Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Drishtikone

Home
Hindu
The month that was, while Drishtikone was in Transition

The month that was, while Drishtikone was in Transition

Last updated on: June 7, 2013 at 8:58 pm by Desh Kapoor

The month that was, while Drishtikone was in Transition 2013-06-07T20:58:30-05:00 Desh Kapoor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We have been off air on Drishtikone for the new transition to complete.

In this time, a lot has happened – in India and the world.

India:

IPL Betting controversy: Led by the Indian Pacer Sreesanth, players and bookies have been caught cheating on teams and throwing matches to get pay offs from betting in the IPL games. Not just the players and outsiders like Vindu Dara Singh, who was connecting many dots, but even the owner of a team – Raj Kundra of Rajasthan Royals has admitted to betting on his own team… and having lost tons of money. The plight of the likes of Sreesanth and Vindu Dara Singh is bad enough, but it is the situation with Raj Kundra that is the most hilarious! If the owner of the team doesn’t know what his team is upto or capable of, then forget betting – that itself should be enough grounds to take that hapless team back from him! And, how the heck did he become a millionaire – he doesn’t know what to invest in .. in the first place! He has poured huge sums of money into RR to buy the franchise and is now betting against it (other way around as well, I would hope!). What the heck is he? A masochist schizophrenic who devises newer ways to torture himself??

By elections and BJP Old Guard on its way out: After the recent by-elections, it came out clearly that BJP isn’t a lost force. BJP made a clean sweep of two Lok Sabha and six assembly seats in Gujarat, while Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) lost its seat to Laloo Prasad’s RJD in Bihar. Many are saying this is due to Nitish Kumar’s estrangement with BJP and his opposition to Modi. This makes him less likely to leave the NDA if Modi is posited as the PM candidate. In fact, that is precisely what BJP is trying to do now. And, in his last years, LK Advani has become the biggest villain in the entire BJP / RSS combine for not leaving aside his own ambitions, which he should just relinquish and move on. He is a spent force, and it is better to go on good terms than being thrown out the way he is being! In fact, as the National Executive Conference is underway for BJP in Goa, Advani is sulking outside of it and not seen there.

Pakistan:

Two stories from Pakistan made headlines –

Election results and Nawaz Sharif as the new PM: Sharif returned after a bitterly fought elections in Pakistan. The completion of the process and installing of the new Government after a full term of the previous Government is a FIRST in the history of Pakistan! As much as the Pak Army and ISI controls the threads from behind the curtains, at least an elected Government is on the view for the second consecutive term. Meanwhile ex-President Musharraf was kicked out of the race through procedural and legal moves.

In this elections, Imran Khan was supposed to be the dark horse, who didn’t really kick much. However he did come in as #2. It was the Nawaz Sharif and his party which really came out on top. This week on June 5th, Sharif was sworn in. He has talked about several things since then – including friendship with India and call to US to end the Drone Strikes!

Electricity Shortage: In 2000, there was a huge hue and cry in Pakistan, because the media and its virulent analysts didn’t want their Government to sell its surplus electricity to India. They argued, that since they are in a position of advantage, they shouldn’t be giving that away to India so easily! In fact, some of them even went as far as saying that with power shortage becoming a regular thing, India’s industrial and IT rise will also suffer, which may end up routing that work to Pakistan, so why lose that opportunity. In 2011, it was the exact opposite. India wanted to sell surplus electricity to Pakistan because of acute shortage there. Now, the situation has reached epidemic proportions as most of its large cities are facing blackouts for 22 hours in a day every day! The less said about the small towns and villages the better. The situation is such that most businesses aren’t able to survive or even compete in many cases.

Rest of the World:

The one incident which shook many people’s consciousness was the beheading of a British Soldier by two Muslims on a busy intersection using a cleaver and boasting their act.

In London last week, two Muslim men shouting jihad’s ancient war-cry, “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a British soldier with a cleaver—in a busy intersection and in broad daylight. They boasted of their crime in front of passersby and asked to be videotaped.

It is sad how Muslims in Europe are following a sick and uncivic agenda to destabilize the Governance, the polity and the civilization of those countries. Some fear that UK may become majority Muslim in the coming decades and that can spell doom for its citizens if the spread of Islam and its virulence is not checked. Tarik Fatah pulls up the Muslims and the Brits and their authorities in this piece of his on the beheading case.

While ordinary Britons and non-Muslims around the world are bewildered by these never-ending acts of terrorism, the response of the leaders of the Islamic community is the tired old cliche — Islam is a religion of peace, and jihad is simply an “inner struggle.”

The fact these terrorists are motivated by one powerful belief — the doctrine of armed jihad against the “kuffar” (non-Muslims) — is disingenuously denied by Islamic clerics and leaders.

Yesterday, instead of calling on Muslims to shelve the doctrine of armed jihad, predictably, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) issued a quick press release claiming the “barbaric” attack has “no basis in Islam.”

Not true, MCB. As a Muslim, I can say without fear, the latest terror attack has a basis in Islam and it’s time for us Muslims to dig our heads out of the sand.

It is time that Europeans wake up to the threat to their civilization posed by the Islamic ideology being promoted in their countries.

****** ******* *******

In the coming days, we will discuss more of these topics in detail as the impact of these things goes wider than individual events.

India

Pakistan

Terrorism

Bharatiya Janata Party

Previous Post

June 6, 2013

Drishtikone moves to Patheos Platform

Next Post

June 13, 2013 Jiah Khan's suicide: Cocooned, Sanitized lives which fret mental blues are a curse

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aarti Achievement and Leadership AfPak Africa Annual and Year-end Asia Audio Australia Behavioural Sciences Bhagwad Gita Bhagwad Gita Blogging Blogs Business Business Intelligence Business Strategy Cannes Careers Chanakya China Conservation Corruption Creative Daily Links Desh Poems Development & Welfare Devotional Audio Devotional Songs Drama Earth Economics Education Entertainment Environment Europe Everyday Quotes Featured Articles Featured Songs Finance Flickr Pictures Food Geo-Political Global Warming Globalization Health & Medicine Hinduism Historic History Humour India Indian Culture Indian music Indian Weddings Israel Issues Legal Link Love Minorities Misc Motivation and Personal Development Movie Lists Movie Reviews Movies Mumbai terror attacks Natural Disasters Nature News Outsourcing Pakistan Parenting Personal Philosophy Poetry Politics Poverty Quotes Recipe Regular Blog Post Relationships Religion Religious/Spiritual Audio Sciences Showcase Slideshow South Asia Special Stories Spiritual Quotes Spirituality Sports Stories Strategy Technology Technology Terrorism Travel Uncategorized US Video Women Women_s Rights Worship Yoga

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 September 2014 August 2014 January 2014 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said: "The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul James Peter Jude