How Peace is "Created"

Even after failing twice, the Indian Prime Minister offers talks again to stop violence by Pakistan in India.
“Reconciliation is PM’s message, dialogue his mantra”:http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20030418135243&Title=Top+Stories&rLink=0
bq. We want to settle all issues through negotiations. I visited Lahore for the same purpose. As prime minister, I went there for peace. I failed. They attacked us in Kargil. I invited General Sahib to Agra thinking that things will work out but it again failed. I don’ want to go into the details as to how it (these initiatives) failed or who was responsible,” Vajpayee said. “We want to extend the hand of friendship again but it should be reciprocated. It should come from both the sides”.
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Lies of Praful Bidwai

Shanti has this on Praful Bidwai’s latest column which is aptly titled “Of Lies, Trickery & Deception”
bq. It is unfortunate that people like Praful Bidwai are disseminating lies and a news organization like Rediff is giving them the forum to do it. The allegation that the toppling of the statue in Baghdad was stage-managed has been debunked at least two weeks ago, as soon as it surfaced. It is a great disservice to the readers to publish such columns without any mention of the other point-of-view or at least a note at the end of the column pointing to the debunking.
I would like to see how Rediff responds to this. “Ajit Balakrishnan”:http://ajit_balakrishnan.rediffblogs.com/, the CEO of Rediff has a blog. But he does not have comments enabled.
Update: Got a mail from Ajit Balakrishnan. He has asked his editorial collegues to look into it.

B Raman on Syria, India, USA

“A welcoming friend to many a terrorist”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=307813
bq. The orchestrated campaign against Syria mounted by the United States is more proof of what this writer has been saying for weeks, namely, that neutralization of jihadi terrorism directed against Israel and the US and not oil is the priBook Review: Pakistanmotivating factor of US actions in the Middle East.
This comment is particularly interesting as the person writing this is the former head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research & Analysis Wing, India’s external intelligence agency.
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Avoiding the Radar

” First stealth warship launched”:http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/stories/2003041905530100.htm
bq. The “Shivalik” and its sisters are 143 metre long and 16.9 metre wide (at beam). Their stealth character diminishes physical signatures ? radar, infra red and sound ? making it difficult for an enemy to detect and attack them.
” India develops ‘silent’ intercept radar”:http://www.irna.com/en/head/030416235131.ehe.shtml
bq. India has developed a low probability intercept radar that cannot be detected by incoming aircraft and can escape from anti-radiation missile attack, local media reported on Wednesday.

Against Caste Based Reservation

“Infosys mentor against caste-based reservations”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=307585
bq. It [the reservations] cannot be based on a certain caste. It doesn’t matter to what caste an individual belongs, as long as such a person or his/her family is handicapped because of resources…I think they alone deserve to be considered for reservation, be it in education or employment, Murthy said.
Only a politician who does not want to be elected again will remove caste based reservations for Govt. posts. If you read Krishna’s statements in the same article, you can see that he wants caste based reservations even in private sector.

Thus Said Cho!

“We have no moral right to condemn US”:http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=21999
bq. What were we doing when the NATO forces were bombing Serbia? If we are concerned with the primacy of the UN, did Parliament condemn Iraq for thwarting UN resolutions for 12 years? If morality were to be the guiding force, one can apply it only if one has been always following it. We lost the moral authority to condemn US action when we decided to ignore all that Saddam has been doing.
There are people near the Marina Beach area who are not holding candles!