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US says no to nuclear power plant to Pakistan
WASHINGTON: The US has categorically told Pakistan that it would not get any atomic power plant or civilian nuclear deal on the lines of the one signed with India.
“The United States is working closely with Pakistan to help meet its growing needs. Nuclear power is not currently part of our discussions,” a senior Administration official told PTI.
Leaders of Pakistan, who have been pitching hard for a nuclear power plant, have been told about in recently.
The senior Administration official, preferring anonymity, said the US has also told Pakistan that there is no way that they can get a civilian nuclear deal similar to the one the Obama Administration has signed with India.
The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal is specific to India only and there is no thinking going on in the administration to create a template for it, the official said.
Moreover, given the past experiences that the US had with Pakistan on nuclear proliferation issue and the episode of disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan accused of transferring sensitive technologies abroad, the official said both the top American lawmakers and those in the US Government have serious concerns about the safety of Pakistani nuclear weapons.
Under these circumstances, it is quite difficult to consider “that (nuclear power)” option for Pakistan, the officials pointed out.
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US says no to nuclear power plant to Pakistan
Maldives on Sunday said some youths from the country are being recruited by militant outfits based in Pakistan and Afghanistan to wage ‘jihad’ and sought India’s cooperation in preventing “any passage” for these people through the country.
Maldivian vice president Mohammaed Waheed Hassan, who is on a visit here, said an increasing number of youths from his country have started “embracing a version of Islam which is more strict than the traditional Islamic values”.
“Some of these people are going to Pakistan and Afghanistan and are waging jihad. We want these people back… We need them for our development,” Hassan said.
He said Maldives wants India’s cooperation in preventing “any passage for these youngsters” through it.
“These are students and it is very easy for them to say they are going to puruse education and then…,” he said, in an obvious reference to such youths.
“India has been cooperating with Maldives in all spheres. We need India’s cooperation in this regard. India will understand our situation better,” he said. “We don’t have any particular instance (example), but India will understand.”
However, Hassan did not elaborate what kind of cooperation or assistance his country needs from New Delhi on the issue.
He said one of the challenges being faced by the democratic government of Maldives is the attempt to create confusion within Islam over extremism.
The vice-president said Maldives had already taken up the issue with Pakistan government and was taking steps to bring these people back home.
“Pakistan government is working with us. We have sought their cooperation and they are cooperating with us. We want these people back for our development,” Hassan said.
His remarks come months after Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said some Maldivians were being “radicalised” and recruited by the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight the government and coalition forces.
The vice president said Maldives needs young educated youths for its progress and in no way it can import labour for developing infrastructure and other things in the country.
“We need these youth for our development. We need their services,” he said.
On climate change, Hassan said Maldives wants India’s assistance in accessing new technologies and data-gathering to tackle climate change, which threatens to submerge the tiny island.
“We also need India’s cooperation in renewable and new energy resources,” he said.
Source: PTI
PUNE, India (Reuters) – A bomb ripped through a packed restaurant in the Indian city of Pune on Saturday, killing at least eight people including four foreign women in the country’s first big attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre.
The explosion comes only a day after India and Pakistan agreed to meet for high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25. New Delhi suspended a four-year-old peace process with Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks, blamed on Pakistani-based militants.
At least 33 people were wounded on Saturday, police said. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“There has been a bomb blast,” senior police official Rajendra Sonawane told reporters. “There was an abandoned bag which seems to have contained some IED. (improvised explosive device).”
The explosion at German Bakery occurred in the evening, when the restaurant was packed with tourists and foreigners. “Four women foreigners were killed. Their nationality is not known.” Dilip Band, a senior police official, told CNN-IBN television.
Debris was strewn all around the bakery, located near Osho ashram, which is also frequented by foreigners, and also near a Jewish center. The impact of the blast knocked the bakery’s sign off, blew out windows and left a large crater inside the restaurant.
“It (the bomb) was under one of the tables … We transferred lots of people to the ambulances … there is no German bakery any more,” one foreigner, short of breath and resting against a wall, told local CNN-IBN television.
“There are eight dead and 33 injured in the blast at the German Bakery,” said Sonawane, a joint commissioner of police.
“We heard a big noise and we all rushed out. The impact was so much that there were tiny body parts everywhere,” said Vinod Dhale, an employee at the bakery.
Militants killed 166 people during a three-day rampage through the financial hub of Mumbai in November 2008, which raised tensions between nuclear rivals Pakistan and India.
Before Mumbai, a wave of bombs hit Indian cities in 2008, killing more than 100 people. Police blamed most of those attacks on home-grown Muslim militants, although some Hindu militants have also been suspected of carrying out several attacks.
Authorities have warned of renewed threats of attacks on Indian soil and have in recent months stepped up security across the country of 1.2 billion people.
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Eight die in Pune, India’s first big attack since Mumbai
New Delhi: For many Indian commentators, especially those on the right, Israel provides an inspiring example of how to deal with external threat. One could equally argue that notwithstanding its comfortable position as the regional hegemon, Israel and its citizens remain insecure, xenophobic and afflicted by a disturbing sense of victimhood. It’s a debate that continues, especially in that country.
What Israel unquestionably does illustrate for India — with this country paying hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the lesson — is a well-considered plan for building its defence industry. In becoming India’s biggest defence supplier, Israel has bared a hard-nosed strategy that our policy-makers must grasp and emulate.
Since Israel does not market aircraft or ships, its defence companies have focused on the lucrative market for upgrading India’s predominantly Russian weaponry, including MiG-21 fighters, ship-borne missiles and T-72 tanks. Their first step was to understand Russian technology, for which Israeli defence companies accepted initial contracts at cost price to build their engineers’ capabilities. With that experience gained — at India’s cost, one must note — Israeli systems designers progressively graduated up the complexity scale. Today, Israel’s defence industry, with capabilities honed across a generation of Russian platforms, can bid across the globe.
The opportunities for Israel are vast. Some 30,000 T-72 tanks are in service worldwide, including 2,500 in India. But Israel, not India or Russia, will feed off that upgrade market. India provided Israel with the tanks, the opportunity and the money for creating that capability. Ironically, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) ignored India’s own defence industry; its undeniable competence could have been as easily translated into capability.
Israeli industry garnered another windfall from its offer to build the Phalcon Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS). This airborne radar mounted on a Russian IL-76 aircraft, allows airborne controllers to monitor and control airspace for hundreds of kilometres around. No Israeli company had ever designed such an AWACS before, but India handed over US $1.1 billion (Rs 5,000 crore) to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elta. Hundreds of Israeli designers learned on the job, building AWACS capability on Indian money. Israel will now build another three AWACS for India, several for the Israeli Air Force and export more to Chile and Singapore.
Another feeding trough is the ongoing upgrade of Indian Navy ships, especially the technologically-challenging system for “net-centric operations”. This digitally interlinks the fleet’s sensors and weapons — in the air, on the surface and underwater — into seamless information and command networks. The two Israeli companies bidding for this strategic contract, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and IAI, began building capabilities while fitting Indian warships with the Barak missile early this decade. With detailed knowledge of the warships’ Russian combat management system, Israeli engineers are now ready to design the net-centric operations system, the crucial nerve centre in war.
In this, as in other upgrade contracts, India’s MoD has ignored the advantages of building indigenous capability. Precision Electronics Ltd, a Delhi-based company that engineers high-tech defence electronics, joined hands with US giant Raytheon to bid cheaper than Rafael and IAI. It seemed as if, at last, Indian capabilities would also be built. But, mysteriously, the MoD scrapped that tender last month. There is no way to verify the industry buzz that the Israelis contrived that cancellation; the only thing known for sure is that Rafael and IAI are being investigated by the CBI for corruption in the Barak sale. But it would be safe to bet that, when fresh bidding is ordered, the Israelis will come in with cheaper prices.
The Israeli strategy is: a financial loss is acceptable, to curb Indian defence industrial capability. Each time an Indian company develops capability in a strategically-vital domain, foreign companies will be shut out from that realm forever.
Strangling the competition at birth is business, not criminal activity. Israel can be expected to do that. What defies logic, though, is the MoD’s dogged refusal to nurture Indian R&D the way it has Israel’s. This is of a piece with the MoD’s approach to Russia during that country’s troubled 1990s. With Russia’s economy bankrupt and military design bureaus and manufacturing units in dire straits, India placed a string of equipment orders — Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, Talwar class frigates and T-90 tanks, among others — providing life support to that dying establishment. China, in contrast, simply bought over a bevy of top Russian design engineers, paying them to live in China and build capabilities within China’s defence industries.
Ashok Kanodia, the MD of Precision Electronics, admires and envies the Israeli companies. Admitting that his own strategy involves bidding at cost price, Kanodia explains, “My gain will be the engineering capability and experience that is created, with the MoD paying the bill. Monetary profits are for later.” But he ruefully admits that with the MoD apparently unconcerned with developing Indian capabilities, Israeli firms are now unstoppable. The MoD, it would appear, has failed to understand that the essence of defence indigenisation is about building domestic design capability. All that South Block seems to have is an oft-repeated target: moving from 70 per cent reliance on foreign equipment to 70 per cent supply from Indian companies. But how exactly this will be done, the MoD has never pronounced. Since a target cannot substitute for a strategy, it is time that South Block implements a clear policy that would allow Indian companies — especially in the private sector — to build their capabilities with some assurance of business. That might be the best thing that Israel has done for India.
Source: Business Standard , MSN.com
Dubai: China may replace India in the proposed India-Pakistan-Iran (IPI) gas pipeline project as New Delhi has been dithering over the deal, a media report has said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki claimed that Tehran was ready to start anytime the IPI “peace pipeline” project, originally conceived to include Iran, Pakistan and India. China might replace India in the proposed project soon as India has been dithering over the deal, Mottaki is reported to have said. All the details between Pakistan and Iran in this regard have already been finalised, according to a report in Tehran Times newspaper.
India still needed some time but “we can even start the project without India”, Mottaki was quoted as saying by the daily.
The IPI project was conceived in 1995 and, after almost 13 years, India finally decided to quit the project in 2008. India walked out of the proposed 2,775-km project, mainly due to the hefty transit fee demanded by Pakistan.
Mootaki blamed the US for trying to sabotage the gas pipeline project, saying: “Growing relations between the US and India should not affect the relations of India with other countries of the region.”
Source: Business Standard
Bhadrak: India Sunday tested its indigenous long-range nuclear- capable Agni-III missile, catapulting the country into a select group of nations that have intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)-capability, defence sources said.
The 3,000-km range missile, which is capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 1.5 tonnes, was tested from the Inner Wheeler Island at Dhamra, a launch site in Bhadrak district, about 200 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, at 10.46 a.m.
This is the fourth test of the missile. The first test, from the same defence base on July 9, 2006, was unsuccessful. The second stage of the rocket had failed to separate from the missile quickly enough and the missile had fallen short of its target.
The DRDO-developed missile was tested again on April 12, 2007, and May 9, 2008, respectively and both the tests were successful.
Munich: Taliban-linked extremism in Afghanistan is blossoming because of Western intervention there and is set to spread to India, Central Asia and Arab states, Iran’s foreign minister has warned.
Iran is deeply concerned to prevent the spread of the drugs trade and extremism from Afghanistan, but is also bitterly critical of the NATO-led and UN-sanctioned mission in the country, Manouchehr Mottaki said.
“The policies imposed in recent years … in security, fighting against extremism and drug traffic – the policies in this respect are all defeated and failed,” Mottaki told a midnight session of the prestigious Munich Security Conference.
Taliban-linked extremism “can be divided into two (regional) branches: one is going to spread to the Arab countries, the other to India and Central Asia”, Mottaki warned.
And Iran has already had some 3,000 soldiers and police killed by drug traffickers moving from Afghanistan across Iran, he said.
After years of conflict in Afghanistan, the West is growing concerned that Islamist terrorist groups are looking to set up new bases in areas such as Yemen and Somalia.
Russia, meanwhile, warns that terrorists are launching new campaigns in the states of the North Caucasus. The Munich Security Conference brings together top defence experts from around the world.
The weekend meeting was set to debate issues including the NATO mission in Afghanistan, in the presence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Source: DPA
Jinnah was a secular man, says Jaswant
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Former Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said that Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a secular man, and that he had initially opposed the division of Bengal and Punjab.
In an interview with Ejaz Haider on a private TV channel, Singh said that the BJP’s decision to expel him from the party has deeply hurt and disappointed him. He further stated that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hard-line Hindu nationalist group, was pulling strings in the BJP. The BJP expelled Singh from the party on August 18 after determining that his recently released book, Jinnah: India-Partition Independence, went against the core principles of the BJP’s ideology.
Singh said that India Today, a prominent magazine, got five eminent historians to determine who was responsible for the partition of India. The editor of the magazine, according to Singh, said that there was consensus among the historians that Jawaharlal Nehru, not Jinnah, was responsible for partition, and that his book was based on this consensus. Singh added that we need to re-examine history objectively and truthfully to figure out a path for the future.
Responding to a question, Singh said that Jinnah was forced to choose the option of partition, and that partition was an instrument to end all peace in the South Asian region. But, Singh added, “we can find a solution as we are all victims. We should know that no one will come back to restore peace for us unless we ourselves wake up…try and find out where we went wrong.” The veteran politician, now an independent member of the Indian parliament, concluded by stressing that “we must expand the constituency of peace in the region”.
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Jawaharlal Nehru, not Jinnah was responsible for partition Of India says Jaswant
Washington: Citing a “disturbing increase” in communal violence against religious minorities, particularly Christians in Orissa in 2008 and Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, a US body has placed India on its ‘watch list’ on religious freedom.
India earned the ‘watch list’ designation due to the “largely inadequate response” from the Indian government to protect the rights of religious minorities, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a statement.
“It is extremely disappointing that India, which has a multitude of religious communities, has done so little to protect and bring justice to its religious minorities under siege,” said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair.
The bipartisan federal government commission’s India chapter “was released this week to mark the first anniversary of the start of the anti-Christian violence in Orissa”.
Other countries currently on the commission’s ‘watch list’ are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, the Russian Federation, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Venezuela.
USCIRF said the murder of Swami Laxmananand Saraswati by Maoist rebels in Kandhamal in Orissa Aug 23 last year sparked a prolonged and destructive campaign targeting Christians, resulting in attacks against churches and individuals.
These attacks largely were carried out by individuals associated with “Hindu nationalist groups”, and resulted in at least 40 deaths and the destruction of hundreds of homes and dozens of churches, it said.
Tens of thousands were displaced and today many still remain in refugee camps, afraid to return home, it said.
“India’s democratic institutions charged with upholding the rule of law, most notably state and central judiciaries and police, have emerged as unwilling or unable to seek redress for victims of the violence. More must be done to ensure future violence does not occur and that perpetrators are held accountable,” Leo said.
Similarly, during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, India’s National Human Rights Commission found that the government not only failed to prevent the attacks against religious minorities, but that state and local officials aided and participated in the violence.
In both Orissa and Gujarat, court convictions have been infrequent, perpetrators rarely brought to justice and thousands of people remain displaced, USCIRF alleged.
The India chapter of the USCIRF said the deficiencies in investigating and prosecuting cases have resulted in a culture of impunity that gives members of vulnerable minority communities few assurances of their safety, particularly in areas with a history of communal violence, and little hope of perpetrator accountability.
The report asked the Obama administration to urge the Indian government to take new measures to promote communal harmony, protect religious minorities, and prevent communal violence.
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India on US ‘watch list’ on religious freedom
WESTERN countries are hypocritical and must sacrifice some luxuries before asking developing countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, India’s climate change envoy has said.
The envoy received support from another key international player when China insisted that rich countries should commit to large cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, but declined to put a ceiling on its own levels.
Four months before the Copenhagen conference, which aims to produce a successor to the Kyoto Treaty, China’s chief climate change negotiator confirmed that the world’s leading polluter was holding out for developed countries to reduce emissions by 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.
“We have all along believed that due to the historical responsibility of the developed nations, they must continue to take the lead with large reductions beyond 2012,” said Yu Qingtai.
India’s envoy, Shyam Saran, said his country would not take any measures that could restrict its growth. Instead, he said, it would fund developments to reduce carbon emissions, increase green power generation and improve energy efficiency.
Any further measures demanded by developed countries would be taken only if full funding and technological support were provided, he said.
Mr Saran said his Government planned to bring electricity to remote villages by transforming agricultural waste into power. The Government would not yield to pressure from the “hypocritical” West, he said.
“No one is prepared to touch their living standards,” he said. “If you say, ‘You’re producing Tata Nanos [India's new car], what will that do to the world?’, but not talk about your two or three cars per family, it’s hypocritical.
“We can’t be ambitious if we all protect our turf. We need a collaborative response.”
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Sacrifice your luxuries, India tells West
