1. Goa Tops Islamic State’s India Hitlist, Foreign Tourists Its Main Target
The interrogation of Muddabbir Mushtaq Sheikh of Mumbra, the former head of ISIS’ India operations has revealed that the terrorist organisation had planned to attack Goa and the large number foreign tourists there.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the group wanted to bomb the tourist destination in December 2014, when the number of tourists is at its highest. Luckily, the plans were foiled by intelligence agencies.
Indian agencies have picked up 23 terror suspects linked to ISIS in the last four months.
Intelligence agencies assess a strong possibility of IS engineering some action in India as the pan-Islamic jihadi group is under pressure in Afghanistan and is losing ground in Iraq and Syria. They feel that the Brussels attack this week was part of an IS attempt to lift the morale of its fighters.Report in the Hindustan Times
For now, ISIS has been unable to strike in India.
The Indian recruits of Islamic State have learnt the art of bomb-making through the internet but they have not been successful in procuring explosives like RDX or ammonium nitrate. Their current capabilities and numbers reveal the terror group can execute a limited strike that gives them high publicity.Senior Official to Hindustan Times
2. After Narada Sting, a Trivedi Strike
The latest person to hit at out at the Trinamool Congress for the Narada News sting is one of their own. Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has taken a badly disguised jibe at his party. Speaking at an event hosted by industry body CII at the India International Centre in Delhi, Trivedi said that he would have probed ministers tainted by the sting till their innocence was proved.
Let’s say if I were head of the party, I would have just said, ‘You come out clean and tell us what it is. And till the time you are clear, you sit at home’, if Mamata did that, she would’ve swept the elections.Dinesh Trivedi, quoted in The Telegraph
Trivedi even drew on Advani as an example for his fellow TMC leaders to follow when faced with corruption charges.
Trivedi, however, said the accused politicians should ask for a probe if they felt they had “not done anything”. He added that the party’s “top and bottom” - Mamata and the grass-root workers, respectively - were “honest”. He cited how BJP veteran L.K. Advani, after being accused in the hawala scam in 1991, “had the courage of conviction to say that ‘I will not enter Parliament till my name is cleared’”. Advani was later acquitted by a court.Article in The Telegaph
Clearly, the TMC is speaking in multiple voices on the sting operation. But will the taint of corruption effect the elections?
3. Headley Revelations: Childhood Hatred for India and Sherlock Holmes Reference Before 26/11
David Headley, one of the masterminds of the 26/11 attacks has turned approver in the trial of suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in the 26/11 terror case.
His revelations, delivered from a secure location in the US continue to make headlines. He has expressed little remorse and admitted on Friday that he had “hated India and Indians since childhood and wanted maximum damage”.
The reason for his animosity, he claims, goes back to 1971.
“When my school was bombed on December 7, 1971, is when the feelings (of hatred) developed,” said Headley. He asked the “relevance” of the next question on “who bombed the schools” before answering, “Indian planes”. The reference was clearly to the Indo-Pak war. “My school was destroyed and people there died,” said the 55-year-old who was 11 then. It was “one of the reasons” why he joined LeT, he admitted.Report in The Times of India
Headley also told the court about how he knew the “ process of the 26/11 attacks” had begun.
David Coleman Headley received this text message from Sajid Mir, his alleged handler in the terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba: “The game is afoot”. He took it to mean that “the process” to attack Mumbai had begun, Headley said on Friday, the third day of his cross-examination by the defence. Headley then detailed how Mir had described the failure of two attempts to attack the city, before the LeT eventually succeeded on November 26, 2008.Report in The Indian Express
“The game is afoot” is a popular phrase often used by Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary character, Sherlock Holmes.
4. Exclusive | BJP Will Free Assam of Illegal Immigrants: Sonowal
The BJP’s chief ministerial candidate from Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal spoke exclusively with The Quint while campaigning in Majuli.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has accused the BJP-AGP of conducting the secret killings in Assam between 1998 and 2001. But Sonowal rubbishes these allegations. According to him, Gogoi had received four commission reports on these killings but he didn’t act on any. This indirectly means that it is the Congress which was protecting the secret killers.
He stood by the BJP’s decision to give tickets to former ULFA members by saying that everyone is committed to the cause of a better Assam and that the party believes in working together with everybody.
5. I Am a Real Hindu, They [BJP] are Fake, Says Assam CM Tarun Gogoi
Members of the BJP and RSS are “fake Hindus” who are trying to impose their version of the religion on people, according to Assam CM and Congress leader Tarun Gogoi. The three-term chief minister also claimed that the BJP uses religion just to get votes and does not understand the diversity in Assam.
Communities in Assam have their respective different deities, gods and goddesses. Hinduism has thousands of gods and goddesses. Yet, the BJP and RSS are trying to impose their own brand of Hinduism which the people do not like. Our real Hinduism does not teach us to hate other faiths. The Assamese brand of Hinduism has taught us to be secular and tolerant. Assamese Hindus do not despise people of other faiths… Hinduism never called for demolishing the Babri Masjid. They (BJP) did it for votes and capturing power.Tarun Gogoi to The Indian Express
Gogoi also attacked Himanta Biswas Sarma, once his right-hand man, as “Shani”. Sarma has left the Congress to become the election campaign chief of the BJP.
Yes, I was under the spell of Shani for several years. When it was with us there were a lot of problems in the Congress. Now that the Shani has left us and joined the BJP, the Congress has become free of the Shani’s spell.Tarun Gogoi to The Indian Express
6. BJP Supports Mehbooba, but Wants Relook at J&K Portfolios
The drama with government formation in Jammu & Kashmir just doesn’t seem to end. After Mehbooba Mufti met PM Narendra Modi and announced that there would be a government soon, it seemed things would work out. While the BJP has decided to support the PDP and re-form the government, a report in The Hindu suggests that the party may want a reallocation of portfolios which could lead to further drama.
The PDP had approached the Governor for a meeting and even the state BJP President Sat Sharma was to be present.
However, according to the Raj Bhavan spokesman, the PDP and BJP leaders failed to meet, saying “talks were ongoing at Jammu between the leaders of their parties and they would make a fresh request for a meeting once they had concluded discussions”. BJP sources said the party was keen “to have a relook at the party-wise allocation of portfolios”. Sources hinted at the party demanding a reshuffling of the ministries of Finance, Planning and junior ministry of State Home ministry, which traditionally has been with the Chief MinisterReport in The Hindu
The PDP has denied that any fresh demands have been made by the BJP.
7. Spy? Dad Says Pak Is Lying – Son of Mumbai Cop Arrested, India Denies RAW Link
Sudhir Jadhav, ACP (retired) in the Mumbai police maintains that his son is not a spy.
Pakistan announced that it had arrested an Indian “spy” - it identified him as “naval officer Kul Bhushan Yadav” - and lodged a formal protest today with New Delhi. India responded that the man had had no links with the government since he took premature retirement from the navy. In Mumbai, the man’s father echoed the government.Report in The Telegraph
The Pakistan government continues to maintain that Kul Bhushan is a spy, despite India’s denials. Some may believe that Defence personnel sometimes engage in espionage activities. However, in Jadhav’s case, this is unlikely.
Many defence officers work in West Asia as professionals after retirement, or run consultancy businesses - he seems to have been one of them. It is likely that he was kidnapped by Pakistan to generate some ambience noise about spying before a top Pakistani team is to arrive for the Pathankot probe.High-ranking Navy official to The Telegraph
In fact, Pakistan’s narrative about the alleged spy just doesn’t add up.
The naval source, who had earlier served with the naval intelligence, also pointed out that if “Kul Bhushan” was at all a naval officer of the rank of commander as claimed by Pakistan, it was impossible that he would be on the field gathering intelligence.”Commanders are very senior officers, they do not physically go to the field. Also, naval officers are almost never used for offshore work and this fellow was caught in Balochistan they say - stuff and nonsense,” he said.Report in The Telegraph
8. Waterless in Marathwada: Farm Crisis Is Extra Hard on Women
Whether it’s the physical stress of collecting water from the tanker in dozens of pots daily, or the emotional stress of putting out a decent meal for the family when there’s no money at home, whether it’s maintaining menstrual hygiene in times of acute water scarcity or dealing with an increasingly violent or alcoholic husband, it’s always women who have to bear the brunt of a disaster.Godavari Kshirsagar, 44, of Gandora village to The Indian Express
In the worst affected areas of drought-hit Marathwada, it’s women that are suffering the worst. Fetching water, an increasingly arduous task, is “women’s work”. Hygiene takes a back seat when water is scarce. And of course, spending money and time on medical issues becomes nearly impossible for the poor.
Things, sometimes, can get even worse.
Marathwada’s women may not figure in official data of farmer suicides — they’re not land owners. But for every addition to the growing list of suicide victims, there’s a farm widow whose income sources and social relationships are realigned immediately. “Everything changed in one moment,” says Anita Mulay about the day her husband Uttam hanged himself at home, on the morning of Dussehra 2014. Anita was 23 then, with two sons, Vishal and Vaibhav. From creditors to sexual predators, Anita has multiple fears.Report in The Indian Express
9. A Lesson in Hidden Agendas
According to an op-ed in The Hindu, there has been an attack on India’s public education system (PES) and the Right to Education as ineffectual and wasteful. Low-cost private schools, on the other hand, are said to provide better “learning outcomes” for children. However, there is no conclusive evidence to support this claim.
In spite of many studies conducted more or less with the express purpose of establishing that low-fee private schools do better, there is no reliable evidence to support that claim. However, there is evidence that students in private “schools are less likely to belong to low caste groups” (Sangeeta Goyal and Priyanka Pandey, “How do Government and Private Schools Differ”, EPW, 2012), which means that they are less inclusive. Therefore, the repeated claims of better learning in private schools are unfounded.Article in The Hindu
So why is there so much written against the PES? The article offers a rather extreme explanation.
The remedy suggested for the low learning levels in the PES is to encourage the private sector. Simply put, provide public money to the private profiteer either though the vouchers or by facilitating their compliance with the RTE norms. The vouchers are seen as the ticket to quality education as the parents can decide to take their children to any private school they like. There is no evidence the world over of vouchers improving learning of children. In reality, it is a demand for letting the market regulate schools. The market is not a just god, it favours big money, and competition raising quality is a myth. Teacher education in our country is almost entirely in the hands of the private colleges. And we all know that it has completely ruined teacher education and all attempts to improve it so far have failed.Article in The Hindu
From The Quint
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)