT is more complex and orthodox to the core than even the Haqqani network, with which...

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B’desh reads riot act to Pakistan, Demands apology for 1971 genocide

November 22, 2011
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B’desh reads riot act to Pakistan, Demands apology for 1971 genocide

By Malladi Rama Rao Bangladesh’s renewed demand that Pakistan must tender a formal apology for the 1971 Genocide does indeed come as a surprise. Not its timing though.  The demand articulated on Sunday Nov 20 by Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has coincided with the commencement of trials in the three-judge International Crimes Tribunal headed by Justice Nizamul Huq. Sheik Hasina government came to power promising to bring to book all the guilty men who had committed ‘crimes against humanity’ during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Topping the hit list are the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, who had openly collaborated with the Pakistani forces which killed 30 lakh people and raped 2 lakh women during the nine-month war. Jamaat’s nayeb-e-ameer, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, has just been made to stand trial; the charge-sheet against him runs into 88-pages. And the charges range from genocide, killing, rape, arson, to abduction and torture...

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Mamata at her TRP Best: HARD REALISM WITH THEATRICAL SKILLS

November 20, 2011
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Mamata at her TRP Best: HARD REALISM WITH THEATRICAL SKILLS

By ALLABAKSH New Delhi (Syndicate Features): Entertainment channels in West Bengal must be offering a variety of ‘reality show’ to lure viewers and advertisers by incurring heavy costs for the production. If they are cost conscious it is time they thought of capturing audience with a very lively political reality show in which the state’s chief minister will be the main star. Mamata Banerjee, the mercurial Trinmool Congress supremo, has been regaling audiences with threats to unsettle the UPA where her party is a crucial partner. She has been busier upbraiding the Congress-led UPA government more than her long-standing political foe, the CPI (M) or addressing growing security concerns arising from the Maoists revival after a comparative lull. Her threats may be empty, as most people can see. But her words and action enliven the political scene, both in Kolkata and Delhi, more than the running spats she has...

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West Finally Accepts Myanmar On Its Terms

November 19, 2011
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West Finally Accepts Myanmar On Its Terms

By M RAMA RAO New Delhi (Syndicate Features): President Obama’s announcement Friday Nov 18 in Bali that he was sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a visit to Myanmar next month is recognition of the steady transition that the country has been making over the past one year. His announcement has coincided with the decision of ASEAN member nations to let Myanmar take over the chairmanship of their grouping in 2014. These two decisions though apparently unrelated are a signal that the long years of diplomatic isolation of the predominantly Buddhist country is about to end.  In a way, it is a triumph of ASEAN’s policy of engaging the military junta much against the will of the US. Only through dialogue and constant interaction will it be possible to change the course of events in the 21st century. Vietnam yesterday and Iraq today are shining examples of the...

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What Made Musharraf Pull Down A Portion Of His Farm HOuse…?

November 14, 2011
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What Made Musharraf Pull Down A Portion Of His Farm HOuse…?

By M RAMA RAO It is difficult to resist the comment that former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf has not lost the jest to pull off a surprise though  he  had bowed out of the country  in 2007 under a deal brokered by the Saudis, Americans, and the army chief Kayani. But for the deal he had negotiated for abdicating first the post of army chief and later on of the head of the country, he would have been another faceless NRP – non-resident Pakistani. Today he is able to live in real comfort either in own house or houses arranged by the old loyalists in Washington, London and Dubai.  And his old friend, the US of A, queered the pitch, though unwittingly probably, for him as the voice of Pakistan for the western media and think-tanks alike.  So much so why he has asked his henchmen back home...

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AFSPA ROW:What is this fuss all about?

November 13, 2011
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By SARLA HANDOO New Delhi (Syndicate Features): Did Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah really want to hit both Congress and the PDP by raking up the issue of partial revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act? While the debate is raging, it is interesting to note how vital matters of security are becoming subjects of public debate due to narrow political interests. On the face of it, it appears that Omar wanted to push the Congress to a corner which had started demanding the post of Chief Minister on a rotational basis, after Omar completes 3 years as Chief Minister in January next. The party went to the extent of projecting Saif-ud-din-Soz as the next Chief Minister at its Sangrama rally. At the same time, Omar wanted to target the PDP, which has launched a systematic campaign in favour of repealing the AFSPA and the Disturbed Areas...

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Pakistan’s N-Power Ambitions Amidst R-leaks

November 12, 2011
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Pakistan’s N-Power Ambitions Amidst R-leaks

By Malladi Rama Rao Pakistan will purchase two atomic power plants with a combined capacity of 2,000 MW from China and the negotiations are in an advanced stage. The report does not come as a surprise because Pakistan is known to have turned to its all-weather friend to secure what the USA has denied to it in terms of N-parity with its South Asian nuclear neighbour. If there is indeed any surprise it is only in the delay both sides have made in going public with the plan. To be designated Kanupp-2 and Kanupp-3, the new plants will become a part of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant complex to address the country’s growing energy crisis by producing 1000 MWs each.  Today power shortage in Pakistan is at around 8,000 to 8,500 MW at peak time. Long hours of outages have created law and order problem with people staging often...

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‘Meher Baba- Bhala Manush, Dev Manush’

October 30, 2011
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‘Meher Baba- Bhala Manush, Dev Manush’

By Malladi Rama Rao Meherabad (Ahmednagar), Oct 29: Day Two of ‘Discovering the Avataric Legacy’ has held out a real surprise. And it belongs to the realm of ‘Ripley’s Believe it or not’. In fact, for the devout Meher Baba lover and follower, what unfolded went beyond Ripley’s. Mehernath Kalchuri, a Trustee, unfolded the surprise. He presented four persons from Pimpalagaon, the village, which the Avatar of the Age made His home for years. ‘All the four served Baba with love and devotion,’ he said introducing them to the audience at the Meher Pilgrim Centre today. Asaram, for instance, physically carried Baba every day in His chair from the Bed Room to the Mandali Hall. Not for one day or two days but for close to twenty years. Madhav Kamble worked with Baba from the time of the 1956 accident. For another, whose name one could not catch clearly,...

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