The Power of a United Hindu Community

By Stephen Knapp (Sri Nandanandana dasa)

        [This is the strong keynote lecture that I gave at the Hindu Unity Day Festival (Hindu Sangathan Divas) on July 10th, 2011 at the Hindu Temple Auditorium in Flushing, New York. This was very well received by everyone who wanted to meet me, shake hands, have photos taken, or talk to me about what I had to say. The event was shared with Dr. Subramanian Swamy as Chief Guest and Kamal Kumar Swami as the additional speaker, both of whom I had met before at an event in Tirupati for protecting Hindu temples from government control. However, this is the complete version, which is a few paragraphs longer than what I presented at the festival.]

Namaste. It gives me great pleasure to be here, and I especially thank the organizers of this important event for inviting me, namely Arish Sahani and Narain Kataria. I am honored to be here. And I thank all of you for attending.

First of all, for those who may not know that much about me, I’m a Hindu, a follower of Sanatana-dharma, or what I prefer to call a Dharmist, and a Krishna bhakta. And I will be one until the day I die. No one can stop that.

Vedic culture and its spiritual knowledge saved me, it saved my life and gave me the real purpose for being here and what to do while I am here in this world. And now this is all I do—my spiritual sadhana and practice, my speaking engagements, and writing over 20 books so far to help spread and explain the importance of this Vedic spiritual knowledge to as many people as possible. This is all I’m living for. This is my only motivation. I also help manage my local Krishna temple in Detroit as the Chairman of the Board, which can involve all kinds of things. I’m also the president of the Vedic Friends Association. I’m also a direct disciple of His Divine Grace Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, which is how I got my name Sri Nandanandana dasa. So I’ve been doing meditation and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra for over 40 years. And all of this has only deepened my conviction of the profound nature of the Vedic system of spiritual realization.

And I will tell you, I love what I do. I love being a Hindu, I love being a Krishna bhakta, a follower of Santana-dharma. I love following the Bhagavad-gita, and I love writing books about various aspects of Vedic culture and telling other people about it and what it has done for me, and what it can do for them.

So, I like to share with others the good things I have found in life, and now that I=ve found Vedic Dharma, I like letting others know more about it. But I=ll also fight to keep it, and to keep my freedom to follow it. Why should I let anyone else take it away from me when it took 20 years of my life to find it? I wasn’t just born into it, I had to look for it. It is a karmic privilege to be born into Vedic culture, so do not take it for granted. But by working to preserve and protect it is also my way of being a good Hindu. And this is what I call being a Vedic Ambassador.

We need more Vedic Ambassadors, or those who can easily and willingly share the good points about Vedic culture and its philosophy, traditions, and its deep spiritual knowledge with others, especially those who are curious, and there are many who are looking for this spiritual knowledge, but they just don’t know where to look. So we need those who can also tell their story of how Vedic culture has improved their lives or had a positive affect on them. That is not so difficult, and many people like to hear the story of someone’s life and how they have grown or developed.

So, in this way, let us all be Vedic Ambassadors, persons who are not afraid to say they are Hindu and then share it with others.

I’m also a Krishna bhakta because Krishna wanted action from Arjuna, not a passive and apathetic person that runs away from battle or does nothing. But he wanted Arjuna to stand up and take a stance for defending Dharma. This is the whole reason why Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita, to motivate Arjuna to become free from the illusion and stand up and fight for defending and preserving Sanatana-dharma so others can also take advantage of it. This is my motivation.

Everyone can do something and we need to understand that if everyone does a little, then something great and miraculous can happen. Because let’s face it, being a follower of Sanatana-dharma is also a freedom. This is a freedom, and sometimes you have to work to protect your freedoms or you will lose them when someone else takes them away. History has shown this time and time again.

Some people, however, ask how I can feel so strongly about this when I was not born in India, not born a Hindu. But that is only because they do not see the big picture. And what is the big picture? That this is not our first or only life in this material world, and that I obviously had a previous birth in India. Anyone who knows me knows that I must have been a Hindu, a Krishna bhakta in India in a previous life. Now I’ve taken birth in America to continue my mission of helping preserve, protect and promote Vedic Dharma. I=m only taking up where I left off from my previous existence. That is why I=m so comfortable when I go to India, and so far I have traveled through all of India except for the three small states of Tripura, Meghalaya, and Mizoram. That is also why I=m so comfortable around all of you. You are my Indian and Hindu family.

However, now it is time to increase our efforts to work together and make Hindus a concerted force that is recognized by everyone. Of course, we know this is not easy and is going to take time, but the sooner we all get started, the sooner we can accomplish it. But there are those of us, such as those I am sharing the stage with, who have already been working on this for years. We only ask that you all make a stand to join together, to make a powerful and strong Hindu community.

Vedic culture has been changing the world throughout the ages. For example, many have offered their respects to the Vedic culture, such as Henry David Thoreau who said: “In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.”

Or Arthur Schopenhauer: “There is no religion or philosophy so sublime and elevating as Vedanta.”

And, of course, Ralph Waldo Emerson who mentioned, “I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-Gita. It was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.”

Many other quotes could be included but you get the picture. Vedic culture will continue to change the lives of many people, but we can accelerate this positive change the more we unite and the more we work together. Let us all move forward in this direction and become the great force we were meant to be, and that this world needs.

This means that we must be good Hindus, good Dharmists, followers of Vedic Dharma. And that means that we must follow our principles, uphold the yamas and niyamas, and observe our traditions. Is that so difficult? I don=t think so. But that means we also need to be educated in them. Let us not relinquish or let go of our standards because of too much Western influence. We must know what they mean and their real purposes. Let us interact with Western society, as we already do, but let us not forget who we areBwhat is our real identity. The fact is that more Westerners than ever before are adopting the ways and philosophy of Vedic culture, whether it is through yoga and meditation, or adapting the philosophy of karma and reincarnation. Many are those who want to follow this path. I=m an example of that, and there are many more out there, and many more who want to but don=t know it yet. We need to be willing to share it with them. That itself is a great contribution to the world from the Vedic path. The more we uphold our principles and let others know why they are important, the more they will also adopt our ways.

For example, I have one Indian friend who is a strong vegetarian and would always hide his meal when he took it to work so no one would see it. But then someone started asking questions about it, so he had to explain why he was a vegetarian, and included information about the Ayurvedic reasons and benefits about the spices we use, like tumeric, cumin, and others. In a short while, most of his work crew, which consisted of 80 other workers, became wild about Indian vegetarian cooking. Then he also did the same thing with explaining the benefits of doing the Surya Namaskar, after which nearly half of his co-workers started practicing it. So what is the difficulty? All you have to do is share what you already know, and people will become interested.

This is also why real Hindus need to be educated in their culture to realize how profound, deep and special it is, and what knowledge it contains. Then they will be proud of their culture and follow it. After all, we have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be afraid of. We are representations of and participants in the most profound and oldest of all spiritual traditions and cultures, and it has the deepest of all spiritual knowledge. The only thing is that many people don=t know that. I dare say that many Hindus also do not fully know how deep and profound it is because of lacking the education of their own path. This needs to change. And this lack of knowledge is the prime reason why Hindus in India may convert to some other religion.

To help make this change, we also need to understand that it is a fact that without proper measures of defense and promotion of our culture, you cannot give proper protection to it. It is a tough world and things have changed. Most wars in this world are now 80% intellectual. We now have to use our intelligence to show what our culture is in order to really protect and preserve it from those who are always trying to demean and criticize it. We must understand that apathy is an enemy. Apathy, the tendency to do nothing, is our greatest enemy. We must conquer our own apathy where we find it. This, in fact is the teaching of Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita, as previously stated. Are you are follower of the Bhagavad-gita? Are you a follower of Sanatana-Dharma? Then we must conquer our apathy and take a stand for doing something to maintain Vedic Dharma.

We have to be fearless to protect and promote Vedic Dharma. I am honored and proud to be on the same stage as Dr. Subramanian Swamy and Kamal Kumar Swami, who are examples of the fearlessness of which I speak. I am honored and proud to be in front of all of you, and I am honored and proud to be called a Hindu, a Krishna bhakta, a follower of Sanatana-dharma. We should all be honored and proud in the same way and willing to work together. We don=t have to proselytize, but we can all share the benefits of what our culture has given to us and to the world.

For example, in Secunderabad near Hyderabad, a few years ago there was a Krishna temple the government wanted to move in order to widen the road, but all the local Hindus came together with a big demonstration to protest, and the state government backed down. This shows what can be done and what has been done when Hindus unite, and shows what we must continue to do. Then people will take us more seriously and reconsider before they simply get up to offend Hindus and think there will be no reaction. People will hesitate before taking Hindus lightly or making us upset. But we have to have the determination to make a stand. And once we begin to work in this way, we cannot stop but must continue for the long-term, and never stop until the goal is reached.

Sometimes just by doing a little endeavor we don’t know and may even be surprised at what doors of opportunity will open for us. Sometimes all it takes is that we just start, step one foot in front of the other, and suddenly we step into a force, a current of energy that lifts us along like nothing we have experienced. Like a reciprocation from something that is far greater than we are that assists us to do things in ways that far exceeds our own expectations.

You have no idea how many times this has happened to me, and I’m sure many of you know exactly what I’m talking about. So can you imagine what would happen if all of us stepped forward in unity for the Dharma and open ourselves to that opportunity to make a difference? Plus, the more we all step forward to do something together, the easier it gets for everyone.

It is one thing to say we are united, and quite another to work and act united, engaged in concerted efforts as one community to protect, defend and properly promote our culture. It should not matter whether we are Vaishnavas, Shaivites, Brahmanandis, Shaktas, or Bengalis, Gujaratis, Tamils, Rajasthanis, or Americans, or any ethnicity, because when one aspect of the Vedic tradition is threatened, demeaned or unnecessarily criticized, then it is to the whole culture that is under attack. We must see it that way. We must step forward and be strong Dharmists, and make a stand for our tradition and its future.

Sanatana-dharma is universal. It is actually beyond the universe, it is spiritual. We are essentially all Dharmists. It goes beyond all materialistic labels and definitions, and that is how we should act as united Hindus, followers of Santana-dharma.

Such materialistic labels and identities are part of the illusion, maya, and Sanatana-dharma is meant to lift us out of the illusion and into reality, the ultimate and supreme reality. Working in this way and helping each other as well as all is real unity.

So, let us also support each other in friendship, in Dharmic brotherhood and sisterhood. Let us not become divided by minor or superficial differences or labels, but let us gather and see our unity, our similarities as spiritual beings, all parts of the Supreme Spirit. That is the ultimate teaching of Bhagavad-gita and the Vedic shastra. That perception of reality is becoming increasingly rare these days in society, but it is an inherent principle and basic reality of Vedic Dharma and Dharmic civilization. That is why I call it the Last Bastion of deep spiritual truth. It goes beyond basic moralistic ethics and gives you the higher principles of self-realization. It gives you direct access to the Absolute, the Supreme, not only by descriptions but by offering the methods by which we can perceive and directly experience it by spiritualizing our consciousness. It gives us one of the last hopes for world peace. Let us not forget that and also help each other raise our consciousness and maintain that spiritual vision of who and what we really are. That will also pave the way for a truly united Hindu society.

There is no greater need for Hindu unity than right now, since there are forces that are also gathering that are trying to work against us. The problem is that it is in our nature to respect everyone, but not everyone wants to return the same respect back toward us. In fact, there are those who would like to see our complete extinction, the complete demise of Hinduism or Vedic culture if they could, such as we have seen in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir, and so on. How long does it take before it becomes obvious that we must stand together even if only to preserve and protect what remains of our culture, and preserve and protect the homeland of our culture, Mother India, Bharathvarsha.

We must also recognize those people or groups who mean to do us harm, or even wish for our extinction, and then defend ourselves and our culture from their attacks, whatever they may be. But we need to be pro-active and develop plans, not merely wait for something to happen and then show some knee-jerk reaction. There are many who know this and already working in this way, but can you imagine if the whole Vedic community acted in this way together and supported such plans? It would have profound effects. We must look to see what we need to do and where we need to be in our measures to preserve and protect Vedic Dharma in 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years, and make pro-active plans to accomplish those goals. Major industrial companies do this, other religions do this, so there is no reason why we should not do this. Many of the more detailed action plans I have developed can be found in my book, “Crimes Against India: And the Need to Protect its Ancient Vedic Tradition.”

We still have a sizable population of nearly one billion Hindus around the world, but have you ever wondered why we are still not as formidable a force as we should be? In places like America, Indians, most of which are Hindus, are one of the wealthiest ethnic groups in the country. We are certainly gathering influence here in many ways, and many are those who are entering politics and gaining influential positions, but we still have not become as formidable a force in the world as we could be. Why is that? It’s simple really. It’s because of a lack of organized effort, too much apathy, but primarily a lack of unity amongst us.

With a united force, we could more easily see to it that laws in government are passed that help defend Hindus rather than take our freedoms away. If we were a united and pro-active force, politicians would be scrambling to get our favor. We would get respect from politicians. We would create a greater recognition on the importance for them to acquire the Hindu vote, especially in India. We could also have more control over the media that today thinks that being secular means to be anti-Hindu. We would get non-Hindus or critics of Hinduism to feel that they cannot just say any damn thing against us because we won’t do anything about it. We need to be a force to be reckoned with, a force that is watching what others are doing for or against us, and listening to what they are saying about us, and be ready to stand up and do something about it when it is unjust.

We must unite around a common set of values, concepts and traditions that can be the universal uniting factors for all Hindus. This does not mean we give up our distinctions, lineages or paramparas, but that we focus on uniting on the basis of what we can all easily agree on, such as the basis of the Bhagavad-gita. Everyone knows the Bhagavad-gita, and should know it. There are all kinds of knowledge within it. But the thing that many people seem to forget is that the Bhagavad-gita is a call to defend Dharma. It is a call to action. That was one of the motivating factors for Arjuna from Lord Krishna. That Arjuna must not run away to the forest simply to meditate, which is what he wanted to do, but he must stand up and fight to defend Santana-dharma. And we must do the same because as we can plainly see all around us, that without it the whole world is falling into hell and confusion. As exhibited by the Mahabharata, sometimes when all else fails, you have to stand up and fight to protect Dharma and its spiritual principles.

We must also have the attitude that no Hindu is left behind, at least no sincere Hindu. A true Dharmic leader or Vedic Ambassador will feel this in the core of his heart. Everyone is a part of the whole, the complete. We merely have to awaken that completeness within ourselves. When everyone shares this vision amongst the whole community, then it becomes extremely powerful. When everyone is imbibed with spiritual unity, then the spiritual vibration is no longer something to seek or acquire, but it is something to witness, to experience, and we should bring together all like-minded people to work in that unity and to expand that spiritual vibration, that higher energy that exists within us all.

Everyone in the Vedic community must see all other Hindus as Dharmic brothers and sisters who are eligible to make the same spiritual progress as anyone else. Why? No Hindu left behind. That means everyone is eligible to enter the temples, everyone is eligible to practice its customs, everyone is eligible to participate in the core identity of being a Dharmist. Everyone should feel they have a place and are valued and have something to contribute. This is the basis of enthusiasm, which everyone should feel. This is the power a united Dharmic community. No Hindu is left behind. When this is established, it creates a most positive atmosphere in all who participate, it creates a very positive future, and it creates a winning team in which many others want to join. Everyone wants to be on a winning team, and then feel they can stand up and do their part. Then we all become very powerful in our ability to change this world, and bring in and manifest the spiritual vibration for one and all. Then we all become a part of that uplifting force, which is the ultimate destiny for all humanity, which is also described in the Vedic shastra, like Bhagavad-gita.

This is also, if I may say so, one of the main principles of what Kamal Kumar Swamiji is doing on his padayatras in India. He goes everywhere, whether it is the villages, the streets, the dusty roads, even the houses of the Hindus, anywhere it takes to inspire everyone to remain a part of the Vedic family, and then work together to help preserve it. I have seen it. I have been with Kamal Kumar Swami in Tirupati for this very reason, and I applaud his work, and many others should be going out to reach the people in similar ways.

This is the ideal of no Hindu left behind, and the Dharmic leader and Vedic Ambassadors know how to instill this unity for everyone to take a stand, become involved and to defend and preserve the culture and all who participate in it. Any apathy amongst Hindus is what must be given up and left behind as we all gather momentum to make sure we all have our freedom and facilities to follow the principles, the customs, and the traditions of the Vedic path.

So to wrap this up, we have covered a number of points, such as:

We all need to be Vedic ambassadors.

We must be educated in the profound nature of our culture.

Practicing the Vedic tradition is a right and a freedom which must be protected.

Apathy is an enemy.

Everyone can and must do something.

The Bhagavad-gita is a call to action.

No sincere Hindu left behind.

We must become united and work in concerted efforts, and become a formidable force for Vedic Dharma.

So how do we do this? We must become united under common principles, such as the teachings of Bhagavad-gita, united for stopping cow slaughter, united to stop the deceitful conversion practices that try to take people away from Vedic culture, united for such things as saving the sacred Yamuna River from all the pollution that is killing it. We should also be united to stop the corruption in Indian politics, and united to keep India the homeland of a dynamic and thriving Vedic tradition, united for preserving all aspects of the Vedic spiritual knowledge, and for passing it to the next generations. We should be united for the protection and promotion of the glorious character of Vedic culture that everyone can appreciate. Who among us cannot join and be united for these points? And the more people who participate and work together, the easier it is for all of us. The more we work in such concerted efforts, the more we establish a unified, global Vedic community.

It is said that the war of Kurukshetra, the war to uphold Dharma, lasted 18 days, which changed the world. If all Hindus, Dharmists, gurus, sadhus, bhaktas, etc., etc., all over the world ever really and truly united and worked together as a single force, we could change the world in 18 days. Isn’t that a goal worth working for? Isn’t that a goal worth fighting for? That, my friends, my brothers and sisters in Dharma, is one of the primary purposes of my life. This is all I’m living for. This is my vision, but we all have to share the vision. And I will work with anyone who shares that vision. In this way, we can stand united, and in this way we stay united.

So, if you help me and I help you, if you wish me well and I give you my best wishes, and we all work together like that, it creates an atmosphere of strength and positivity. It makes our future very bright and full of potential. And if everyone does a little something to help, fantastic things can happen. Many people will become attracted and want to be a part of it. So let us all work together, encouraging each other and become more united as Hindus, followers of Sanatana-dharma, and show the world the great contributions that the culture of Vedic Dharma has given and continues to give to all of humanity. If we take care of Dharma, Dharma will take care of us. But we have to take the first step. Together as united Hindus we can do this. That is the potency and power if we stay together, stand together and work together as a united, global Vedic community.

Thank you very much.

Dharma Rakshati Rakshita

Jai Sri Krishna

Jai Hind

 

[This is available at: www.stephen-knapp.com]

 

ISLAMIC AL-TAQUIEA AND INDIA PAKISTAN RELATIONS
Dr. Babu Suseelan

The corrupt Congress government has been steadfastly  trying to establish friendly relationship with Pakistan. Our phony secularists have also joined with our eternal enemy Pakistan asking our citizen to bear strain on India’s development with  friendly relationship with Jihadistan. Their claim has no universal validity among Islamists from Pakistan. Pakistan’s deep faith in Islam and Al-Taquiea prevents them from truthful, sincere, and establishing friendly relationship with Kafir India. These meaningless jesters such as “Trust  Building Meeting”, Foreign Minister’s Conference”, “India=Pak Friendship alliance” etc are meant only for mental misdirection. Remember: Kargill. While Musharaf was preparing infiltration of Jihadi soldiers into Cargill, Vajpayee was deluding himself to have lasting peace with deadly Islamic pakistan.

It is time for Indian foreign policy experts to learn from Islam in dealing with Pakistan. Pakis are masters in Al-Taquiea (lying). It is approved, allowed and practiced in Islam to subdue, oppress and confuse Kafirs and infidels. Pakistan has been successfully employing Islamic Al-Taquiea with the USA, India and its foreign aid infidel countries. Instead of fighting against infidel confusion and illusion as well as the often unsuspected contradictions in our false assumptions about  Islamic Al-Taquiea, India is engaged in meaningless exercise and empty verbiage with Islamic hardliners of Pakistan.

Indian Congress leaders who have undergone Islamic manipulation (Al-Taquiea),  are creating techniques of degradation, perfecting it to prepare peace loving, passive Indians for the final surrender to Islamic Pakistan. Citizens with mature minds and clear thinking should not retreat into insignificance, impractical situation. it is time for us to think of solution for pakistan created islamic problems  in terms of positive action.

If foreign policy experts are genuinely serious about India-Pakistan relationship, they must study Islamic concept of Al-Taquiea, Dar-ul Islam, and Jihad war. Instead of fancying themselves about friendship with Pakistan (an Impossibility with Jihadis) and creating unbreakable link and engage in spiritless abstract discussion, they should discuss concrete issues like Pakistan’s Islamic warfare technique, Jihadi infiltration, Islamic atom bomb, biological warfare, distribution of counterfeit currency and instigating social unrest in India. Pakistan refuses to to address these issues. It may be objectionable  that the mere mention of such horrible facts is itself dangerous  almost criminal to pki Jiahdis.

Pakistani Jihadis make rules of contact based on rigorist Islamic moral formalism including al-Taquiea, an attempt to bring all their acts under very general islamic rules which are unacceptable to peace loving, tolerant Indians. Pluralistic, secular India and intolerant Islamic Pakistan are are not really commensurable with each other. To become aware of this fact is a sort of crisis for phony secularists and anti national congress rulers. But,  with this crisis in our moral awareness is the starting point. If we are strong and morally clear of Islamic al-taquiea we can become clear, creative and a solution will emerge between India’s relationship with Islamic beast Pakistan.

 Indian congress party is taking indian citizens to mass suicide or surrender to Islam. The corrupt congress party find this as a happy way out. We need mature minds capable of higher reflection and responsibility. Mature minds mean India should strengthen its army against pakistan. What we have to recognize is: Shanti requires Shakthi. STRENGTH DETERMINES PEACE.

                      INDIAN POLICE NEED MODERNISATION

                                              By Brigadier(Retd) Chitranjan Sawant,VSM

The Indian Police today has the same frame of mind, the same training, the same weapon system, the same sense of deprivation and the same urge to be corrupt as it was an instrument of subjugation of the Indian people by the British Raj. Leaving aside the Armed Forces in general and the Indian Army in particular, the two services depended upon by the British Raj were the Indian Civil Service, also known as the steel frame of administration, and the Indian Police that was notorious for its brutality and inhuman behaviour across the seven seas.

It was rightly insinuated that the ICS, as the Indian Civil Service was commonly called, was neither Indian nor civil nor did they render any service to citizens. Most of the ICS officers were British subjects and had the United Kingdom as their home where they were entitled to go on long home leave. In due course of time the native Indians made it to the exclusive English club and enjoyed the perks and privileges of the ruling race. Some Indian ICS officers preferred to go to England on long home leave and had little love for the country they were born in. No wonder, the ICS was replaced by IAS in the post independence period. Let us leave them at that for the time being and grapple with the Police.

FEAR OF POLICE

The fear of Police is worse than the fear of God in the common man’s mind. The Police is supposed to protect citizens from an attack by the robbers, dacoits, law breakers and now the Islamist terrorists. But it is not so in real life. A citizen has to protect himself and his family from the atrocities of the Police and then from attacks by lawless elements of the society. The basic reason behind this anomaly  is the wrong psyche of the Indian Police that the British administrators allowed to take roots and develop to such an extreme that the Police became the Robber and got away with the most serious infringement of law. Let us take an example or two to prove the point.

Driving on an rather lonely section of the highway, I am forcibly stopped, robbed, my car is carjacked, travel documents snatched and am left in the uninhabited stretch of land to fend for myself. I manage to hitchhike and reach a police station to lodge a report and seek some solace, if not help. The policemen on duty is not impressed with my narration of the robbery and is disinclined to report the case to the SHO who is snoring in the cool climes of the next room. I am offered no sympathetic word, leave aside a glass of water. The Dewanjee refused point blank that no FIR could be lodged as there were no witnesses to the crime. I call my friends who reached the scene rather promptly and two of them flashed their identity cards to prove that they were journalists of influential English dailies. Suddenly there was a sea change and it became a happening place with all concerned in attendance. The First Information Report was duly lodged and the SHO promised immediate action.

The moral of the story is: the Indian police does not help the common man but goes into action when some influential man is giving the push. It is the push or the pull and not the rule of law that matters. I do not wish to contrast it with the London bobby who is ever keen to go out of his way to help a damsel in distress.

TRAINING THAT MATTERS

The policeman is not properly trained. His brain is tuned to making money as a beat constable or as a traffic policeman or as one on pass port verification duty. He does not work because he is paid a salary. He works because he makes some extra-money from the citizens whom he frightens with dire consequences if they do not grease his palm. Corruption and the Police have become synonyms now. I shall not be surprised if the Advanced Oxford Dictionary of Current English includes these two words as synonymous.

There is a true story of the wife of a judge whose pass port had to be renewed and a sub-inspector of police asked for a bribe. She protested. The reply of the Sub-Inspector was that the bribe would be shared by one and all, from top to bottom.

Investigation of a crime is an integral part of duty of a policeman. Is he suitably trained for it? Has he been taught the basics of the criminal law and how not to cross the dividing line? If not, the investigating officer will use only the third degree methods, beat up the accused and obtain a confession under duress and push the case to the court inspector.

The mind of the policeman needs training of the highest order. It has to be drilled into his mind that he is a policeman or she is a police woman of the largest democracy of the world. He has volunteered to be a police man and is not a conscript. Therefore, he should serve the Police Force in such a way that no blot comes on it or on him. He should go out of his way to help the common man like the London bobby does. A police man is the protector of the people and not the punisher.

REFORMING THE POLITICAL MASTERS

The Home Minister at the centre or in the states has to be a role model to the beat constable. Is the political master misusing the police force for narrow gains of his political party? If so, there will be no attitudinal change in a police constable. If the minister is breaking the law in ordering a cane charge on the sleeping Satyagrahis, men, women and children, like it happened at the Swami Ramdev rally in Delhi, the police officers and policemen will harass and beat the citizens more mercilessly than heretofore. It is the leader who sets the pace; rank and file follows. Politicians must reform themselves first before they think of reforming the police force.

Rule of Law should be the guiding star for all actions in a democratic society. It is for both the politician and the police to remember the dictum:

Mobile : 9811173590.   Email : upvanom@yahoo.com 

 TACKLING CORRUPTION: THE HONG KONG EXPERIENCE

Steven Lam*

 

I. INTRODUCTION

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (or ICAC), is an independent dedicated agency tasked to tackle corruption in Hong Kong. Today, Hong Kong is an international financial and service centre with world-class facilities and infrastructure. One of the pillars of its success is a corruption-free government and a level playing field for business. In fact, the ICAC has gone a long way in achieving this hard-earned success.

 

II. BAD OLD DAYS – CORRUPTION AS A WAY OF LIFE

Corruption was a big problem in 1974, the year when the ICAC was born. Indeed, corruption tales could easily be traced back to the middle of the last century, if not earlier. Before World War II the triads (criminal gangs) in Hong Kong were already collecting protection money from the wealthy, with the assent of the police. There were then some 65,000 triad members under the control of five families; this amounted to well over ten times the size of the police force. During the War, the triads profited from collaborating with the invaders. After liberation, they continued to run vice, drug and gambling rackets. More than two million people arrived in Hong Kong between 1944 and 1950 and “the crowded Colony was chaotic.”1

 

Post-war Hong Kong was also a land of many opportunities. Economic recovery in the West created added demands for manufacturers from relatively cheaper sources. The mainland of China adopted a closeddoor policy, and the wars first in Korea and later Vietnam further eliminated sourcing options for the West.Strategically located in the heart of South East Asia, and with a seemingly endless influx of cheap labour, Hong Kong suddenly emerged as an ideal production base both for an aspiring breed of local entrepreneurs, and foreign companies looking for off-shore investment. It was at this time that Hong Kong earned the reputation of a tourism paradise as “the Pearl of the Orient.”

 

The fateful blend of chaos and bloom resulted in some economic miracles, but also runaway corruption. Often the management systems would find themselves unable to cope up with the exploding demands. Bribes were seen by the unscrupulous as the key to a short-cut. By the 1960s, graft was widespread in the public sector. Vivid examples included:

 

• firemen negotiating for ‘water money’ before they would turn on the hose at a fire site;

• ambulance attendants demanding ‘tea money’ before picking up sick persons;

• even a hospital ‘amah’ would stretch out her hand for tips before bringing a patient a bedpan or a glass of water.

 

The average citizen knew that offering bribes to the right person would facilitate an application for public housing, schooling and other public services, and ‘tea money’ was quite necessary for the average learner in a motor car to pass a driving test.

 

Hong Kong can now claim that it has one of the most efficient police forces in the world, practically at all times. Almost from the day the Hong Kong Police Force was formed, it has been the single most important factor for the maintenance of law and order. Yet in the early years, law enforcement and bribe-taking went hand-in-hand. Corruption was once rampant within the Force. Front-line officers did, as a matter of routine, systematically cover up the

 

criminal activities which they were tasked to eliminate. The worst times were the post-war years when rumours had one police detective sergeant lamenting: “I woke up in the morning and could not find my slippers. They were hidden beneath the layers and layers of floating bank notes that were in my bedroom.” Public discontent finally reached boiling point when, in the early 70s, thousands of people took to the streets after a Chief Police Superintendent fled Hong Kong while under investigation by the relevant authorities. The people wanted him back to face trial. Facing a governance crisis, the Hong Kong Government took the grave decision to set up a dedicated and independent anti-corruption agency – the ICAC. The ICAC was to bring back from London the wanted person who was subsequently jailed in Hong Kong for four years. Things were set to change.

 

III. NEW CULTURE – “ANTI-CORRUPTION CAPITAL OF THE WORLD” Those were the days. Now Hong Kong has transformed itself from a graft-plagued city into a place distinguished by its strong anti-corruption regime. To quote the Secretary General of Interpol, Mr Ronald Noble, Hong Kong has become “the anti-corruption capital” of the world. According to Heritage Foundation’s 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, Hong Kong is rated as the world’s freest economy for the 16th consecutive year, out of 179 economies assessed. The assessment is based on various factors, including business freedom and freedom from corruption. The Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International in November 2009 shows that Hong Kong remains the 12th least corrupt place, among 180 places polled.

Syndicated corruption in government departments has long been eradicated. The percentage of reports alleging government corruption had substantially dropped from 86% in 1974 to about 37% in 2009. The proportion of reports against police corruption also drastically decreased from almost 50% in the early years to slightly over 10% nowadays.

Due to a growing awareness of the damaging effect of corruption on business, the private sector has become more forthcoming in referring suspected cases to us. The proportion of private sector corruption reports increased from about 13% of the total in 1974 to over 60% in recent years. Nowadays, as a place which provides a fair business environment, Hong Kong attracts investors. More importantly, the collective attitude towards corruption has fundamentally changed. As the first ICAC Commissioner Sir Jack Cater said: “there can be no real victory in our fight against corruption unless there are changes of attitude throughout the community.”

In the space of three decades, a new culture – a culture of probity – has evolved and taken root in our community. The following indicators may illustrate the magnitude of changes in the social values and culture of our society.

A. Low Public Tolerance of Corruption In sharp contrast with public thinking 30 years ago, Hong Kong people nowadays adopt “near to zero” (if not “zero”) tolerance towards corruption. The Annual Survey conducted in 2009 affirmed this observation. On a 10-point scale (where 10 represents total acceptance and 0 represents total rejection), the average score of public tolerance of graft in the business sector was as low as 1.6, while the tolerance level for government corruption was even lower – only 1.1.

B. Non-anonymous Reports Another indicator is the public’s increased willingness to divulge their identities in reporting corruption cases to us. In the 1970s, only one-third of complaints were lodged non-anonymously. The figures surged to 50% in the 1980s and to over 70% in recent years. Such changes not only reflect our people’s intolerance towards corruption but also their growing trust in the ICAC. 109 THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE ON THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE TO CORRUPTION VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

C. Partnership Meanwhile, the close partnership fostered between the anti-corruption agency and various sectors in the community also demonstrates a fundamental change in the public’s attitude towards corruption. Today, most government departments are no longer afraid of exposing the ‘black sheep.’ They have become more forthcoming in referring suspected corruption cases to the ICAC and regularly seek assistance in corruption prevention. The ICAC has in recent years joined forces with the policy bureau overseeing civil service matters and various government departments to launch integrity programmes amongst civil servants. Corruption Prevention Groups have been formed in all major government departments to strengthen systems and procedures to minimize opportunities for corruption. The business sector, in the early years, resisted the ICAC for meddling in their affairs. Today, the ICAC works hand-in-hand with various chambers of commerce, professional bodies and related regulatory bodies to organize conferences, workshops and many other projects to raise awareness of business ethics. In 1995, the ICAC set up the Ethics Development Centre under the auspices of six major chambers of commerce to promote business ethics on a long-term basis. It has so far offered advice and assistance to over 16,000 persons from local and overseas organizations.

D. Public Support The local community now fully appreciates the benefits of freedom from corruption. From the Annual Surveys conducted in the last 10 years, each year up to 98% to 99% of the respondents expressed support for the anti-corruption cause.

E “Quiet Revolution” through an Holistic Approach How have these miraculous changes come about? In the words of the former Governor who founded the ICAC, it took nothing short of a “Quiet Revolution” to bring about these changes in the society. To achieve this quiet revolution, the ICAC has from the beginning adopted a three pronged strategy of attacking corruption on all fronts. When the agency was first set up in 1974, it embraced a holistic approach in the fight against graft: rigorous law enforcement goes hand-in-hand with preventive measures in plugging corruption loopholes in policies and systems and community education aimed at changing people’s attitude towards corruption. This comprehensive strategy has been hailed by Transparency International (TI)’s Global Corruption Report as an effective world model in fighting corruption.

F. Rigorous Law Enforcement In the early days of the ICAC, the public was sceptical about the effectiveness of the newly formed agency. To achieve a real deterrent, rigorous and heavy attacks were launched against the corrupt in the first few years. No stone was left unturned. A number of corrupt senior government officials, or “big tigers” as described by the local media, were netted, prosecuted and sent to jail. As a result, corruption rackets, which existed in government departments, were quickly crushed.

These rigorous enforcement actions sent a strong message to our citizens that the Government was determined to stamp out corruption, and that the ICAC meant business. As the corruption situation in the government improved, the ICAC spared no efforts in combating corruption in the private sector. Under Hong Kong laws, the ICAC has to investigate bribery cases involving both the public and private sectors.

Throughout these years, the ICAC continued, undaunted, to impartially pursue the corrupt. Wealthy businessmen, chairmen and senior executives of listed companies, high ranking officials, legislators and influential politicians have been brought to justice for committing corruption or related offences. 110

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No.83 Nowadays, the ICAC continues to be respected by the general public as a highly effective law enforcement agency, which discharges its duties without fear or favour, and pursues each and every case regardless of the background and position of the offenders.

G. Corruption Prevention Enforcement work goes side-by-side with prevention efforts. The Corruption Prevention Department of the ICAC has a statutory responsibility to minimize opportunities for corruption in government departments and public bodies. This is done primarily through conducting assignment studies to examine the relevant practice and work procedures of government departments and public bodies, to revise their work methods if they are conducive to corruption, and to make recommendations against abuse. There are three basic principles behind the recommendations on corruption prevention:

• Procedural Simplicity: Providers of public services are advised to adopt the simplest procedures possible for processing applications for their services. They are also advised to adopt the clearest criteria possible to determine approval or otherwise. The purpose is to reduce queue up time and minimize human discretion and therefore to take away the incentive to bribe;

• Transparency: The public must be informed of their right to service and the ways and means to lodge a complaint if they are not satisfied with the service they get; and

• Accountability: The system should enable each public officer to be held accountable for what he or she does at work or for his or her omissions. The Corruption Prevention Department adopts a ‘partnership approach’ vis-à-vis Government departments and public bodies, and would advise them to install within their organizations a “Corruption Prevention Review Mechanism” to conduct regular reviews covering procurement or licensing matters, or other operational procedures. Client departments are also encouraged to set up an “Integrity Steering Committee” to look into matters pertaining to the integrity of staff. The Integrity Steering Committees have worked very well, especially in the Disciplined Services Departments, including the police and customs. They promote a healthy lifestyle and help their staff to handle financial matters, including cases of serious indebtedness. They have contributed to a decline in complaints against the public sector. The Corruption Prevention Department also provides consultative services to the Government for the formulation of new legislation, policies and procedures to ensure that corruption prevention safeguards are built in at the early stage. Furthermore, it acts as an adviser to the Civil Service Bureau of the Hong Kong Government in the compilation and review of the Hong Kong Civil Service Regulations. The Civil Service Regulations require all government officials to maintain a high level of integrity. Civil servants are required to observe a Code of Conduct. There are strict regulations restricting the acceptance of gifts or loans. All government officials are required to declare their investments on their first appointment to the Civil Service. On assignment to a senior or sensitive post, an officer may be required to update their declarations on a regular basis. Investment restrictions are also imposed on the holders of certain positions to avoid possible conflicts of interest. Public officers are not allowed to use confidential or unpublished information obtained in their official capacity to make profits. Failure to meet these requirements will render an officer subject to disciplinary action, dismissal from the service, and, in serious cases, criminal proceedings.

H. The Power of Education The Community Relations Department, the third constituent department of the ICAC, is vested with the responsibilities of:

• educating the public against the evils of corruption; and • enlisting and fostering public support in combating corruption. The public sector does not survive on its own, separate from the community. Public sector integrity can be established and sustained only if the general public demand, treasure and support a probity culture for the public sector and also for themselves. The Community Relations Department’s work programme to educate the broader public and the Commission’s task to strengthen public sector integrity are, therefore, mutually reinforcing.

111 THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE ON THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE TO CORRUPTION VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

Public education aside, the Community Relations Department also makes dedicated efforts to help enhance integrity in the public sector. Such efforts include:

• Developing Codes of Conduct for government officials in respective departments and for the staff of public bodies; • Conducting “experience-sharing sessions” using real-life case studies to illustrate how public officers in their everyday work may come across corruption pitfalls; • Introducing an “Ethics Officer Programme” to Government departments and public bodies, whereby a senior officer in each organization will be assigned as an Ethics Officer to plan and oversee anticorruption strategies for the organization. Regular meetings are arranged for Ethics Officers from different organizations to discuss ethical management issues. The ICAC’s work on enforcement, prevention and education complement each other. Practical experiences gained from the investigation and detection of significant cases are carefully studied and analysed. The results are used not only to construct preventive measures for the relevant organizations; representative cases are also used as the bases for an action drama series. To date, the ICAC has, in collaboration with a TV station, produced 13 series of action-packed anti-corruption stories, broadcast to millions of viewers in Hong Kong and abroad.

I. The Laws Given its Commonwealth heritage, bribery has been an offence in Hong Kong from as early as 1898, with the enactment of the Misdemeanours Punishment Ordinance (MPO). The MPO was replaced in 1948 by the Prevention of Corruption Ordinance (POCO). In 1971, the POCO became the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), with new offences, heavier penalties and stronger investigative powers written into its provisions.

The POBO aims to maintain a fair and just society by protecting the legitimate interests of public institutions and employers, and by inflicting punishment on the unscrupulous and corrupt. It addresses corruption in the public and private sectors.

In Hong Kong, the public sector comprises the Hong Kong Government, and a host of Public Bodies, including the Legislative Council, Executive Council, District Council, and boards and committees appointed by the Chief Executive or the Chief Executive in Council, or specified in the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, such as public utilities companies, regulatory agencies and advisory committees on different policy areas, etc. Officers working in the public sector (Public Officers), are expected to uphold a high standard of integrity to carry out their duties in the best interest of the community, and are therefore subject to more stringent legislation than ordinary citizens in the private sector. Amongst the Public Officers, government officials, being civil servants, are, first and foremost, required to observe more stringent rules than the appointees to and staff of the public bodies.

Section 3 of POBO, which applies to government officials alone, is a blanket prohibition against all acts of soliciting or accepting advantage unless special permission has been granted by the relevant authority. This applies even if the act of soliciting or acceptance is unconnected with the officer’s official duty. Offenders are liable to a fine and imprisonment for one year.

Section 4 of POBO deals with bribery and it applies to both government officials and staff of public bodies. It prohibits them from soliciting or accepting any advantage offered as an inducement to or reward in connection with the performance of their official duties. Any person offering such an advantage also commits an offence. The requirement of “connection with official duty” means that the level of proof for conviction is much higher for Section 4 than Section 3, and so are the penalties. The maximum penalties for Section 4 offences are a heavy fine and imprisonment for seven years.

Section 10 deals with possession of unexplained property and, again, it applies to government officials alone. Section 10 stipulates that it is an offence for a government officer to maintain a standard of living, or to possess or control assets which are not commensurate with his or her official emoluments, unless he or she can give a satisfactory explanation to the court. This provision appears to be at variance with the notion of presumed innocence usually expected under the common law. However, it is time-honoured and has been proven highly effective for use against hardcore corrupt officials believed to have been receiving bribes over a long time but whose assets could not be linked to any specific corrupt deal. The highest penalty for this offence is a 10 year custodial sentence plus fine and restitution.

Private sector corruption is governed by Section 9 of POBO which makes it an offence for any agent to, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, solicit or accept an advantage, or any person to offer an advantage to an agent as an inducement to or reward for or otherwise on account of his or her (a) doing or forbearing to do, or having done or forborne to do any act in relation to his or her principal’s affairs or business; or (b) showing or forbearing to show, or having shown or forborne to show favour or disfavour to any. The maximum penalties for Section 9 offences are a heavy fine and imprisonment for seven years. The POBO is not bad law, but any law is only as good as it is enforced. Before the establishment of ICAC in 1974, fighting graft was the sole responsibility of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Hong Kong Police Force. The Head of ACB was an official three substantive ranks below the Commissioner of Police. The total strength of the ACB was no more than 200 (actual strength 178 against an establishment of 217), relative to the total police strength of 16,500 in 1974. Furthermore, the most notorious corruption suspects were found from within the police force at that time. No surprise, therefore, that the ACB’s performance was less than effective.

In Hong Kong, the anti-corruption horizons changed definitely with the enactment of the “Independent Commission Against Corruption Ordinance” in February 1974. Notably:

• the ICAC Ordinance would have a Commissioner appointed, who, one of the non-politically appointed Principal Officers, would carry as much authority and be of a status equivalent to that of a full-fledged Policy Secretary or the Commissioner of Police; • the ICAC was to operate independently. Independence means, as prescribed in the law, that the Commissioner of the ICAC “shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person other than the Chief Executive (the Governor of Hong Kong at that time)”; and • right at its inception, the ICAC was given the legal powers, the policy support, and the resources it needed to pursue its tasks. Initially the ICAC had 682 officers (actual strength 369), three times that of the Police Anti-Corruption Branch. As of today, the Commission comprises 1,360 officers, operating on a budget of HK$701 million, approximately 0.3% of the Government’s total expenditure.

IV. SUCCESS FACTORS If there is a measure of success in the anti-corruption work of the ICAC, it should be attributed to the persistent and concerted efforts of the community as a whole. In taking stock of ICAC’s experience in the past three decades, several factors are considered to be particularly important in our war against corruption. They can be interestingly summed up by the name – ICAC. I for Independence – The ICAC operates independently from the rest of the government. Its independence is guaranteed by the Basic Law, our mini-constitution, which states that the Commissioner is directly accountable to the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. This special status enables the ICAC to discharge its duties impartially, without fear or favour, and is instrumental in gaining the trust of the public.

C for Commitment –The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been firmly committed to the anti-corruption cause, and renders full support to the ICAC. In Hong Kong, there is strong anti-corruption legislation governing both the public and private sectors. At the same time, the ICAC is given adequate investigative powers to effectively enforce the law, and sufficient financial resources to discharge its duties.

A for Accountability – To inspire public confidence and support, the ICAC maintains a high degree of accountability. Since its inception, an elaborate system of checks and balances has been put in place. Central to this system is the establishment of independent advisory committees to monitor various aspects of our work, including the investigation of each and every case.

C for Community Support – Last but not least, throughout its history, the ICAC has had the community’s strong support as a major motivating force in fighting corruption. Ninety per cent of our corruption reports come from the public, and a majority of the complainants are ready to reveal their identities. The public’s readiness to assist the ICAC is crucial to successful investigations and bringing the corrupt to justice.

V. CASE STUDIES As mentioned earlier, the success of ICAC in Hong Kong is partly attributed to its rigorous enforcement actions. The following three cases offer a glimpse of its hard work in the past few decades.

A. Case 1 – Senior Government Counsel Bribery Case In 1990, an acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in the then Legal Department (now the Department of Justice) accepted bribes to pervert the course of justice due to heavy debts incurred from investment losses in a fruit orchard in New Zealand. Despite attempts to circumvent ICAC investigation and despite sneaking out of Hong Kong, he could not escape the long arm of the law. The doggedness and perseverance of ICAC investigators eventually brought him to justice.

The ICAC commenced its investigation after receiving intelligence from an informant. The ICAC found that assets of the former government counsel had jumped by more than HK$1 million in one year while his annual official income was only around HK$500,000.

After a three-month investigation, it was decided there was no point in delaying any longer since the former government counsel was handling several major commercial fraud cases at that time. To stop him from influencing the prosecutions of those cases, he and his accomplices – two private lawyers, were arrested. Though they were later released on ICAC bail, they were required to surrender their travel documents to the ICAC.

The news came as a shock to the legal profession and the general public. The government counsel, high-up in the top echelon of the Legal Department, was in charge of the Commercial Crime Unit of the department that advised on prosecutions relating to major commercial frauds in Hong Kong. The community was shaken to see such a senior official suspected of accepting bribes to pervert justice. The news also raised the eyebrows of British Parliament members who wrote to express their grave concern over the case and urged the Hong Kong government to ensure that the then Attorney General would handle the case impartially.

Making sure justice was done, the ICAC deployed a task force headed by an Assistant Director of Operations, and five other top investigators, to the investigation. Determined to uphold impartiality, the government appointed an independent lawyer from private practice to provide the ICAC with legal advice and assist in the prosecution of the case. And a two-year long daunting battle for justice was on. The ICAC applied to the then Attorney General to suspend the former government counsel from duty pending further investigation and issued notices under Section 14 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance to require him to explain, within 28 days, where his financial resources had come from. At that juncture, even though the ICAC had his passport, he looked relaxed, as if nothing had happened. He even told everybody he would return to his homeland shortly. It seemed he was confident of walking away from this. He exhausted every possible means to circumvent ICAC investigation. He even claimed that his arrest was a result of a personality clash with ICAC officers over a case he had handled with them earlier on.

Finding ways to get off the hook, the former government counsel first applied to extend the deadline of explaining his assets for another 28 days by claiming that most of his assets were outside Hong Kong. He then applied to the court to get his passport back to return to New Zealand to spend Christmas with his family. The court approved his application, but the ruling was overturned after the ICAC filed an appeal to the High Court.

The most difficult task for investigators was to unearth his assets that had already been transferred out to many different places overseas. The former government counsel even directed his solicitors and banks in New Zealand not to divulge any information relating to his financial status to anybody without his approval. Since the investigations had to be conducted in places that were beyond the jurisdiction of the ICAC, task force members had to overcome many hurdles and race against time to gather sufficient evidence before the expiry of the 56-day deadline. The ICAC investigators shuttled between different areas of New Zealand during the period to conduct extensive inquiries.

With the help of the New Zealand police, the ICAC investigators went to the culprit’s orchard to search for evidence. Upon arrival at the orchard, it was found the culprit’s parents had already burned all the bank statements, documents and correspondence of the culprit, leaving a huge area of burnt grass at the back of the orchard. But in one corner of a drawer of his parents’ bedroom, investigators managed to find a cheque stub with the name “Berry Export” and a code written on it. With the stub, it was then possible to follow a trail of illegal assets covered up by the culprit.

Berry Export turned out to be a shell company used by the former government counsel to conceal his ill-gotten wealth. It was through this company he transferred, to Singapore, his first bribe to a bank account opened under the maiden name of his mother. With this crucial piece of evidence in hand, the ICAC task force was able to follow the asset trail.

After a three-week stay in New Zealand, the task force confirmed that the former government counsel had assets of more than HK$16 million, including bank balances of NZ$2.4 million, three lots of land in New Zealand and an orchard. The official emoluments in the 15 years he worked in the Legal Department came to about HK$4.8 million. The way he covered up the ill-gotten gains was to bury the money in more than 25 bank accounts in different countries, including New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, etc, under the names of relatives and Berry Export. The money was believed to have included the backhanders paid by the two lawyers in private practice in order to secure assistance from the former government counsel in getting their clients acquitted.

The discovery of Berry Export was a breakthrough in collecting evidence against the former government counsel. That was where the whole investigation turned. The former government counsel learnt from his family we had this piece of information in hand. He then realized he could not fool around any more nor could he cover up his corrupt practices.

At the scheduled day when the former government counsel was required to explain his financial resources, he did not show up. ICAC officers believed he had jumped bail and left Hong Kong. Subsequent ICAC investigations revealed that he, with the assistance of a private lawyer who was an auxiliary police chief inspector, had fled to Huizhou on the Mainland via Macao. He then used a false passport to sneak back to Hong Kong from Guangzhou, and then flew to Manila. There was no extradition agreement between Hong Kong and the Philippines at that time.

Knowing there was no extradition agreement between Hong Kong and the Philippines, the fugitive government counsel was confident that he could remain free and then sneak back to New Zealand. Such smug calculations worked for only a while since the Immigration Department of the Philippines had already amassed sufficient information to plan the counsel’s arrest.

The fugitive counsel, who had been lying low in the hills of Manila, was seen frequenting a bar in the city. The Philippines’ Immigration Department, with the help of Manila police, arrested him at the bar on March 29, 1990.

Since the Philippines’ Immigration Department was authorized by law to deport any person who entered the country with a false passport, the fugitive counsel was sent back to Hong Kong the day after his arrest. When he arrived at the Hong Kong Airport under the escort of Philippine Immigration Officers, he was immediately arrested by ICAC officers, who handcuffed him and took him to the Central Magistracy under high security. He was then charged for failing to explain his source of income in accordance with the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and was put under ICAC custody pending a trial.

Weighed down by three months on the run, he looked relieved on his return to Hong Kong. He was very co-operative from the moment of arrest. He confessed the entire truth of how he received bribes and how he absconded. Owing to the additional evidence collated by the task force, he was charged with possessing financial assets disproportionate to his present or past official emoluments, contrary to Section 10(1)(b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. The total assets under his control were worth about HK$16.1 million, including about HK$2.3 million he held for a corrupt third party. Excluding loans and the official emoluments, the value of the unexplained assets came to more than HK$12 million.

Wanting to reduce his imprisonment, he pleaded guilty and agreed to give evidence against other defendants as a tainted witness. He was then detained in the ICAC Detention Centre for debriefing the whole corrupt arrangement.

That was the first time a defendant was kept in the ICAC Detention Centre for a prolonged period to give evidence. The ICAC task force had foreseen the possibility that this arrangement would be challenged, so it had taken every preparation for this eventuality. Before he began to serve his sentence in the centre, the task force carried out a detailed comparison between the detention regulations and facilities of the Correctional Services Department (CSD) and that of the ICAC, and took all precautions to ensure the treatment of the former government counsel was the same as that of inmates at prisons.

After an almost two-year court battle, the two private lawyers, a barrister and a solicitor, were finally convicted of bribing the former government counsel with intent to influence the trial of court cases. They were sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. After an appeal, the barrister was further sentenced to an additional two years’ imprisonment while the solicitor’s sentence was remitted to five years.

Another solicitor, who had received the former government counsel in Macau and assisted him in his escape, was charged with helping the counsel to avoid arrest and prosecution. Convicted of perverting the course of justice, the solicitor was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The former government counsel, who was earlier sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and was ordered to repay HK$12 million to the government in restitution, was then sent to Siu Lam Prison to serve the rest of his sentence. He was given a one-year remission of imprisonment by the then Governor.

The former Chief Justice Ti-Liang Yang handed down the punishment and said “This case demonstrated the determination of the government in the fight against corruption and upholding the integrity of the judiciary. Regardless of how senior a defendant in his official position and whatever his nationality, the case will be dealt with impartially.”

B. Case 2 – Short Piling Case Hong Kong has a large population in a limited territory. This shortage of land naturally means, however, that land prices are high, and that people often have to lavish their lifetime’s savings on buying an apartment. If a hard-earned apartment turned out to be substandard, the owner would be devastated. “Jerry-building” (substandard construction) for quick profit could turn people’s dreams of owning a safe, comfortable home into a life threatening nightmare.

In 1997, Hong Kong embarked on a massive public works programme. Although Hong Kong’s economy had been impacted by the Asian financial turmoil that began in October 1997, public housing construction remained intensive from 1998 on. A series of scams related to substandard works, including short piling, soon surfaced. In three years from 1998 to 2000, the ICAC initiated 142 prosecutions in cases of corruption and fraud involving substandard construction works.

Instances of non-compliance in construction works for public housing gradually came to light from 1999 on. In December 1999, a monitoring survey indicated abnormal foundation settlement at two buildings that were still under construction at a public housing estate. Experts were called in to carry out independent investigations. They found that out of 36 large-diameter bored piles for two buildings, only four met the requirements. Twenty-one were shorter than the prescribed length by two metres to 15 metres, while 11 were resting on soft mud instead of bedrock. In other words, an astonishing 90 percent or so of the bored piles in these two buildings failed to comply with standards and the already extensive superstructure was being supported by the only 10 percent of bored piles that were fully compliant.

When the short piling was discovered, the two buildings had already been constructed up to their 33rd and 34th floors respectively. The case aroused huge concern in the community. Eventually in March 2000, the Housing Department (HD) announced that the two buildings would be demolished in the interests of safety. In this one incident alone, public funds amounting to some HK$650 million had been squandered. It is frightening to contemplate the fact that if the short piling had not come to light, as many as 656 households would have been placed in grave peril. The site was eventually turned into a leisure park.

1. ICAC Investigation In October 1997, HD invited tenders for the necessary piling works from 27 contractors on their approved list. Company ‘A’, a known experienced construction industry contractor, was the successful bidder for the piling works of all five buildings.

The other main player in what would turn out to be a major scam was Contractor ‘B’. In February 1998, Company ‘A’ subcontracted the works to Contractor ‘B’ immediately on being awarded the contract by HD. As the entity that had signed the contract with HD, Company ‘A’ should clearly have informed HD of the subcontracting arrangements which they had entered into. Yet they never once disclosed this arrangement. Throughout the entire construction period, the role of Contractor ‘B’ as a subcontractor was concealed. Contractor ‘B’ began piling works at the site in February 1998 using a vibrator that did not have sufficient force to drive the temporary casings down to the founding level required by the contract. On top of this, the contractors were coming up against a number of soil problems.

In an attempt to arrest this soil collapse, Contractor ‘B’ purchased quantities of the proprietary soil stabilizer Super Mud (a chemical for strengthening the concrete) to reinforce those pile shafts without installing temporary casings. The use of Super Mud was not in the method statement for the works. Given the length of pile shafts without temporary casings, the Super Mud served little useful purpose. In mid-June 1998, Contractor ‘B’ was troubled by financial problems and stopped using Super Mud. Although construction problems were mounting, Contractor ‘B’ continued to ignore them and forged ahead because the contract stipulated a fine of $170,000 per day for any work delay. Since the soil collapse situation was never improved, the depth of many of the pile shafts was reduced, and as a result the related piles were shorter than stipulated.

Faced with a project riddled with problems, major delays and the prospect of a huge fine, Contractor ‘B’ took the final step of resorting to a number of blatantly illegal acts, which were later revealed in the operation, that they thought would cover up the non-compliant piling works.

After the severe short piling of these two buildings was discovered, HD reported to the ICAC in December 1999, suspecting corruption. Two weeks later, Company ‘A’ also reported to the ICAC, alleging that the works involved corruption.

HD told the ICAC that they would be holding a press conference on 9 January 2000 in order to calm public concern as quickly as possible. They said that they would use this conference to announce that they would be stopping the construction of the superstructure for the two buildings.

The ICAC realized that once this news broke, their investigations would be compromised to a considerable extent. They now had only 10 odd days to master all the intricate details of the case if they were to catch all the suspects in one dragnet.

Another hurdle which the investigators had to overcome was the intricate technical knowledge involved in construction works. They had to learn about pile construction procedures in particular and the essentials of the various processes, including checking methods. If the investigators could not learn the ropes in time, how could they ever hope to uncover all the fraudulent tricks?

To speed up the investigation, the ICAC temporarily attached a professional construction engineer working in the Corruption Prevention Department to the Operations Department. He proved a veritable walking encyclopaedia, providing prompt professional advice on a number of highly technical piling construction issues. Within days, the investigators were absorbing new knowledge of piling works. As the press conference loomed ever nearer, it was a real race against time.

On 8 January 2000, just one day before the press conference, the ICAC commenced arrest operations and searched a number of places in the territory for two consecutive days. A hundred investigators were deployed in the action, 21 search warrants were executed and eight persons were arrested, including three HD officers, two ex-directors and three staff members of Contractor ‘B’. They were alleged to have committed corruption and conspiracy to defraud by using short piles to save construction costs in relation to the foundation works. During the operations, the ICAC seized a large amount of documents and exhibits. Four shipping containers were needed to hold the substandard concrete cores alone.

The investigators had to interview all the suspects and witnesses and examine the seized documents, progress records, and test records all within a very short space of time. The records seemed flawless, however, and the investigators realized that they would now have to search for clues by reading between the lines.

The short piling scam mainly involved three people who quickly became known as the “Contractor ‘B’ Trio”— two ex-directors of Contractor ‘B’ together with the site agent who was responsible for overseeing the foundation works.

During interrogation, the two ex-directors and the site agent put forward various excuses and denied the allegations. The site agent as well as the HD staff members, however, agreed that they had lunched together but that all the lunch bills had been properly recorded. For convenience’ sake, these bills would first be settled by Contractor ‘B’ and the HD site staff would later pay for each meal on a monthly basis. They had played mahjong once and also twice visited karaoke bars together, sharing the costs among them. They strongly denied any corrupt dealings and said this had nothing to do with any short piling.

There was insufficient evidence to support the alleged corruption. The ICAC investigation could still move forward, however, because, pursuant to Section 10(5) of the ICAC Ordinance, if an investigation into corruption leads to a suspicion that other offences (such as conspiracy to defraud) may have been committed, the ICAC has the legal power to continue pursuing such a lead.

It soon came to light that some of the site staff were aware of construction irregularities during the seven months when Contractor ‘B’ was in charge of the work. A site foreman employed by Contractor ‘B’ told an ICAC investigator that, because the project was progressing so slowly, he had been instructed to drive the temporary casings to a depth of only 20 to 30 metres below ground, rather than to founding level. He also said that he knew that two ex-directors of Contractor ‘B’ had ordered the workers to use Super Mud to stabilize the walls of excavated shafts without installing temporary casings for support.

The site foreman also pointed out that a few months after construction started, two to three lorry loads of concrete were left over after workers had cast the concrete into two pile shafts. This was unusual because the volume of concrete ordered ought to have matched the amount required to create piles of the prescribed depth. Such a large excess could mean only one thing: the pile shafts were shorter than prescribed, and so could not hold the correctly ordered amount of concrete.

An engineer stated that the two ex-directors and the site agent had told him to have workers shorten the measuring tape that would be used to measure the actual length of the pile. This became known as the “magic measuring tape.”

One piling worker revealed that this young engineer had asked him to drill the pile to at least 40 metres when taking core samples. When the worker reported that the drilling had been impeded by blockages within the pile, the engineer instructed him to tidy up the drill hole and shorten the tape before HD staff measured the length of the pile.

In line with the contract, Contractor ‘B’ employed a quality control engineer to inspect every item of works to ensure compliance. The quality control engineer told ICAC investigators that he was supposed to conduct quality control at the site, but in fact spent most of his time at another construction site of Contractor ‘B’. He admitted that he had signed a number of confirmation documents without having actually checked the quality of the works. He was merely a rubber stamp.

Although the staff of Contractor ‘B’ had revealed their modus operandi, the two ex-directors who had masterminded the scam were loud in their denials. The site agents, who had been involved in yet another short piling scam, had been found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud. Thereafter, the site agent told the ICAC through his lawyer that he was willing to testify against the two ex-directors concerning this case. Similarly, the site foreman and the assistant engineer also became tainted witnesses, and testified in the case.

The case was heard in the High Court. In sentencing, the judge pointed out that the conspiracy to defraud engaged in by the two ex-directors had caused HD to lose a huge amount of public funds. He said that the cover-up of substandard piles by the defendants was detrimental to the construction works and endangered the public. Further, deterrent sentences had to be handed down because, given the limited land resources in Hong Kong, members of the public could well invest their life savings in housing. In the end, the two ex-directors were convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

Nine HD staff members failed to perform their duties at the site. During the construction period, three HD site officers turned a blind eye to the non-compliance of foundation works. They approved the works without checking properly and failed to report progress to the project engineer. Disciplinary action was taken against them by the Civil Service Bureau. The other six staff members were transferred to other posts. Company ‘A’ had dishonestly subcontracted works to Contractor ‘B’, which was not an approved contractor on the HD list, and they had not stationed a representative on site to supervise the construction works. When Company ‘A’ took over the project from Contractor ‘B’, they continued to employ the same team to manage the project, thus further covering up their malpractice.

HD took punitive action against Company ‘A’, including permanently delisting Company ‘A’ from its list of approved contractors for constructing large diameter bored piles and demolition, and prohibiting its sister company from undertaking any works for HD for two years.

The Government was deeply concerned about the short piling scam, and set up an independent committee to critically review the whole issue. The committee published its report on 25 May 2000 and recommended a number of improvement measures.

2. Responsive Measures The Corruption Prevention Department of the ICAC, in conjunction with HD and related Government departments, subsequently formulated anti-corruption preventive measures to plug loopholes. These measures included:

(i) Strengthening of Works Supervision A works supervision plan should be formulated before the commencement of works. Under the plan, professionals should be involved in monitoring major procedures and the frequency of inspections should be specified. All records relating to the works should be properly maintained.

(ii) Specifying Testing Procedures Testing procedures, including how tests should be monitored, how frequent they should be, and the detailed nature of samples for testing, should be clearly specified. In particular, tight controls should be implemented over the extraction of samples and their secure storage and transport.

(iii) Monitoring Subcontractors Contracts should include probity clauses covering such matters as codes of conduct and guidelines on conflicts of interest. The terms of the contracts should be so phrased as to deter main contractors and subcontractors from turning to corruption and malpractice.

(iv) Enhancing Staff’s awareness of Corruption Prevention Site supervisors’ understanding of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance should be improved and their ethical standards enhanced.

To tackle the series of short piling scams that had come to light since 1999, the ICAC set up a 45-man task force in February 2000 to investigate reports of corruption involving short piles and jerry-built construction works. The aim was to seek to begin investigations as early as possible so that timely remedial measures could be taken before it was too late.

The number of corruption reports received by the ICAC concerning the construction industry has dropped since 2002, from a high of 295 reports in 2001 to 114 reports in 2007. This decline indicates that positive progress has been made in building a culture of integrity in the construction industry.

C. Case 3 – A Hong Kong Listed Company Case As an international financial centre, the probity of Hong Kong’s stock market and financial institutions is extremely important. Any attempt to undermine the integrity of the financial markets has an enormous impact on the well-being and prosperity of our community. Allegations of bribery and corruption in listed companies, especially where senior management are involved, are particularly difficult to investigate due to the complicated accounting and paperwork trails that need to be examined in order to collect enough evidence for a prosecution.

This case concerns a corruption allegation against the senior officials of Company ‘K’, a listed company in Hong Kong. Company ‘K’ was the third largest television manufacturer and had over 200 sales offices in mainland China. Its market capitalization was worth over HK$4 billion at that time. The key persons in this case are two brothers, respectively the chairman and an executive director of Company ‘K’, and their mother, Madam Lo.

In January 2001, Company ‘K’ issued a cheque for HK$500,000 in favour of a Mr Wong. The payment voucher and accounting records disclosed such payment as “consultancy fee”. The cheque and payment voucher were signed by the chairman.

During the same month, the executive director signed a four-year service contract on behalf of Company ‘K’ with retrospective effect from November 2000 with Wong for procurement of business for Company ‘K’. Under the contract, Wong was entitled to receive a commission of 1% of the procurement amount and share option (a right to buy the shares at a fixed price, usually below the market price of the shares) of 25 million shares of Company ‘K’ exercisable in four years at a price which was one-sixth of the share price of Company ‘K’ at that time. Between April 2001 and May 2003, Company ‘K’, through a bank account in Macao, paid Wong over HK$50 million by 10 cheques.

The investigation, including a fund tracing exercise, revealed that most of the money ended up in the bank accounts held in the name of Madam Lo, after being laundered through a convoluted route. The proceeds of a HK$500,000 cheque payment, after depositing into Mr. Wong’s bank account, which was controlled by Madam Lo, were either withdrawn by Madam Lo or transferred to bank accounts of the former chairman and Madam Lo.

The HK$50M in Mr. Wong’s bank account in Macao was transferred to bank accounts of Madam Lo and accounts in Mr. Wong’s name held with securities trading companies controlled by Madam Lo as well. The share options were deposited into Mr. Wong’s securities trading account and sold at the market at threefold its original price. At that juncture, there was evidence to show that the chairman and executive director might have, through the corrupt assistance of Mr. Wong, stolen money from the company.

An operation was then mounted. The chairman and the executive director remained silent while Madam Lo was not in Hong Kong. Mr. Wong admitted that he was not an employee of Company ‘K’ and did not receive any commission, consultancy fee or share option. He only worked for Madam Lo to deal with rental matters at a monthly salary of HK$10,000.

During the search of Madam Lo’s residence in Hong Kong, cheque books pre-signed by Mr. Wong were found. Mr. Wong claimed he was told by Madam Lo to sign the cheque books and the service contracts without knowing the contents.

The chairman and the executive director were later charged with conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to defraud in respect of the consultancy payments made from Company ‘K’ to Mr. Wong’s accounts, purely based on circumstantial evidence.

The trial, which lasted for over six months, involved expert witnesses on China’s legal system from both prosecution and defence, owing to the defence case that two former high ranking Chinese government officials were appointed as consultants for Company ‘K’ but they were unwilling to sign a service contract or to have their names revealed in the contract.

The defence produced a number of documents to support their case, including a series of handwritten letters written by the former officials to the chairman to prove their employment during the material time. The defence also made reference to an agreement signed by one of the former officials and Madam Lo, in the presence of a lawyer, Mr. Xin. The agreement purported to support the defence case and protect the two former officials in getting rewards from Company ‘K’.

The defence also revealed that the two former officials travelled from the office of Company ‘K’ in Hong Kong to the lawyer’s office in Shenzhen, China, on 11 January 2001, to sign the agreement. With the testimony of the expert witness, the defence case appeared to sound reasonable under the Chinese legal system and made it a perfect defence.

The relentless efforts of the prosecution team uncovered two pieces of questionable evidence tendered by the defence. One concerned a letter sent by one of the former officials to the chairman dated 10 April 2001.

The authenticity of the letter itself could not be challenged. However, the manufactured date of the envelope containing the letter was found to be January 2002.

It was also transpired from the passport of one of the former officials that he left Shanghai, China and travelled to the United States of America on 3 January 2001 and did not return to Hong Kong or China until 15 January 2001. This movement record made it impossible for him to be present in the meeting of signing the agreement on 11 January 2001.

The trial judge cast doubts on the evidence adduced by the defence and eventually convicted the chairman and executive director who were both sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. When handing down the verdict, the trial judge commented that it was one of the most serious commercial crimes of its nature, dealing as it does with the privileged position that both defendants had betrayed their obligations to the company and its shareholders in the most grievous ways.

VI. CORRUPTION AS A LUBRICANT OF CRIME The Hong Kong legislation against business corruption is relatively straightforward. It is stipulated in Section 9 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, as mentioned in paragraph 44 above, that any secret commission, kickback, or other advantages given to, or solicited or accepted by an agent without his or her principal’s consent would be an offence. In reality, the battle against business corruption is never that simple. Corruption, by its very nature, is normally interwoven with other criminal activities. As illustrated in the last case study, they are all facilitated by corruption in one form or another.

In a “traditional” corruption related crime scenario, the role of corruption would have been quite clear. A suspect may offer advantages to individuals who are in a position to help him or her to achieve a particular goal which, in the context of economic crime, would be some kind of fraud or malpractice aiming at obtaining private gain or causing loss to others. The corruption acceptor, more often than not, is not a participant of the fraud or malpractice, i.e. he or she would only provide a service upon accepting a reward but that whether or not the offeror eventually achieves his or her goal would not be of the acceptor’s concern. This scenario can be conveniently termed as “service-based corruption.”

As time passes, the role of corruption is now very much blended with the fraudulent scheme, that is to say, corruption becomes part and parcel of the criminal activities as a whole. In the scenario of a modern economic crime, participants of which often include professionals such as legal practitioners, accountants, or others with in-depth knowledge of a particular field, each of whom would provide advice or put up efforts to assist the mastermind of the criminal plot to achieve his or her goal. In doing so, they are promised advantages not on a piece-meal or service basis, but that rewards would be conferred upon the success of the plot, i.e. they become a member of the criminal syndicate and share the ill-gotten gain as and when the plot succeeds. Corruption in this kind of scenarios can be termed “entrepreneur-based”. Had their criminal activities been successfully checked by the authority and the whole group of suspects brought to justice, they would likely face some kind of global charges of conspiracy to defraud or other related offences rather than corruption. In such scenarios corruption only serves as a lubricant to facilitate the smooth operation of the plot but does not sufficiently reflect the criminality of the suspects. This changing role of corruption in crime has rendered detection increasingly difficult, as the suspects would be in a much more cohesive relationship than those in the “service-based” cases.

VII. KEY TO SUCCESS As emphasized by the former United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, who said at Palermo on the occasion of the opening of the United Nations Convention against Corruption for signing, “if crime crosses all borders, so must law enforcement.” One key factor attributed to the success of the above investigations is the excellent international co-operation between law enforcement agencies to help trace corrupt proceeds and locate fugitives. Another key factor is to foster public support – both in terms of intelligence provided for investigation and confidence in the organization as a whole.

—

Foot Notes:

* Acting Assistant Director, Independent Commission Against Corruption, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.

 

1 Attributed to Kevin Sinclair, a New Zealand reporter who worked in Hong kong for many years, including for The Star, Hong Kong Standard and the South China Morning Post.

 

 

 

From: dinesh1234@gmail.com To: dinesh1234@gmail.com Sent: 7/14/2011 10:03:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time Subj: Mumbai Blasts: How to wipe out Islamic terror

*How to wipe out Islamic terror* Dr. Subramaniam Swamy July 14, 2011

The terrorist blast in Mumbai on July 13, 2011 requires a decisive soul searching by Hindus of India. Hindus cannot accept to be killed in this Halal fashion,  continuously bleeding every day, till the nation finally collapses.

Terrorism, I define here as the illegal use of force to overawe the civilian population to make it do or not do an act against their will and well-being.

There are about 40 reported and unreported terrorist attacks per month in the country. That is why the recent US National Counter-Terrorism Centre publication A Chronology of International Terrorism states: ‘India suffered more terrorist acts than any other country’.

While the PM thinks that Maoists’ threat is most serious, I think Islamic terrorism is an even more serious existential threat. If we did not have today the present Union Home Minister, PM, and UPA chairperson, then Maoists can be eliminated in a month, much as I did with the LTTE in Tamil Nadu, as a senior minister in 1991, or MGR did with the Naxalites in the early 1980s. Islamic threat to the nation  is different.

Why is Islamic terrorism our number one problem of national security? About this there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind after 2012. By that year, I expect a Taliban takeover in Pakistan and the Americans to flee Afghanistan. Then, Islam will confront Hinduism to ‘complete unfinished business’. Already the successor to  Osama Bin Laden as the Al Qaeda leader has declared that India is the priority  target for that terrorist organisation and not the USA.

Fanatic Muslims consider Hindu dominated India as “an unfinished chapter of  Islamic conquests”. I may be recalled that all other countries conquered by Islam  became 100% converted to Islam within two decades of the Islamic invasion.  India is the exception. Undivided India in 1947 was 75% Hindu even after 800 years of brutal Islamic rule. That is jarring for the Islamic fanatics.

Let us remember that every Hindu-Muslim riot in India since 1947, has been ignited by Muslim fanatics — if one goes by all the Commissions of Inquiry set up after every riot. Even the Gujarat riots were triggered by the brutal  killing of 56 women and children by setting fire to a rail coach in Godhra.

By today’s definition these riots are all terrorist acts. Muslims, though a minority in India, still have fanatics who dare to lead violent attacks against  Hindus. Other Muslims of India just lump it, sulk or rejoice. That is the history from Babar’s time to Aurangzeb.  There have been exceptions to this apathy of Muslims like Dara Shikoh, in the old days, or like M J Akbar and Salman Haidar today who are not afraid to speak out against Islamic terror, but still they remain exceptions.

*Blame the Hindus* In one sense, I do not blame the Muslim fanatics for targeting Hindus. I blame us Hindus who have taken their individuality permitted in Sanatana Dharma to the extreme. Millions of Hindus can assemble without state patronage for Kumbh Mela completely self-organised, but they all leave for home oblivious of the targeting of Hindus in Kashmir, Mau, Melvisharam and Malappuram and do not lift their little finger to help organise Hindus. For example, if half the Hindus vote together rising above their caste and language, a genuine Hindu party will have a two-thirds majority in Parliament and Assemblies.

The secularists now tout instances of Hindu fanatics committing terrorist attacks against Muslims or other minorities. But these attacks are mostly state sponsored, often by the Congress itself, and not by Hindu ‘non-state actors’. Muslim-led attacks are however all by ‘non-state actors’ unless one includes the ISI and rogue elements in Pakistan’s army which are aiding them, as state sponsoring.

Fanatic Muslim attacks have been carried out to target and demoralise the Hindus, to make Hindus yield that which they should not, with the aim of undermining and ultimately to dismantle the Hindu foundation of India. This is the unfinished war of 1,000 years which Osama bin Laden talks about. In fact, the earliest terror tactics in India were deployed in Bengal 1946 by Suhrawady and Jinnah to terrorise Hindus to give in on the demand for Pakistan. The Congress party claiming to represent the Hindus capitulated, and handed 25 per cent of India on a platter to Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Now they want the remaining 75 per cent.

 *Forces against Hindus* This is not to say that other stooges have not targeted Hindus. During the last six decades since Independence, British imperialist-inspired Dravidian movement led by E V Ramaswamy Naicker, in the name of rationalism tried to debunk as irrational the Hindu religion, and terrorised the Hindu priestly class, i.e., the Brahmins, for propagating the Hindu religion.

The movement’s organisational arm, the Dravida Kazhagam (DK), had venerated Ravana for 50 years to spite the Hindu adoration of Rama and vulgarise the abduction of Sita, till the DK belatedly learnt that Ravana was a Brahmin and a pious bhakta of Lord Shiva too. Abandoning this course of defaming Ramayana, the DK have now become stooges of the anti-Indian LTTE which has specialised in killing the Hindu Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka. Of course the DK has now been orphaned by the decimation of the LTTE.

 *Civil war situation* In the 1960s, the Christian missionaries had inspired the Nagas. The Nagas also wanted to further amputate Bharat Mata by seeking secession of Nagaland from the nation. In the 1980s, the Hindus of Manipur were targeted by  foreign-trained elements. Manipuris were told: give up Hinduism or be killed. In Kashmir, since the beginning of the 1990s, militants in league with the Pakistan-trained terrorists also targeted the Hindus by driving the Hindu Pandits out of the Valley, or killing them or dishonouring their women folk.

Recognising that targeting of Hindus is being widely perceived, and that Muslims of India are largely just passive spectators, the foreign patrons of Islamic terrorists are beginning to engage in terrorist acts that could pit Muslims against Hindus in nation-wide conflagration and possible civil war as in Serbia and Bosnia.

Muslims cannot be divided into ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’ because the former just capitulate when confronted. Recently, Pakistan civilian government capitulated on ‘kite flying’ and banned it because Taliban considers it as ‘Hindu’. Moderate governments of Malaysia and Kazhakstan are now demolishing Hindu temples.

 *Collective response* Hence, the first lesson to be learnt from recent history of Islamic terrorism against India,  and for tackling terrorism in India is that the Hindu is the target and that Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus. It is to undermine the Hindu psyche and create fear of civil war that terror attacks are organised.

And hence since the Hindu is the target, Hindus must collectively respond as Hindus against the terrorist and not feel individually isolated or worse, be complacent because he or she is not personally affected. If one Hindu dies merely because he or she was a Hindu, then a bit of every Hindu also dies. This is an essential mental attitude, a necessary part of a virat Hindu (for fuller discussion of the concept of virat Hindu, see my Hindus Under Siege: The Way Out Haranand, 2006).

Therefore we need today a collective mindset as Hindus to stand against the Islamic terrorist. In this response, Muslims of India can join us if they genuinely feel for the Hindu. That they do, I will not believe, unless they acknowledge with pride that though they may be Muslims, their ancestors are Hindus.

It is not easy for them to acknowledge this ancestry because the Muslim mullah would consider it as unacceptable since that realisation would dilute the religious fervour in their faith and also create an option for their possible re-conversion to Hinduism. Hence, these religious leaders preach hatred and violence against the kafir i.e., the Hindu (for example read Chapter 8 verse 12 of the Quran) to keep the faith of their followers. The Islamic terrorist outfits, e.g. the SIMI, has already resolved that India is Darul Harab, and they are committed to make it Darul Islam. That makes them free of any moral compunction whatsoever in dealing with Hindus.

*Brihad Hindu Samaj* But still, if any Muslim does so acknowledge his or her Hindu legacy, then we Hindus can accept him or her as a part of the Brihad Hindu Samaj, which is Hindustan. India that is Bharat that is Hindustan is a nation of Hindus and others whose ancestors are Hindus. Even Parsis and Jews in India have Hindu ancestors. Others, who refuse to so acknowledge or those foreigners who become Indian citizens by registration can remain in India, but should not have voting rights (which means they cannot be elected representatives).

Hence, to begin with, any policy to combat terrorism must begin with requiring each and every Hindu becoming a committed or virat Hindu. To be a virat Hindu one must have a Hindu mindset, a mindset that recognises that there is vyaktigat charitra (personal character) and a rashtriya charitra (national character).

It is not enough if one is pious, honest and educated. That is the personal character only. National character is a mindset actively and vigorously committed to the sanctity and integrity of the nation. For example, Manmohan Singh, our prime minister, has high personal character (vyaktigat charitra), but by being a rubber stamp of a semi-literate Sonia Gandhi, and waffling on all national issues, he has proved that he has no rashtriya charitra.

The second lesson for combating the terrorism we face today is: since demoralising the Hindu and undermining the Hindu foundation of India in order to destroy the Hindu civilisation, is the goal of all terrorists in India we must never capitulate and never concede any demand of the terrorists. The basic policy has to be: never yield to any demand of the terrorists. That necessary resolve has not been shown in our recent history. Instead ever since we conceded Pakistan in 1947 under duress, we have been mostly yielding time and again.

*Bowing to terrorists* In 1989, to obtain the release of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s daughter, Rubaiyya who had been kidnapped by terrorists, five terrorists in Indian jails were set free by the V P Singh’s government. This made these criminals in the eyes of Kashmiri separatists and fence sitters heroes, as those who had brought India’s Hindu establishment on its knees. To save Rubaiyya it was not necessary to surrender to terrorist demands.

A worse capitulation to terrorists in our modern history was in the Indian Airlines IC-814 hijack in December 1999 staged in Kandahar. The government released three terrorists even without getting court permission (required since they were in judicial custody). Moreover, they were escorted by a senior minister on the PM’s special Boeing all the way to Kandahar as royal guests instead of being shoved across the Indo-Pakistan border.

Worse still, all the three after being freed, went back to Pakistan and created three separate terrorist organisations to kill Hindus. Mohammed Azhar, whom the National Security Advisor Brijesh Mishra had then described as “a mere harmless cleric”, upon his release led the LeT to savage and repeated terrorist attacks on Hindus all over India from Bangalore to Srinagar. Since mid-2000, Azhar is responsible for the killing of over 2,000 Hindus and the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. Omar Sheikh who helped al-Qaeda is in jail in US custody for killing US journalist Daniel Pearl, while the third, Zargar is engaged today in random killings of Hindus in Doda and Jammu after founding Al-Mujahideen Jingaan.

This Kandahar episode proves that we should never negotiate with terrorists, never yield. If you do, then sooner or later you will end up losing more lives than you will ever save by a deal with terrorists.

*Moment of truth* The third lesson to be learnt is that whatever and however small the terrorist incident, the nation must retaliate—not by measured and ‘sober’ responses but by massive retaliation.  Otherwise what is the alternative? Walk meekly to death expecting that our ‘sober’ responses will be rewarded by our neighbours and their patrons? We will be back to 1100 AD fooled into suicidal credulity. We should not be ghouls for punishment from terrorists and their patrons. We should retaliate.

For example, when Ayodhya temple was sought to be attacked,  this was not a big terrorist incident but we should have massively retaliated by re-building the Ram temple at the site.

This is Kaliyug, and hence there is no room for sattvic responses to evil people. Hindu religion has a concept of apat dharma and we should invoke it. This is the moment of truth for us. Either we organise to survive as a civilisation or vanish as the Persian, Babylonian, and Egyptian civilisations did centuries ago before the brutal Islamic onslaught. For that our motto should be Saam, Dhaam, Bheda, Danda.

*Poverty is no factor* What motivates the Islamic terrorists in India? Many are advising us Hindus to deal with the root ‘cause’ of terrorism rather than concentrate on eradicating terrorists by retaliation. And pray what is the root ‘cause’?

According to bleeding heart liberals, terrorists are born or bred because of illiteracy, poverty, oppression, and discrimination. They argue that instead of eliminating them, the root cause of these four disabilities in society should be removed. Only then terrorism will disappear. Before replying to this, let us understand that I have serious doubts about the integrity of these liberals, or more appropriately, these promiscuous intellectuals. They seek to deaden the emotive power of the individual and render him passive (inculcate ‘majboori’ in our psyche). A nation state cannot survive for long with such a capitulationist mentality.

It is rubbish to say that terrorists who mastermind the attacks are poor. Osama bin laden for example is a billionaire. Islamic terrorists are patronised by those states that have grown rich from oil revenues. In Britain, the terrorists arrested so far for the bombings are all well-to-do persons. Nor are terrorists uneducated. Most of terrorist leaders are doctors, chartered accountants, MBAs and teachers. For example, in the failed Times Square New York episode, the Islamic terrorist Shahzad studied and got an MBA from a reputed US university. He was from a highly placed family in Pakistan. He certainly faced no discrimination and oppression in his own country. The gang of nine persons who hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001 and flew them into the World Trade Towers in New York and other targets were certainly not discriminated or oppressed in the United States. Hence it is utter rubbish to say that terror is the outcome of the poverty terrorists face.

If we accept the Left-wing liberals argument, does it mean that in Islamic countries, the non-Islamic religious minority who are discriminated and oppressed can take to terrorism? In the Valley, where Muslims are in majority, not only Article 370 of the Constitution provides privileges to the majority but it is the minority Hindus who have been slaughtered, or raped, and dispossessed. They have become refugees in squalid conditions in their own country.

It is also a ridiculous idea that terrorists cannot be deterred because they are irrational, willing to die, and have no ‘return address’. Terrorist masterminds have political goals and a method in their madness. An effective strategy to deter terrorism is therefore to defeat those political goals and to rubbish them by counter-terrorist action. How is that strategy to be structured? In a brilliant research paper published by Robert Trager and Dessislava Zagorcheva this year (‘Deterring Terrorism’ International Security, vol 30, No 3, Winter 2005/06, pp 87-123) has provided the general principles to structure such a strategy.

*Goal-strategy* Applying these principles, I advocate the following strategy to negate the political goals of Islamic terrorism in India, provided  the Muslim community fail to condemn these goals and call them un-Islamic:

(Islamic terrorism) Goal 1: Overawe India on Kashmir.

(Solution) Strategy: Remove Article 370, and re-settle ex-servicemen in the Valley. Create Panun Kashmir for Hindu Pandit community. Look or create opportunity to take over PoK. If Pakistan continues to back terrorists, assist the Baluchis and Sindhis to struggle for independence.

(Islamic terrorism) Goal 2: Blast our temples and kill Hindu devotees.

(Solution) Strategy: Remove the masjid in Kashi Vishwanath temple complex, and 300 others in other sites as a tit-for-tat.

(Islamic terrorism) Goal 3: Make India into Darul Islam.

(Solution) Strategy: Implement Uniform Civil Code, make Sanskrit learning compulsory and singing of Vande Mataram mandatory, and declare India as Hindu Rashtra in which only those non-Hindus can vote if they proudly acknowledge that their ancestors are Hindus. Re-name India as Hindustan as a nation of Hindus and those whose ancestors are Hindus.

(Islamic terrorism) Goal 4: Change India’s demography by illegal immigration, conversion, and refusal to adopt family planning.

(Solution) Strategy: Enact a national law prohibiting conversion from Hindu religion to any other religion. Re-conversion will not be banned. Declare caste is not birth-based but code of discipline based. Welcome non-Hindus to re-convert to the caste of their choice provided they adhere to the code of discipline. Annex land from Bangladesh in proportion to the illegal migrants from that country staying in India. At present, northern one-third from Sylhet to Khulna can be annexed to re-settle the illegal migrants.

(Islamic terrorism) Goal 5: Denigrate Hinduism through vulgar writings and preaching in mosques, madrassas, and churches to create loss of self-respect amongst Hindus and make them fit for capitulation.

(Solution) Strategy: Propagate the development of a Hindu mindset (see my new book Hindutva and National Renaissance, Haranand, 2010).

India can solve its terrorist problem within five years by such a deterrent strategy, but for that we have to learn the four lessons outlined above, and have a Hindu mindset to take bold, risky, and hard decisions to defend the nation. If the Jews can be transformed from lambs walking meekly to the gas chambers to fiery lions in just 10 years, it is not difficult for Hindus in much better circumstances (after all we are 83 per cent of India), to do so in five years.

Guru Gobind Singh has shown us the way already, how just five fearless persons under spiritual guidance can transform a society. Even if half the Hindu voters are persuaded to collectively vote as Hindus, and for a party sincerely committed to a Hindu agenda, then we can forge an instrument for change. And that ultimately is the bottom line in the strategy to deter terrorism in a democratic Hindustan at this moment of truth.

*About the author: Subramanian Swamy* Janata Party President is a Professor of Economics and a former Union Cabinet Minister*

 

 

culturalbridgesact2002 sent an e-mail:

 

Without Knowledge, you can’t defeat the dangerous situations surrounding our present planet earth – Please read slowly and leave the reading for next day. Do not rush on this valuable wisdom furnished here. Thank You.

—

Environmental hazards remain after Joplin tornado

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/environmental-hazards-remain-joplin-tornado-070310621.html

A message from the desk of Professor Joe Martin (Swami Gopal Das): “Remember, we can avert the very dangerous oncoming nature fury if the following knowledge is understood, applied in daily life and everyone makes the total effort to stop the criminals for their mischievous activities against other lives. REMEMBER VEDAS STATE: “LIFE COMES FROM LIFE.” If you can’t bring murdered animals back o life, you decide what are the repercussion and the consequences of one’s actions? One must never use human’s gifted “Free Will” in the negative direction. WAKE UP! WHERE IS YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS? SAVE YOURSELF WITH UNDERSTANDING AND RIGHTEOUS ACTION.” 

 

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THIS IS THE GUARANTEE OF OUR MASTER ACHARYA SRI CHARAN DAS JI MAHARAJ: If you truly digest the entire material as enclosed here, the entire universe will open for you. By practicing and also taking the action simultaneously eventually will lead your life back into the spiritual planets after giving up this material dress. So sit down comfortably, study each word precisely, digest each word’s meaning and realize. Once realized the true understanding as enclosed, by practicing and then applying – all doors of the heavenly planets will remain open for you. This is the assurance of our great master who has seen the absolute truth. Reminder: “Greed” leads to the lives of mice and rats (Please read inside what famous Roman poet Ovid has to say in his poem. Also see movie by Beatle’s Paul McCartney.)

Bhagwan Sri Krishn speaks to Arjun: “Give up all varieties of religion and surrender unto me with understanding; I will protect you from all sinful reactions.”

“Wherever there is Sri Krishn, the Master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjun, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be victory, opulence, extraordinary power, and morality.”  Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 18:78.

· Read many other topics, such as life after death, How to attain God’s abode in this life,

Cause and Effect, rapists of planet earth resources, Man has created his own destiny…..CONDITIONED SOULS OR LIBERATED SOULS – WHICH DO YOU, TRULY WANT? Read with open mind and courage. If you got problem to understand then definitely seek the help of a great spiritual Hindu Master who has seen the Absolute Truth but do not blow your valuable human life in fury or crawl next in the bodies of mice, rats due to your endless desperate hungry pursuits for accumulation / collection – the mind set with utmost greed attitude – the road to hell. IS YOUR HUMAN BODY LOOKS LIKE A DOG/WOLF? FIND OUT THE ANSWER FOR YOUR NEXT DESTINY – you have created – no interference of the Almighty God – THE NATURELAW.

ALSO READ ANSWER FOR THOSE DOING HALAL!

========================

 2nd. USA President John Adams wrote to third USA President Thomas Jefferson, the following great wisdom of Soul’s Journey from various physical bodies – EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH SOUL’S TRANSMIGRATION:

 In 1814, former U.S. President John Adams, who had been reading about the Hindu religion, wrote to a President of the U.S.A., “The Sage of Monticello,” Thomas Jefferson, about the doctrine of the Science of Birth and Death (Reincarnation). After revolting against the Supreme Being, some souls were hurled, John Adams wrote, “down to the region of total darkness.” They were then, the statement said, “released from prison, permitted to ascend to earth and migrate into all sorts of animals, reptiles, birds, beasts, and men, according to their rank and character, and if they passed without reproach their several graduation, they were permitted to become cows and men. If as men they behaved well… They were restored to their original rank and bliss in heaven.” Letters to Thomas Jefferson, March 1814, Correspondence of John Adams.

 Let us analyze in detail, the meaning behind Mr. John Adams’ letter to Mr. Thomas Jefferson:

 First understand the evolution is taking place in our daily life (Read further in the end). The evolution is of soul’s consciousness, not of matter. Matter is dead –lifeless. As long as the driver is in the automobile, the automobile can be driven. Once he comes out of the automobile, the automobile is dead. Similarly, human body or animal body is dead, without the presence of driver (soul). Soul is gone, i.e. the person living in that particular body is now gone, left behind 9 gates’ material body. Nature Worshippers have always cremated dead bodies because all elements merge into nature. They are: fire to fire, air to air, water to water, earth to earth, ether to ether. Vedas state that the material body consists of 5 elements: Water, Fire, Air, Ether and Earth. This way, the dead inert material body left behind by the driver (soul) has merged ASHES TO ASHES. Where did Christianity derive the meaning “Ashes to Ashes?” Christianity is known to bury their dead bodies in the ground by decorating them in costly well decorative casket. EXTREMELY MISLEADING: This way, the faithfuls remain within the bodily concept. They are promised and assured by Church Authorities that after death, they will be expecting an “UNKNOWN MESSIAH” appearing anytime to deliver them by raising the dead in whatever shape and fashion they may be inside the ground. Please Note: For the last 2,000 years same false promise has been passed down to fool the people under the thumbs of these mischievous clergy – yet no messiah has arrived to raise the dead bodies from the graves. They truly don’t give importance to the driver (soul) of the automobile in its total understanding. REMEMBER: Examples speak louder than the words. Where are the Ashes to Ashes? So much borrowed, here and there, they lost their own track in keeping up with the right motives and right actions misleading the souls to confusions and neglect.

Some Ignoramuses writing that the evolution is a fraud when in fact they are making the fraudulent statement due to their deep-rooted ignorance in the subject, thereby misleading and confusing Americans and others, big time. If there was simply one life, there could not possible exist inequality under the perfect Almighty God. It is the individual’s action leading to the individual’s destiny causing one to become a fool, another a terrorist. Some US Muslims justify suicide attacks: By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer, and Associated Press.

Some US Muslims justify suicide attacks: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070522/ap_on_re_us/poll_muslim_americans THE FAMOUS ROMAN POET OVID SEES ONE OF HIS PAST LIFE IN THE BODY OF A DOG: Over 2,100 years ago, the famous Roman poet Ovid penned these verses describing the fate of an unfortunate person, who, by his actions and desires, slid a few notches down the evolutionary scale –meaning that the soul accepted a dog body in its journey to the next destination:

 

I am ashamed to tell you, but I will tell

 

REMEMBER: By closing the eyes, the sun does not disappear. The sun still is bright and shining, giving heat and light to everyone, regardless of color, belief, nationality, cast, and creed. Beliefs are many. Oh, I believe in father i.e. family to family, father to son, one Church to another Church but the Absolute Truth for all souls remain the same.

Please open your eyes & ears. We see everyday world hunger and starvation, millions dying each year. Are these accidental? These are reminders to souls that they could be trapped into the similar situations in their next destination, if continued with dirty tricks, filled with low life. Nothing is an accidental. It is very serious topic on the matter of Transmigration of Soul.

 

I had bristles sprouting on me.

I could not speak, but only grunting sounds

came out instead of words.

I felt my mouth grow harder.

I had a snout instead of a nose,

And my face bent over to see the ground.

My neck swelled up with great muscles,

And the hand that lifted the cup of my lips

Made footprints on the ground.

……………….METAMORPHOSES

 

British Poet William Wordsworth writes in his famous poem ‘Intimations of mmortality’: “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.” And in another poem, he addressed the following lines to an infant:

Oh, sweet newcomer to the changeful earth

If, as some darkling seers have bodily guessed,

Thou hadst a being and a human birth,

And wert erewhile by human parents blessed,

Long, long before thy present mother pressed

Thee, helpless stranger, to her fostering breast.

                                      

EMERSON: “It is a secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again…. Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endures mock funerals and mournful obituaries, and they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some new and strange disguise.” The selected writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Editor, Brooks Atkinson, New York: Modern Library, 1950, page 445. From the Katha Upanishad, one of the many books of ancient Hindu science in his library, Emerson quoted, “The soul is not born; it does not die; it is not produced from anyone…. Unborn, Eternal, it is not slain, though the body is slain.” … Emerson’s complete works, Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1886, IV, Page 35.

 Thoreau, the philosopher of Walden Pond, wrote: “As far back as I can remember I have unconsciously referred to the experiences of previous state of existence.” The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1949, II, Page 306.

 Another sign of Thoreau’s deep interest in the cycle of birth and death is a manuscript, discovered in 1926, entitled “The Transmigration of the seven Brahmanas.” This short work is an English translation of a story about reincarnation from an ancient Sanskrit history. The transmigration episode follows the lives of seven sages through progressive incarnations as hunters, princes, and animals.

 Walt Whitman, in his poem “Song of Myself,” Writes:

I know I am deathless….

We have thus far exhausted

Trillions of winters and summers,

There are trillions ahead, and

Trillions ahead of them.

 

From Walt Whitman’s leaves of Grass, Ist. (1855) Edition, editor, Malcolm Cowley, New York: Viking, 1959

 UNDERSTAND FIRST, life on our planet earth is self-sustaining, without the mercy of other material planets. We cannot have Water Reservoirs stretched from Mars to satisfy the existence of humans and animals on our planet earth. Our planet earth is independently well sustained (self sufficient) and do not require other planets resources. World of fools and be fooled. We have our own ecological system to provide everything necessary for sustaining material lives on this planet earth.

 REMEMBER: There is enough for everyone but never is enough for the greed. Such people due to their utmost greed are contributing to further cause of ecological imbalance. What is this big show $100 million salary or $500 million salary – what are they trying to prove in America? You need decent living but not these outrageous show of money power executives. Western News Media always counting, what is the equivalent of income for natives in other countries? Trying to prove their puffed-up nature, what they have controlled forcefully – by exertion. That is a clear-cut robbery, not decency. If can’t get it, send the war machines to impose the might. But the might is not getting right but have started slapping back America because of their constant HEGEMONY around the globe. Once a great sage of India, the fountain of the Eastern Civilization and consequently the world’s civilization, said: “Live and let live others.”

 Now, they are further confusing the world that China is the East when India was always the east and still is the East.They are trying to shuffle the credit of the Eastern Culture to China for civilization. China is the North East, not the East because India was always considered the Light of knowledge from the East. Even the Buddhist civilization emerged out from the East India to China, Indochina, Japan, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and the world, over 2300 years ago. Master Tao of China had learned the knowledge from the Buddhist teachings, arranged by King Ashok of India. Lohan and Bodhi Karma of India travelled to China to set-up the very first Buddhist monastery in Mainland China, called Shaolin Temple. They were the pioneer for teaching “Karate – Kung-fu” to the natives through their Shaolin Temple monastery. They also taught to Chinese the ancient old science of Yoga i.e. “Yog.” Later, Damodar of India travelled to China to teach the Buddhist culture and Karate-Kung-fu to Chinese.

Chinese Ambassador to the USA stated that India has ruled over the minds of Chinese over 2,000 years. He was mentioning in reference to the great Buddhist culture of Nirvana i.e. Nirvan. Please don’t confuse that China could be the pioneer for giving civilization to the world. China is cutting their trees to supply the lumbers to ever demanding US consumers for building 5-6 times bigger houses than were normally built 25 years ago for general consumers. People must learn to live within the eco-friendly benefits. Why not to build concrete houses right here in America? This alone will save millions of acres of land from cutting trees.

 It is time that we, “Souls,” must link to the “Ultimate Universal Source,” so we remain totally consistent, within the absolute context in totally perfect order in our total understanding. This way, we can link with the Source Almighty God; otherwise taking some pieces of puzzles from here and there won’t complete the puzzle. It must be from the Real Source, within the context and without loosing consistency and perfection, otherwise souls are confused.

 Please Note: Our Master Acharya Charan Das Ji made the slaughter house movie in the year 1981 that was bought by many famous organizations world wide such as Humane society, Animal Cruelty, Farm Animals, Carnivals where it was shown on big screens and countries: England, France, Australia, Canada, Germany. Our Master had broken the Iron Walls, the pioneer, 28 years before Paul McCartney’s 2009 year work on the same theme. Please see at your own discretion (Our Master movie is not on the YouTube).  You must be an adult to watch these horror scenes or children must be under the presence of guardians. That movie plus distribution of pamphlets as instructed above was the reason for awakening and emergence of Vegan societies and vegetarianism across the USA. A picture is worth million words. Our Acharya’s Master used to say: “We do not know what ghastly things go in the slaughter house!” To fulfill his master’s desires, our Master took this project which took two years to get permission from a certain Slaughter House right here in the USA.

Paul McCartney: Animals are treated / slaughtered

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ydyhpoLrG8

 

Halal Malpractice – Arab Animal Rights Report

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkSwwkGAXWs&NR=1&feature=fvwp

 

Islamic Halal salma 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt9SMuvplVI&NR=1

 

The only way to save Hindu civilization

By  J.G. Arora

jgarora@gmail.com

Organiser, New Delhi:  July 10, 2011

 

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=405&page=24

 

Though as per Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975), the British historian of civilizations, “Civilizations die from suicide, not murder”, a unilateral war is being waged by anti-Hindu forces to wipe out Hindu civilization the way other native cultures and civilizations have been destroyed in the world.

And though expansionist religions and civilizations demolished the ancient Greek, Roman, Maya, Inca, Aztec, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Persian, Norse, Celt, African, Aboriginal and many other native traditions, religions and civilizations, they could not destroy Hindu civilization because of stiff resistance from Hindu Bharat over the centuries.

History shows that civilizations which became too soft, and did not confront the aggressors, were attacked and erased. Since Hindu civilization also has become too soft, it is being attacked and demolished. Frontiers of Hindu civilization which used to extend from present day Afghanistan to Indonesia are shrinking and are being confined to less and less area.

And due to callous apathy of present day Hindus, Hindu civilization is facing an unprecedented threat to its very survival. As per Aristotle, “Tolerance and apathy are the first signs of a dying society.”

Hindu civilization used to cover entire Bharat Varsha (comprising the present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan etc.) which used to be Hindu land with zero Muslim population till Muhammad bin Qasim’s Arab army attacked Sindh in 711. Despite the heroic defence of their motherland during repeated Muslim attacks over the centuries, Hindus lost countless lives, faced plunder and destruction of thousands of their temples, and lost Afghanistan in 987, and present day Pakistan and Bangladesh to Muslims in 1947.

Even after 1947, as is evident from census after census in truncated India, Hindu civilization is declining both in population percentage and in territory. Besides, Hindus have faced genocide and eviction from Muslim majority Kashmir to become refugees in their own country. Moreover, because of massive infiltration from Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindu civilization is losing ground as mini-Pakistans and mini-Bangladeshs are being planted on Indian soil.

Many Hindus apprehend that because of much higher Muslim growth rate and infiltration from Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindus in India will be outnumbered by Muslims in a few decades, and face the misery undergone by Hindus in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh which too used to be Hindu lands.

I am submitting below the main reasons for the pathetic plight of Hindu civilization; as also the solution to ensure its survival.

Fake secularism

Logically in 1947, on India’s partition on religious basis and creation of Pakistan for Muslims as demanded by Muslims, truncated India should have been declared a Hindu republic to re-assert its Hindu identity. Instead, a perverse ‘secularism’ was foisted on India.

‘Secularism’ as practised in India is fiercely anti-Hindu and is an elaborate hoax. It appeases non-Hindus; and targets Hindus for discrimination and disempowerment. Helped by this farce, with each passing day, India is being made more Islamic and more Christian and less Hindu.

Only a few examples of havoc brought by charade of secularism are given here:

Countless Pak-Bangla terrorists and infiltrators planting mini-Pakistans and mini-Bangladeshs on Bharat’s soil; genocide and eviction of Hindus from Kashmir; global missionary organizations Christianizing India; government control over Hindu temples whereas no mosque or church is covered by such control; special privileges to non-Hindus under Article 30 of the Constitution; special rights to Muslim majority Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370; special benefits being conferred upon non-Hindus by many state governments; de-Hinduisation of education and history, and banishment of Sanskrit from education; distortion of Hindu religion and history; and provision of Haj subsidy though none of 57 Islamic countries gives any such subsidy are just a few perversities of secular India.

Hindu civilization is being hammered and erased bit by bit every day in secular India; and the Union government’s affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in September 2007 rejecting the existence of Ram and Ram Sethu de-legitimized Hindu faith itself.

Though the said affidavit was withdrawn after protests, it depicts the sad situation. Besides, perverse secularism has generated organizations like Indian Mujahideen and SIMI which want to establish Muslim rule in India.

Demographic invasion

Hindu civilization is a demographically challenged civilization.

Both Pakistan and Bangladesh (which used to be Hindu lands) have been declared as Islamic countries, and have driven out most of Hindus and Sikhs.  However, most of Indian Muslims who had demanded Pakistan and exchange of population did not go to Pakistan. Rather, the present percentage of Muslim population in India is much higher than that in 1947.

Pakistan’s army which is ideologically anti-Hindu and anti-India actually rules Pakistan; and nurtures terrorism. In their bid to dismember and bleed India through “a thousand cuts”, Pakistan and Bangladesh have sent countless terrorists and crores of their nationals into India to plant more Pakistans and Bangladeshs on Indian soil.

Pak-Bangla combine wants to subjugate Hindu Bharat; and it is achieving through terrorist and demographic invasion what it could not achieve through its various wars with India. Pakistan based terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba are quite open about their plan of capturing “Hindu India” for Islam.

Despite the Supreme Court’s judgements dated July 12, 2005 and December 5, 2006 to deport infiltrators, the government has done nothing in this regard though “demographic conquest” of any territory is the permanent civilizational conquest. Rather, Pak-Bangla nationals are infiltrating into India every day.

And instead of being deported, infiltrators are getting voting rights.

Foreign-funded conversions

If Pak-Bangla combine wants to Islamise India through terrorists and infiltrators, missionaries want to Christianise India through unlimited foreign funds.

On 7th November, 1999 in New Delhi, Pope John Paul II gave a call to convert Asia to Christianity as follows:-

“Just as the first millennium saw the Cross firmly planted in the soil of Europe, and the second in that of America and Africa, so may the Third Christian Millennium witness a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital continent.”

Hindus in India and Nepal are special targets for this ‘harvest of faith’. And in 2006, Maoists, missionaries and Pakistan’s ISI have divested Nepal of its Hindu identity.

Having conquered North-East India, many global missionary organisations are sending huge funds to NGOs in India for converting Hindus to Christianity through fraud and allurement.

And Joshua Project is a war-like project to invade and Christianise India. All over India, Churches are being built even in remote villages to Christianise the local populations.

Macaulay’s education

As per George Orwell, “The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

Introduced in India in 1835 by Lord Macaulay (1800-1859), Macaulayan education had no place for Sanskrit, Hindu scriptures, Hindu heritage and Hindu history; and was devised to de-Hinduise Hindus as Macaulay’s following letter dated October 12, 1836 to his father shows:

“Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully…. The effect of this education on Hindus is prodigious. No Hindu who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. It is my firm belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respected classes 30 years hence. And this will be effected without our efforts to proselytize; I heartily rejoice in the prospect.”

Shockingly, even after independence in 1947, India has been following Macaulayan education. Accordingly, de-Hinduized by Macaulayan education, most of Hindus know nothing about Hindu religion, Hindu history or Hindu civilization; and are self- alienated, deracinated and indifferent to attacks being made on Hindu civilization.

Unilateral universalism

Unilateral universalism is not graciousness. It is plain stupidity.

And embracing unilateral noble thoughts despite relentless attacks is self-destructive.

The most dangerous falsity being propagated by many Hindu religious leaders is that all religions are the same and deserve same respect (sarva Dharma sam bhav). This unilateral and absurd declaration betrays ignorance about Hinduism; and also about other religions. This falsehood strengthens anti-Hindus, and facilitates fraudulent conversion of Hindus. Those claiming all religions to be the same are either ignorant or hypocrites.

Besides, unilateral Hindu slogans like vasudhaiv kutumbakam (entire world is one family) and ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti (‘truth’ is one but has many names) also suppress danger from anti-Hindu forces which are bent upon finishing Hinduism. As a result, de-Hinduised by Macaulayan education and ignorant of basic tenets of various religions, many Hindus are proclaiming that they respect all religions, and are being converted and married to Non-Hindus.

Moreover, India has been following the policy of unilateral magnanimity, instead of the policy of ‘reciprocity’.

Since no Hindu temple can be built anywhere in Saudi Arabia, there is no reason to allow Saudi Arabia to fund the building of mosques and Madrassas in India.

Hindus’ hypnotic obsession with unilateral universalism and magnanimity is leading to gradual liquidation of their religion and civilization. It is frustrating to find Hindus so self-destructive as a community, though as individuals, they excel.

Only solution

Since sham ‘secularism’ and secular India have been a disaster, only Hindu Bharat can protect Hindus, Hindu Dharma, Hindu heritage, Hindu identity of Bharat and Hindu civilization. Accordingly, fake secular India must be transformed into a genuinely secular Hindu Bharat.

And this transformation can be attained only with the help of a nationalist main stream media and a strong nationalist political party. Accordingly, all nationalist individuals and social and religious organisations must create the nationalist main stream media, and a strong nationalist political party which will act as instruments to transform India into a Hindu Republic of Bharat by all peaceful, constitutional and lawful means.

A civilization can exist only when there is a nation to protect and nurture it. If Hindu civilization has to exist, Hindu Bharat has to exist.

Since Hinduism is all embracing, Hindu Bharat will give justice to all and appease none. In Hindu Bharat, there will be one law and one nation; no distinction of majority and minority, and no discrimination against any community. And all citizens in this Bharat will have equal rights. It will also dismantle fake-secularism, and liberate the nation from countless terrorists and Pak-Bangla infiltrators.

And Hindu Bharat will remember M.A. Jinnah’s ‘Two Nations’ theory expounded in Lahore in 1940, and will prevent the creation of more Pakistans and Bangladeshs on Bharat’s soil.

No one can object to the concept of Hindu Bharat when all the 57 Muslim majority countries are declared as Islamic countries.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) had stated that “the only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way; and that at the close of twentieth century, the world would be dominated by the West, but in the 21st century “India will conquer her conquerors.”

Let us ensure that Hindu civilization survives and prevails; and prove that Arnold Joseph Toynbee was right in his assertion that in the 21st century, “India will conquer her conquerors.”

—————————————————–

Unraveling India?

By Jamie Glazov

http://www.frontpag emag.com/ Articles/ Read.aspx? GUID=5C2AF0F9- 9FDD-4595- 89BA-308CC5C8549 A

Aug. 12, 2008
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Moorthy Muthuswamy, an expert on terrorism in India. He grew up in India, where he had firsthand experience with political Islam and jihad. He moved to America in 1984 to pursue graduate studies. In 1992, he received a doctorate in nuclear physics from Stony Brook University, New York. Since 1999 he has extensively published ideas on neutralizing political Islam’s terror war as it is imposed on unbelievers. He is the author of the upcoming book, Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War.FP: Moorthy Muthuswamy, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

 

Muthuswamy: Thank you for this timely interview, Jamie

FP: There were some Islamic terror attacks against India in late July. What do you make of them?

Muthuswamy: The late July 2008 blasts are ominous signs of a political Islamic movement in India coming of age. This movement is a consequence of a thirty year old process of jihadization of Indian Muslims or simply, jihad build up in India.

The Islamic conquest of nations and people in Arabia and Africa is now part of history. We are now witnessing the Islamic conquest of South Asia. With Pakistan and Bangladesh firmly Islamized, now the attention is shifting to India, the last big land of South Asia yet to be conquered. 

Who would have thought that this barbaric conquest phenomenon will rear its ugly head again in our life time?

FP: Can you give some background to the readers?

Muthuswamy: Sure.

Studies of Islamic conquest of non-Muslims and their land have identified a process called jihad build-up in non-Muslim nations. This build-up also creates what is called a political Islamic movement.

In this process the Muslim minority is systematically and politically indoctrinated by mosques aided by funding from Muslim majority nations, on the grounds of “religious freedom”. This indoctrination is geared towards driving Muslims away from the mainstream, to become hostile to their own nation, and to identify with pan-Islamic aspirations, including a unified Caliphate under Sharia. The Caliphate is envisioned to wage wars until the whole world is converted to Islam.

The contiguous land mass of the Caliphate requires destroying India and converting it into an Islamic state – the primary goal of the political Islamic movement in India. Spearheading this effort in India is the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), identified by Indian intelligence as the terror outfit behind the serial blasts of late July, 2008.

Here is what one may call as a well-articulated manifesto of the Call to Arms (armed jihad): click here. This manifesto was sent minutes before one of the serial blasts and it warned of impending blasts to note that Hindu blood is, “the cheapest of all mankind” and contained Koranic justifications for killi ng unbelievers. Of course, the manifesto also called on the Hindu majority in India to embrace Islam in order to avoid further attacks – a chillingly similar threat Bin Laden and his deputies’ issue to America every now and then.

FP: What is the ideological inspiration and cover for SIMI?

Muthuswamy: It is mostly derived from Deoband Islamic seminary and the tens of thousands of clerics it has graduated over the years. Deoband is an Indianized version of Wahhabism established in the 19^th century (most terrorist outfits in Pakistan, Taliban or even many in ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency, are considered its followers). A declaration issued at the end of February 2008 “anti-terror” conference organized at Deoband showed Islamic deceit or Taqqiya at its very best – “Their [western] aggression, barbarism and state-sponsored terrorism – not only in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in Bosnia and various South American countries – have surpassed all records known to human history.”

The declaration said nothing about Pakistani and Saudi sponsorship of terror in India or Indian Muslims’ role as foot-soldiers of this jihad. Among the main thrust o f this conference was to give a clean chit to SIMI and to absolve it of any terrorism related activities carried out in India.

Ironically, the Indian government too has unwittingly acted to nurture the intellectual base of jihad and sponsorship of SIMI, through an increasing number of government-funded universities with “Muslim character” – Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia University, to name a new.

FP: Can you talk about the serial blasts themselves?

Muthuswamy: The back-to-back serial bomb blasts that killed many and injured scores of innocent civilians in the Indian cities of Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and detection and diffusion of scores of other bombs in Surat in July 2008 may have signaled the next stage of jihad build-up in India – from siege to attack mode. Bangalore was probably chosen due to its prominence as the emerging technology capital of India; the city of Surat in Gujarat is the diamond business center of India and Ahmedabad is the capital of the Indian state of Gujarat – the engine driving India’s economic growth and whose population is most resistant to jihad.

From the strategic point of view of destroying Indian economy and degrading the will of the unbelievers to resist, and to destabilize India, no other targets could be better chosen.

These blasts show exceptional levels of organizational ability, inspiration, logistical support in both men and material, and importantly, wide following of extremism among Indian Muslim population. I believe that Indian jihadists and their sponsors in many Muslim nations have concluded that due to the extensive network of terror cells established in Muslim communities all over India they can now indefinitely bleed India until it is destroyed. I also think that the Indian jihadists have shown only a small measure of what they are capable of.

Unlike most western nations where state monitoring of mosques and other jihad sponsoring entities is good (especially since 9/11 attacks), in the case of India, a retired top intelligence official has noted very limited penetration of terrorist entities by the state. Due to this reality, Indian intelligence has no clue about the full dimension of terrorist threat In dia faces.

Unsurprisingly, military pressure on India is now mounting on its western front, with frequent reports of gun fire exchange with Pakistan and breaking of the four year old ceasefire. As the Indian army is increasingly diverted to quell Muslim-Hindu fight within India, Pakistan is expected to infiltrate more of its irregular jihadists and troops disguised as “freedom fighters” in order to help “oppressed” Indian Muslims to take the war inside India.

The excitement of a resurgent India is fast getting replaced with India as a theater of jihad.

FP: American intelligence officials have gathered intelligence suggesting that Pakistan helped plan the deadly bombing of India’s embassy in Afghanistan. What do you make of this?

Muthuswamy: Indeed, there is every bit of motivation for Pakistanis to plan and execute the Embassy bombing. Pakistanis see India as their primary enemy and clearly, they couldn’t digest increasing Indian influence in what they see as a Pakistani sphere of influence.

This bombing puts a damper on developmental efforts in Afghanistan. When you add this to the Pakistani support and sponsorship of the Afghan Taliban, the American effort to stabilize and to moderate Afghanistan is running into some serious difficulties.

In addition, aided by Saudi Arabia, even under Musharraf, Pakistan has continued to destabilize India.

It seems, American effort to engage Pakistan has yielded very little on the larger strategic front, while tactically it may have been successful in capturing some Al-Qaeda operatives.

Jamie, as you may recall, in an earlier interview conducted last year, I had mentioned that, “[t]he de facto power in these nations [Pakistan and Saudi Arabia] are political Islamic movements, this makes these leaders ineffective in stopping these nations from being fountainheads of terror.”

Pakistani military and ISI are the sword-arm of political Islam in Pakistan. First and foremost, they will never stop armed jihad – and no other internal force can change that.

Even Musharraf showed his true colors by coming to the aid of the ISI, by calling it: “the first defense line of Pakistan.”

Pakistan has now become one of America’s biggest=2 0foreign policy and strategic challenges. The bottom line is that America has little leverage against Pakistan (or Saudi Arabia for that matter).

A desperate India and frustrated America will be increasingly pulled toward each other to counter Pakistan-Saudi axis in the region.

FP: What are the powers behind the jihad build-up against India?

Muthuswamy: The primary powers behind the jihad build-up in India, and the resulting terror and mayhem created there are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

We may be able to associate these nations and their leaders with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as defined by the Geneva Convention. This is an interesting angle because it may provide the western powers much-needed leverage against these terror-sponsoring entities and also legal justification to jihad victim states to decisively strike back.

Let me present some material that might implicate Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Centuries ago “offensive” or “expansionist” armed jihad was used to conquer land and people for Islam. It is interesting to note the view of a Sharia judge of Pakistan who had sat in i ts Supreme Court for twenty years: “Even in those days . . . aggressive jihads were waged… because it was truly commendable for establishing the grandeur of the religion of Allah.”

Now, with international criminal system in place, and also because many Muslim nations no longer have the military might to impose an expansionist jihad on unbeliever nations, the concept of “defensive” armed jihad has been invoked to justify arming and funding Muslim insurgencies in many non-Muslim majority nations in order to create separate homelands for Muslims.

As part of the grand vision of the so-called defensive jihad, state-sponsored Saudi charities have worked to deliberately drive a wedge between Muslim minorities and the non-Muslim majority in many nations; new mosques were established and material hateful of unbelievers was distributed and preached. These measures, funds for mobilizing the faithful and the indoctrinating the necessity of waging armed jihad have given Muslim populations a sense of empowerment, ideology, logistics, and motivation needed to mobilize and to finally wage armed jihad.

In Muslim majority nations such as Pakistan, the above process has created a steady stream of recruits for global jihad.

In other words, as we will see, worldwide Islamic terror is part and parcel of a grand vision of Saudi Arabia. 

Having financed and provided logistics for the charities, the Saudi government itself provided material for indoctrination and to prepare Muslim minorities to wage armed jihad on their non-Muslim compatriots. Here is a sample of the official Saudi school material for consumption both internal and abroad: 

In these verses is a call for jihad, which is the pinnacle of Islam. In (jihad) is life for the body; thus it is one of the most important causes of outward life. Only through force and victory over the enemies is there security and repose. Within martyrdom in the path of God (exalted and glorified is He) is a type of noble life-force that is not diminished by fear or poverty (Tafsir, Arabic/Sharia, 68).

Before adverse publicity compelled the Saudis to remove the following statement, the Islamic Affairs Department of the Saudi embassy in Washington carried the following statement defining the motif for jihad:

The Muslims are required to raise the banner of jihad in order to make the Word of Allah supreme in this world, to remove all forms of injustice and oppression, and to defend the Muslims. If Muslims do not take up the sword, the evil tyrants of this earth will be able to continue oppressing the weak and [the] helpless…

There is every reason to believe that the Saudis have distributed these kinds of materials around the world, including in India.

FP: Can you discuss the specific case of the Kashmir jihad?

Muthuswamy: “Self-determination ” of “oppressed” or “alienated” Muslims in Kashmir is among the most popular cause (of “defensive” jihad) in the Muslim world. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have pursued this jihad aggressively, while exposing their hand (and thereby implicating them) because they seem to think that they are dealing from a position of “moral high ground” and because India is seen as a weak state.
By the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, adm itting its role: “Jihad, insurgency or whatever you want to call it in Kashmir… Yes, Pakistan may have helped the jihad at some time, but it was not started by us”. 

First, I want to show that the Kashmir jihad is an offensive one aimed at extending Islam’s boundaries at the expense of non-Muslims by imposing a no-holds-barred warfare on the state controlling Kashmir, India. It is ironic that Pakistan would want to grab more territory from India, especially when it owes a significant portion of its territory to India for its recent acts of non-Muslim ethnic cleansing.

Funding for building mosques and indoctrinating Muslim populations in Kashmir has been funneled through state-sponsored Saudi charities. While supporting Muslim self-determination in Indian part of Kashmir (so that the Muslims would vote to join Pakistan and take the land to Islamic Pakistan), nothing is said about non-Muslim ethnic cleansing (to India) from Pakistani part of Kashmir or from Pakistan itself (to India).

Just as India had to absorb non-Muslims driven out of Pakistani part of Kashmir and from the rest of Pakistan, Pakistan could simply absorb the Muslim population in the Indian part of Kashmir (minus the land), if they feel so alienated. And, that could be considered an equitable arrangement. But clearly that is not the case here; the principle that has been invoked is: What is mine is exclusively mine and what is yours is also mine!

In other words, Kashmir jihad is a bogus “defensive” jihad.

FP: Can you provide more details on the jihad buildup in India aided by Saudi Arabia (and assisted by Pakistan)?

Muthuswamy: I provide them below. I believe the Indian govt. has shared much more comprehensive data implicating both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia with their American and other western counterparts.

Funds for Muslim insurgencies, including Kashmir Muslim insurgency and Al-Qaeda were funneled through Saudi state-sponsored charity organizations such as Muslim World League (MWL) and World Association of Muslim Youth (WAMY). A MWL communiqué in 2000 called for, “all assistance to the people of Kashmir, and support its steadfast struggle.” Since a major part of this “struggle” is armed insurgency, this call for material support and support of the “struggle” can be taken to mean supplying of funds, arms, and ammunition for an armed jihad. According to Indian government, “90 percent of the funding [for Kashmir militants] is from other countries and Islamic organizations like the WAMY”.

A cursory review of over thirty years of MWL’s mouthpiece, The Muslim World League Journal, indicates that it has consistently ignored expulsion of over 300,000 non-Muslim Kashmiris and Kashmir Muslim complicity toward this cleansing act. Also ignored are Kashmiri Muslims’ religious apartheid practices toward non-Muslim Kashmiris and others in the rest of the state.

The key first step toward building up jihad is the construction of new mosques. Starting 1980, scores of new mosques were constructed. Since 1990s at least 3,000 new=2 0mosques were constructed in Kashmir, many with Saudi assistance. 

• SIMI’s, “spectacular growth after 1982 lay in the support it gained from Islamists in West Asia, notably the Kuwait-based World Association of Muslim Youth and the Saudi Arabia-funded International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations. ” 
• With authorities in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya and Sudan assisting, about $700 million was raised to further growth of Islam. As part of this plan new mosques and madrassas were to be constructed outside of Kashmir. 
• Indian security agencies have detailed how Saudi Arabia acts as the meeting point of Indian and Pakistani-backed terrorists who plot their strikes in the Indian Kashmir and elsewhere. Indian security officials have been unhappy with the Saudi efforts in monitoring sizable funds that=2 0are transferred to India, a big portion of which is suspected to be routed to fundamentalist institutions. 
• Saudi-funded mosques in Kashmir have been at the forefront of jihad against non-Muslims in Kashmir that led to over 300,000 of them driven out of Kashmir, many murdered and raped.
• Saudi Arabia is also indirectly sponsoring jihad against India by, “[s]ubsidizing Pakistan’s terrorism training infrastructure and ISI terrorist operations by a whole host of Islamic fundamentalist terrorist outfits against India”. 
• In January 2006, India approached the Saudis to sign an extradition treaty covering terrorism. But Saudis demanded that India agree to incorporate “freedom struggles” as a justification of acts of violence. 
• Additionally, state-sponsored Saudi charities have funded India specific terrorist outfits i n Pakistan, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), who are working to create additional homelands for Muslims in India through terror. An ex-activist of SIMI claimed, “Funds are available for the asking for LeT not only from Pakistan, but also from Wahhabi fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia and the UAE”.

Battling Saudi-sponsored Islamic terrorism has been an escalating burden on an impoverished India. Nearly about 6,000 children die every day in India due to malnourishment driven by poverty.

Serial blasts by suspected Islamists, in major Indian economic and technological hubs such as Bangalore and Ahmedabad are poised to drive capital and investment out of India, drive millions more into poverty and make it easier for jihadists to destroy India from within.

Also notable is terrorist attacks directed at Hindu temples – exposing the intent to annihilate the idolaters’ way of life, as suggested in Koranic injunctions.

All of the available evidence appears to show a desire, intent, and execution on the part of Saudi Arabia (and Pakistan) to impose an offensive jihad on India – not just restriced to Kashmir – using bogus excuses that are either exaggerated or invented. Even the so-called alienation of Kashmiri/Indian Muslims is to a great part built up by Saudi charities in order to use Indian Muslims as foot-soldiers to purposefully extend Islamic sphere of influence at the expense of non-Muslims.

This is sanctioned by the pseudo-Constitution of Saudi Arabia, the Koran and the Sunnah, which have widely quoted verses (by Muslim clerics) that justify violent conquest of unbelievers.

This deliberate, long-term, and large-scale execution of terror plans has already devastated significant portions of India, with about one hundred thousand people killed, and about half a million displaced. Besides, this highly impoverished nation had to divert its scare resources to fight this terror imposed on its people, and this has in turn led to exacerbating malnutrition of its children, their deaths as a result and grinding poverty of millions of its citizens.

Among the cross hairs of the terrorists’ hit list, according the Indian Home Ministry: India’s nuclear installations, power plants, and oil refineries. The current escalation of serial blasts and what is yet to come at this rate is poised to devastate and kill tens, if not hundreds of millions of Indians and take away the future of many more in the coming decades.

It appears that one can associate the pattern of terrorism waged on India, spearheaded by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as per the Geneva Convention. This act of genocide is of a slow form, likely taking several decades to conduct (less likely to be noticed, as a result), unlike the classic one in20Darfur region of Africa which is measured in years.

By emphasizing just the “self-determination ” of the Muslims in Kashmir while ignoring the ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims in Muslim majority regions nearby, leaders such as the reigning King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan’s leadership may have set forth policy measures leading to terror, genocide and crimes against humanity conducted on the people of India, using the Saudi and Pakistani resources respectively.

FP: What can India do?

Muthuswamy: In the near-term there is little the ruling regime in India can do, as the nation awaits blasts of increasing devastation and frequency.

Internally, the tipping point may have been crossed; India no longer defendable. Jihadists know what they are doing, as a Pakistan-based jihad commander proclaimed a few years ago. /div>

Even in the long-term, poor governing and a dysfunctional democracy significantly undermine India’s prospects. Besides, the institutional know-how on dealing with the Islamic threat remains primitive, as the recent Frontpage Symposium can attest to.

Putting it differently, India is a sitting duck – and these serial blasts mark the beginning of extreme destabilizing of India: Spreading of Kashmir jihad into the rest of India.

In this war of minds, first and foremost, India has to articulate the rationale for its existence within human rights framework. Here is one.

Non-Muslims from every Muslim majority region of South Asia – without exception – be it Pakistan, Bangladesh or from India’s own Kashmir valley have been massively driven out to Hindu-majority India. This occurred when Muslim populations in these areas obtained political power. In addition, in 1971, the Pakistani army selectively sought out and killed perhaps a million or more Hindus and drove many more to India. But it was never held accountable. Indeed, due to this mostly one-sided religious cleansing India ended up accommodating about 85% of the original population in about 75% of the original land called British India.

The fact that non-Muslim populations in these Muslim majority regions shared ethnicity, language, food habits, and culture didn’t at all help or save them. This data shows unequivocally that South Asian Muslims do not believe in coexistence and that the Islam practiced in the region is a repressive political ideology of conquest that pretends itself as a religion. 

This documented genocidal conquest of non-Muslims in South Asia compellingly defines the first human rights priority for India: Ensuring India’s long-term existence as a free and safe land of opportunity for non-Muslim South Asians.

Armed by this rationale and with the right leadership India can take to the much-needed offense by first mobilizing the non-Muslim majority and to weaken jihadist hold on a mobilized Indian Muslim population.

However, the major responsibility of stopping jihad in India falls in the hands of mainly those who nurtured it all these years: political and religious leadership of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Besides, in the eyes of Indian jihadists, these external entities carry more weight than the internal ones.

It is only natural that the Indians make the following demands on the Saudi/Pakistani political and religious leaderships:

They apologize for their one-sided past support of “self-determination ” of Muslims in Kashmir while ignoring the plight of non-Muslims driven away from nearby Muslim majority regions.

These leaders will appeal to the Indian Muslims, Pakistanis and the Saudis – and take steps to stop the jihad directed at India and its citizens.

Saudi Arabia will agree to generously fund to rehabilitate Indian Muslims away from extremism, to compensate non-Muslim Indians affected by Islamic radicals that are in anyway indoctrinated by Saudi-originated funds and to compensate the Indian state for the damages suffered and expenses occurred due to Saudi jihad.

Saudi Arabia will not stop oil exports to India, as this could be interpreted as waging additional jihad on humanity in India.

Pakistan will take the “alienated” Kashmiri Muslims from India and settle them in the portion of Kashmir it holds and in the rest of Pakistan.

Of course, one should be under no illusion that any of these demands are going to be made by the Indians any time soon or even if they are made, the Saudis and Pakistanis are willingly going to embrace them!

Yet, if India wants to exist and do so securely, it has little choice.

These are first of the steps Indi a has to undertake in order to persuade western powers to bring up genocide and other charges against the Saudi and Pakistani political and religious leaderships, and before embarking on a military offensive.

The 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice even extends such authority to the preemptive use of strategic nuclear weapons in certain existential circumstances.

Should the terrorist attacks continue to devastate India and if Pakistan and Saudi Arabia do not act to discourage jihad, India’s existence is threatened and as a nuclear-armed state, it should use every means to devastate Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, paving the way for unraveling of political Islamic movements in India and beyond.

The conundrum of Pakistan is understandable; any limited offensive military measure directed at punishing it will most likely destabilize it and persuade Pakistani military leadership to retaliate with nuclear strikes. However, under the current western policy of “engaging” Pakistan, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have only grown stronger due to internal support.

India could be the missing link in neutralizing the threat Pakistan poses in Afghanistan and through its procession of “Islamic” nuclear bombs.

If Indians feel that th ey have to hit back at Pakistan due to extensive internal terror attacks attributable as genocide or crimes against humanity, an option worth backing by the western powers is a full-scale Indian offensive that may involve massive pre-emptive strategic nuclear strikes to first soften up Pakistan, followed by over running Pakistan’s territory with Indian troops and liberate its population to Hindu way of life (which culturally Pakistanis belong to), by comprehensively neutralizing its Islamic roots. The West can follow it up by aiding nation-building to be utilized wisely for the first time in Pakistan (until now, the well-meaning western aid has gone into jihad-building there, much to the discomfort of the givers). Such a Pakistan will not only have a negative memory of its Islamic past, but importantly, will be a much less likely terror sponsor.

FP: What can the western powers do?

Muthuswamy: Let me set this section up by first explaining how policy decisions regarding Islamic terrorism are taken in India at the present time.

India’s top two leaders’ (the unelected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his boss, Sonia Gandhi, the president of Congress Party) interaction with the public or journalists on foreign policy and security matters come down to reading statements prepared by aides, with virtually no cro ss-examination. Singh’s long career in the government had been that of an economic technocrat and Gandhi’s prior experience consisted of home-making. 

Due to these leaders’ inexperience on strategic issues, including matters related to Islam or Muslims, Muslim leaders who serve as aides or those who serve in the Cabinet have take the lead in formulating policies.

This has been a recipe for disaster as the Muslim leadership in India reflects the Bin Laden loving, fundamentalist- oriented Muslim community.

Not surprisingly, every long-term decision taken by these two leaders have gone on to advance the cause of jihad. Even in cases of obvious Islamist violence, Muslim leaders close to these top Indian leaders have used their influence and access to stymie the investigation and let the terrorists run free. In addition, the Muslim leaders have helped to misguide the focus of government effort away from the roots of terror within their community.

That the Muslim leaders with jihadist outlook are pulling strings behind the top two Indian leaders can explain the bizarre Muslim exclusive promises made by these Indian leaders.

Prime Minister Singh stated in Dec. 2006: “They [Muslims] must have the first claim on resources.” Sonia Gandhi went a step further. She wrote a letter as part of a 2007 election campaign in India’s most populous state, specifically pleading to over 15,000 Muslim leaders, including clerics, “I can build a society of your dreams“.

The shocking reality of India is that the ruling Manmohan Singh regimeis an unwitting proxy of jihadists on policy matters pertaining to Islam and Muslims. 

The ruling regime’s success in bringing India along to sign the proposed nuclear deal with America shouldn’t misconstrued as an ability to tackle Islamic terrorism. Reason: This proposed deal is not an Islam related issue and hence Muslim “advisors” didn’t play a determining role. In any case, in my view, the nuclear deal with India is highly irrelevant for the reason that India will neither be able to securely build nor maintain the nuclear reactors it proposes to construct in another ten years time, should internal destabilizing continue at this rate.

Give these realities it is hard to believe that India is any longer capable of surviving the Islamic onslaught all by itself.

It all comes down to western leaders deciding whether they would like to see India rapidly destabilized by an Islamic war of thousand cuts, with millions of people dying of hunger and malnutrition, and importantly, hostile jihad-sponsoring Muslim states born inside of what is left of India within the next few decades.

When large-scale terrorism that can categorized as crimes-against- humanity is taking place in a nation at the behest of external Islami c powers and where the regime in power is not only ineffective in stopping terror but even seems to act as a proxy for the Islamists, there is every reason for the world powers to step in and help the beleaguered people staring the face of a mutual existential threat.

Such a help can come in the form of backing the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its strong leader, Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. Indian intelligence has identified BJP as the only main stream party free of terrorist infiltration. Manmohan Singh’s Congress Party with its traditional reliance on Muslims has become susceptible to jihadist infiltration and influence. 

As part of discrediting the jihadist moral “high ground”, the United States must question the credibility of the Kashmir jihad.

 The western powers should persuade and back India to build up the case of crimes against humanity implicating both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia through the International Criminal Court. Not just in the case of India, this angle needs to be pursued to include other jihad victim states and also potentially more sponsors, including the Islamic Republic of Iran (due to its sponsorship of terror directed at Israel) .

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other attacks directed at the United States by Al-Qaeda should have given more than ample warning to the Saudi ruling class (and Pakistan) that continued funding – directly or through government-linked charities – of either the Taliban or Al-Qaeda is to harm American interests – and that corrective measures must be put in place to roll back extremism. We now know that the Saudis and Pakistanis hardly undertook any measures to stop the funding of terrorist groups, let alone undertake any corrective measure, until a least 2001 – and that make these nations significantly responsible for 9/11 attacks on America. Still, the 9/11 Commission has blundered into letting the Saudis (and to a lesser extent Pakistanis) off the hook.

The need to move beyond proxies, from Al-Qaeda, Taliban or Hezbollah to their major sponsors – namely, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran – can’t be overstated.

Associating Saudi Arabia with genocide and other crimes against humanity gives us an unprecedented ability to regulate its funding for “religious causes” in the West, to even retroactively shutdown any “religious” institution built with its funding, to discred it its standing (Saudi Arabia is synonymous with Islam and vice versa) in the community of societies and nations – and to even seize its oil-based assets (used to sponsor genocide) as a last resort.

Specifically, western powers, going beyond their support for India, should call on the Saudi leadership to allocate, say, 30-40% of its oil-based revenues for rehabilitating Muslims it has indoctrinated all these decades and to compensate non-Muslim victims and their states.

The victim list includes the United States.

Should the Saudis balk at this humanitarian proposal, the western powers should work to add top Saudi political and religious leaderships to the elite list now occupied by the fellow Muslim, Sudan’s leader, Omar al-Bashir – now charged by the International Criminal Court. Similar approach may be pursued in the case of Pakistan in order to make it disengage from terror sponsorship directed at Afghanistan and India.

Due to deeply entrenched and popular nature of political Islamic movements based in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan that are answerable to none, it is unlikely that even the above approach will yield any meaningful results. Still, this intermediate step may be necessary before justifying far more lethal means. 

FP: Moorthy Muthuswamy, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.

Muthuswamy: Thank you Jamie.