Saffron

Saffron

Indian HOLOCAUST My father`s Life and Time- One hundred Twenty Three

Palash Biswas



Aamar Gram, Tomar Gram, Shobar Gram: Nandigram,
Nandigram

My Village; Your Village; Everybody's village.
Nandigram. Nandigram

Pl Visit this site to feel COLD HORROR:
http://nandigramlalsalam.blogspot.com/index.html

"A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance." -Jawarhalal Nehru

It was the begiining of Saffron Age indeed! Hindutva captured State Power after about a thusand years!
Since then the Brahminical system run without any interruption! Enslavement continued! And now it is total annihilition campaign launched by Hindu Zionist Imperialism!

THE golden jubilee celebrations of unified Kerala’s first elected government got off to a formal start at Thiruvanathapuram on April 5. All over the state, CPI(M), CPI and their mass organisations conducted various colourful programmes to mark the 50th anniversary of the first communist government of the state. The celebrations altogether evoked the memories of the historic day on which Kerala began its journey on the road of democratic governance.

Inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations conducted by the LDF government, governor R L Bhatia described the EMS government as the harbinger of fundamental changes in Kerala society and polity. The 1957 cabinet was the best that the state had ever had, he said. The 1957 government had made far-reaching impact in the socio-political field in the state. Kerala had made rapid strides in several sectors during the last 50 years, raising the living standards of the people to international level. Kerala owed a lot to the first government for these achievements, governor said.
http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0415/04152007_kerala.htm

Thecommunists are known best as the best tool of Great Indian Brahminical Supremacy as the realities in Karala, Bengal and Tripura are no secret. The Communist Drive against Dalit Refugees continues. Marichjhapi and now Nandigram, bloodstreams have overtaken Land Reforms and Peasants Struggle always betrayed by Communist Brahmins!

Caste As Racism?

Free Speech Host 21-AUG-01
Professor Kancha Ilaiah argues that the situation of the Dalit-Bahujan masses is similar to that of a black and beautiful buffalo that gives more milk—white milk at that—than the cows of India, but has no sacred status in civil society and no legal protection in the Constitution. That all the intellectuals of India seem afraid that a proposal for discussing the question of caste at a UN forum might make it into global issue. What do you think?
http://www.outlookindia.com/submain1.asp?mode=25&refer=3181
It is resurgence of shudrayan, the Saffron Age Of hindutva!The Hindutva project is engineered by the bourgeois-technocrat, who forms part of the new trans-national elite in our recent phase of global capitalism. This elite is able to conduct its political work in two nations. The Hindujas, for example, both welcome the BJP as a positive force in Indian politics and simultaneously donate millions of dollars to Columbia University to start a Vedic Studies program. A management consultant in Maryland posts two letters addressed to him on the internet to demonstrate his sympathies for the Hindutva project: one from Ashok Singhal on Goverment of India letterhead (Singhal was Home Minister for 14 days this year) and the other from Jay Dubashi, the BJP’s economic wizard.


It is, though, reminiscent of Union Carbide which is further enhanced by corporate, Cola, MNC Raj!

From its marginal and obscure origins in Nagpur in 1925, Hindutva has become fairly “attractive” to large sections of the Hindu population (and its attendant “minority” éleves). Whether in New Delhi or New York, the global Hindu bourgeoisie has in the past two decades accepted Hindutva ideology as an acceptable part of its world-view. That is, whether one is actually a follower of Hindutva or not, one tends to acknowledge its presence in terms of its electoral strength in India (via the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena) and the “relevance” of its overall politico-cultural arguments.

Vajpayee, Rahul gandhi and Jyoti Basu- all speak in safron Language to maintain the Brahmin supremacy in Polity, Economy and Society. It is part of the game named War Against Terrorism and Bechtel Reconstruction with Dows entry in India .Hindutva is a nationalist ideology, based on a modern day version of centralized intolerant Hinduism. It has nothing to do with a historical tradition of spiritual practices that we call Hinduism. Such a centralized and chauvinistic Hinduism - Hindutva - has been brought to the fore front in today by a group of political organizations called the "Sangh Parivar " (Sangh Family) - consisting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Association - the mother organization after which the label Sangh Parivar is coined), the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People Party - Hindutva's constitutional front that fights elections etc.), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council - the formations activist front), the Shiv Sena (the fascist front), the VHP of America (Hindutva's overseas arm) and the Hindu Students Councils (VHP of America's student wing).

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has rapped the handling of Nandigram issue by the Left Front government in West Bengal as she faulted it with "forcible" acquisition of fertile land. Faulting the state government for the "needless loss of life" in Nandigram, she said "the issue is not industrialisation. It is the forcible acquisition of fertile land from villagers who do not wish to part with it". Her remarks came in a "letter to Congress workers" carried in the latest issue of party publication Congress Sandesh.

There appears to be a fairly universal agreement that the outfits of Hindutva are manned by two sorts of people: the moderate (exemplified by Vajpayee despite his own tight links with the RSS hot-heads) and the fanatic (exemplified by B. L. Sharma ‘Prem’ and the foot soldiers who destroyed Mir Baqi’s mosque at Ayodhya). While the Hindutva fellow-travellers find themselves ill at ease with the rabidity of ‘Prem,’ they have no compunction about Vajpayee and hence, the project of Hindutva. The importance of the distinction is this: not only has the Hindutva project been able to gain electoral support in specific regions in India, but in the United States it has grown silently and steadily to become a significant determinant in the lives and fashions of the Hindu community. The support for the Hindutva ensemble in the US comes for very different reasons than in India and these distinctions bear investigation.


Sensex gains 311 points : The market ended firm on Monday with the benchmark

SEZ rules not final: Reliance : When the government changed its laws reducing the

Essar acquires Algoma Steel : Ruias owned Essar Steel on Monday said that that t

Indiabulls Q4 net at Rs 160 cr : Indiabulls Financial Services reported a net profi
See:http://www.ndtvprofit.com/default.asp

Untouchability remainsand Islamophobia became an integral part of Hindutva. L.K. Advani calls it a "noble concept". He named the Port Blair airport after Savarkar.

The Spartan Song- 'We are what you were; we will be what you are' is, in its simplicity, the abridged hymn of Hindutva today. Arise and awake Hindus! The clarion call of Ashok Singhal

'Hindus of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.'


Swami Vivekananda said: 'Arise, Awake and Go Forth as Proud Hindus'. This message forms the basis of Dr Swamy's definition of the following five maxims which should constitute the fundamentals of Hindu Unity today:

Firstly, a Hindu, and those others who are proud of their Hindu past and origins, must know the correct history of India. They must learn the concept of India as Hindustan (not Soniastan or Secularistan!)

Secondly, according to Hindu belief, all religions equally lead to God, and not that all religions are equal in the richness of their theological content. Respecting all religions, Hindus must forcefully demand from others that such respect is a two-way obligation. Muslims and Christians shall be part of the Hindustani parivar or family only if they accept this truth and revere it.

Thirdy, Hindus must prefer to lose everything they possess rather than submit to tyranny or terrorism.

Fourthly, the Hindu must have a mindset to retaliate when attacked. The retaliation must be massive enough to deter future attacks. Fifthly all Hindus to qualify as true Hindus must make an earnest effort to learn Sanskrit and the Devanagiri script in addition to their own mother tongue and must pledge that one day in the future, Sanskrit will be India's link language since all the main Indian languages have large percentages of their vocabulary in common with Sanskrit.

Dr Swamy declares with majestic aplomb: 'These five fundamentals constitute the concept of VIRAT HINDU UNITY'.
http://newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06nov/0211ss1.htm
Rahul spoke '1971 reality', says Pakistan politician
India eNews.com - 2 hours ago
A leading Pakistani politician has paid a left-handed compliment to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi - for apparently speaking the 'truth' about the 1971 creation of Bangladesh.
After attacking Rahul Gandhi's statement yesterday, Pakistan today said "circumstances" existed in 1971 which were exploited by India to dismember the country.

"I am not going to get into that debate but may be there were circumstances. But India took advantage of those circumstances to dismember Pakistan and what the scion of Nehru family has done is that he has accepted the real Indian motives for the intervention," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told reporters here.
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=366152&sid=NAT
Congress sees nothing wrong in Rahul`s remarks
Going on the offensive on Rahul Gandhi`s statement, Congress on Monday saw nothing wrong in his remarks about his family`s role in politics and maintained that the young leader`s views on "division" of Pakistan would have no impact on the peace process with Islamabad.
Pak must end cross-border terror for dialogue`s success: Govt
Voicing concern over Pakistan`s continued support to cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday said that for any bilateral dialogue to succeed, Islamabad has to put an end to this.

Saffron is the Color dominating India which has already killed Bahrat. It is Americanised saffron which is merged with all other colors including RED represented by Communists. SEZ has become the best expression of Saffron India and resultant Bloodstreams create more Urbanisation, More Industrialisation and More More readjustment of Demography.
Pehle Paisa, Phir Bhagwan Yankee Hindutva responds to the non-resident Indian's identity problem. Its rapid spread among NRIs is full of implications for society back home.
Read:
Is Hindutva Fascist? : Some Considerations
http://www.proxsa.org/politics/hindutva/abv.html
HINDU SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH (HSS)
[source: "http://www.incore.com/india/hss/#soul"]
In the Belly of the Beast
The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India
An Insider’s story
http://www.proxsa.org/politics/hindutva/partha.html
"The Sangh is my Soul"
(by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee)
Hindutva Offensive Social Roots: Characterisation
http://www.proxsa.org/politics/hindutva/rampun1.html
It is Post Modern manusmriti, nothing else.

It was the voice of sangh Parivar which was heard in Parliament as Vajpayee described Indira Gandhi as chandi for creating bangladesh!In 1970, East Pakistan's Awami League, led by the Bengali leader Sheik Mujibur Rahman, secured a majority of the seats in the national assembly. President Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the national assembly to skirt East Pakistan's demand for greater autonomy, provoking civil war. The independent state of Bangladesh, or Bengali nation, was proclaimed on March 26, 1971. Indian troops entered the war in its last weeks, fighting on the side of the new state. Pakistan was defeated on Dec. 16, 1971, and President Yahya Khan stepped down. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over Pakistan and accepted Bangladesh as an independent entity. In 1976, formal relations between India and Pakistan resumed.
See:http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107861.html
http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-23662/Pakistan
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/
http://www.newint.org/issue332/history.htm
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakistan/pakmilitary.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War
Rahul Gandhi is future of UP: PM
CNN-IBN, India - 21 hours ago
If they want to take the credit of partition of Pakistan, then they must take the blame of partition of India,” he lashed out.
BJP asks Rahul to own up family's 'failures' Monsters and Critics.com
Rahul's Pakistan comments invite ire of Islamic clerics Indian Muslims
all 133 news articles »
Expatriates question the 1947 partition
Times of India, India - 12 hours ago
SYDNEY: Nearly two generations after being caught up in the mindless violence of the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, people now living in another ...
Two generations later, expatriates question 1947 Malaysia Sun
Two generations later, expatriates question 1947 Earthtimes.org
all 5 news articles »
Misconceptions about India, Pak abound
Rediff, India - 7 hours ago
This believes that India wants to undo Partition, is inveterately hostile to Pakistan, and attempts, through hegemonic behaviour, to destroy Pakistan. ...

CRS workers view Pakistan through humanitarian eyes
Catholic Online, CA - 4 hours ago
Causton noted that CRS has been working in Pakistan since 1947, following its partition into a Muslim state from predominantly Hindu India, making it one of ...

Pakistan: Will Bhutto’s PPP come to Musharraf’s rescue?
World Socialist Web Site, MI - 13 hours ago
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) “Life Chairperson” Benazir Bhutto confirmed last week that she has been negotiating with the embattled, military regime of ...


NDTV.com Peeved by Rahul Gandhi's comments, BJP turns the heat on ...
DailyIndia.com, FL - 3 hours ago
... the partition of the Indian subcontinent (1947) and the bifurcation of Pakistan (in 1971), then he must also take credit for the creation of Pakistan, ...
BJP calls PM`s remarks on Rahul dynasty-driven sycophancy Zee News
all 13 news articles »
Fond reminiscences of a visitor from PoK
Merinews, India - 8 hours ago
“I settled in Hajira and started living there after the partition but there was always a longing to visit Poonch, especially Nangali Sahib, of which I have ...

Truths and Untruths About Kashmir
GreaterKashmir.com (press release), India - 8 hours ago
... Kashmir the Disputed Legacy, the Birth of a Tragedy and Incomplete Partition by Aliaster Lamb or India-Pakistan and Kashmir Dispute by Robert Wirising. ...

Unsavoury ties
Montreal Gazette, Canada - 15 Apr 2007
... than two decades ago to represent the interest of Muhajirs, Urdu-speaking Muslims whose families migrated to Pakistan from India at partition in 1947. ...

Pakistan should overcome ‘vision deficit’: Menon
Pakistan Dawn, Pakistan - 11 Apr 2007
This believes that India wants to undo Partition, is inveterately hostile to Pakistan, and attempts through hegemonic behaviour to destroy Pakistan. ...
NANDIGRAM: With only two days to go for start of the recording of statements of villagers of Nandigram on March 14 police firing by an inquiry committee, tension on Monday gripped the troubled area with sporadic violence including a clash between rival political groups.

Two incidents of clashes were reported on Monday after a group of 150 CPI (M) supporters tried to march into Nandigram from two points at Khejuri and Tekhali Bazar.

The group was chased away by supporters of opposition Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh (Land Acquisition Resistance) Committee which is spearheading the agitation against land acquisition in the area.

The clash, however, did not turn ugly as CPI (M) supporters withdrew, the police said.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1091210

Maulana Mahmood Madani, Gen-Secy of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind‘Muslims are worse off in W Bengal than in any other state, yet we don’t want the Left Govt to be voted out’
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/28435.html
Bhubaneswar, India : The Week of Rice Action 2007 culminated over a three-day stretch from 2 to 4 April 2007 in two states in India.

Delegates from Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) and the Week of Rice Action (WORA), anchor organizations in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka joined Indian delegates to culminate a week of in West Bengal and Orissa. Week long programmes were designed to highlight the dangers of Genetically Modified (GM) or Engineered (GE) rice and people’s protest against it.

The West Bengal event was a seminar entitled “Protecting Rice as Our Identity”, held in the village of Atghara with almost 400 farmers, villagers and several prominent speakers including Dr Ricarda Steinbrecher from the UK and two ministers from the state – Mr. Naren Dey, Minister for Agriculture and Dr. Murtaza Hussain, Minister for Agriculture Marketing and Relief.
http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2007/april/16/features/asian_farmers_pledge_not_to_grow_gm_rice.html

KOLKATA: The Forward Bloc has criticised West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s unwillingness to respond to the party’s reservations about Reliance Group’s Rs 2000 crore agri-retail venture.

“Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has had talks with West Bengal State Marketing Board chairman Naren Chatterjee on the Reliance issue. But he has not communicated his views to the chairman,” Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh told ET on Monday.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Forward_Bloc_criticises_Buddhadeb_Bhattacharjee/articleshow/1915804.cms

Lanco Hills Technology Park Private Limited, a project being developed by Lanco Group, has been notified as Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by the Union Commerce Ministry.

A company release has said that a sector-specific SEZ for Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) would be set up at Manikonda Village in Ranga Reddy district.

The SEZ, spread over 25 acres, will have a built up capacity of five million sqft.

Apart from this, an IT commercial space of 2.5 million sqft, was being developed outside the SEZ area, the release added.
Kolkata / South 24 Parganas (West Bengal), Apr 15: US Trade Representative Susan Schwab has expressed faith on investment climate in West Bengal even after they shelved plans for industrial hubs in the state.


Schwab visited the Pepsi Foods Frito Lay potato chips manufacturing plant and studied their successful tie up with farmers there. She said West Bengal is suitable for investments despite recent conflicts between farmers and government over industrial hubs.

"West Bengal is one of the fastest growing states in India. I am interested in meeting business people and farmers. I have had the opportunity to visit the Frito Lay plant and learn about the contractual farming relationships that they have built," Schwab said after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday.

"We are also going to get a chance to go out and visit the village and learn about the development implications and the challenge of subsistence farming," she added.

Buddhadeb's government has scrapped low tax industrial hub project at Nandigram, 150 km from Kolkata, after 14 people were killed in police firing during a protest last month.The Congress-led UPA government coalition, which gets crucial support from the Left, has also put on hold many Special Economic Zones (SEZs) related proposals.


MUMBAI (Reuters) - The staff of an Indian news channel was attacked on Monday and its offices ransacked by dozens of Hindu protestors after it broadcast an interview with a runaway couple -- a teenage Hindu girl and a young Muslim man.About 50 people attacked the channel's office in the western city of Mumbai, saying the television company was denigrating Hinduism by appearing to promote love between people from different religions.

Marriage outside ones own caste, religion and background is frowned upon in much of officially secular, Hindu-dominated India. Romantic liaisons between Hindus and Muslims have sparked riots.

Fearing the reaction by their families and communities to the relationship, the young couple fled on a scooter last week from their homes in Surat, a city in neighboring Gujarat state.They turned up at the office of Star News, a 24-hour Hindi-language current affairs channel partly owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600591.html


Asians and American Racism
Hindu Wave In the post-Ayodhya period, Indian-American groups in North America fought a defensive battle to reconstitute secularism on a firm footing: groups from New York to California held discussions, hosted speakers from India and exhibitions from the activist group SAHMAT, and organised the tour of the play Tumhari Amrita (with Shabana Azmi and Farooq Shaikh). In a flurry of activity, the various secular and democratic groups overturned the notification of VHPA as a “cultural organisation” for charity purposes by the telephone company AT& T, and travelled to Washington DC for a successful protest against the intolerance represented by GV2000.

The secular groups conducted these actions with inadequate resources, for which an endless supply of energy substituted. They challenged the Hindutva Wave and drove many Indian-Americans towards a reconsideration of their previously unreconstructed allegiance to the ensemble of the Hindu Right. At the time of the Latur earthquake, it was the Left among Indian-Americans who raised money, and during the entire Narmada Bachao Andolan struggle, it was again the Left which offered its support to the activists on the ground. Such actions bespeak a noble struggle to preserve the best of the Subcontinent.

In 1996, Anu Goyal released a CD entitled Pehle Paisa, Phir Bhagwan (First Money, Then God). The title functions adequately as the slogan of the Non-Resident Indian (NRI). The 30-year career of the Non-Resident Indian in the United States has been notable for its silent pursuit of money alongside an apparently ‘apolitical’ and cultural social life. Three components of American ideology provide, in broad strokes, those ways of being for the NRI which are authorised by American society—the Asian as Scientist, the Asian as Citizen and the Asian as Cultured.

Scientist Asian. In 1957, the Soviets launched two Sputnik rockets and four years later, Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth: the managers of the American state panicked, and their principal worry was that their youth cared little for science which was, after all, the basis for world domination. They, therefore, reconsidered the ban on immigration from Asia (whose socialist nations were spending much from the public exchequer to train their young to be competent scientists).

In 1965, Washington DC opened the doors to Asian migrants who came with advanced degrees in the technical sciences. The American state and society welcomed the migrants on strict terms: we want your labour, but we don’t want your lives. In other words, the migrants came to work, not to offer alternative cultures and dreams to American society. When they tried to decorate their new lives with cultural artefacts, they were chastised for failing to culturally assimilate (and blindly conform to the Protestant values of the American state).

Citizen Asian. In 1965, Black America sent a strong message to its oppressors: the rebellion launched in Watts, California reminded America that its responses to the civil rights movement was tardy. The racist inertia propelled a political insurrection which was institutionalised in the various Black leftist groups such as the Black Panthers. One of the American state’s responses, among others, was to decide on a policy of substituting the Black working-class with migrants from the Third World.

In 1965, two mainstream magazines underscored the ideological position of American racism with articles describing Asians as a hardworking and loyal population (who did not require state support), in contrast to the Blacks, described as a lazy and rebellious population. The articles failed to mention that the Asians were state-selected: their indicators looked good because only educated migrants were welcomed. Regardless, an enduring myth was created which continues to have currency in contemporary America: that the Asians are a “model minority”. Before long, Asians themselves were retailing this myth.

Cultural Asian. Even a “model minority” (scientist/citizen) requires some components of a personality, and these the Asians found in their cultures (elements of which had already been substantially valorised by the discipline of Orientalism). And so the NRIs present themselves as a cultural commodity even though they themselves came to the US without extensive training in the arts of their own culture (that is, during their narrow-minded and extensive education in the post-colonial educational system of India, they never gained the nuanced idea of their cultural history).

The VHPA, founded in 1970, registered its first office in New York State in 1974 as a “cultural organisation” with the aim of adding “cultural enrichment and cultural awareness to American society, based on time-tested Eternal Hindu values”. A former VHPA President, Mahesh Mehta, writing in a VHPA brochure correctly locates the initial growth of the organisation within the dynamic of Indian immigration to North America:

“The first generation of Indians who settled in the USA in the 1960s were mainly students...or immigrants who received visas based on their professional status....Thus, the earlier [sic] Hindu community in the USA consisted primarily of highly educated people, mostly young....By the late 1970s the composition started changing due to the arrival of dependent immigrants who started small businesses. Although this group had disadvantages of language and lack of higher education, they have generally been hard-working....”


On Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s observation that Hindutva and Bhartiyata were synonymous, Mr Mann said Mr Badal owed an explanation to the Sikhs in the wake of this observation.Congress has been unable to make a comeback in the Hindi heartland seized by Dalit-or backward castes-based regional parties or the BJP flaunting its Hindutva card.It is not that the BJP played the Hindutva card, but the party’s basic ideology to create a Hindu rashtra makes it dangerous for a secular polity.


Actor Richard Gere has sparked protests in India after kissing Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty at an Aids awareness rally in New Delhi.Shetty grabbed the headlines earlier this year when racist comments against her from a fellow contestant of the celebrity show Big Brother was widely condemned by people.Bollywood's much-in-the-news actress Shilpa Shetty is outraged by the Hindu rightwing Shiv Shena's violent reaction to her striking a 'dancing pose' with Hollywood superstar Richard Gere and says they were overreacting to an absolutely trivial issue.

'I was completely taken aback. My work was disrupted. The set was damaged. I am not allowed to I know it is blown out of proportion. If protecting Indian culture and tradition means burning our effigies, please go ahead and do it. But our culture also teaches us 'atithi devo bhava' (Guest is God). I feel people are overreacting. Don't misuse the freedom of expression in a democracy,' Shilpa told mediapersons.


Shiv Sena members attacked a press conference Monday being addressed by Shilpa in Mumbai in the wake of Gere giving her a surprise hug and peck on her cheeks at a show organised to create AIDS awareness amongst truck drivers. They also burnt the effigies of both the actors and demanded that the Hollywood actor should leave the country immediately.


The BJP here disapproved the act saying it is not part of Indian culture. This is the party which mobilised its cadre to support Shilpa in Big Brother`s house facing pangs of apartheid!

"Such a public display is not part of Indian tradition," said Prakash Javadekar, party spokesperson.

Gere had repeatedly kissed Shetty on stage at the function last night where Bollywood actor Sunny Deol and more than 4,000 truck drivers also participated in the campaign to create AIDS awareness.


Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty is in the news again, this time though for some wrong reasons, as her kissing act with Hollywood star Richard Gere at a function on AIDS awareness has led to widespread protests from several quarters.


In Varanasi, Shiv Sena and Bande Mataram Sangharsh Samiti activists as well as Muslims staged protests in various parts of the city.They burnt effigies of Gere and Shetty to protest against their "indecent behaviour" which, the protesters claimed was "an attack on our cultural ethos".In Kanpur, protesters, mostly students, burnt effigies and demanded that Gere should go back from the country while demonstrators in Bhopal threatened to boycott Shetty's forthcoming films.

"I understand this is his culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such manner."

"I understand people's sentiments, but I don't want a foreigner to take bad memories from here." Said Shetty reacting to the issue.


Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS) president Uma Bharati today challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to prove that they have the support of people following the Hindutava ideology. Rahul Gandhi is "obsessed with his family", feel Islamic clerics and opposition leaders, blasting the Congress MP's remarks that the Gandhi family was responsible for India's independence and Bangladesh's creation.The BJP attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for portraying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the future of Uttar Pradesh, calling his comments a show of "prime ministerial sycophancy stemming from politics of dynasty".Jet Airways, which acquired ailing rival Air Sahara for Rs 1450 crore last week, on Monday announced that it would position the newly acquired carrier in between a low-fare and full-service airline. India's top software services exporter, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), met forecasts with a 44 percent jump in quarterly net profit on higher outsourcing business.Software major Microsoft seems to have come under pressure like never before in its history. And this is not about competition from Google or Linux, or even the frequent anti-trust petitioning against it.



Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka could take the plunge into active politics after a decade.Congress' star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi said she would confine her electioneering for Uttar Pradesh assembly polls to Amethi and Raebareli Lok Sabha constituencies and not go beyond these places. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not likely to welcome Uma Bharati back in the fold even after the rebel leader's decision to withdraw all candidates of her new party from the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. After two phases of polling in Uttar Pradesh, most exit polls are showing a definite lead for the Bahujan Samaj Party. Even Jats, once staunch supporters of Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh, are willing to vote for the BSP this time.


New Delhi: The Centre on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking vacation of its stay on implementation of the 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in elite educational institutions and setting up of a five-member Constitution Bench to hear the matter.

Filing a "clarification" application a fortnight after the apex court had stayed the provision in the central law enabling reservation for the OBCs, the Government also opposed exclusion of "creamy layer" from the benefit of reservation.