The Good Word

Rijiju, SC’s hearing

BBC documentary

issue, waste of time

Adani Group FPO sails

through despite Hindenburg

day’s close. The price

band for the FPO was

₹ 3,112 to 3,276 a share, 4

to 9% higher than the last

close. Retail investors

were offered a discount of

₹ 74 per share on the

soon-to-be-finalised issue

price.

Market players said AEL

garnering full subscription

despite the tumult

following the Hindenburg

report was a remarkable

feat. On the penultimate

day, the issue was

subscribed just 3%.

Hindenburg had an

interest in Adani group

securities as it had short

sold them in overseas

markets. Timed to rock

the FPO the report wiped

out 29%, of the Adani

group’s market value in

Indian stock exchanges.

AEL’s 413-page riposte to

the Hindenburg report did

not reassure enough

investors in India. The

Adani Group is now

mulling legal action

against Hindenberg.

At: BusinessStandard, ZeeBiz,

TimesOfIndia 1-2

Land recovery in Jammu

and Kashmir gathers pace

Indus Treaty: India

boycotts a flawed

Hague hearing

Bharat First Visit IndiaWiki.org

Jan 28, Under the

provisions of the Indus

Water Treaty (IWT), a

graded escalation of

differences between

India and Pakistan is

provided, first to Indus

commissioners then to

World Bank appointed

‘neutral experts’ and

finally to the World

Bank appointed Court

of Arbitration (CoA).

The treaty allots the

water of eastern rivers,

Sutlej, Beas and Ravi of

about 33 million acre

feet (MAF) annually to

India that that of the

western rivers, Indus,

Jhelum and Chenab, of

135 MAF annually

largely to Pakistan. In

Mar 2022, the World

Bank initiated

resolution disputes on

Indian dams at two

concurrent forums at

Pakistan’s insistence; a

flawed step since it

allows conflicting

verdicts. So India has

decided to participate

only before a neutral

expert, and boycott the

CoA. So India skipped

the Hague hearing on

Friday. At: Business-Ins, Hindu

Iran: Drones

attack military

plant at Isfahan

Jan 29, drones attacked

a military plant in Iran’s

central city of Isfahan,

Iran, a major center of

Iranian missile

production, research

and development. The

large explosion resulted

in infrastructure damage

but no casualties. The air

defense system at the

complex was able to

destroy two other

drones.

It is suspected to be the

work of the Mossad,

Israel’s premier

intelligence agency,

according to senior

intelligence officials

familiar with Israel and

the US. The US had

earlier identified Iran as

a key supplier of drones

to Russia for the Ukraine

war.

The plant is about 440

kilometers south of

Tehran. In the past few

years, several explosions

and suspicious fires have

occurred around Iranian

military and nuclear

facilities. At: CNN, NyTimes

Jan 30, 2023 - Week 5Volume 7S-90| Pages 1

BBC taking cash from China

for hit job on India

UP Police arrests

five for desecrating

Ramcharitmanas

Jan 23, Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) MP and

senior advocate Mahesh

Jethmalani attacked BBC

and accused it of

receiving funds from

Chinese state-linked

Huawei outside the

United Kingdom. He

asked if the BBC’s 'anti-

India' documentary was

part of a 'cash-for-

propaganda deal'.

"Why is #BBC so anti-

India? Because it needs

money desperately

enough to take it from

Chinese state-linked

Huawei & pursue the

latter’s agenda. It’s a

simple cash-for-

propaganda deal. BBC is

up for sale," Jethmalani

tweeted.

While the UK banned

Jan 31, the Adani group

pulled off the ₹ 20,000-

crore follow-on public

offering (FPO) for its

flagship company, Adani

Enterprises (AEL),

despite the storm

created by US short

seller and investment

research firm

Hindenburg Research

through a barrage of

allegations against the

conglomerate.

Even though AEL’s share

price continued to

languish below its issue

price, the FPO managed

to garner 1.12 times

subscription, attracting

bids worth over ₹ 16,000

crore. Over 60% of these

bids came from high

networth individuals

(HNIs). The quota

reserved for HNIs was

subscribed 3.3 times.

The retail portion was

subscribed just 12%, and

saw bids to the tune of

₹ 900 crore.

Shares of AEL closed at

₹ 2,975 on Tuesday, up

3.4% over the previous

Huawei from its 5G trials

in Dec 2020, deeming the

company a security risk,

the BBC secured funds

from it via an offshore

offshoot. The BBC

entered into 31

transactions with Huawei

including putting out ads

for them which were

inaccessible within the

UK. BBC sponsored

content team,

StoryWorks, partnered

with at least 18 Chinese

clients since 2015.

Jethmalani asserted he

would approach India’s

Supreme Court to ask for

a full ban on the BBC in

India for its continuing

anti-BBC bias including

showing India map

without J&K and

At: Republic, Youtube, TimesOfIndia

Image: Republic

Jan 31, Andhra Pradesh

Chief Minister YS Jagan

Mohan Reddy has

announced that

Vishakapatnam will soon

become the state’s capital.

Amaravati will no longer

be developed as a

greenfield capital. The

Supreme Court had earlier

given a stay on the verdict

of the state High Court

ordering the government

to develop Amaravati as

the state capital within six

months.

At: Statesman, TheNewIndianExpress

Feb 1, in a big blow to

bigwigs and influential

people who had

encroached huge

swathes of prime state

land in Jammu and

Kashmir (J&K), the

Supreme Court (SC)

dismissed a petition

challenging the January

31 deadline for

evictions. While today’s

order is a jolt to mighty,

but it appears that

people with marginal

holdings may get relief

as J&K government is

likely offer some

protection to small

holdings.

The SC told the

petitioners, who

contended they still had

title to land under the

Roshni Act of 2001 that

Israel to demolish

homes of killers in

twin shootings

Jan 25, The home of 21-

year-old Khayri Alqam —

who killed seven Jews at

the Jerusalem

Synagogue will be

demolished the Israeli

Cabinet has ordered.

The police had shot

Alqam dead. It also

approved the razing of

the home of a second

Palestinian shooter, a

13-year-old boy who

wounded two Israeli

men in east Jerusalem

The Cabinet also took

steps toward approving

other measures against

the families of

Palestinian attackers,

including potentially

stripping them of

citizenship rights, social

security and deporting

them to punish them for

supporting terror.

The government is

planning to allow

ordinary Israelis access

to guns to better defend

themselves. Itamar Ben-

Gvir, the Security

Minister they will extend

the home-demolition

policy to include those

whose attacks did not

result in fatalities.

At: Swarajya, APNews

Jan 30, in the deadliest

terror attack in Pakistan

in years, over 100

people were killed and

250 wounded in a

suicide bomb blast at a

mosque inside a walled -

off Police HQ in

Peshawar, Pakistan. The

roof caved in. 90% of

those killed are from the

police. A TTP splinter

group has claimed it was

retaliation for its cadre

killed earlier.

At: LiveMint Image: VoiceOfPakistan

100 dead in bomb blast at a

mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan

Sant Ravidas Jayanti, Feb 5, image courtesy Wikipedia; Basant Panchami, Saraswati, Jan 26, image courtesy Facebook; Himanta Biswa Sarma birthday, Feb 1, image courtesy Wikipedia

Jan 30, the Uttar Pradesh

police arrested five people

for desecration of the holy

Hindu scripture

Ramcharitmanas in

Vrindavan, Lucknow. Those

arrested include

Mohammad Salim,

Satyendra Kushwaha,

Yashpal Singh, Devendra

Yadav and Suresh Yadav.

The arrested claimed to

support Samajwadi Partly

leader Maurya who had

stirred a controversy

saying the scripture should

be banned. At: OpIndia

Jan 30, almost a lac

Hindus participated in

‘Jan Aakrosh Morcha’ in

Mumbai organised on

behalf of Sakal Hindu

Samaj, Mumbai, to raise

their voice and concerns

against ‘love jihad’ and

‘land jihad’. The march

started from

Chhatrapati Shivaji

Maharaj Park in Dadar

and ended at

Prabhadevi’s Kamgar

Maidan at distance of 4

km. RSS, Vishwa Hindu

Parishad and Bajrang

Dal leaders and workers

organized it and

Hyderabad right-wing

MLA Raja Sing was the

key note speaker.

Leaders of the BJP and

Novak Djokovic won his 10th Australian Open

championship and record-tying 22nd Grand Slam at

Melbourne beating Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6, 7-6. At: PBS

Vishakapatnam is

the new capital of

Andhra Pradesh

Jan 29, Odisha's Health

Minister Naba Kishore Das,

a 60-year-old politician

from the Biju Janata Dal

and a confidante of Chief

Minister Patnaik, was

getting out of his car

to attend a meeting when

Assistant Sub-Inspector

(ASI) Gopal Das fired at

him. The Minister

succumbed to the injury.

The police have arrested

the ASI and suspect it was

an act of revenge for the

Minister denying the ASI’s

relative a job. At: MSN, WION

Odisha Health

Minister shot dead

by disgruntled cop

Indian diaspora

protests at the

BBC HQ in UK

Jan 30, hundreds of

members of UK’s Indian

diaspora protested outside

the BBC headquarters (HQ)

in central London against

the broadcaster’s flawed

documentary on Prime

Minister (PM) Narendra

Modi. Aside from ignoring

the Indian judicial verdicts

on the matter exonerating

the PM it resorted to

quoting questionable

sources to try and

implicate him and stoke

unrest in India. At: NewsNCR

Massive turnout for rally

Mumbai against love, land jihad

Eknath Shinde’s Shiv

Sena also participated.

At: OpIndia, TimesOfIndia

Djokovic wins Australian Open

Gorakhnath temple

assassin Abbasi

gets death penalty

Jan 30, an NIA court

awarded the death penalty

to Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi,

for the attack on the

Gorakhnath temple in

Gorakhpur in April last

year. Abbasi had attacked

police personnel posted

outside the temple a day

before Uttar Pradesh state

Chief Minister was to visit

it. Severely injuring two

cops with a sharp weapon.

He was planning to join

ISIS and doctors refuted

the claim that he was

mentally unstable. At: OpIndia

the legislation had

already been held to be

unconstitutional and

that no title survived

after that. In October

2018, the then

governor Satya Pal

Malik repealed the

Roshni Act

prospectively. Then in

October 2020, the High

Court declared the

Roshni Act ‘illegal,

unconstitutional and

unsustainable’ and held

allotments under the

Act as void ab initio.

Jan 30, Professor Hari

Om, J&K analyst, had

tweeted, that 4.4 lac

(56 K acres) of kanal

state and kahcharai

land has been retrieved

so far. At: RisingKashmir,

Twitter, TheNewsNow

Jan 30, commenting on the

anti-India lobby PIL

questioning the banning of

the flawed BBC docuseries

on the Godhra riots, ‘The

Modi Question’, the Union

Law Minister took to

Twitter and accused the

petitioners of wasting the

Supreme Court (SC) time

while thousands of

common citizens

languished for justice. The

SC had agreed to hear the

PIL on Feb 6. At: OpIndia

Email: IndiaWiki2020@gmail.com Website: http://TheGoodWord.IndiaWiki.Org

There was a poor man

who wanted some

money; and somehow

he had heard that if he

could get hold of a

ghost, he might

command him to bring

money or anything else

he liked; so he was very

anxious to get hold of a

ghost. He went about

searching for a man

who would give him a

ghost, and at last he

found a sage with great

powers, and besought

his help. The sage asked

him what he would do

with a ghost. I want a

ghost to work for me;

teach me how to get

hold of one, sir; I desire

it very much," replied

the man. But the sage

said, "Don't disturb

yourself, go home." The

next day the man went

again to the sage and

began to weep and

pray, "Give me a ghost;

I must have a ghost, sir,

to help me." At last the

sage was disgusted, and

said, "Take this charm,

repeat this magic word,

and a ghost will come,

and whatever you say

to him he will do. But

beware; they are

terrible beings, and

must be kept

continually busy. If you

fail to give him work, he

will take your life." The

man replied, "That is

easy; I can give him

work for all his life."

Then he went to a

forest, and after long

repetition of the magic

word, a huge ghost

appeared before him,

and said, "I am a ghost. I

have been conquered

by your magic; but you

must keep me

constantly employed.

The moment you fail to

give me work I will kill

you." The man said,

"Build me a palace," and

the ghost said, "It is

done; the palace is

built." "Bring me

money," said the man.

"Here is your money,"

said the ghost. "Cut this

forest down, and build a

city in its place." "That is

done," said the ghost,

"anything more?"

(to continue next week)

Swami Vivekananda

Karma Yoga

a series of extracts

Bharat First

PAGE 2 THE GOOD WORD

the first aggressors.”

Typically, Deobandi

clerics have prevented

Muslims from embracing

modern education and

encouraged Muslim

women to have more

children. Moreover,

these clerics are the

visionaries behind the

violent outfits Darul

Khada, the SIMI (Student

Islamic Movement of

India) before, and now,

the PFI (Popular Front of

India).

The second is Jamiat

Ulema-e-Hind – an

influential council of

senior clerics. Jamiat is at

the forefront of

defending or overturning

Muslims accused or

convicted of terrorist

activities. Yet its leader,

Mehmood Madani, made

the following

proclamation in 2016:

“Death penalty or life

sentences should be

given to those who hurt

a person’s religious

values or disrespect a

religious leader.”

Due to the opposition

from clerics with

immense street power,

moderating the minority

is nearly impossible.

With the minority highly

susceptible to

radicalisation, by some

accounts, India is poised

to plunge into mayhem.

Indian National Security

Advisor’s recent appeal

to religious leaders that

“You have bigger

responsibilities to

shoulder” vis-à-vis

radicalism betrays the

lack of a plan to change

the status quo.

Out-of-the-box solutions

are needed.

Could it be that the

religion of Islam,

through its holy books, is

not behind violent

extremism, but clerical

narratives or ideologies

are? If so, this threat can

be tackled.

As discussed in my

recent research, when

the Muslim community

in Kosovo was part of

the communist

Yugoslavia, its people

hardly knew what Jihad

was and was moderate.

The reason is simple: the

clerics there emphasised

moderation.

The implication is that

India can justifiably

claim that it is not

attacking Islam when

taking steps to

neutralise radical

agendas, the sponsoring

clerics, and their

supporters.

Albert Einstein

purportedly said,

“insanity is doing the

same thing over and

over and expecting

different results.”

Indeed, Islamists have

mastered the art of

exploiting Indian

democracy to advance

their nefarious

agendas. To think that

under democracy, India

can somehow turn the

tables on radicals is

insanity. In contrast,

the steps outlined

below are designed to

turn the enemy’s

strengths into fatal

weaknesses.

First, the state must

take emergency, legal

steps to take away

radical clerics’ ability to

assemble and launch

violent mobs from

thousands of mosques.

Subsequently, given the

magnitude of the

threat, the government

must work on drafting

(mostly) men and

women to the tune of

fifteen crores to

operate in local areas

through the newly-

formed Religious

Freedom Force (RFF),

assisted by the Indian

army. After all, the

Hindu majority has the

most at stake, given the

reality of the 1947

partition and its

marginalisation in

every Muslim-majority

region of South Asia.

Second, radical Islam’s

noted power centres

should be dismantled

to prevent a regroup

and this must be done

with the extensive

deployment of law

enforcement

agencies. No action is

suggested against

minorities living

amongst the majority

community. However,

because clerics likely

command mosques in

such communities,

there is little choice

but to shut the ones

down that have a

track record of

preaching radicalism.

Such steps have been

taken extensively in

the west, specifically,

in Europe. France, for

example, shut down a

mosque because the

radical Imam of the

mosque was

defending Jihad. The

reason cited by the

authorities was that

the Imam was inciting

hatred and violence.

Such steps should be

replicated in India.

The third step is

bringing religious

freedom to the

thousands of minority

ghettos in danger of

becoming a swamp

that generates

jihadists. Most Hindus

and Sikhs who lived in

Pakistan at the time

of the partition had to

flee to India, while

many were forced to

convert or put to

death. As a result,

Pakistan is nearly

devoid of Hindus and

Sikhs. This genocidal

context suggests that

there is little choice

except to ensure that

these ghettos become

multi-cultural and

symbols of Hindus

being visibly present in

these areas so as to

ensure that the

Muslims in these areas

don’t feel like Sharia is

the order of the day in

those ghettos.

Spearheaded by the

local men belonging to

RFF, the process needs

to finish quickly, as any

drawn-out endeavour

will likely fail.

Arguably, these actions

are not directed at

Islam but only at a

violent ideology’s

sponsors and backers

who oppress in the

name of religion and

wage a no-holds-barred

war on non-Muslims.

Not least, the

propaganda that singles

out clerics for duping

their flock by falsely

promoting Sharia as

“God’s law” is needed

to drive a wedge

between the two.

-----------------------

Muthuswamy is a US-

based physicist and a

scholar of radicalism.

Source: OpIndia

Author: Moorthy S.

Muthuswamy

Jan 30, in a previous

opinion, I discussed how

the stars have aligned for

India to take decisive

action directed at

Islamist radicalism. Here,

I focus on specific yet far-

reaching steps to

permanently defang the

Islamists.

Does India deserve to be

considered a major

power if it cannot slay

the demon? To be clear,

this threat is existential –

meaning, if not taken

down now, it will retard

economic growth first

and, over time, plunge

the country into violent

chaos, just like Pakistan.

Let us identify the

dominant power centres

behind decades of

radicalisation. The first is

the Darul Uloom Islamic

seminary situated in

Deoband. It has, by far,

graduated most clerics

who command

thousands of Indian

mosques.

That these clerics have

spread radicalism and

violent extremism —

including in Kashmir —

should not be a surprise.

After all, Darul Uloom’s

academic curriculum

consists of the following

passage: “The

destruction of the sword

is incurred by infidels,

although they are not

Can India be considered a superpower if it can’t slay the demon? How we can

deal with the existential threat of radical Islam

Oct 31, 2022 | Week 44 | Volume 7S-77

Visit IndiaWiki.org

Radical Islam’s noted

power centres should

be dismantled to

prevent a regroup

and this must be

done with the

extensive

deployment of law

enforcement

agencies. No action is

suggested against

minorities living

amongst the majority

community.

However, because

clerics likely

command mosques in

such communities,

there is little choice

but to shut the ones

down that have a

track record of

preaching radicalism.

Such steps have been

taken extensively in

the west, specifically,

in Europe. France, for

example, shut down

a mosque because

the radical Imam of

the mosque was

defending Jihad. The

reason cited by the

authorities was that

the Imam was

inciting hatred and

violence. Such steps

should be replicated

in India.

Massive Hindu Jan-Akrosh rally against love and land jihad in Mumbai