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Editorial
As
it is becoming increasingly clear each day, threat posed by international
terrorism has reached such a perilous stage that it needs serious attention
with upmost immediacy and only by taking strategically proactive and unconventionally
forceful measures, carried with mutual collaboration among all countries,
a peaceful world can again be imagined. Today, various regions in world
are infested with terror in different forms but the common driving force
is 'jihad' or something similar to 'jihad' -colored with many regional
specific issues. One of the most serious case, where terror has taken
singularily horrid form is Kashmir, India.
This
issue of Newsletter deals mainly with terrorism in Kashmir. Nearly 40,001
people have been killed in last two decades in this war. First article
"Future Terrorism" analyses immediate and long-term future of
terrorism regarding various aspects like ideology, funding and weapon
of mass-destruction; finally, gives some suggestion on how terrorist activities
can be thwarted. Second article is on US's renewed interest in selling
weapon to India. Secretary of State Ms Condoleezza Rice's visit to India
was very crucial and current issue of weapon dealing offers important
insight in US's foreign policy toward south-east Asia. Third article,
written by a student, Kaushik, on this theme takes lighter note and talks
about various historical incidents and arguments by historians suggesting
that Jesus Christ visited Kashmir.
You
will also see a beautiful poem in Hindi written by a student, Ashutosh,
on Kashmiri Pandits. To keep the variety of articles vivid, last article
is critical analyses of couple of fictional books, also submitted by a
student. I hope you would enjoy reading this newsletter.
Vinod Sangwan
Don't
miss the panel discussion on Terrorism in Kashmir : The Threat of
Expanding Global Jihad in South Asia. For details please visit http://www.desiumd.org/panel
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Future
Terrorism
B. Raman
International
jihadi terrorism of the Al Qaeda model will continue to
pose the most serious challenge to the intelligence and
counter-terrorism agencies and the police forces of the
world in the short and medium terms, that is, for another
five to 10 years. It shows no signs of any dilution of motivation
and determination. There has been no dearth of volunteers.
The more the number of terrorists killed or captured by
the security forces, the more the number of volunteers for
suicide and other terrorist missions.
Despite
our having the second largest Muslim community in the world,
we have managed to keep the Al Qaeda out till now. The jihadi
terrorism in our territory is largely due to pro-Al Qaeda
jihadi organisations from Pakistan, which have joined bin
Laden's International Islamic Front.. More
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Manmohini
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Reviews
of Seven Novels By
Mukhtyar Sanga
The
Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
A Portrait of Artist as a Young
Man James Joyce
The Great Gatsby
Scott F. Fitzgerald
To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Catch 22 Joseph
Heller
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Yes,
take me there
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An
Analysis of renewed US Interest in Military sales to India
By Commodore RS Vasan (Retd)
There are no doubts that the visit of Ms Rice is an important
one. The change of heart at Washington about the release
of many weapon systems is dictated both by commercial
interests as well as the need to acknowledge the importance
of India to American strategic interests. By making India
as the first stop over, Ms Rice has sought to convey the
importance that US attaches to the Indo US relations.
The release of many platforms and weapon systems have
been viewed with suspicion on counts of unreliability
as well as the vintage of some of the systems offered.
From the Indian view point, one needs to tread with caution
in the backdrop of US compulsions in the region. There
is obviously no harm in evaluating various offers to ascertain
the suitability. It needs to be acknowledged that there
are some good offers along with the not so good ones.
The strength of safeguards between the two countries to
ensure life cycle product support would need to be established
to prevent the repetition of another post Pokhran scenario.
Complete
article
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The
Messiah in Paradise
By
Kaushik Mitra
This
is Srinagar. Surrounded by the Himalayas, with the beautiful
Dal Lake in between. At a little distance are the houseboats,
meandering in the serenity of the blue water. Along the
shore of the Dal lake is the road leading to Shalimar
bag, Nishat bag.......the beautiful gardens of Srinagar.
A heaven made of mountain, lakes and chinar trees. The
army stationed after every few yards. Yes! It is a land
any nation can envy us for.
But
the dizziness would not go. One is reminded of the legends
in Iran, Iraq and in West Asia - Christ did not die out
of crucifixion. Hiding from the enemy, he wandered in
Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. Persian legends as well
as ancient historical accounts of 'Jami'ut-Tawarikh',
'Farhang-i-Asafia', say the same story. In fact these
ancient texts mention that in these regions, he was called
Yuz Asaf.
Complete
Article
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