International Relations Today -Book 3

International Relations Today-3 - Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Chapters

Chapter-1: President Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia!

Chapter- 2: Urban India: PM Modi launches Kerala's first metro line in Kochi!

Chapter-3: Contours of Russo-France relations!

Chapter-4: Trump to go all out for Middle East peace!

Chapter-5: Russian annexation of Crimea is final!

Chapter-6: Trump’s shapeless foreign policy!

Chapter-7: Solution for North Korean nuclear issue lies in Israel Chapter-8: India on fascist path: Hindutva criminal operations in Gandhian India!

Chapter-9: Tamil Nadu politics: Will factions end the crisis in AIADMK and focus on governance?

Chapter-10: India: First underground metro train line inaugurated in Chennai Chapter-11: Turkish President Erdogan supports Kashmiri cause!

Chapter-12: US presidency poll 2016: Will Trump emerge victorious?

Chapter-13: Turkey’s parliament backs new constitution!

Chapter-14: On perpetual Indo-Pakistani tensions over Kashmir!

Chapter-15: India: Sasikala and Dinakaran ousted from AIADMK! Chapter-16: Tamil Nadu: Is AIADMK on its way out of power soon?

Chapter-17: On Turkey-EU moment of reckoning!

Chapter-18: Pro EU Emmanuel Macron elected president of France 2017 1

Chapter-19: Russia vs. West: EU-Russia strained relations!

Chapter-20: Cricketism: Women WC 2017: Official match fixings, gambling, money laundering and betrayals!

__________________

Chapter-1: President Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _____ US president Donald Trump receives warm welcome by King Salman as he seeks to repair ties with Washington's closest Arab ally. On the first leg of his first foreign trip since taking office as the custodian of White House and in a crucial test abroad as political scandals mount at home, President Donald Trump has arrived today in Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip since becoming president. His eight-day shuttle trip will also take the Palestinian territories, in Israel, Brussels, the Vatican, and Sicily.

In a red-carpet airport welcome, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud greeted Trump, his wife Melania and his entourage shortly after they landed in the capital, Riyadh. Trump will hold a series of meetings with the king and other Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday and Sunday, before jetting off to other countries as per his itinerary.

President Trump's Saudi royal hosts have pulled out all the stops for this visit. They are lavishing him with an extravagant welcome not shown to his predecessor, Barack Obama, whom they felt was soft on their rival, Iran. Many Saudis are immensely proud that, despite his mounting troubles at home, the US president has chosen their country as the first stop on his inaugural overseas tour. But pressed further, a lot of ordinary Saudis will voice their dislike of US policies in the region and their conviction that the US, and by extension the West, is intrinsically antiIslamic.

As the leader of Arab world, Saudi Arabia is concerned about Trumps regular antiIslamic rhetoric even for poll prospects. Trump caused controversy during his campaign by calling for Muslims to be temporarily banned from entering the US over security concerns. Legislation aimed at restricting travel from several Muslimmajority countries remains tied up in the US courts.

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On Sunday President Trump will try to address these concerns in a speech to more than 40 leaders of Muslim nations in which he will call for a united stand against extremism and intolerance. Some have already commentated that Donald Trump is an unusual choice to deliver such a message but for now, Saudi officials are giving him the benefit of the doubt.

On Tuesday the 23rd, after visiting Israel (Jerusalem) for a talk with Israeli president, Trump will travel to Bethlehem in the West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Peace talks with Israel will top the agenda and Trump is expected to express his support for Palestinian "self-determination".

On Sunday the May 21 President Trump will try to address these concerns in a speech to more than 40 leaders of Muslim nations in which he will call for a united stand against extremism and intolerance. Some have already commentated that Donald Trump is an unusual choice to deliver such a message but for now, Saudi officials are giving him the benefit of the doubt. One leader who will not be attending the summit will be Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. President Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges and the US was reported to be unhappy about his planned attendance.

Trump will attend the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh and speak about his "hopes of a peaceful vision of Islam". Aides say the president hopes his speech will resonate worldwide and express "a common vision of peace, progress and prosperity". Trump caused controversy during his campaign by calling for Muslims to be temporarily banned from entering the US over security concerns. Legislation aimed at restricting travel from several Muslim-majority countries remains tied up in the US courts. The summit agenda is expected to focus on combating Islamist militants and the growing regional influence of Iran. Trump has been a fierce critic of the Iran deal which eased sanctions in return for a curb on its nuclear activities.

On Saturday, Trump is expected to announce an arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth more than $100bn, in what could be the biggest such agreement in history. US officials familiar with the package told the media that the deal would include Abrams tanks, combat ships, missile defence systems, radar and communications and cyber security technology.

Multi-billion dollar deals between the USA and Saudi Arabia will be signed as US President Donald Trump's first foreign trip begins in Riyadh. Trump and his wife Melania were greeted in the Saudi capital by King Salman on Saturday morning local time. Saturday's deals on arms and with energy giant Aramco are expected to be worth at least $150bn (ÂŁ115bn). On Saturday morning, Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi oil giant Aramco, said $50bn (ÂŁ38bn) of deals would be signed

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with 11 US companies. The deal is part of a wider drive to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil.

Separately, US media say Saudi Arabia will commit to buying about $100bn of USmade arms. Saudi Arabia has been fighting Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen since March 2015. The United Nations says about 10,000 people have been killed since the fighting began, with Yemen on the verge of famine.

On Wednesday 24 May, President Trump will arrive early in Rome and have an audience with Pope Francis. The two men have appeared at odds on many subjects including climate change and the plight of refugees, but the Pope has said he will give the president an open-minded hearing. Later, Trump then flies to Brussels where he will be greeted by King Philippe of Belgium and Prime Minister Charles Michel. After talks with EU leaders and France's new President Emmanuel Macron, Trump will attend a meeting of NATO leaders. This will be closely watched after Trump's conflicting pronouncements on the alliance. During his campaign, he called NATO "obsolete", although in April he reversed his stance. The US leader is expected to repeat his demand that other NATO members increase their contributions.

The last stop on Trump’s tour will be the picturesque Sicilian town of Taormina where he will attend a G7 summit. The other G7 leaders are eager to hear Mr Trump's thoughts on trade and other issues at first hand. Trump's national security adviser has said that the president will "press America's economic agenda and call for greater security co-operation".

Hours before Trump's arrival in Riyadh, Saudi air defence units said they had brought down a rocket south of the capital, Riyadh, that was fired from Yemen by Houthi rebels. Saudi warplanes are reported to have carried out retaliatory strikes on targets close to the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia, which enforces a strict interpretation of Islam including a total ban on alcohol, is perhaps an unusual venue for Keith - whose hits include I Love This Bar, Whiskey Girl, and Drunk Americans. Saturday's concert is open only to men aged over 21, who are required to dress in traditional Saudi tunics.

Unlike his predecessor, Barack Obama, Trump is not expected to highlight human rights during his trip. And aside from the formal diplomacy, US country music star Toby Keith will perform a free concert in Riyadh on Saturday alongside Saudi singer Rabeh Sager.

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Unlike his predecessor, Barack Obama, he is not expected to highlight human rights during his trip. _________________

Chapter- 2: Urban India: PM Modi launches Kerala's first metro line in Kochi!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _____

India, like most countries in the world, gives importance to urban development.

Since independence India’s villages have remained without much development as the state and federal governments focus on urban enrichment. This has been a disturbing trend in India in spite of the fact the many leaders belong to villages and with rural background.

After the successful launch of metro s lines in Delhi state, making travel fast and life of the commuters easy and less trouble some, many cities in the country have also embarked upon metro station.

Kochi is one of the latest.

Kerala state in South India, now being ruled by Left parties, has to its credit a new and first ever metro station in the state’s business capital Kochi.

Kerala's first metro line was flagged off in Kochi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. PM Modi, along with Kerala Governor P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other dignitaries, travelled by the metro. Union minister M Venkiah Naidu was also present.

The construction was completed in a record four-year period and the metro line has been thrown open to public from Monday the 19th June.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with other dignitaries travelled between the stations of Palarivattom to Pathadippalam of the Kochi Metro rail line and he 5

travelled in the metro coach, which has green colored seats. Seated to his right was the Kerala Chief Minister and to his life was Governor Sathasivam.

Former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy, who did not attend Saturday's Kochi Metro inauguration after being kept out of the main list of invitees, will take his first ride on the metro on Tuesday.

Important features: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase 13.2 km of the total 25 km stretch - of the Kochi metro today. The Prime Minister, along with other dignitaries, undertook a ride from the stations of Palarivattom to Pathadippalam in the city. With 11 stations covering nearly 13 km - from Palarivattom to Aluva - this is the longest first phase of a metro to be inaugurated.

By road, it takes around 45 minutes to travel from Aluva to Palarivattom.

The Metro will limit the travel time to 23 minutes. The Kochi Metro is the first in India to use Communication Based Train Control technology to maximise frequencies and minimize errors. Each station will showcase a theme, such as maritime history, Western Ghats as well as the local history of the city, among others. Each station on the Kochi Metro will have solar panels, which will focus on producing 35 per cent of the total power usage. The Kochi Metro Rail Corporation has also decided to employ transgender people in stations.

The construction of the Kochi Metro began in 2013 and was tasked to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The DMRC was once headed by E Sreedharan, who also acted as an advisor in the new project. According to the Kochi Metro website, the project cost an estimated Rs. 5,180 crore. The fare will vary from a minimum of Rs. 15 to a maximum of Rs. 30.

E Sreedharan, better known as India's "metro man", also accompanied PM Modi during the maiden ride. PM Modi travelled in the metro coach, which has green colored seats from Palarivattom to Pathadippalam. Seated to his right was the Kerala Chief Minister and to his left was Governor Sathasivam.

Kochi metro integrates the city's entire public transportation network into a single system," PM Modi, who began his speech in Malayalam, said at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium during the formal inauguration. He said the coaches of the metro reflect the 'Make in India' vision. Chief Minister Vijayan presented a hand-carved wooden model of the Kochi Metro car to the Prime Minister.

The Rs. 5,180-crore project was completed in a record four-year period and the metro line will be thrown open to public from Monday. The foundation stone was 6

laid in 2012 and the work -commissioned to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation began the next year.

Sreedharan, who spearheaded the Delhi metro project, is an advisor in the Kochi metro project. Days ahead of the inauguration, a list of arrangements made public, revealed that Sreedharan was not among the dignitaries to be seated on the stage with PM Modi. The "Metro Man" being left out of the stage triggered a controversy and became the talking point on social media. His name was later included in the list after Kerala Chief Minister wrote to the Prime Minister's Office.

With 11 stations, the first phase is a little over 13.2 km and connects Palarivattom to Aluva. The metro will significantly reduce the travel time between the two areas to 23 minutes.

Each station will showcase a theme, such as maritime history, western ghats as well as the local history of the city, among others.

23 transgender workers have been employed at the metro stations in the city.

Migrant workers, who were involved in the construction, were treated to a sumptuous lunch on Friday during a farewell party, ahead of the inauguration.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced a terror threat during his recent visit to Kerala for inauguration of the Kochi Metro Rail project, Kerala police chief T P Senkumar indicated.

"There was a big threat perception here on the day of the prime minister's visit (on Saturday).. There was a terror module here during his visit. We cannot disclose much of its details," Mr Senkumar told reporters in Kochi. Asked about the 'terror threat,' Senkumar said he could not elaborate further.

The Kerala director general of police said this while justifying police action on Friday near the Kerala High Court against people who were protesting against an LPG terminal coming up at Puthuvype near Kochi. He defended Kochi's City Deputy Commissioner of Police Yatish Chandra who reportedly used force to remove protesters in the high court area on that day. "They (the protesters), all of a sudden, tried to create trouble on the route the prime minister's motorcade was to take (on June 17)," the DGP said, adding it happened when the Special Protection Group (SPG) and other security agencies were conducting a trial run through the route.

PM Modi had visited Kochi amid tight security on Saturday to dedicate the first phase of the Kochi Metro to the nation and also had taken a brief ride on the metro train along with dignitaries including Governor P Sathasivam, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

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The police chief said the protest was staged without prior notice and justified the police action. Senkumar dismissed the allegations against Yatish Chandra that he had ordered lathicharge against the protesters at Puthuvype on Sunday. "Can you show me the visuals of his action," he asked reporters. He reiterated the police charge that extremist forces were behind the anti-LNG terminal protest. "Yes, extremist forces are behind the protest," he said justifying the lathicharge. His statement comes amid demand from the opposition parties and protesters for stringent action against the police for the lathicharge. At least 20 people were injured in the lathicharge.

Meanwhile, the 'LPG Terminal Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samiti,' said they would attend a meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tomorrow to discuss the issue. Earlier, they had said they would not attend the meeting scheduled in Thiruvananthapuram _______

Chapter-3: Contours of Russo-France relations!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _________ Anti- Islamic and anti-Russian mindset of the West is all well known. While Europe hates Islam more than what the USA does, both USA and Europe hate Russia for reasons known to the world. Like Islam which as the final religion of the universe is seen by anti-Islamic forces and nations as a serious threat to their own religions, Russia is also viewed as a threat to global capitalism and imperialism in which the western powers trade in, thereby forcing the world surrender to their joint military will. Though Russia is also somewhat anti-Islam and no more a communist or socialist nation, the West still is suspicious of its actions and very carefully monitors its moves and jointly works for future wars with Russia for global domination.

The western powers aim at weakening the Russian power and strangle Islam and remove Islamic faith from the face of the earth so that colonialism, capitalism, fascism, Zionism and imperialism could stay permanent global fixtures.

Russian attitude towards France is positive as Russia views European civilization rather pensively. However, French view of Russia is not quite encouraging. In a 2013 BBC World Service poll, 25% of French people viewed Russia's influence positively, with 63% expressing a negative view, while 49% of Russians viewed French influence positively, with 10% expressing a negative view.

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Russian relations with France need, therefore, to be seen as a part of the hate politics of the western powers of which France is one. Generally, France is known for its neutrality in world affairs and regional conflicts except in case where USA dominates the regions.

Even during the height of Cold War, France did not pick a side between the USSR and the USA and we had good economical and diplomatic relationships. The relationship like between France and Russia has been normal without any serious direct conflicts on any matter but its close ties with USA always stood between them, at times harming even their normal relations.

Putin’s Visit Newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Paris on May 29, 2017 in an unscheduled meeting of the latter to France in which the former chose to lecture Putin on issues like Ukraine, Chechnya, Syria, and Russian interference in the French electoral campaign.

Obviously, the Russian strong man could not digest the “smart” act of Emmanuel Macron during their first ever meeting as presidents. Such a behavior by a host president toward a foreign dignitary is unusual in international politics and it hurt the egoist Putin who later in an interview bombarded the French novice unable to comprehend the niceties in international relations.

Emmanuel Macron just expressed his displeasure and anger for Putin for his support for his opponent candidate in the French presidency poll which he won in a highly surprising manner.

Just before that Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin had a pleasant walk in the Gallery of Battles at the Versailles Palace as they arrived for a joint press conference following their meeting in Versailles, near Paris.

Putin strongly defended his right to welcome Marine Le Pen in the Kremlin during the presidential race. Putin met the newly-elected Macron during a trip to see the official opening of a new exhibition dedicated to Russian ruler Peter the Great. The exhibition, “Peter the Great: a Tsar in France,” will run in the Great Trianon Palace in Versailles until the end of September. The special event celebrates the 300th anniversary of Peter's first visit to France and the start of full diplomatic relations between the two states.

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A few hours after his return from Versailles, Vladimir Putin chose to give an interview to the right-wing newspaper Le Figaro. With hardly veiled resentment, he took issue with his host, newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron, and rebuffed him on the major points of contention that came out during their May 29 press conference: Syria, Ukraine, and interference in the French electoral campaign.

In Versailles, Putin listened sternly to Macron’s moral lesson about Ukraine and human rights in Chechnya, said little, and looked impatient to leave. Now, he played the deciding match—without the contender, on his own terms, and at the new Russian Orthodox center he had belatedly opened on the banks of the Seine.

Vladimir Putin’s methods are well-known to seasoned Russia observers abroad. He is stubborn, denies even established facts—like Damascus’s use of chemical weapons against civilians. He angrily dismisses foreign leaders’ positions on the Ukrainian conflict. And he speaks insincerely about the Russian state media’s smear campaign against Macron and the supposed hacking of his movement’s website and emails.

The new French president is learning the hard way what it costs to have a “very frank and direct” exchange with the master of the Kremlin. The Russian president has spent seventeen years at the helm. Macron, meanwhile, is taking his first steps in international power politics and probably misread his guest’s reasons and expectations for this meeting. Putin was seeking honor and respect, recognition of his stature as dean of the “concert of nations,” and also a benign French response to his aggressive military policies for “restoring legal order and peace” in Syria and Ukraine.

An experienced Putin was not looking for a frank, honest discussion on issues of war and peace. And he certainly did not expect Macron to open the press conference with strong criticisms of state violence against gay men in Chechnya and to hint that he, Putin, should fix this.

Vladimir Putin did not come to Versailles to negotiate a way out of the Syrian tragedy or finding solutions to world issues. He came to drag Macron into his political logic, in which the global struggle against terrorism predominates, no matter what.

To Moscow, the most offensive part of the failed show was that the Russian authorities had worked hard to obtain this invitation from the Elysée Palace. They wanted Macron to repair the humiliation of October 2016, when François Hollande advised Vladimir Putin against visiting Paris to inaugurate the new Russian Orthodox center. At the time, the Russian military was helping Bashar Assad’s army in their brutal assault on Aleppo. The Kremlin’s preference for armed conflict over 10

negotiation has a deeply corrosive effect on its relationship with France, despite a “centuries-long friendship.” Trust is gone.

In France, Italy, Germany, Greece and Romania, the capitalist media lords see a clear link between Russia’s military participation in the war and refugees crossing European borders. Even the most pernicious fake news and propaganda cannot whitewash the glaring facts: True, Russia’s use of military force creates more insecurity and does not help us fight back against terrorists in all cities. But Americans want that to crate alarm about so-called “Islamic terrorism”.

Retrospect Russo-European relations have been strained for quite some time due mainly to the sanctions imposed, along with its boss USA, on Kremlin for its annexation of Crimea. France and entire Europe considers the Crimea annexation illegal while Moscow has only taken back its territory from Ukraine. Neither USA nor Europe could do anything against Russia’s bold takeover of Crimea expect criticizing Putin.

France–Russia relations date back to early modern period, with sporadic contact even earlier, when both countries were ruled by absolute monarchies, the Kingdom of France (843–1792) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). Following Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, the foundation of Saint Petersburg as the new capital in 1712, and declaration of an empire in 1721, Russia became a major force in European affairs for the first time.

France–Russia diplomatic ties go back at least to 1702 when France had an ambassador (Jean-Casimir Baluze) in Moscow. Following Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, the foundation of Saint Petersburg as the new capital in 1712, and declaration of an empire in 1721, Russia became a major force in European affairs for the first time. The geographical separation between the two countries meant that their spheres of influence rarely overlapped, but both were crucial states in the European balance of power.

After the French Revolution, Russia became a center of reactionary antagonism against the revolution, and when Russia had a successful October revolution in 1917 France opposed that. Napoleon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon I) came to power in 1799, Russia remained hostile. The establishment of a French-backed Polish state, the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 threatened Russia and caused tensions that led to the French invasion of Russia in 1812. This was major defeat for France and a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars, leading to Bonaparte's removal.

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Imperial Russia's foreign policy was hostile to republican France in the 19th century and very pro-German. Germany, Austria and Russia-had as its stated purpose the preservation of the monarchical order in Europe against the France of the Third Republic. After the defeat in the Franco-German war of 1870-71, French elites worked hard to keep France diplomatically isolated. France's challenges to Russia's influence led France to participate in the Crimean War, which saw French troops invade the Crimean peninsula. Imperial Russia's foreign policy was hostile to republican France in the 19th century and very pro-German. Rejected by Germany, Russia cautiously began a policy of rapprochement with France starting in 1891 while the French for their part were very interested in the Russian offers of an alliance. In August 1891, France and Russia signed a "consultative pact" where both nations agreed to consult each other if another power were to threaten the peace of Europe.] In 1893-94, French and Russian diplomats negotiated a defensive alliance meant to counter the growing power of Germany. The alliance was intended to deter Germany from going to war by presenting the Reich with the threat of a two-front war; neither France nor Russia could hope to defeat Germany on their own, but their combined power might, which in turn was meant to deter Berlin from going to war with either Paris or St. Petersburg.

Russia played a complex role in the Napoleonic wars. At the Vienna Congress of 1814-15, Russia played a major diplomatic role as a leader of the conservative, anti-revolutionary forces. Russia was again hostile when the Revolutions of 1848 broke out across Europe, bringing Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon III) to power in France.

Under the terms of the Franco-Russian alliance of 1894 if Germany attacked France, then Russia would attack Germany or its close ally and if Germany or its close ally like Italy attacked Russia, France would attack Germany. After France was humiliated by Britain in the Fashoda Incident of 1898, the French wanted the alliance to become an anti-British alliance. In 1899, the Franco-Russian alliance was amended to deal with any power threatening the "equilibrium of forces in Europe" instead of just the "general peace" as before, and in 1900 the alliance was again amended to name Great Britain as explicitly the power that threatening the "equilibrium of forces in Europe".

To that end, it was agreed that if Britain should attack France, then Russia would invade India and the French provided a loan so that the Russians could start the construction of a railroad from Orenburg to Tashkent. Tashkent in its turn would be the base from which the Russians would invade Afghanistan as the prelude to invading India. Despite their alliance, both Russia and France pursued their own interests.

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In 1908-09 during the Bosnia crisis, France declined to support Russia. Japan later fought Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. France remained neutral in this conflict.

At the time, Nicholas seriously considered abrogating the alliance with France, and was only stopped by the lack of an alternative. In 1911 during the Second Moroccan Crisis, the Russians paid the French back for their lack of support in the Bosnia crisis by refusing to support France when Germany threatened war against the French over Morocco Further linking France and Russia together was a common economic interests. Russia wished to industrialize, but lacked the capital to do so while the French were more than prepared to lend the necessary money to finance Russia's industrialization. By 1913, French investors had put 12 billion francs into Russian assets, making the French easily the largest investors in the Russian empire. The industrialization of the Russian Empire was largely the result of a massive influx of French capital into Russia.

During World War I, France was allied with Great Britain and the Russian Empire.

The alliance between the three countries formed the Triple Entente. However, after the communist Bolsheviks seized control of the Russian government in 1917, Russia left the war.

Soviet era

France's bilateral relations with the Soviet Union have experienced dramatic ups and downs due to Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and France's alliance in the NATO. Previous Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev made a visit to France in October 1985 in order to fix the strains in the Franco-Soviet relations. Nevertheless, France's bilateral activities continued with NATO, which furthermore strained the bilateral relations between France and the Soviet Union. After the breakup of the USSR, bilateral relations between France and Russia were initially warm. On February 7, 1992 France signed a bilateral treaty, recognizing Russia as a successor of the USSR.

One of the major news has been the sale of Mistral class amphibious assault ships to Russia. The deal which was signed at 2010, is the first major arms deal between Russia and the Western world since World War II. The deal has been criticized for neglecting the security interests of Poland, the Baltic States, Ukraine, and Georgia.

Before Syrian Civil War, Franco-Russian relations were generally improving. Ever since the financial crisis took hold, European powers have been forced to court emerging markets more and Moscow meanwhile wanted to diversify its own economy.

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Era of terrorism, reactivated by USA and NATO following the Sept-11 hoax perpetrated to destabilize oil rich Arab world and totally destroy Afghanistan brought Russia and France together alongside USA. François Hollande and Vladimir Putin agreed on ordering their respective armed forces to "cooperate" with one another in the fight against the terrorist organization. The French President has called upon the international community to bring "together of all those who can realistically fight against this terrorist army in a large and unique coalition."[16] The French-Russian bombing cooperation is considered to be an "unprecedented" move, given that France is a member of NATO. Seeking closer ties between Russia and Europe alongside USA, a Russian newspaper recalled that "WWII had forced the Western World and the Soviet Union to overcome their ideological differences", wondering whether ISIS would be the "new Hitler". According to French counterintelligence sources in 2010, Russian espionage operations against France have reached levels not seen since the 1980s.

Like in other western countries, the increasingly fanatic corporatist media continues to create illusions about the “dangerous” Russian boar and terrorize the people on “monstrous” Russia. Since (Jewish) President of France Sarkozy and his open "Atlantist" foreign policy, it has become more complicated, and Russia is more and more seen as an enemy more than an ally. The whole Ukrainian situation and the refusal to sell the French made Mistral boats to Russia are a good example of that.

There is in the French media network (TVs, radios, newspapers) an almost systematic propaganda against Russia, so most of the French people are highly misinformed on the matter.

Observation

Notwithstanding the visible cooperation and coordination between them in Syria and elsewhere, the West-Russian conflict is real. The deliberate smear campaign by western media against Russia is real.

Russia through Putin is taking an opportunity to make a comeback on the European stage, after the G7 summit in Sicily held without him.

For the new French president Emmanuel Macron, Versailles was an eye-opening experience. He say a calm and iron like leader in his guest from Moscow. Vladimir Putin cannot be seduced, lectured or talked into a rational, “fully inclusive” (Macron’s words) multilateral diplomatic negotiation. There is no bait that he is willing to take.

Putin wants to talk with Western leaders on his own terms—and those terms alone.

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He has shown he is not willing to compromise in order to restore a broken partnership with Europe.

For Macron, the path forward is clear—the further strengthening of the EU and Franco-German tandem and of Europe’s political, economic and military unity.

Given the current unpredictability of US policies and its shaky commitment to NATO, European states will likely close ranks. In this renewed strategy of common security and foreign policy, France might play a leading role.

And Putin, seeking genuine ties with Europe, may have given to the world one more incentive to ensure ideas of narrow national interest do not get in the way of a unified European position toward the Russian leadership.

Recent history has shown that France or any other European country for that matter is incapable of making its foreign policy choices on its own and all of them have to take cognizance of what Washington wants from them in order advance its own so-called national interest at global level.

History reveals the Russo-France relations can never be stable, unless, of course, world order changes entirely. There is no chance for any open conflict between Russia and France, however.

Russo-France ties, meanwhile, have to adapt themselves to the existing reality and US directives from time to time!

____________________ Chapter-4: Trump to go all out for Middle East peace!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff ____________

US President Donald Trump who is touring Middle east region and has arrived in Palestine after visiting Saudi Arabia and Israel, has said he will "do everything" to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace. This is the last day of the US president's shuttle diplomatic effort visit to the Middle East.

Israel and the Palestinians have not held peace talks for three years and Trump acknowledges it would be "one of the toughest deals of all" to broker. At talks with Mahmoud Abbas, he spoke of being gratified that the Palestinian leader had committed to taking necessary steps to peace.

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Abbas welcomed Trump's "noble and possible mission". "I would like to reiterate our commitment to co-operate with you in order to make peace and forge an historic peace deal with the Israelis," he said.

Feeling satisfied with his maiden trip to Mideast, Trump said: "I am committed to trying to achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians‌And I intend to do everything I can to help them achieve that goal. He added the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas had assured him he was "ready to work towards that goal in good faith", and that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had promised the same.

President Obama, the recipient of Nobel Peace Award on his assuming power at the White House did nothing valuable to bring the Israeli leadership to agree for a final settlement so that Palestinians could establish their own state, Palestine, with dignity and full sovereignty.

Trump said he had come to Bethlehem, where the meeting with Mr Abbas was held on Tuesday morning, "in a spirit of hope". In both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, some Palestinians have held protests against the trip and in support of a hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Hundreds of stone-throwing youths clashed with Israeli soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

In fact, Palestinians do not trust US leaders much because they always support Israeli regime and military and order the supply of terror goods to Israel for killing the Palestinians. At least one Palestinian was injured at the Qalandia checkpoint near Jerusalem. In the Gaza Strip, other Palestinians trampled photos of the US leader. Hundreds of jailed Palestinians have been on hunger strike since 17 April.

Activists were hoping to hold up protest banners in Bethlehem on Tuesday to make Trump aware of the action.

Speaking in Jerusalem on Monday, Trump played political music for the criminal minded Jews who want to kill all Palestinians and take away their lands as well by saying that Iran would never have nuclear weapons and accused it of supporting "terrorists". "Iran will never have nuclear weapons, that I can tell you," Trump told fanatic Netanyahu. . In return, Netanyahu extolled the US president's leadership.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani played down Trump's strong criticism of Iran at a summit in Saudi Arabia at the weekend, saying: "Who can say regional stability can be restored without Iran?"

Speaking to Netanyahu on Monday, Trump sought to dispel suggestions that he had passed on sensitive Israeli intelligence to Russian diplomats at a recent meeting, saying he had not mentioned the word "Israel" at the meeting.

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However, many Palestinians on both sides look forward to Trump’s promote action to make Israel listen to reason and promptly deliver justice to them. .

On Monday, Trump said he had come to "reaffirm the unbreakable bond" between the US and Israel and that there was a "rare opportunity to bring security and stability and peace" to the region.

President Trump flew to Tel Aviv direct from Saudi Arabia, where at a summit on Sunday he urged Arab and Muslim leaders to work together to "drive out" terrorist extremists.

Trump also said that he was "gratified" that PLO leader Abbas had attended the summit in Riyadh and "committed to taking firm but necessary steps to fight terrorism and confront its hateful ideology". "Peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded and even rewarded," he added, apparently referring to payments made by the PA to the families of Palestinian prisoners and those killed in the conflict with Israel.

Israel had been pestering Trump to visit Israeli Holocaust memorial and so later on Tuesday Trump returned to Jerusalem, visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. And in a speech later at the Israel Museum, he reaffirmed that his administration would always stand with Israel.

Trump said his trip was "focused on bringing nations together", adding that the Palestinians were "ready to reach for peace".

President Trump sees himself as a great dealmaker, with the personality to cut through the difficulties that have defeated lesser people. The only credible ideas still require the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. The reality is that the Israelis and Palestinians are way apart on the main issues - the future of east Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of an independent Palestine. The two sets of leaders also do not trust each other. Israeli fanaticism and mischief have always derailed the peace talks so far.

The arrival of Donald Trump in the White House was greeted by the Israeli right with enthusiasm. They believe that it heralds a new era of settlement expansion in the occupied territories. The Israeli government appeared to think so too, welcoming Trump’s victory with the announcement of permits for new housing units in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank, thereby further complicating any peace deal with Palestine. .

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been occupied by Israel for 50 years.

Some of the most influential members of the Israeli government believe the land is 17

a Jewish possession, given by God as a free gift for their crimes in past and future. . .

The Palestinians are deeply divided, with Fatah in charge in the West Bank and in Gaza the Islamists of Hamas, who have been condemned by President Trump in the last few days as terrorists.

It is highly unlikely that even President Trump's outsized personality will be enough, on its own, to end a conflict that has lasted more than a century. Making this deal is not about fixing a price - it is about reconciling enemies with radically different world views.

Palestine has achieved nationhood from UN but without voting power and it is going to get that too shortly. Towards the end of his presidency Obama supported the cause of Palestinians indirectly.

Trump is expected to pursue the cause further so that Palestine comes into existence sooner than later. .

Trump has now flown to Rome ahead of a meeting with Pope Francis. On Wednesday he will continue to Brussels to see NATO leaders. On Friday, he will return to Italy to meet other world leaders at a G7 summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina, where climate change is expected to be discussed.

Now the ball is in Trump’s court. One can only watch with fingers crossed as to what exactly Trump would do to achieve peace in Mideast.

Can Trump make Israel become a normal state to able to successfully negotiate peace deals?

Meanwhile, it is indeed gratifying that President Trump has sworn to achieve peace in Mideast by helping with the establishment of Palestine which is being delayed by Israel and USA for too long, meanwhile the Zionist military keeps killing the Palestinians, including children.

Chapter-5: Russian annexation of Crimea is final!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff ----------

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Crimea was an integral part of Russia for centuries and is historically, culturally and linguistically Russian. Just like some European nations continue to see European Turkey as being a part of Asia mainly because of its Islamic religion; they now view Crimea as being a part to Ukraine just because it became a part of the Soviet nation as a part of Ukrainian Republic but now it is a East European nation. Soviet President Khrushchev, who belonged to Ukraine, had gifted Crimea from Russian Republic to Ukrainian Republic as a part of territorial rearrangement.

Angry over Ukrainian support for USA and it move away from Moscow, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and made it an integral part of Russia once again. Even if Ukraine changes its anti-Russia stand, Crimea would remains with Russia henceforth.

Clearly, if Purim’s statements are of any indication, Russia is not going to give Crimea to Ukraine any time in future. As such, all calls for Russia to leave Crimea are useless and as pointless. Continued occupation of many Arab nations as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan by the USA and anti-Islamic allies, does not offer any chance for forcing Russia as well.

Meanwhile, French Presidential candidate Francois Fillon warned that Russia was “unstable” and “should be handled with care.” “Can we lift sanctions against Russia without progress in Crimea?” he said. “We have to respect two important yet contradictory principles: respect for sovereign borders and the right to selfdetermination. No one doubts that Crimea has been historically, culturally and linguistically Russia, and pointless to keep demanding that Russia leaves Crimea: it's never going to happen.” Fillion had been seen as a forerunner in the French elections until February this year, when French police began to investigate claims that he had deliberately squandered public money by hiring his wife in a nonexistent role as a “parliamentary assistant.” He's recently made a comeback in the polls, reaching third place. The first round of the French presidential elections takes place this Sunday.

Russia remains strong notwithstanding all economic sanctions by USA and EU, and its other allies. Putin said he would stress Superpower status in Presidential Campaign next year. Restoring Moscow's global influence will be a dominant theme of the 2018 election. There are obviously no signs of Putin asking the military to leave Crimea for Ukraine and EU to take it away.

2018 Presidency poll

In 2016, Donald Trump rode a wave of popular discontent to the White House on the promise that he would “make America great again.” As Russia’s presidential election, scheduled for March 2018 draws nearer, President Vladimir Putin may try a similar tactic — by contending that he has already restored Russia’s greatness.

Since annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, Russia has increasingly asserted its role on the global stage.

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Following annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin has also ignited a separatist movement in eastern Ukraine and supported the unrecognized “people’s republics” that emerged there. In 2015, Russia entered the longstanding Syrian civil war in support of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Trump’s electoral victory and the demise of the Western consensus against Russia’s violation of international law has also been a major coup for the Kremlin.

These events have all catapulted Putin to the position of a powerful broker in the international arena and fulfilled the country’s longstanding desire for international influence. They signify that, Russia is once again a global player on par with the USA—much like the USSR was thirty years ago.

Russia’s military prowess

Earlier this month, it emerged that Russia had deployed a 22-member special forces unit to a base in western Egypt, near the Libyan border. Russia’s goal is likely to support Khalifa Haftar, a renegade Libyan National Army general who currently controls most of the country’s east and poses a serious challenge to the UN-backed government in Tripoli.

The general made two high-profile visits to Moscow in 2016, and signed a series of undisclosed agreements with the Russian military in January. But it is significant because it undermines UN efforts to stabilize the north African country. The deployment shows that Russia is thinking “not just about its continued presence in Syria, but in the Greater Middle East,” says Alexei Malashenko, a regional analyst at the Dialogue of Civilizations foundation.

Recently, Russia has also increased its role in Afghanistan. In February, the Kremlin organized an Afghanistan peace conference in Moscow that brought together representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, and Iran. Notably absent were the United States and other NATO coalition members. Russia has also advocated for including the Taliban in any solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, presenting the Islamist militants as a bulwark against the Islamic State (IS). In February, Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. military operations in the country, alleged that Russia had increased covert and overt support for the Taliban to undermine the USA and NATO in Afghanistan.

Russia has sincere concerns about conflict spillover from Afghanistan into Central Asia, says Malashenko. But it is also using the IS and Taliban presence in Afghanistan to assert the role of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led military alliance of post-Soviet states in the region.

On March 20, David McAllister, chair of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, accused Russia of deliberately destabilizing Serbia in order to 20

prevent the Balkan country from joining the EU. He has also alleged that Russia supports nationalist leaders throughout the Balkans. In Montenegro, two Russian intelligence officers stand accused of masterminding a failed coup on election day in October 2016 to prevent the Balkan nation from joining NATO. Last month, a Montenegrin special prosecutor stated that “Russian state bodies were involved on a certain level.”

Any move that destabilizes the Balkans would send a strong message to the West: Russia is a critical regional powerbroker.

Europe could serve as another staging ground for restored Russian influence. As political uncertainty grows in the EU, Russia is reasserting its influence in the Balkans. Earlier this month, when EU foreign affairs representative Federica Mogherini spoke in the Serbian parliament, a group of pro-Russia parliamentarians met her with chants of “Serbia! Russia! We don’t need the EU!”

Observation

The sanctions, imposed by USA and EU on Russia against the annexation Crimea, have not yielded any fruits. It is mainly because of economic position of Moscow.

The major sources of economy include arms and oil. Unless weak countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan, Russia cannot be bullied by sanctions or threat of terror attacks the powerful Kremlin.

Threats of USA are not going to weaken Russia in any manner. And there is no reason for the Kremlin to leave Crimea.

So far, there is no consensus in the Kremlin on whether to boost tension in Serbia.

Cooler heads understand it may be riskier than involvement in Syria.

Meanwhile, decision makers must take into account the public mood. Last year, polls repeatedly showed that Russians are tired of war. Armed conflicts are increasingly seen as an irrational waste of resources, and human losses—first in Ukraine, then in Syria—as something Russia doesn’t need.

The Russian public sees the country’s newly achieved superpower status as a source of international respect, but Russians are more eager for this status to be used for dialogue, than for confrontation.

The challenge for the Russian leadership will be to avoid backsliding into real conflicts that might undermine stability, something Russians hold dear. Putin seems to understand this. He is too cautious to attempt a full-scale restoration of Soviet grandeur. Besides Syria and Ukraine, it’s either isolated local episodes, or just talk

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So far, there is no clear indication that the Kremlin has decided on a central idea for Putin’s electoral platform. One of the challenges for the Kremlin will be addressing economic stagnation and declining living standards that will likely persist in Russia for a few more years. The other will be getting voters to the polls. But nostalgia for Soviet greatness could still drive electoral mobilization. Recent debates over holding the election on the fourth anniversary of the Crimean annexation reflect an appeal to that nostalgia.

Restoring Russia’s superpower status was the purpose of Putin’s third term.

Russia’s global influence will be a key part of the campaign, but the nostalgia card has already been played. EU cannot expect Putin to explain why Russians need global influence and what they get from it.

Russia’s quest for global influence won’t end in the near future. The upcoming presidential election will be utterly predictable, lacking real competition. As a result, Putin will likely spend 2017 demonstrating Russia’s global greatness to spur enthusiasm and drive Russians to the polls.

This does not mean that Russia will rush to war, however. . But it does mean the Kremlin must project an image of strength abroad. The idea is to show influence.

Putin will need to make headlines, assert Russia’s global presence and demonstrate that it is returning its spheres of influence.

___________

Chapter-6: Trump’s shapeless foreign policy!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff ______

US President Donald Trump is in the initial stage of his presidency, only trying fix his role in the comity of nations and in intentional politics where America always managed to play the lead role in whatever manner.

President Donald Trump has years of foreign policy decisions to go before he can comprehensively restore US prestige or make USA great. There exists not enough space to enumerate the ways Obama weakened American power and made the world a distinctly more dangerous place by his own attacks on Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and indirectly Syria. Genocides, destructions and destabilization were the hall mark of Bush-Obama foreign policy.

President Trump’s supporters claim that his decision to strike Syria was a strong and swift declaration of American values and the president’s rationale was refreshingly simple and clear. Last month the nascent Trump government chose to 22

forego the now absurd “red line” but spoke through the US military, responding with a missile strike on Syria a mere two days after Assad’s latest chemical attack on civilians.

Weak legacy When Trump took over the White House he in fact inherited a weak America which is clearly diminishing of its standing in the world owing to several reasons, mainly the Russian challenge, Iranian outmaneuvering ability and North Korean capacity to pursue its nuclear goals.

Syria, Russia and Iran remains the major thrust of concerns for the US strategists and the powerful Neocon elements, dominated by hard core Jews who control US foreign policy beyond West Asia.

Syrian leader Assad and has survived albeit with a great deal of destruction, genocides and destabilization thanks only to the open support extended by the Kremlin- a close military ally of Iran, the self proclaimed Shiite leader in West Asia that has taken the responsibility of protecting the Shiite regimes against the will of Sunni leader Saudi Arabia which still wants to see Persia also gets destabilized, possibly as the end process that began with the invasion and destabilization of an Islamizing Afghanistan.

Russian back up had made a fast falling Assad energetic and strong, bold. A year after President Barack Obama issued Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime a “red line” on the use of chemical weapons, Assad manifestly crossed the line with a chemical attack that killed more than 1,400 civilians. Rather than acting decisively on his pledge, Obama first dithered and then demurred to Congress for approval of a strike on Syria. Of course, the strike never materialized, and Assad’s brutality went unchallenged and unpunished for years.

While the European Union faced its existential crisis with the Brexit, and NATO appeared confused about its own reasons for existence, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin continued to exert Moscow’s influence over weaker neighbors. Latest appointment of an Armenian Armed Forces General, Yuri Khachaturov, as head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, commonly known as “Putin’s NATO” illustrated the degree of the Kremlin’s sway over its neighbors. A former Soviet republic, Armenia is filled with Russian military bases and weapons, and its external borders are guarded by the Russian security officers. Khachaturov’s appointment proves that, even in the Moscow-dominated world of its Eurasian satellites, Armenia stands out as an ultra-loyal and dependent Russian vassal.

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Russia last November strategically placed its nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles in its exclave of Kaliningrad, right next to America’s NATO Baltic allies, and announced plans to do the same in its annexed territory of Crimea—essentially threatening the entire Black Sea region. In addition to areas Russia controls directly, Moscow placed the Iskander in two of its regional proxies and satellites: Armenia and Syria. Apparently for Russia, the difference between the territories it formally deems its own, and the failed states it effectively controls, is very symbolic.

These are a clear effort by Russia to deny military advantage to NATO forces and to assert geographic dominance. The first major test for President Trump came when Moscow-backed Assad carried out April’s chemical attack, defying the former Obama red line. Trump responded in force. Possibly Russia-Iran-Syria trio had not foreseen that.

Iran is now one of the biggest oil exporters to South Korea and has steadily increased its exports since the lifting of sanctions associated with its nuclear program in January 2016. Iran became the second largest oil exporter to South Korea in the first three months of 2017, delivering a record 18.54 million barrels.

South Korea will be under pressure to import more oil and gas from the US, having ramped up Iranian imports in recent months to the displeasure of Washington.

The USA has sent the first batch of its heavy armaments to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units or YPG. Speaking to Sputnik Turkiye, former Turkish Ambassador to the US Faruk Logoglu reacted to the delivery, calling it a "diplomatic slap in the face of Turkey." The armament and armed vehicles were sent by land from the Iraqi Kurdistan and then sent to Rojava autonomous region in northern Syria, he said. It was further sent to Kobani, a city in the Aleppo Governorate and the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. This weaponry, the source said, will be used in the ongoing offensive to liberate Raqqa from Daesh Support for Ukraine government Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of US senators on May 8 sent a letter to President Donald Trump encouraging him to prioritize meeting with President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 conference in July. Identifying the importance of engaging longstanding American allies as a priority for the foreign policy agenda of the new administration, the letter also recommends increased support for institutions and European governments that help preserve the international order. “As your Administration continues to formulate policies to promote American national security and foreign policy interests, we are writing to strongly encourage you to engage with our traditional allies and prioritize meeting with foreign leaders representing countries 24

with whom we share historical ties, democratic values, and mutual interests,” wrote the senators. “Meeting with democratically elected representatives from Ukraine would send a strong signal that the United States continues to prioritize our relationship with longstanding allies, and will continue our commitments to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of ongoing aggression.”

A meeting in Washington, D.C., between President Trump and Ukraine’s President, they say, would be a critical sign of support for peace in the region, as US support for Ukraine now is imperative to its survival. Russia’s unrelenting hybrid warfare in Ukraine is destabilizing the international world order. The massive build-up of Russian troops along Ukraine’s eastern border and recent escalating attacks in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk are continuously threatening Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. The USA must take definitive action to help stabilize the transnational, trans-Atlantic security framework, which clearly serves our national interests as Americans. Without US support and a commitment to peace, the crisis in Ukraine is only likely to escalate,” they noted. They argued that, “As the bastion of democracy in the Free World, the United States must take the lead in promoting international norms and consolidating geo-political stability,” and they urged Trump “to affirm the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” They cited security concerns that should be highlighted by the USA.

Trump to meet Putin Recently, Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov met US President Donald Trump and praised his government as problem solvers, just as the White House drew criticism over the firing of the FBI director who was leading a probe into Moscow's alleged interference in US politics. The talks with Foreign Minister were the highest-level public contact between Trump and the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin since the Republican took office on January 20. While not unprecedented, it is a rare privilege for a foreign minister to be received by a US president for a bilateral meeting in the White House.

A meeting between Putin and Trump is likely to happen under the auspices of the G20 summit in Hamburg in Germany in July and that it was important that their meeting brought tangible results.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raised the issue of the compounds during a Washington visit. Former US president Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of the 35 Russians in late December and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over what he said was their involvement in hacking political groups in the November 8 US presidential election. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the 25

time he would not retaliate immediately and would wait until at least US Presidentelect Donald Trump took office on January 20 before deciding what action to take.

Russia retaliates against the USA for the Obama government's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats it said were spies. Moscow is also waiting for the return of two diplomatic compounds seized in the USA during the same espionage scandal, Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide, said. "We are waiting for the return of Russian diplomatic property illegally impounded before the New Year by the previous US authorities," Ushakov told a news briefing. "We decided not to respond immediately to this escapade, but no-one has yet abolished the principle of reciprocity in diplomacy ... Our patience is not without limits," he said, saying Russian retaliation could not be ruled out.

Observation Americans voted for Trump mainly because they wanted to punish Obama-Mrs. Clinton for their mishandling of the world, especially their crimes in West Asia.

Speculations were ripe about a possible collaboration between USA and Russia in Syria under Trump presidency. But the US attack on Syria put to end such speculative exercises.

Trump apparently is confused and he is confusing the world as well. He si trying to do exactly his predecessors Bush and Obama have done. Possibly the notorious Neocons with their regime change agenda in Arab world continue to mislead the new US president as well. In a stunning development, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, whose agency is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and the possibility Trump associates may have colluded with Moscow.

Trump has not formed any clear cut idea about how he would handle Israel and free Palestinians from the Zionist fascist clutches and their children from Israel’s military bombs supplied by USA. One is not sure if what he said about solving the Kashmir issue would be a sincere intent or just rhetoric to get maximum money from a badly stressed India through Indian corporate lords as service charges.

Trump should show the world that America will not blur its red lines. Flying in the face of concerns about his “support for Putin�, the president showed, by striking Syria, that he is willing to stand up to Russia.

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___________

Chapter-7: Solution for North Korean nuclear issue lies in Israel -Dr. Abdul Ruff ______

At the outset it should be made clear that none of the nuclear nations is eager to achieve total denuclearization and disarmament and none wants to dismantle its own nuclear arsenals after having spent so much of hard resources on their development and tests. But America does not want those countries that do not obey the Pentagon to have nukes as deterrence. Iran and North Korea are the unfortunate ones that are unable to pursue its legitimate nuclear objectives.

America continues to beat about the bush with its usual double–speaks on crucial issues like disarmament and denuclearization; It actively supports nuclearization of its allies and “friends” while opposing and threatening some select countries like North Korea purely on ideological grounds. USA decides which country should have nukes and which not.

USA does not consider legitimate nuclear arsenals of Israel, obtained illegally from USA against the will of the IAEA and UN, but objects the nuclear weapons of North Korea and Iran. So long as Israel is allowed by USA, EU, UNSC, NATO etc to maintain nuclear weapons to threaten Arab nations and Palestinians (indirectly even European nations), any attempt to stop North Korea form manufacturing nukes to defend itself from enemy misadventures is illogical and sufficiently foolish.

North Korea has a right to have nukes for security purposes at par with other nations, including Israel. North Korea has been an ally of Russia and China. USA has an obligation to protect its NATO allies like South Korea and pretends to unhappy about North Korean efforts to testing their latest missile systems and pursuing its nuclear objectives.

Tensions have risen in the region amid fears the North is planning new weapons tests. The Americans are deeply concerned about advances in North Korea's weapons technology; they believe it could well be capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear warhead before the end of President Trump's first term. North Korea's missile arsenal has progressed over the decades from crude artillery 27

rockets derived from World War II designs, to medium-range missiles able to strike targets in the Pacific Ocean.

North Korea's latest efforts appear focused on building reliable long-range missiles, which may have the potential to reach the mainland United States. Two types of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) known as the KN-08 and KN-14, have been observed at various military parades since 2012. Carried and launched from the back of a modified truck, the three-stage KN-08 is believed to have a range of about 11,500km.The KN-14 appears to be a two-stage missile, with a possible range of around 10,000km.

Neither missile has yet been flight tested, but recent images have shown engine trials under way and what appears to be a heat shield for a warhead being tested.

Despite this apparent progress, North Korea is still thought to lack the ability to accurately target a city with an ICBM, or miniaturize a nuclear warhead.

Other developments have escalated tensions in recent weeks: North Korea executed a failed missile launch and held a massive military parade in an apparent show of strength; The US has deployed a group of warships and a submarine to the region; Pyongyang has reacted angrily to this, threatening a "super-mighty preemptive strike"; The USA has begun installing a controversial $1bn (ÂŁ775m) antimissile system called Thaad in South Korea - which Trump said South Korea should pay for. Seoul said on Friday that there was "no change" in its position that the USA pays for it; Tillerson said China has again urged North Korea to refrain from carrying out more tests.

Earlier, Russia's Vladimir Putin called for the resumption of talks with North Korea as tensions on the peninsula continue to escalate. Speaking in Moscow, where he met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he urged those involved to "refrain from using belligerent rhetoric".

US hit list

USA wants every nation to work under the Pentagon-CIA supervision and does exactly what Washington asks them to do. North Korea has been among its hit list nations. In 2012, North Korea has agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, as well as nuclear and long-range missile tests, following talks with the USA. North Korea has carried out repeated missile tests in recent months and is threatening to conduct its sixth nuclear test.

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The US State Department said Pyongyang had also agreed to allow UN inspectors to monitor its reactor in Yongbyon to verify compliance with the measures. In return, the US is finalizing 240,000 tonnes of food aid for the North. The move comes two months after Kim Jong-un came to power following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il. The move could pave the way for the resumption of six-party disarmament negotiations with Pyongyang, which last broke down in 2009.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said the US still had "profound concerns" over North Korea, but welcomed the move as a "first step". "On the occasion of Kim Jong-il's death, I said that it is our hope that the new leadership will choose to guide their nation onto the path of peace by living up to its obligations.�Today's announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction."

North Korea confirmed the move in a foreign ministry statement released in Pyongyang. The statement, carried by the KCNA news agency, said the measures were "aimed at building confidence for the improvement of relations" between the two countries, and said talks would continue. "Both the DPRK [North Korea] and the US affirmed that it is in mutual interest to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, improve the relations between the DPRK and the US, and push ahead with the denuclearization through dialogue and negotiations," it said. Yukiya Amano, director general of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the announcement was "an important step forward" and that inspectors stood ready to return to North Korea, Reuters reports.

Earlier, a senior US military official said the issue of food aid for North Korea was now linked to political progress - contradicting earlier policy. The North has suffered persistent food shortages since a famine in the 1990s, and relies on foreign aid to feed its people. North Korea agreed in 2005 to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and political concessions, as part of a six-nation dialogue process involving the two Koreas, the USA, China, Russia and Japan. But progress on the deal was stop-start, and the agreement broke down in 2009. Contact between the US and North Korea aimed at restarting the talks began in July 2011. A meeting last week between US and North Korean officials in Beijing was the third round of talks aimed at exploring how to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.

Trump’s opinion Shortly after being elected, Trump had accused China of not doing enough to rein in North Korea, and suggested the US could take unilateral action.

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But in a wide-ranging interview with Reuters inside the Oval Office, Trump - who met Xi earlier this month - said the Chinese president "certainly doesn't want to see turmoil and death". "He is a very good man and I got to know him very well. "He loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it's possible that he can't," he said. Of Kim, he said: "He's 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age." But he stressed he was "not giving him credit", and added: "I hope he's rational." "There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely," said Mr Trump.

The USA is to tighten sanctions on North Korea and step up diplomatic moves aimed at pressuring the country to end its nuclear and missile programs. Trump's strategy was announced after a special briefing for all 100 US senators. Earlier, the top US commander in the Pacific defended the deployment of an advanced missile defence system in South Korea. "The United States seeks stability and the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," said a joint statement issued by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. "We remain open to negotiations towards that goal. However, we remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies."The president's approach aims to pressure North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile, and proliferation programs by tightening economic sanctions and pursuing diplomatic measures with our allies and regional partners," the statement added.

Democratic Senator Christopher Coons told reporters that military options were discussed at the special presidential briefing for senators. "It was a sobering briefing in which it was clear just how much thought and planning was going into preparing military options if called for - and a diplomatic strategy that strikes me as clear-eyed and well-proportioned to the threat," he said.

Earlier Admiral Harry Harris, head of US Pacific Command, said the US would be ready "with the best technology" to defeat any missile threat. The deployment of Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system in South Korea was aimed, he argued, at bringing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "to his senses, not to his knees". Adm Harris said he believed that North Korea would try to attack the US as soon as it had the military capabilities.

The latest US statement on North Korea this week squarely put the pressure on China to act, or otherwise suffer on trade with the world's largest economy. Implicit in the statement is the assumption (correct, I think) that China is willing to tighten the screws more than the halfway steps they have done in the past, and that as a result, new pain will be inflicted on Pyongyang. "We are engaging responsible members of the international community to increase pressure on the DPRK," the official name for North Korea.

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President Donald Trump's policy towards North Korea is not different from his predecessors. A White House official said an option under consideration was to put North Korea back on the state department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, imposed sanctions over a year ago following a nuclear test and satellite launch by the North.

President Trump has repeatedly said that a China trade deal with the USA will be better for Beijing if they act on North Korea. China is very much the economic lifeline to North Korea and so if they want to solve the North Korean problem, they will. China is committed to upholding U.N. sanctions on North Korea.

Korean missile milestones

For decades North Korea has been one of the world's most secretive societies. It is one of the few countries still under nominally communist rule. North Korea's nuclear ambitions have exacerbated its rigidly maintained isolation from the rest of the world. The country emerged in 1948 amid the chaos following the end of the Second World War. Its history is dominated by its Great Leader, Kim Il-sung, who shaped political affairs for almost half a century.

Decades of this rigid state-controlled system have led to stagnation and a leadership dependent on the cult of personality. The totalitarian state also stands accused of systematic human rights abuses.

North Korea's own missile program began with Scuds, with its first batch reportedly coming via Egypt in 1976. By 1984 it was building its own versions called Hwasongs. These missiles have an estimated maximum range of about 1,000km, and carry conventional, chemical and possibly biological warheads. From the Hwasong came the Nodong design - effectively an upscaled Hwasong / Scud with a extended range of 1,300km. In an April 2016 analysis, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said the missiles were a "proven system which can hit all of South Korea and much of Japan". More capable missiles followed with the development of the Musudan range, which was most recently tested in 2016.

Estimates differ dramatically on its how far it can fly, with Israeli intelligence putting it at 2,500km and the US Missile Defense Agency estimating about 3,200km. Other sources suggest a possible 4,000km. Another development came in August 2016 when North Korea announced it had tested a submarine based "surface-to-surface, medium-to-long-range ballistic missile", called the Pukguksong.

A second was launched from land in February 2017.

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China’s role

China does have economic leverage over North Korea as the rogue state's largest trading partner. For its part, China is the United States' largest trading partner — the US imports far more from China than it exports to the country, creating a $347 billion deficit last year. Trump has made narrowing that deficit a major goal of his presidency.

As for trade with the USA, he said, "the Chinese side is ready to work with the U.S. to push forward sustained, steady and sound development of the bilateral relationship on the basis of mutual respect and win-win cooperation."

With the pressure on China, fears of a militaristic breakout may not be realized.

"What this is really clear about is all the talk about war was press talk and not serious," Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project.

After a missile test this February, China banned coal imports from North Korea in February for the rest of the year. Recent reports also show Beijing may also be closer to cutting oil exports to the rogue state, which would be crippling for North Korea. Coal is one of the country's key exports - and is reportedly also considering restricting oil shipments if Pyongyang continues to behave belligerently.

China says the deployment of Thaad will destabilize security and there have been protests in South Korea itself, where three people were injured in clashes with police as the system was being delivered to a former golf course.

Intercontinental ballistic missiles are seen as the last word in power projection because they allow a country to wield massive firepower against an opponent on the other side of the planet. The only real reason to spend the money, time and effort building them is to fire nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, Russia and the USA sought different ways to protect and deliver their missiles, which were hidden in silos, piggybacked on huge trucks or carried by submarines.

All ICBMs are designed along similar lines. They are multi-stage rockets powered by solid or liquid fuel, and carry their weapon payload out of the atmosphere into space. The weapon payload - usually a thermonuclear bomb - then re-enters the atmosphere and detonates either above or directly on top of its target. Some ICBMs have a "multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle", or Mirv. This has

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multiple warheads and decoys to allowing it to strike multiple targets and confuse missile defence systems.

In the Cold War period, the range and potential threat of ICBMs were seen as key to the concept of "Mutually Assured Destruction" or MAD. MAD supposedly helped maintain peace because neither side could "win" without suffering incalculable damage.

Observation Are the Zionist stolen nukes democratic or meant to secure the world?

The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss North Korea on Friday. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said China has told the US it will impose sanctions on North Korea if it conducts further nuclear tests. Tillerson is due to chair a UN Security Council foreign ministers meeting on Friday, where he will lobby for existing sanctions against North Korea to be fully implemented to "increase the pressure on the regime.

Donald Trump has praised China's President Xi Jinping for his handling of North Korea, calling him "a very good man" who loves his country. The US president said he would like to solve the crisis diplomatically but that it was "difficult" and a "major, major conflict" was possible. He also said it had been "very hard" for Kim Jong-un to take over North Korea at such a young age.

The senators received a highly unusual briefing by the Trump administration on the seriousness of the threat from North Korea and the president's strategy for dealing with it.

Seeking to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, the USA should be sincere to its claims and be open to negotiations towards the peaceful denuclearization of the Middle East. Russia should also first make the ME region free from nukes as a starting point to denuclearize the world.

North Korea is under US sanctions. North Korean government property in America was frozen and US exports to, or investment in, North Korea was banned. The order also greatly expanded powers to blacklist anyone, including non-Americans, dealing with North Korea.

Of course, the road to denuclearization starts from Israel. If USA thinks Israel 33

should possess nuclear weapons to threaten West Asia and Europe, then every country, including North Korea, also should have nukes in plenty- why not?

Assuming that North Korea has nukes already, world needs not get unnecessarily worried about that because many countries have them- USA has the largest nuclear arsenal and it does not want to dismantle nay of them, except those that are dangerously outdated. .

Maybe for USA illegal nuclear weapons of Israel is matter of prestige. But that the IAEA and UNSC refuse to act on the illegally obtained Israeli nuclear weapons is a serious matter of concern for any nation that seeks genuine denuclearization and disarmament.

Any US military intervention to pre-empt that would be fraught with risk, but Trump has toughened his rhetoric to drive home a message that it's a credible threat. A key part of his plan is to pressure China to lean more heavily on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. The statement says the USA is open to negotiations towards that end, but many even in Washington doubt the regime could ever accept such terms.

The USA already has extensive sanctions in place on North Korea, including a blanket ban on trade and a blacklist of anyone dealing with North Korea. It is not clear what further sanctions Washington could still impose.

Possibly, USA expects a lot of money and services from North Korea as charges for letting it to have nukes. In fact every country pays huge sum to USA to get their things done. However as super power USA never demands bribes openly. Countries understand from its action to a crisis what USA wants.

If USA and its Western allies are sincere about disarmament and denuclearization they must proceed systematically. First, the powerful UNSC and NATO should try and dismantle the nuclear arsenals Zionist Israel possesses illegally. Then they should try to apply the existing laws on denuclearization and disarmament on entire world. Those countries that got nukes early must dismantle them soon after Israel is freed from its nuclear weapons. Without dealing with Israel, there is no point in trying to contain other nations.

It is wrong and absurd that in modern times the USA dictates its terms to one set of countries on the issue and another on other nations. Why do the USA and its “democratic� allies consider Israeli nukes sacred?

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Obviously, neither Iran nor North Korea would have any objections to dismantle their own arsenals.

Chapter-8: India on fascist path: Hindutva criminal operations in Gandhian India!

(Story of Indian fanaticism, secularism and Muslims) -Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal ----------

Indian Hindutva looks very close to criminal Zionism of Israel that brutally occupies Palestine, and unless the trend is checked legally, it could harm the nations and entire world. If PM Modi is really opposed to Hindus murdering Muslims in cow's name, why can’t he initiate legal action against Hindutva fanatics, who eye Hindu vote banks, and end such crimes against humanity? Why? India is often in the news for crimes against women and, according to government statistics, a rape is reported every 15 minutes. More incidents remain unreported.

Even reported cases go on for years in the courts before the guilty are punished, if at all, whereas when a cow is slaughtered or a Muslim caries beef, Hindu extremist groups immediately go and kill or beat up whoever they suspect of cow slaughter or they bluff in order to kill Muslims for Hindu votes.

Zionism influences Hindutva

There is a saying across the world that “if you name who is your thick friend others would know who are” and as an emerging thick friend of fascist fanatic Israel, India cannot be entirely different. Both are fanatically pursuing colonialist policies to terrorize the masses of their colonies - Palestine and Kashmir, respectively.

RSS-BJP duo takes counsel from Israel. That PM Modi who represents entire Indian secular nation decided to visit Israel- a criminal state in Mideast – without going to Palestine revels what the RSS-BJP is all about.

Modern India for which leaders of the nation after the independence laid secular and democratic foundation, is fast moving towards a fascist Hindutva format to catch up with Zionist Israel, among cruelest fanatic dispensations. Funnily the BJP 35

led government of Narendra Modi deliberately plays double roles in the promoting Hindutva establishment by maintaining a total silence over the communal atrocities on Muslims and other oppressed sections of the nation.

Guided by RSS, the BJP government of Modi takes revenge on Muslims to gain the sympathy and votes of majority Hindus. They believe if they get a major chunk of Hindutva votes, BJP and other Hindutva outfits can easily win the polls and they need to depend on Muslims or secular or democratic sections of India for winning polls. Moreover, they know Congress and other so-called secular parties have no real sympathy of Muslims and these parties get Muslim votes on the strength of their fear for Hindu communal elements targeting Muslims.

Right from the day of Indian independence in 1947 Muslims are being targeted by the criminal minded Hindus and politicians for Hindu votes but in recent years the phenomenon of anti-Muslimism has obnoxiously increased the risk for Muslims with state promoting Hindutva mentality against the fundamentals of a secular democracy. These Hindu criminal do not attack any Muslim criminals or frauds that they deliberately promote to terrorize Muslim community but only sincere and god abiding Muslims are the Hindutva victims.

Today, the Hindutva parties very dangerously use issues like Muslims, patriotism of Muslims, Pakistan, mosque etc for getting Hindu votes and to come to power with Hindu votes.

Today, Indian political scene has reached a level where any Muslim could be killed straight away by Hindu criminal elements just by blaming for eating beef or buying a goat or cow. The ruling BJP and their media lords consider it an act of crime graver than killing a human or bombing the Parliament or a state assembly with Israeli cluster bombs.

Had PM Modi declared, as he assumed power as Indian executive chief in 2014, punitive measures for those Hindus who kill any Muslim for fulfilling their sadistic pleasures, or anyone from other minority communities that would have sent a clear message to India and Hindutva criminal elements in BJP to care for legal system of India. But true to his past Hindutva credentials as CM of Gujarat state - in consideration of which he was made the PM candidate by BJP – Modi did not say word of warning or punishment to Hindu criminals. He wanted to save the Hindu criminals who destroyed the Historic Babri Mosque by appointing Hindutva minded judges.

Modi now feels sad that his Hindutva guys are kiting Muslims in place animals in his country. On June 29 Modi told a gathering in his home state Gujarat that killing people in the name of cow protection was "not in keeping with the principles of India's founding father, Mahatma Gandhi". "As a society, there is no place for violence," Modi said, adding that "no person has the right to take the law in his or 36

her own hands". Bur those criminals who have taken law into their own dirty hands are free to operate in the country now.

The Modi statement in itself is indeed a positive development in Indian Hindutva criminal politics. This is significant because the former ruling outfit Congress party which owns wholesale Muslim banks has never expressed sympathy with Muslims or criticized the Hindutva elements for attacking Muslims and never said a word of appreciation for Muslim contribution to Indian development and growth. In fact it always insults Muslims.

Congress party promotes and wants Hindus rule entire India both at the centre and states and ensured that no Muslim emerges as a contender for CM in any state even in Kerala where Muslims are more than 30 percent at par with Hindus and Christians.

BJP made a Muslim president of India. But the then President APAJ Abdul Kalam was hated by the Congress party and began sideling Muslim leaders in the party, except those who can only be used as successful votebank managers to garner Muslims as votebank material.

There cannot be two opinions that Indian PM Narendra Modi is a “proud” Hindu and a Hindutva fanatic but as PM Modi cannot openly propagate his Hindutva moorings or openly ask Hindus to attack and kill Muslims. He lets his “people” do that and he protects them as his prime duty as Indian PM. But he is doing everything indirectly to promote Hindutva and make Muslims the target of Hindutva criminal elements.

Of course, a basic RSS champion, Modi is not a democrat or secularist. Modi came to the national scene only after his government killed Muslims just as a revenge to appease the RSSBJP/VHP zealots.

Beef- a tasty, healthy meat!

Modi became Indian PM in 2014 not to promote Muslim interests in India or abroad.

Like his predecessors from Congress party, Modi also promotes millionaires’ interests inland and abroad. Hindutva parliament gives him the necessary support to do whatever he wants and he tours the world and creates problems for the people. PM Modi takes along with all top corporate lords in his foreign tours.

Hardcore Hindutva leaders want Modi to advance their interests and he has so far done that religiously. .

In recent months, the innocent looking and humble cow has become India's most polarising animal as Hindutva parties, upon their success in using the anti37

Muslimism and hatred for Islam for promoting Hindu vote bank, have accelerated their Hindutva gimmicks to increase their Hindu vote share. The BJP insists that the animal is holy and should be protected. Cow slaughter is banned in several states, stringent punishment has been introduced for offenders and parliament is considering a bill to bring in the death penalty for the crime.

Beef is global meat consumed by people belonging to all religions and cow meet is also consumed by Indians and foreigners who like the taste of that animal meat.

While vegetarian people don’t eat meat all, beef is a major and cheap meat consumed by most Indians, including Hindus. Hindus world over eat beef as their favorite dish in varieties and enjoy life. Also, the BJP vote bank promoters do not think beef is bad but in order to generate fear and hatred among Hindu voters toward Muslims, ask the party carders and other pro-RSS people to kill those Muslims in India who eat beef, though their target is Muslims and low caste Hindus and Christians, others.

A few politically charged fanatic Hindus, whose Hindutva imagination is boosted by Hindu god characters in movies, and brainwashed by Hindutva activists and Muslim haters, propagate the domestic animal cow as a “sacred animal” and cow slaughter is banned in several states by BJP governments.

Muslim slaughter ri snot banned anywhere in India because Hindutva criminal mended people want to kill Muslims to feel themselves elated.

Modi, who came to the national scene by targeting Muslims in his Gujarat state, knows the Hindu communal elements want to destroy peace in the country. Like Jews, they promote violence culture in India. They have taken law, judges and judiciary into their own hands and want the judges deliver judgment according toothier “notes” sent to the government. After demolishing historic Babri mosque like jungle beasts do, they say they won’t accept court judgment on the destruction of Muslim property and place of Islamic worship.

Since Muslims are a minority and directly controlled by Hindu government and Hindu network, BJP thinks they can do anything to them. Gradually the RSS-BJP, a large fanatic family targeting Muslims and Islam, question the very existence of Muslims in India, questioning their patriotism, cricketism, food habits, etc and threaten them with sedition laws. The TV media lords pronounce sedition and death sentences of those Muslims who eat beef.

That is food terrorism policy of RSS-BJP.

Beef lynching targeting Muslims: Indians protest

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RSS and its political outfits and some sections of other Hindu parties like Congress and SP, etc and their media mouth pieces target Muslims for their blood and flesh.

The governments support that Hindutva ideology as the basis for Hindustan.

Muslims have been converted into not just vote stuff but also the Hindutva objects to target.

RSS-BJP hardcore leaders keep trying new tricks to trap Hindus and harm Muslims.

Under Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP, the cow has become a polarising animal and religious divisions are widening. Restrictions on the sale and slaughter of cows are fanning confusion and vigilantism.

Critics of the government say that ever since the Hindutva BJP came to power in 2014, RSS/BJP Hindutva forces began implementing the hidden agenda. Its cow protection vigilantes have carried out numerous attacks on Muslims and Dalits, for whom beef is a staple. Hindus and Christians also enjoy beef in different flavors.

They have also criticised Modi for not doing enough to condemn the attacks.

Nearly a dozen people have been killed in these attacks. Targets are often picked based on rumours and Muslims have been attacked for even transporting cows for milk.

Ever since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the summer of 2014, vigilante cow protection groups have been emboldened and there have been numerous attacks on Muslims and Dalits, for whom beef is a staple.

Nearly a dozen people have been killed in these attacks over the past two years.

Targets are often picked based on unsubstantiated rumours and Muslims have been attacked for even transporting cows for milk.

Possibly RSS believes Muslims should be slaughtered instead of animals. In India Cow slaughter is banned in several Indian states that are now under spell of extremist Hindutva moorings, and those found violating the law can be jailed for up to 10 years. Parliament under the control of Hindutva forces is also considering a bill to bring in the death penalty for the crime.

On 26 June 2017 a 15-year-old Muslim boy, returning home from Eid shopping with his three brothers, was killed in a brutal assault by a mob of about 20 men on a train in the north Indian state of Haryana. Police say that the reason for Junaid Khan's murder - in which his three siblings were also injured by the knife-wielding mob - was mainly because of a row over seat space on the train. But a man arrested for being part of the mob said on TV that he was goaded into it by others because Muslims ate beef. Shaqir, one of the surviving brothers, told reporters in the hospital that the attackers "flung our skull caps, pulled my brother's beard, slapped us, and taunted us about eating beef".

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Nearly a dozen people –Muslims- have been killed in the past two years in the name of the cow. Two years ago, a mob killed farm worker Mohammed Akhlaq over "rumours" that his family had stored and eaten beef. Protests under the banner #NotInMyName are being organised in 16 Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Allahabad as well as in London on Wednesday. Gatherings are also planned for later in the week in Toronto, Boston and Karachi. The protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar monument was expected to be the biggest.

Targets are often picked based on unsubstantiated rumours and Muslims have been attacked for even transporting cows for milk. Ghosh, who is from the eastern city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), says he became aware of "this dangerous mix of religion and vote bank politics" only after he moved to Delhi a few years ago and that "this project is a silent form of protest that can make an impact". So earlier this month, during a visit to New York, he bought the cow mask from a party shop and, on his return, began shooting for the series, taking pictures of women in front of tourist hotspots and government buildings, on the streets and in the privacy of their homes, on a boat and in a train, because "women are vulnerable everywhere". " I started the project from Delhi since the capital city is the hub of everything politics, religion, even most debates start here. "I took the first photo in front of the iconic India Gate, one of the most visited tourist places in India. Then I photographed a model in front of the presidential palace, another on a boat in the Hooghly River in Kolkata with the Howrah Bridge as the backdrop."

Protests are taking place across India against rising attacks on Muslims and Dalits (formerly untouchables) by vigilante cow protection groups. About 2,000 people turned out in Delhi. Protests were also being held in 15 other cities as well as in London, protest organizer Saba Dewan said. The campaign, #NotInMyName, started with a Facebook post she wrote after a Muslim teenager was killed last week.

The protests come amid reports that a Muslim dairy farmer in Jharkhand state was assaulted and his house was set on fire after the carcass of a cow was found at his door on Tuesday afternoon. The protest organizers have alleged that the family of Junaid Khan, the 16-year-old Muslim boy brutally killed by a Hindu mob on a train last week, had not been able to attend because they were intimidated by the authorities.

Crowds gathered at Jantar Mantar, a historical Delhi monument and popular venue for protests. Many of the 2,000 present held posters and banners saying #NotInMyName. Others wondered if it is so easy to divide Indians on the basis of religion. On the stage, poets recited verses, and musicians sang songs of protest.

Organiser Saba Dewan demanded that Indian citizens be protected, saying the right to life is non-negotiable. One young woman told me the murders were not how she wished to remember her country.

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A photography project which shows women wearing a cow mask and asks the politically explosive question - whether women are less important than cattle in India - has gone viral in the country and earned its 23-year-old photographer the ire of Hindu nationalist trolls."I am perturbed by the fact that in my country, cows are considered more important than a woman, that it takes much longer for a woman who is raped or assaulted to get justice than for a cow which many Hindus consider a sacred animal," Delhi-based photographer Sujatro Ghosh told the BBC. The project is "his way of protesting" against the growing influence of the vigilante cow protection groups that have become emboldened since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came to power in the summer of 2014. "I've been concerned over the Dadri lynching [when a Muslim man was killed by a Hindu mob over rumours that he consumed and stored beef] and other similar religious attacks on Muslims by cow vigilantes," Ghosh said.

The documentary filmmaker said she was "shattered" when she heard about last Thursday's attack on 16-year-old Junaid Khan, who was killed by a mob of about 20 men on a train in the northern state of Haryana while returning home from Eid shopping in Delhi. Her anguished Facebook post has managed to galvanize a large number of Indians, with thousands pledging to participate in the protests. "The protest is against this systematic violence against Muslims and Dalits that is going on in our country at the moment," Ms Dewan said. "Junaid's killing was a shattering moment for me, and also for a lot of other people. I started crying when I heard about his murder. "We've always been saying we should protest, but there's been no leadership. So we decided to do this ourselves. How long can you keep waiting till the cows come home?" she added.

Two weeks ago when he launched the project on Instagram, the response was "all positive. It went viral within the first week." But after the Indian press covered it and put out their stories on Facebook and Twitter, the backlash began. "Some wrote comments threatening me. On Twitter people started trolling me, some said I, along with my models, should be taken to Delhi's Jama Masjid mosque and slaughtered like a cow and that our meat should be fed to a woman journalist and a woman writer the nationalists despise. They said they wanted to see my mother weep over my body." Some people also contacted the Delhi police, "accusing me of trying to instigate riots and asking them to arrest me".

The threats, however, have failed to scare him. Positive fallout of the project going viral has been that he's got loads of messages from women from across the globe saying they too want to be a part of this campaign. So the cow, he says, will keep travelling. Ghosh is not surprised by the vitriol and admits that his work is an "indirect comment" on the BJP. "I'm making a political statement because it's a political topic, but if we go deeper into the things, then we see that Hindu 41

supremacy was always there, it has just come out in the open with this government in the past two years."

Hindutva lynching Like Capitalism and imperialism, fascism and its varied tendencies are an option for the regimes. India is one those modern states that have opted for fascism in palace of humanism.

Some rulers pretend they oppose these trends but in fact they indirectly promote provoke them in order to stay in power. Modi’s perpetual silence on all anti-Muslim and anti-human operations of the party and its mother RSS gave the impression that he guides them from behind.

True, the Prime Minister in a tough message against mob lynching and killing in the name of the cow said such actions were not acceptable and warned that no one has the right to take law into his hands. This is not the first time that Modi has commented on the cow vigilante groups. He had made similar comments earlier last August, but, interestingly, mob lynching of Muslims accused of eating beef or killing cattle have continued.

In a tough message against cow vigilantism and mob lynching, Narendra Modi said killing people on pretext of protecting cows is not acceptable and warned that no one has the right to take law into his hands. His statement on gau rakshaks: Words not enough, strict action required, says Opposition. Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally broke his silence on the killing of people in the name of gau bhakti (cow worship). Condemning the attacks, he said, "This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve." His statement elicited some strong reactions from all quarters.

But RSS-BJP has not given up their anti-Islam and essentially anti-democracy and anti-humanity criminal policies Just hours after PM Modi gave a strong statement against cow vigilantes, a Muslim Alimuddin alias Asgar Ansari accused of carrying beef was lynched to death in BJPruled Jharkhand's Ramgarh district. IANS quoting police sources said, Ansari was carrying the "banned� meat in a Maruti van and was apprehended by a Hindutva mob belonging to BJP which attacked him brutally lke wild beasts. His van was set on fire. According to reports, police personnel rescued Alimuddin from the murderous mob and rushed him to the hospital. But he couldn't be saved.

According to police, it is a case of 'pre-meditated murder' and people involved in beef trade plotted to kill him. The killers have been identified. as per police.

This is second such incidence of cow related violence in Jharkhand in a week. A Muslim was beaten up in Jharkhand after a dead cow was reportedly found outside his house. The incident took place in Beria Hatiatand village in Deori area of Giridih 42

district, nearly 200 km from Ranchi. A Hindutva criminal mob also set the house of Usman Ansari on fire after they spotted the carcass of a cow. The victim has been injured and undergoing treatment. His condition is stable.

On June 29, 2017, Mamata Banerjee and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also emphasized the need for action. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who could be the Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate for PM for the next elections, said, "Condemn killings in the name of gau raksha, just words are not enough. Modi is trying to subvert democracy. The killings must stop now."We condemn killings taking place in the name of gau raksha. This must stop now. Just words not enough Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi criticised Narendra Modi’s speech over cow vigilantes, saying that the statement was ‘too little too late’. Gandhi wrote, “Too little too late. Words mean nothing when actions outdo them.” The prime minister must reaffirm that he believes in the founding values of the Indian state."

Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in a sarcasm-laced remark, said the "presence of Gandhiji's living spirit in Sabarmati Ashram" must have affected Modi. "What he has said is absolutely right, but it should be followed by very strong action on the ground. All the perpetrators (of hate crimes) have to be caught and prosecuted and the public's confidence in (law and order) has to be revived," Gandhi told IANS. Hollow rhetoric without substance

Rashtriya Janata Dal spokesperson Manoj Jha said Modi's words sound hollow. "He had made such delayed statements about the Rohith Vemula suicide and the Una incident (thrashing of Dalits) too. Did it stop? In fact, all sound and no substance in terms of action have emboldened such vigilante groups. What this nation urgently requires is a robust legislation against mob lynchings," Jha said.

Protests were held in several cities across India under the banner of "#NotInMyName" to protest against the mob lynching. Manisha Kayande of Shiv Sena said Modi's statement has come late but is welcomed. She has said that though Modi had made a similar statement earlier, there is a need for strict action now. "Modi gave a clear message to his own people... Since the BJP government has come to the Centre, all this is happening. Who are they to kill in the name in the name of cow protection? We know who is provoking them and which party is behind them," Kayande said.

Girish Karnad, a 79-year-old playwright and film director said Modi should instead be talking to the people within the BJP who have made life difficult for cattle traders. "What’s the point of the prime minister preaching to us?" Karnad asked.

"He should be preaching to his party men, to those who have created this problem 43

in the first place." Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, said that the prime minister's words won't have desired action. Gau rakhshaks get direct support from BJP, Sangh." D Raja, CPI national secretary said that the prime minister has broken his silence after long. PM statement is mere lip service as there has been slip between cup & lip: Asaduddin Owaisi Will any fundamental change in Modi mind possible?

Possibly PM Modi uttered these words as one of his favored monologues called “man ki bat� while addressing a public meeting to mark the centenary of the Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati ashram in Ahmadabad, Modi said indulging in violence in the name of "gau bhakti" goes fully against the ideals of the Father of the Nation. Voicing his concern on the spate of incidents of lynching and violence over cows' protection, the prime minister said nothing would be achieved from such acts. "Today, I want to express my sadness and my pain, when I am here at the Sabarmati ashram," he said. "This is a country which has the tradition of giving food to ants, street dogs, fish, a country where Mahatma Gandhi taught us lessons of non-violence. What has happened to us?" Modi asked. "If a patient dies due to an unsuccessful operation, relatives burn down hospitals and beat up doctors.

Accident is an accident. When people die or are injured in the accidents, a group of people come together and burn vehicles," he said, pointing out the prevalent trend among the people of taking law into their hands, and the mob violence. "Nobody would have practiced cow protection and cow worship more than Mahatma Gandhi and (his follower) Vinoba Bhave. They showed us the way how to protect cow. The country will have to adopt their way," the prime minister said.

The comments come just days after a Muslim teenager was brutally killed on a train by a group of Hindu men. He did not ask the concerned departments to book the Hindutva criminals. Soon thousands of Indians took part in protests against rising attacks on Muslims and Dalits (formerly untouchables) by vigilante groups. Similar protests under the banner #NotInMyName were held in several Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Allahabad, as well as in London. Gatherings are also planned for later in the week in Chennai city as well as in Toronto in Canada, Boston in the US, and Karachi in Pakistan.

Modi just expressed his opinion that killing people in the name of cow protection was "not in keeping with the principles of India's founding father, Mahatma Gandhi". "As a society, there is no place for violence," Modi said, adding that "no person has the right to take the law in his or her own hands". Bur those criminals who have taken law into their own dirty hands are free to operate in the country now.

However, it is indeed significant that for the first time in his life and career, Modi says something fundamentally against the RSS ideology by criticizing the Hindus 44

who target Muslims in the name of cow and beef to garner Hindu votes. Since Congress and other so called “secular� parties like SP, JRD, BSP, etc are also proHindu and anti-Muslim parties that steal Muslim votes and betray them. These Hindu parties pretend to be sympathizing with Muslims just for their votes and they are essentially anti-Islam. All these political parties and their leaders have betrayed Muslims; hit them both from behind and from the front. They see Muslims in India are powerless and hapless.

In a tough message against cow vigilantism and mob lynching, Narendra Modi said killing people on pretext of protecting cows is not acceptable and warned that no one has the right to take law into his hands. His statement on gau rakshaks: Words not enough, strict action required, says Opposition. Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally broke his silence on the killing of people in the name of gau bhakti (cow worship). Condemning the attacks, he said, "This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve." His statement elicited some strong reactions from all quarters.

Failure of India's political imagination: Beef lynching Beef is a staple and cheap meat for Muslims, Christians and millions of low-caste Dalits (formerly untouchables) who have been at the receiving end of the violence perpetrated by the cow vigilante groups.

PM Modi must take action against those Hindutva criminals who kill Muslims or others only to get more Hindu votes. Ruing that the "state has been complicit in murders in the cow's name", Gandhi hoped that Modi's statement should be the beginning of a change. Janata Dal-United (JD-U) spokesman KC Tyagi said he does not see any substance in Modi's remarks. "I don't think the prime minister's socalled warning to cow vigilantes has any meaning. The prime minister has spoken on cow vigilantism earlier too, but it has had little impact on the ground.In fact, every time he issues such advisory to gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes), the incidents of violence in the name of cow go up," Tyagi told IANS.

What officers in the city of Malegaon in Maharashtra, one of India's most populous states, are doing in an attempt to enforce its new beef ban. "We are keeping the photographs for verification purposes only," one policeman said. “If someone alleges that some illegal activity has taken place and if the owner has a photo, it will be easy to establish the truth." I'm not sure that's right. How do you match a steak with a photo of a cow? To be fair, this is a tough law to enforce. You'd pretty much have to catch the newly criminalized butchers with their hands in a cow carcass - literally "red-handed" - to be certain of conviction. That's because, without DNA analysis or a very refined palate, it is hard to tell the difference between beef and buffalo meat.

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Criminalized Hindus don’t want any proof in order to kill Muslims.

Photographs are morphed too.

Unfortunately for India's buffaloes, they aren't regarded as close enough to God to deserve protection. Buffalo is banned in just one of the country's 29 states.

Beef, meanwhile, is already banned in most of Hindutva-BJP minded northern and western India, and there are partial bans in most of the rest of the country.

There is an economic issue in tightening the laws. The Hindu majority - 80% of the country’s 1.2 billion people - regards cows as divine; the 180 million-strong Muslim minority sees them as a tasty meal. Many Muslims see the extension of the beef ban as evidence of an assault on one of the key principles on which independent India was founded - secularism.

Vigilante cow protection groups, operating with impunity, have killed people for transporting cattle. Muslim men have been lynched by Hindu mobs, mostly in BJPruled states, for allegedly storing beef and, in one case, for helping an mixed-faith couple elope.

Many are wondering whether India is hurtling towards a "mobocracy" under Modi’s watch. They also question the prime minister's silence over the killings. There is a sense of a rapid breakdown of law and order when it comes to protecting minorities.

The police at the railway station in BJP-ruled Haryana failed to save the teenager.

The local police station chief told The Times of India newspaper that they could not rescue the boy because of the criminal crowd. "Such things happen. Whenever there is a riot or fight such things happen and people say some communal things but we can't do anything," he said.

The ultra fanatic chief minister of BJP-ruled Rajasthan, where 55-year-old dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was lynched in April, offered condolences over his "demise" without mentioning the fact that he had been murdered. A BJP lawmaker said he had "no regret" over the killing because Khan was a "cow-smuggler".

The spate of mob murders is earning a bad name both for Hinduism and Modi's government. "India is slipping beyond the pale. It is unfathomable that the ancient Hindu horror at the taking of life, any life - the very same doctrine of ahimsa, or non-violence, that governed the beliefs of men like Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr - should in our time be used as a justification for murder," noted author Aatish Taseer, writing in The New York Times.

The Economist magazine has suggested that under Modi debate about communal relations has "atrophied".

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To be sure, hate crimes are not new to India. The crisis of violence is not unique to the country either - many point to the US, where there are high rates of gun crime.

And mob lynching is also not new to India. Hundreds of people - more than 630between 1982 and 1984 alone - were murdered by mobs during the threedecade-long Communist rule in West Bengal. The reckless vigilantism was blamed in part on political oppression and appalling law and order. Interestingly, there was little public outrage.

On the day of Junaid Khan's killing, a Muslim police officer was beaten to death by a Muslim mob outside the main mosque in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indianadministered Kashmir.

Earlier this month a Muslim activist was allegedly murdered by overzealous government officials after he objected to them taking pictures of women defecating in the open. India has a shambolic record when it comes to religious violence. It ranks fourth worst in the world for religious intolerance, according to a recent Pew Research Centre analysis.

Women are routinely branded as witches and lynched to death for property in large parts of the country. There are also high rates of domestic violence. But the problem with Modi's government, say many, is that it is seen as ineffective - or unwilling - to rein in the thuggish Hindu mobs. It is, in the words of sociologist Shiv Visvanathan, a "politics of insecurity and anxiety" which is leading to anarchy even as the "state watches lynching as a spectacle".

Many wonder whether India is staring into a dangerous abyss when a government with a majority led by a powerful leader refuses to condemn hate crimes and a vast number of citizens stay silent or appear to privately support it.

A lawyer tweeted that he had "family elders supporting [the lynching]. Took me great self-control to avoid anger".

Why is there a lack of outrage outside a handful of journalists, teachers and activists? Have most Indians become inured to violence and intolerance?

On Wednesday, countrywide protests are being planned against such "targeted" murders.

What many Indians who choose to remain silent do not realize is that small-scale and large-scale violence are intimately connected. The perpetuation of hate crimes can easily lead to wider violence. "Every act of violence that you tolerate without protest, brings it a step closer to your doorstep. It is because small violence is tolerated that big violence is rendered possible," writes Sudipta Kaviraj from Columbia University.

It is a warning India ignores again and again.

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Modi government’s food fascism

The BJP’s tallest party leader and PM Modi has repeatedly reasserted his commitment to secularism yet the party has supported the clampdown on beef in Maharashtra. That's why while the idea of cow mug shots may be amusing, the beef ban is deadly serious.

A lawmaker from India's southern state of Kerala has announced that he is returning to eating meat, beef inclusive, fish and eggs after practicing vegetarianism for nearly two decades. There's nothing unusual about a lapsed vegetarian but VT Balram said his decision was prompted by the federal Hindu nationalist BJP government's attempt to seize the people's right to eat what they wanted. "I have been living without eating meat, fish or eggs since 1998. But now the time has come break it and uphold the right politics of food assertively," Balram said, while posting a video of him eating beef with friends and fellow party workers.

The BJP believes that cows should be protected, because they are considered holy

by India's majority Hindu population. Some 18 Indian states have already banned slaughter of cattle. But millions of Indians, including Dalits (formerly untouchables), Muslims and Christians, consume beef. And it's another matter, say many, that there's no outrage against the routine selling of male calves by Hindu farmers and pastoralists to middlemen for slaughter as the animals are of little use - bullocks have been phased out by tractors in much of rural India, and villagers need to rear only the occasional bull.

The government, then run by Akhilesh Yadav, appeared to buy peace on the cheap.

Yadav flew out Akhlaq's family to the state capital, Lucknow, upped compensation for the family for the third time since the incident and assured them justice and security. The Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal's foray into the village, again nearly a week after the incident, accused the police of trying to stop him from entering the village and then, and attacked other parties for "indulging in vote bank politics". Been there, heard that. The state appears to have withered away under Akhilesh Yadav rule; and incidents of religious clashes and crime are on the rise.

The opposition parties have done no better. Rahul Gandhi, the heir-apparent of the enfeebled 129-year-old Congress party, visited Akhlaq's family nearly a week after the incident. He put out half-a-dozen anodyne tweets, saying "touched by the desire of the villagers to maintain harmony" and that this "spirit will help the country through tough times". It was almost if this "politics of naivetĂŠ and adolescence", Gandhi's politics, had abdicated from its responsibility of shoring up bipartisan secular support against the poison of communalism, and left it to the people to fend for themselves. This is all India's Grand Old Party could manage.

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Cow a polarising animal

Ironically, the cow has become a polarising animal. Two years ago, a mob attacked a man and killed him over "rumours" that his family ate beef. Vigilante cow protection groups, operating with impunity, have killed people for transporting cattle. More recently, the chief of BJP's powerful ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers' Organisation) has called for a countrywide ban on the slaughter of cows. And this week, a senior judge said the cow should be declared a national animal and people who slaughter cows should be sentenced to life in prison.

Many say this is all contributing to effectively killing India's thriving buffalo meat trade.

Earlier this week, several Indian states opposed the federal government's decision to ban the sale of cattle for slaughter at livestock markets. The government said the order was aimed at preventing uncontrolled and unregulated animal trade.

But the ban, say many, could end up hurting some $4bn (ÂŁ3.11bn) in annual beef exports and millions of jobs. There are some 190 million cattle in India, and tens of millions "go out of the system" - die or need to be slaughtered - every year. How will poor farmers sell their animals?

So, as lawyer Gautam Bhatia says, the new rules are "perceived as imposing an indirect beef ban". He believes the government will find it difficult to defend them if they are challenged in the court - one state court, responding to a petition that they violate the right of a person to chose what he eats, has already put the ban on hold.

The badly-drafted rules, Mr Bhatia says, are "an opportunity for citizens and courts to think once again whether the prescription of food choices is consistent with a Constitution that promises economic and social liberty to all".

Critics have been calling the beef ban an example of "dietary profiling" and "food fascism". Others say it smacks of cultural imperialism, and is a brazen attack on India's secularism and constitutional values. Don't laugh, but there could be a conspiracy to turn India vegetarian, screamed a recent headline.

Many believe that the BJP, under Narendra Modi, appears to be completely out of depth with India's widely diverse food practices which have always been distinguished by religion, region, caste, class, age and gender.

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Indians now eat more meat, including beef - cow and buffalo meat - than ever.

Consumption of beef grew up 14% in cities, and 35% in villages, according to government data analyzed by IndiaSpend, a non-profit data journalism initiative.

Beef is the preferred meat in north-eastern states like Nagaland and Meghalaya.

According to National Sample Survey data, 42% Indians describe themselves as vegetarians who don't eat eggs, fish or meat; another baseline government survey showed 71% of Indians over the age of 15 are non-vegetarian.

Governments have tried to impose food bans and choices around the world, mostly using health and environment concerns and hygiene concerns.

In the US, for example, groups have rallied against subsidised vegetables, outlawing large sodas, promotion of organic food and taxing fat. Bangkok is banning street food to clean up streets and enforce hygiene standards.

India has done the same in the past. Crops like BT brinjal have been stalled by the government and industrially manufactured food like Maggi noodles banned temporarily amid claims they contained dangerously high levels of lead. Scarcity has also led to bans - a ban of milk sweets in the 1970s in Delhi was justified because milk used to be in short supply.

To the extent that this ban on cattle slaughter justifies itself by speaking of 'unfit and infected cattle', it seems to invoke public health, but then stops short by not banning the sale of goats, sheep and chicken as well," sociologist Amita Baviskar told me. "In fact, the public health argument leads logically to a move towards better regulation like stricter checking of animals for disease, more hygienic slaughter and storage of meat rather than a flat-out ban."

Clearly, the ban appears to be working already.

Observation: Don’t convert Bharat Mata a criminal pl Those who claim domestic animal cow to be their god do not keep the cows in their bed rooms or in prayer room alongside the god photos, because they cannot stand the horrible smell and dirt. Those who kill Muslims in the name of Bharat Mata indeed insult India and military that uses the phrase to make the solders work for the salary they receive. In fact, these Hindutva people should join military and police forces to work for the nation free of cost.

That would make a difference to their claim to be patriots that they often use to insult Muslims being unpatriotic claim.

India, now controlled by right wing Hindutva nationalist party, has been, since it came to power in 2014, pushing for a Hindutva state just like its Zionist ally Israel has already embarked upon a extremist Jewish state in Israel. While PM Modi 50

keeps silence on the crucial issues and Hindu-Muslim conflict over lynching of Muslims over beef, the BJP and other Hindutva extreme factions keep attacking Muslims and speak ill of Islam.

The Hindutva criminal elements are sure that BJP and other Hindu parties can service in state assemblies sand parliament only if Muslims, Kashmiris, are brutally targeted and Pakistan is shown as enemy number one of India and Hindus. Indian core media just obey the Hindutva leaders for business cum Hindutva reasons.

The meat-eating habits of Indians have been changing rapidly in the last couple of decades and the chicken, once regarded as a "dirty bird" eating all sorts of things on their ways, is now the most popular meat. Long queues are there in the evening in front of places that serve chicken and roti, etc. Also, there is a greater polarization taking place between red states (meat-eating) and white states (chicken eating). Within the white states, meat-eaters will have to skulk about, looking over their shoulder as they bite into a beef kebab".

Rich alone can afford highly costly mutton. Beef is significantly cheaper than chicken and fish and is part of the staple diet for many Muslims, tribal people and dalits - the low caste Indians who used to be called untouchables. It is also the basis of a vast industry which employs or contributes to the employment of millions of people. But, as with so much conflict in the world, the real reason the ban is such a sensitive issue here is religion.

RSS-BJP duo continues to discover new themes to target Muslims. Selling red meat, even goat meat, in BJP-ruled states is dangerous now and injurious to one's health.

Who would want to risk the wrath of the vigilantes?

Mohammad Akhlaq, an ironsmith, was killed in his village in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, barely 50km (31 miles) from the Indian capital. His 22-year-old son Danish was seriously injured in the attack. Another son, Mohammad Sartaj, who works as a technician with the Indian Air Force, survived the attack because he does not live in the village.

What does the aftermath of the lynching of a 50-year-old Muslim man by a criminal Hindu mob over rumours that his family had been consuming beef say about political imagination in India?

Lynching a person merely on suspicion that he or she may have eaten beef is aa serious crime, the antithesis of all that India stands for and all that Hinduism preaches", almost implying that lynching a person. Sedition law should be slapped

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those echo kill humans for eating beef because they violate Indian Constitution that protects minority rights.

Hindutva criminals that seek to control even judiciary, argue that any Indian living in India who has consumed beef should be killed by Hindus and law and their beef crime does not deserve to be condoned.

The main problem with India is the regime supports everything that the Hindutva criminals do. Secularism in India means something a little different from elsewhere.

It doesn't mean the state stays out of religion; here it means the state is committed to supporting different religions equally. Hindutva people are antidemocracy and anti-secularism because they are anti-Muslim. They are responsible for partition of India and murder of father of Nation. Cruelly, they are still active to destroy the unity of nation and people.

India's secularism was a response to Hindutva maneuverings and horrors of the partition when millions of people were murdered as Hindus and Muslims fled their homes. The country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, argued equal treatment was a reasonable concession to the millions of Muslims who'd decided to risk all by staying in India. But India is now governed by a Hindu nationalist party, the BJP. It sees India as a Hindu nation.

India's triumph has been in forging a nation in which Hindus and Muslims can live happily together. But RSS is opposed to peace. The fear is that the beef ban is part of a state process that is gradually undermining not just the compromises of genuine nation that made that possible but insulted the Constitution of India which guarantees protection of minorities and their belongings in this country, which is indeed is a serious Sedition case for life imprisonment. When Hindus violate Constitution their own by employing Muslims- they should be punished. .

The reaction to Dadri indeed points to a larger failure of India's political imagination cutting across national and regional political spectrum. India's democracy - a gift which has kept the diverse country together - appears to be all about winning elections alone by hook and crook. Every party sees every issue as a political opportunity. There is this obsession with electoral politics alone. Electoral democracy has actually become anti-democracy. Electoral politics has become obscene in India. This is the view of many critics.

The fact that Akhlaq's last call for help was to a Hindu friend before the mob descended on his house, and that a number of Hindu families in the village moved many of their Muslim neighbours to safety also offer hope. This proves that India's armed forces remain resolutely secular and most of its people - despite the fact that many in Akhlaq's village showed no remorse after the incident - remain plural, notwithstanding media menace. But the greedy Hindutva politicians know how to poison the minds of people of all walks of life in single stroke of rhetoric.

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The poverty of political imagination did not end with Modi's silence and media articles from Hindutva cynics. High caste Mahesh Sharma, federal culture minister and local MP, visited the dead man's family, and said that the "murder took place as a reaction to that incident", alluding to rumours of cow slaughter in the area.

Sharma reminded reporters that there was a teenage girl - Akhlaq's daughter - in the home, and nobody had touched her, as if India's women should be eternally grateful for such small mercies.

Hindutva criminals have taken law into their own hands. And, BJP party lawmaker Sangeet Som, visited the victim's village and stoked religious tensions by saying Hindus were capable of giving a "befitting reply" if innocent members of the community were "framed" for the murder. No Hindutva guy should be punished under law!!!

BJP and likeminded Hindu communal parties thrive in India because of lack of honesty and sincerity on the part of political class, ably supported by executive and judiciary. Media lords try to fish in troubled waters and make maximum profits. .

India, clearly, needs to fix its dysfunctional democracy. On the one hand it needs more but credible democracy, but the idea of democracy cannot begin and end with elections alone. Until that happens, lives like Mohammad Akhlaq's will continue to be lost because of, say, the politics of food. Will India's corrupt and anti-Muslim parties please stand up?

One wonders in which direction the Hindu leaders led by Hindutva BJP and soft Hindutva Congress and other so-called “secular� parties along with their Muslims vote bank managers take India?

Post-script

A week into the horrific incident in his backyard, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, usually so active on social media, has maintained a studied silence. He has expressed his "gratitude to American people" for their hospitality during his recent trip to the USA, feels indebted to the Jewish pork with which he was offered sumptuous dinners in Israel; he greeted a cabinet colleague and a governor on their birthdays, offered his condolences on the death of a singer's son and congratulated a billiards champion on his prolific twitter feed. Not a word on Akhlaq.

Modi's soundlessness on Dadri, is the "silence of indifference which becomes obscene, because it denies dignity to the victim". Modi is not a BJP leader alone, he is now PM of entire India.

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Later on July 16, speaking at a BJP meeting in New Delhi, PM Narendra Modi said cow vigilantism should not be given political or communal color. Modi speaks out against lynching in the name of cow protection again, asks states to take strict action So, a big statement has come from the big boss, PM Narendra Modi again amid ongoing controversies over cow vigilantism in various regions of the country. PM Narendra Modi asked all the states to take strict action against those violating law in name of cow protection. “The cow vigilantism should not be given political or communal color; the nation doesn’t benefit from it, said Modi at the meet. Also, PM Modi said that the “belief” that cow is like ‘mother’ but this should not let people take law in their own hands.

Those who worship cow do not let the animal stay in their bed rooms but let stay in dirty places behind the house. Briefing the media after all party meet, Union Minister Ananth Kumar said, “PM said that strict action will be taken against such people (gau rakshak violence). According to news agency ANI, PM Modi also asked various parties and states to take action against corrupt leaders. PM Modi has asked all parties and states to cooperate in the probe against corrupt leaders.

But how sincere he is in his rhetoric remains to be seen!

. Will the RSS and BJP sanyasis let Modi have his final say over Hindutva criminal operations in democratic and secular India?

Earlier, a day ahead of the start of the Monsoon session of Parliament, the CPI (M) said it would raise the issue of cow vigilantism in the House and demand the 54

passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill. CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters here there were 16 bills listed by the government in what was perhaps going to be the shortest Monsoon session.

Modi became famous in BJP and RSS because of his Hindutva actions. He never opened his mouth so far even his so-called “man ki baat” – regular twitter feature about his thoughts,

and only now he opened his mind. This is indeed a fantastic

monologue by India’s Hindutva leader cum PM.

But how sincere is he about what he says? Will he take action against the Hindutva criminal elements that do all this in order to force Hindus to vote for BJP and likeminded Hindutva parties?

That is the trillion dollar question!

Chapter-9: Japan dispatches warship to protect US vessel -Dr. Abdul Ruff _______

Putting at rest all speculations about the waning of relations between USA and Japan and a discreet declaration for supporting NATO at all cost, Japan has dispatched its biggest warship to shield US supply vessel, in the first such operation since it passed controversial laws expanding the role of its military. The helicopter carrier Izumo is spotted escorting a US supply vessel within Japanese waters. Japan has walked an extra mile in order to be seen as a strong US partner.

Japan also carried out a failed missile test on Sunday, despite repeated warnings from the US and others to stop its nuclear and missile activity.

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The US ship is heading to refuel the naval fleet in the region, including the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group. The 249m-long Izumo can carry up to nine helicopters, and resembles US amphibious assault carriers.

The Japanese action as a leading member of NATO military terror alliance was in response to North Korea threat to sink the Carl Vinson and a US submarine, amid rising tensions in the region. The Izumo's deployment follows recent joint exercises conducted by Japan and the USA, and other naval developments. China last week launched its second aircraft carrier.

Kyodo news agency said it was leaving its base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, to join the US supply ship and accompany it to waters off Shikoku in western Japan.

Japan's post-World War Two constitution bars its military from using force to resolve conflicts except in cases of self-defense.

Pacifist Japan has one of the most powerful militaries in the world, with a navy bigger and more modern than the British Royal Navy.

Japan can protect the weapons and equipment of its allies' armed forces who are defending Japan. It can provide logistical support to allies involved in situations with "important influence" on Japan's security - for example it could support South Korea if the North invaded, but may stop short of sending troops as this may be unconstitutional. Japan can shoot down a North Korean missile heading for the US. Military action such as minesweeping to keep shipping lanes secure, even in an active conflict zone, may be allowed if the restriction on shipping threatened Japan's survival.

Tokyo could have sent a much smaller destroyer to escort the US Navy's Richard E Byrd. But sending the 27,000-tonne Izumo was perhaps too good an opportunity for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Defence Minister Tomomi Inada to waste.

Both Abe and Ms Inada are right-wing nationalists who want to scrap Japan's pacifist constitution. That is all but impossible. So instead, last year, Abe succeeded in pushing a new security law through parliament.

In effect the new law ignores the constitution, and says Japan's forces can come to the defense of its allies. Abe knows there is widespread public opposition to "remilitarizing" Japan. So in that context, the growing threat from North Korea is useful to him.

One view is that North Korea's threats are over exhausted and are just posturing and it is unlikely to follow through with an actual attack. Observers say that while North Korea is working towards achieving full nuclear missile capability, it is highly doubtful that it has a working long-range missile that could hit the USA. Several of its recent missile tests, including one earlier this month, have failed.

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But if North Korea were to actually launch a strike, neighbouring South Korea and Japan could be top targets. Pyongyang appears to have working missiles that could hit those countries. Both countries have anti-missile defence systems - some supplied by the US - that could thwart incoming rockets. Japan's system employs Aegis destroyer ships and land-based Patriot PAC-3 units, according to its defence ministry. In South Korea, the US is in the midst of deploying its controversial Thaad anti-missile defence system. Both countries are also currently conducting preplanned joint military exercises with the USA Japanese authorities also issued guidelines last Friday to the public on how to survive a missile attack. They say it would only take minutes for a missile to reach Japan and urged citizens to seek shelter in buildings or underground. Citizens have been told that if a missile lands nearby, they should cover their mouths and noses and run away - if indoors they should stay away from windows to avoid injuries from shattering glass. They would be alerted about an incoming attack on TV, mobile phones, radio and outdoor loudspeaker systems via a system called J-Alert.

One prefecture government conducted an evacuation drill last month and several local officials are now calling for nationwide drills. Meanwhile in South Korea, which is more used to the North's threats, the mood appears to be less tense with little sign of ramped-up civil defence preparations. Authorities regularly conduct evacuation drills and also have an emergency alert system.

Due to its location just 56km (35 miles) from the North Korean border, the South Korean capital Seoul is also vulnerable to artillery fire. Last week, North Korea conducted a large-scale firing drill to mark its army's 85th founding anniversary.

Analysts say the country has more than 20,000 artillery pieces and the BBC's Diplomatic Editor Mark Urban says its capability would be hard to neutralise.

South Korea meanwhile has a long history of border skirmishes with the North.

One of the most serious incidents in recent years took place in 2010, when North Korea shelled the island of Yeonpyeong at the two countries' maritime border, killing several soldiers and civilians. That same year saw the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in the same area, killing 46 sailors. The incident was attributed to a North Korean torpedo launched from a submarine. In 2015 Pyongyang also fired a rocket towards the South Korean town of Yeoncheon on the western border, prompting an evacuation.

Last month Pyongyang launched several missiles into the Sea of Japan, with three landing in Japanese waters. PM Shinzo Abe called it a "new stage of threat".

Japanese authorities have also said that a North Korean long-range rocket launched in February 2016 passed over islands in Okinawa prefecture, travelling 1,600km (994 miles) within 10 minutes.

A French amphibious assault ship arrived in south-west Japan on Saturday for an exercise also involving Japanese, USA and British naval forces. South Korea has been conducting joint exercises with the USA as well.

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Both the USA and North Korea have been trading heated rhetoric since the USA announced it would deploy a group of warships to the region. Pyongyang has reacted furiously and threatened a pre-emptive strike.

With tensions rising on the Korean peninsula, the possibility of a missile or nuclear weapon landing in South Korea and Japan, according to western propaganda mills, has now become more real.

Speculations are ripe to point that there is likely to be a nuclear or missile strike in region. However, such fears are manufactured by western media lords to terrorize the humanity and blame China and North Korea for all tensions in the region.

But no war can bring solution to the regional problems. . __________________

Chapter-9:Tamil Nadu politics: Will factions end the crisis in AIADMK and focus on governance?

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _____ Governance in Tamil Nadu is standstill and in reverse gear with two factions fighting an almost street fight, making the life of common people miserable. As a mere stunt, the Palanisamy government makes announcements of allocation of money for projects but nothing is happing on the ground. Possibly the middlemen from the ruling party/government side collects the commission amounts first because the government they fear would fall any time.

Meanwhile, the opposition DMK is gearing up for a possible government formation and Sasikala-Palanisamy duo would prefer DMK to OPS. They say they have

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removed Sasikala and Dinakaran but they refuse to step down to show that they don’t want to enjoy the privileges that come with ministerial posts.

MGR floated ADMK which was later made AIADMK, giving it a national framework so that the central government’s threat of doing away with regional parties became irrelevant. Sasikala has easily divided the ruing AIADMK probably beyond repair work as her followers in the government still worship her as little goddess, maybe leaving Jayalalithaa to OPS. People of Tamil Nadu are apparently confused now over their decision to vote the AIADMK under Jayalithaa to power a few months ago. Sasikala along with her supporters in the party exploited the post-Jaya death situation to their advantage and took infamous action illegally removing O Panneerselvam from CM post and sacking him from the post of party Treasurer.

Founder MGR and Amma created this party as a party for the people and cadres, this is a democratic party for people and cadres. AIADMK should not be controlled by one family. Jayalalithaa's death must be probed. But Sasikala and family now control both the party and hard earned government.

Former CM Panneerselvam says that AIADMK must be saved from dynastic politics; he says the party should not be in the hands of a family. The family which betrayed Jayalalithaa will have to go, says OPS, “I am an ardent follower of Amma, want to tread the path shown by her”.

Throwing indications of growing dissent against ruling AIADMK chief VK Sasikala and her nephew Dinakaran, who has been named in a bribery case relating to a tussle over party's frozen symbol 'two leaves', former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and

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Jayalalithaa loyalist O Panneerselvam hinted that he is open for merger under certain conditions to protect party from negative side effects.

In signs of thaw on AIADMK merger move, the factions led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and the one by O Panneerselvam, last week announced formation of their respective committees to hold discussions. Rajya Sabha MP R Vaithilingam will head the panel set up by the Palaniswami group while the Panneerselvam camp tonight named senior leader and former minister K P Munusamy as the head of a seven-member committee.

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam earlier broke his silence and claimed that Sasikala has betrayed late AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa. While also claiming that there is no place for Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakakaran in the AIADMK, OPS said that he will continue to fight to protect the legacy of 'Amma'.

The federal government, controlled by Hindutva BJP, watches the political fiasco in Tamil nadu with keen interest with a view to increasing its chances of winning least a seat next time. Jayalalithaa has undone BJP and many other parties in the state with zero presence in the state assembly. In fact she has made many political parties in the state irrelevant. But now without her, all these parties hope to make a comeback by using the split in the ruling AIADMK Speculation is indeed thrilling.

Conspiracy

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The mysterious death of popular CM Jayalalithaa and post-Jaya occurrences like Sasikala’s rise to control the party and government, etc, give rise suspicion about a conspiracy in the state.

Former CM Panneerselvam protested and acted swiftly to raise his opposition to V.K. Sasikala & family efforts to capture the party and government his voice became profound as more and more people joined him. The by-poll in RK Nagar constituency added more impetus to him, making him the most important leader in AIADMK. Apparently, Sasikala, Dinakaran and those who oppose OPS are also indirectly opposed to Jayalithaa for not making Sasikala the acting CM or General Secretary by creating a post Deputy GS to accommodate both suitably. Many ministers and MLAs on the Sasikala band were angry with Jayalithaa for her choice of OPS as the acting CM when she went to jail on disproportionate assets that repeatedly insulted their claims to be extra loyal to her.

Who authorised the ministers to convene a meeting in the absence of AIADMK Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran but decided nothing, making it clear that they cannot go against him. When the ministers met at the party HQ, Sasikala or Dinakaran did not object to that.

In fact, in a real course, “GS” Sasikala would have expelled Palanisamy and friends from the party and government. And a new government would have been appointed by Sasikala. That is because entire scrip is a drama written by Sasikala in jail.

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That means the ruling faction does exactly what the jailed leader from Bangalore says.

Double minds While the AIADMK led by former CM Pannerselvam seems to be genuinely serious about the unity of factions within AIADMK and strengthen the party and government so that MGR-Jaya rule continues, the ruling faction unofficially led by CM Palanisamy continues to worship jailed corrupt Sasikala as their demigod and to ensure support of the OPS faction of MLAs so that the incumbent government would continue its full term easily.

It appears, though the government and its MLAs seek the OPS support for sustaining the government

they don’t want to make OPS the CM again. In fact,

many of these MLAs and ministers used Sasikala and Dinakaran to oust O Panneerselvam from CM post and remove him s from the post of Treasurer of the party- the post MGR held when he was in DMK and later was sacked from it and removed from the then ruling DMK by CM Karunanidhi.

This explains the cause of their rejection of OPS as the CM once again, when Sasikala calls all the shots from the jail.

Pannerselvam faction has made it amply clear that AIADMK should not have Sasikala, Dinakaran or any of their relatives in the party or government and they demand a fair probe on the death of Jayalithaa at Apollo hospital. Both demand, obviously, are unacceptable to the Sasikala faction.

Though Palanisamy faction said they have removed Sasikala and Dinakaran form AIDMK, the OPS faction is not convinced about the “removal” because on what 62

authority they have removed h the top leaders who gave them power to rule? They consider this as a drama by Sasikala and Dinakaran to fool the OPS faction. In trustingly, Sasikala and Dinakaran did not raise any question on the issue thereby reveling indirectly the fake “encounter”.

Both factions of OPS and EPS have formed panels to decide the modalities of the “merger”. AIADMK leaders' met onboard INS Chennai still underway, many including D Jayakumar, P Thangamani and CV Shanmugam attending it.

Party symbol After the death of Jayalithaa, the AIADMK party is getting weakened with factions taking the party to opposite paths and as days pass by the party may not be able to sustain itself as a cohesive party without the presence of Jayalalithaa.

AIADMK has lost its party symbol “Two-leaves” and Sasikala is responsible for the loss of the party symbol ‘two-leaves’ as she let the party split. The Election Commission of India has frozen the AIADMK`s two leaves symbol with two factions -- one led by party ‘General Secretary’ Sasikala and the other by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam -- claiming it as their own.

Dhinakaran, the nephew of jailed AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala, is facing a revolt by an influential section of the party led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and a host of ministers, who had on Tuesday declared the ouster of the once powerful aunt-nephew duo, and extended a hand of friendship to the Panneerselvam camp.

Sasikala faction is trying all tricks, including offering bribes, to obtain the party symbol from the election commission. But with factions existing, the party symbol would remain frozen.

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It has been learnt that Dinakaran had allegedly struck a deal for Rs 50 crore for helping the AIADMK faction keep the 'two leaves' symbol. Also, Dinakaran tried to bribe voters Dinakaran gave 4000 per voter in the recent byelection at RK Nagar and IT raids were conducted unearthing evidences.

Conditional merger plan The developments leading to a merger move came a day after the talks appeared to have hit a roadblock with the Panneerselvam camp seeking formal expulsion of V K Sasikala and Dhinakaran from the party. It had also sought a CBI probe into the circumstances leading to former chief minister Jayalalithaa's death on 5 December last year.

The talks for a merger gained ground after an FIR was registered against Dinakaran for bribing the Election Commission officials for staking claim of the `Two Leaves` party symbol. Following this, Sukesh Chandrasekhar, Dinakaran`s alleged middleman was arrested by police for striking a deal of Rs. 50 crore to help the AIADMK faction keep the `two leaves` poll symbol.

Earlier, the ministers and senior leaders met at the party headquarters here under Palaniswami. Following the Cabinet's revolt against him early this week, Dhinakaran had said he was "stepping aside" in the interest of the party.

The Palanaismami camp constituted its committee led by Vaithilingam (which is likely to include some ministers) to hold talks with the Panneerselvam faction.

Responding to the development, Munusamy this evening announced that his faction would also constitute a committee soon to hold the merger talks.

A release from Panneerselvam camp said that former ministers C Ponnaiyan, R Viswanathan and K Pandiarajan, Rajya Sabha MP V Maithreyan, former MP T H Manoj Pandian and former MLA J C D Prabhakar are their members.

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KC Palanisamy, OPS camp leader said that in order to have a genuine unity of AIADMK, Sasikala and her family have to be kept away, directly or indirectly they shouldn't have any role within party. “We have not deviated from our stand and we stick to our basics. Any change in our stand shall be injustice to people of TN and AIADMK cadre”: Elevation of GS is not as per the bylaws of the party. Sasikala's elevation and in turn her subsequent actions is null and void. We have been insisting that the family against whom we have waged a war had indulged in activities bringing disrepute to the entire TN. They have submitted a petition to EC to follow the bylaws and give them the party symbol and justice.

Trust deficit While the ruling faction sought no conditions for the merger talks as they claim there are no factions but only differences of opinion between, hiding the serious ideological split in the party as the party’s image is affected by Sasikala-Dinakaran directly controlling the party and government.

OPS camp is not fully convinced of Sasikala followers to agree for any genuine unity and there is trust deficit. Hardening its stance for talks, the OPS camp had demanded that 30 members of the Sasikala family be formally expelled from the party. They also demanded withdrawal of affidavits submitted to the Election Commission by the Palaniswami faction, declaring Sasikala and Dhinakaran as party General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary, respectively.

Munusamy said the first demand was getting the resignation of Sasikala and Dhinakaran and later their formal expulsion along with 30 other members of their family. Munusamy had said he suspected "foul play" over the Palanisamy camp's decision of April 18 to remove Sasikala and Dhinakaran.

OPS faction does not quite trust the “oust” theory as apparently Sasikala and Dinakaran still control the party and government. In keeping with AIADMK party 65

practice, a party notification should be issued on Dhinakaran and Sasikala family's expulsion. He had said that the OPS camp would regard it as a full victory only if cadres were asked not to have any truck with the duo. Vaithilingam had retorted that there was "no drama" over the decision to ask Sasikala and Dhinakaran to keep away from the party and the government."There is no drama. We compelled him (Dhinakaran) to step aside and he did it happily," Vaithilingam said.

Fighting for CM post?

Media reports say both factions now fight for the CM post and they have no principles besides money and power. Now OPS camp wants VK Sasikala and her close relative Dinakaran to resign ahead of proposed AIADMK merger, wants Panneerselvam reinstated as Chief Minister and CBI probe instituted to bring out the truth about Jayalithaa’s death. Munusamy had in reply to a query from reporters said the OPS faction had not demanded the posts of either Chief Minister or party general secretary.

It is clear that the ruling faction to stay in power by using the other factions and is interested in the merger only to get back the party symbol, Two-leaves. “We need to protect the party symbol, so all must come together. This is not a question of the CM post; only of Amma's legacy” said Thambidurai.-Tamil Nadu people still support Amma's legacy. -There is no split in the party, only differences in opinion. We are sorting out all issues, says M Thambidurai quoted as saying by News18.

Meanwhile, former School Education Minister K Pandiarajan of OPS faction confirmed that the Palaniswami group had contacted them for talks. Earlier, the AIADMK (Amma) leader and Local Administration Minister S P Velumani quoted Palaniswami: “As far as we are concerned, we want to redeem the 'Two Leaves' symbol and remain united," he told reporters. Velumani said the common feeling in

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the faction was that there should be unity in the "party founded by MGR (M G Ramachandran) and taken forward by Amma (Jayalalithaa)".

Amid talks of merger between the O Panneerselvam and E Palaniswami factions of Tamil Nadu's ruling party - AIADMK - the support for VK Sasikala is apparently thinning and she is under tremendous pressure to resign from her post along with her nephew TTV Dinakaran who faces corruption charges.

In modification of his previous demands that did not mean anything to Sasikala, the OPS faction led by Panneerselvam has reportedly set a condition for merger – VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran should resign from their posts. Reports also claim that a lot of leaders from the Sasikala camp too have lost faith in her leadership and ready for a merger in order to strengthen the party.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami last week formed a sevenmember committee for holding merger talks with the rival O. Panneerselvam faction. The committee is headed by lawmaker R Vaithiyalingam and includes ministers C. Sreenivasan, KA Sengottaiyan and D Jayakumar among others.

This came a day after the Panneerselvam-group threatened to quit the merger if their demands that Sasikala and Dinakaran resign from the party and a CBI inquiry into the death of late chief minister Jayalalithaa, are not met. "We demand that an affidavit be submitted by the other camp stating that Sasikala and Dinakaran no longer hold party position to the Election Commission. If this is done, we will consider it as first victory to our faction," former state minister and AIADMK member K P Munusamy said.

The OPS camp further alleged that Palanisamy is devising new ways to prevent the merger from taking place."Current Chief Minister Palaniswami, who was appointed 67

at the mercy of Sasikala, is not acting as the AIADMK Chief Minister rather he is acting as the Chief Minister of Sasikala and her family," he said.

In response, the Palaniswami-led group asked the other faction to take back its complaint regarding party symbol."Their camp went to EC first on the symbol issue, let them take back their complaint first," AIADMK MP R. Vaithilingam said.

Regarding the second demand for a probe on Jayalalithaa`s death, Vaithilingam said the demand for the same is under the court`s consideration, adding the government will follow the order.

EPS camp has reportedly welcomed the merger talks. Some top ministers of the Edappadi Palaniswami camp had an impromptu meeting. D Jayakumar, Finance Minister in the Palaniswami government said after the meeting that the group had discussed the party's election symbol issue and Panneerselvam's suggestion at merger.

Sidelined AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary Dhinakaran on Saturday appeared before the Delhi Police on his reported attempt to bribe Election Commission officials for retrieving the 'two leaves' symbol for his faction.

In a sudden move, some top leaders from AIADMK and TN govt ministers held an emergency meeting, hinting at the merger of two factions of AIADMK - O Panneerselvam and VK Sasikala camps. Some of them are opposed to merger as they lose their ministerial berths.

There are intense speculations of VK Sasikala resigning from her post as the party chief of AIADMK. This was later denied by Tamil Nadu finance minister, D

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Jayakumar. Whether or not Sasikala is ready to relinquish the post, she has not said anything in this regard.

Jayalalithaa loyalist O Panneerselvam hinted that he is open for merger under certain conditions to protect party from negative side effects. .

Delhi police grills Dina Meanwhile, Delhi Police had arrested Dinakaran’s alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrashekhar with Rs 1.5 crore cash on Monday. The police also seized a BMW and a Mercedes car from him. Dinakaran and Sukesh had allegedly struck a deal of Rs 50 crore to help the AIADMK Sasikala faction keep the 'two leaves' symbol. The Delhi Police has booked Dinakaran for allegedly attempting to bribe Election Commission officials through Chandrasekar to get a favourable verdict in the party`s two leaves symbol case. Police have said that the duo struck a Rs 50 crore deal to try and bribe officials from the Election Commission

Dhinakaran, the nephew of jailed party chief Sasikala, is accused of attempting to bribe EC officials to get back the AIADMK's 'two leaves' symbol for his faction. The crime branch of Delhi Police grilled deputy general secretary of AIADMK (Amma) TTV Dhinakaran for nearly seven hours in New Delhi in the case pertaining to the alleged attempt to bribe EC officials. He was asked to appear before them again tomorrow for further questioning. As part of investigation, the officers also go through the call records of the politician. Dinakaran appeared before Delhi Police`s interstate crime Branch office in Chanakyapuri in the capital`s diplomatic enclave following its April 19 summons with Saturday deadline. "Dinakaran reached at the

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Crime Branch office and was questioned over nine hours," said a Crime Branch official.

High drama was witnessed last week when a Dinakaran follower attempted selfimmolation when police arrived at his Besant Nagar residence in Chennai to serve him summons. The Delhi Police had issued a lookout notice against the leader in the wake of inputs that Dhinakaran was an NRI and could try to flee the country.

The Crime Branch had on April 16 arrested an alleged middleman, Sukesh Chandrashekhar, in New Delhi in connection with the case. He claimed that he had told Dhinakaran that he will get a favourable verdict from the Election Commission of India in the party symbol case.

Dinakaran appeared before the investigators in Delhi in the afternoon after arriving from Chennai and was questioned till late night. Investigators said that Dinakaran`s personnel assistant was also interrogated over the issue and was asked if he knows the alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar who was arrested from a five-star hotel on April 16. They further said that Dinakaran was questioned alone and also confronted with Chandrasekar to clarify their versions over the issue.

The Delhi police brought Dinakaran to Chennai for further investigation and the probe is on.

Sasikala in jail, Dhinakaran towards jail VK Sasikala who has embarrassed the AIADMK people and betrayed the founding leader MGR and his supporter Jayalithaa, is being increasingly isolated as E

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Palaniswami camp wants her to resign along with nephew Dinakaran who faces corruption charges, claim sources.

Having seen all her pet dreams of becoming CM of Tamil Nadu crumbling as a mere day dream Sasikala is at present serving a four year jail term in Bengaluru in a multi-crore disproportionate assets case.

Dhinakaran, the nephew of jailed AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala, is facing a revolt by an influential section of the party led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and a host of ministers, who had on a hand of friendship to the Panneerselvam camp.

Observation: Danger bell!

While Tamil Nadu and the AIADMK people seem to have overcome the grief they endured following the sudden death of CM Jayalalithaa under mysterious circumstances, the factional infighting as well as the cause of the death of Jayalithaa continues to haunt them. They are unbearably pained that Sasikala has caused the traumatic conditions in the party and state by her dramatic removal of former CM O. Pannerselvam, the closet ally of AIAMDK supremo in order to secure the party leadership and CM post. .

As the picture is getting clear to the Sasikala faction that OPS faction is not frantically looking for opportunity to help the Sasikala and her ministry in jail, Palanisamy government appointed a committee to talk with OPS faction on merger.

If the ruling AIADMK Chinnamma faction is not keen for genuine unity by discarding Chinnamma, then, the OPS faction must end merger talks and all preparations for 71

unity. Sasikala needs the OPS MLAs to help the limping government give the government credibility, durability and legitimacy.

Sasikala is indirectly forcing the OPS faction to support any no trust motion against Palanisamy government so that government formed with MLAs who own the assembly polls by Jayalalithaa’s pro-poor policies and her immense power of vote appeal. EPS and government and supporting MLAs are being used by Sasikala as tools to discredit the government and party by belittling those leaders like OPS who were closer to Jaya than most of the Sasikala supporters.

As DMK and BJP are trying to fish in the troubled Tamil waters, Palanisamy and friends should be prudent in the most difficult stage of crisis in AIADMK this time and as the ruling party leader EPS needs to bring both factions together without caring for CM or GS post at this point of crucial time.

It is said that in order to make some noise both hands should come together and clap. Quality of clap determines the level of noise the hands make.

AIADMK still has 50 percent vote bank, while the DMK has only 30 percent.

Compromises are always possible. Dinakaran is out as he has been taken into jail in New Delhi.

DMK says merger of 'power-monger' OPS, Sasikala factions, even if it happens, will not last because of Sasikala factor. MK Stalin of the DMK has lashed out at the AIADMK, says 'the state has become a battleground'. There were no talks about the Dinakaran and Sasikala issue. There are no talks on the issue of Dinakaran and Sasikala, nor did OPS faction raise any question on the same.

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Currently the ruling Palanisamy government, being targeted by the opposition party DMK with a sizeable number of MLAs and hope to get the support of OPS group to defeat and remove the Sasikala-Palanisamy team,

is in danger of losing power.

AIADMK workers should take over the HQ and remove all Sasikala supporters from there. That would pave way for smooth functioning of the party.

The Palanisamy team does not enjoy the respect and trust of people because they are supporters of Sasikala-Dinakaran and are viewed as betrayers. Paneerselvam can be able project the government as the real government of Jayalalithaa.

By making Panneerselvam he CM and GS, Palanisamy would save the government and party of MGR-Jayalalithaa. If a unity government takes office quickly the government and party could be saved, though whether they would win the next poll remains a question for which leaders should find a viable answer.

Corruption in state functioning has been on the rise since the intraparty conflict following the surprise death of CM Jayalalithaa. When corruption went unchecked during the Jayalalithaa reign, the condition is out of control now as none seems to be responsible for ill-effects of rampant corruption. Nothing gets done in Tamil state without offering bribes. People don’t get water in villages as drinking water has become a rare commodity in the state. Private companies sell drinking water making huge profits.

And yet, a few ‘Chinnamma’ MLAs and ministers say that Palanisamy whom Sasikala chose to be the CM would remain CM for the entire term even if this is going the last AIADMK government of the state.

Time is running out for Palanisamy government and AIADMK 73

Chapter-10: India: First underground metro train line inaugurated in Chennai -Dr. Abdul Ruff ______

The much anticipated underground line of Chennai Metro Rail opened for the public on the 14th May, making the city the fourth in the country to launch such a facility after Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru. The line will cover a distance of eight kilometres from Nehru Park to Koyambedu, through tunnels and seven underground stations, to connect the already operational line at Koyambedu.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapaddi Palaniswami and Union minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu flagged off a train and inaugurated the 8km underground line between Thirumangalam and Nehru Park on Sunday the 14th May. The underground metro train line was a pet project of late CM J. Jayalithaa.

The 7.4-kilometre stretch will connect Tirumangalam and Nehru Park along the inner periphery of North Chennai. Passenger services began 2pm onwards. A few free services were run between Thirumangalam and Nehru Park. The underground line has seven stations, which are in turn linked to the elevated corridors through a ramp between Thirumangalam and Koyambedu.

The underground line gives several localities including Kilpauk, New Avadi Road, Shenoy Nagar and Anna Nagar access to mass transit facility for the first time. The train sped in its maximum speed non-stop across the seven underground stations till Nehru Park. It then took them on a ride on the ramp that connects the underground and elevated corridors to Koyambedu.

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The trains will run along both tunnels only between Koyambedu and Shenoy Nagar.

Only one tunnel will be operational for trains running up and down between Shenoy Nagar and Nehru Park, as it would not be possible for trains to change tracks without a crossover. There is a crossover at Shenoy Nagar and another is being built at Central metro station. Hence, the other tunnel between Shenoy Nagar and Nehru Park will be opened along with Central metro station, planned by the end of 2017.

The stations are also built underneath prime locations in the city, giving commuters easy access. Four entry/exit points built with elevators and escalators on either side of roads will make it hassle-free for passengers to get in and out of stations without having to cross the roads. The stations are also located close to stops for MTC buses which can ferry passengers to other parts of the city. However, they may not provide the last mile connectivity where commuters will be able to reach the interior areas of the neighborhoods around the stations in small buses or share autos.

While the underground stations are similar to the existing elevated stations in terms of their two-level station design and ticket or token vending machines, passengers will still experience many new features. These may include air-conditioned interiors, tunnel ventilation systems, platform screen doors and detailed route maps to guide passengers to nearby localities.

Many commuters waited for several hours to take a free joy ride. The second train from Thirumangalam station began its journey in the midst of applause and cheers from passengers. "We had been eagerly waiting for years for this line to open. It is worth the wait. The experience is something we have never had before," said 61year-old Arumugam, a resident of Thirumangalam who took a a joyride along with his family.

Among the first passenger crowd were several residents from Thirumangalam and surrounding areas. A metro rail official confirmed they are all set to open the city's first underground line on May 14. The inauguration comes almost a month after the commissioner of metro rail safety gave authorization for commercial operations after a three-day inspection across the stretch. Tamil Nadu minister for industries, steel control, mines & minerals and special initiatives M C Sampath visited the underground line between Thirumangalam and Nehru Park stations on Tuesday.

The minister inspected the work in progress and safety measures, besides the facilities at the stations.

The inauguration of the first underground stretch of phase-1 of the project, which is jointly funded by the Centre and state, is expected to be attended by top officials from the ministry of urban development and the state transport department besides other senior officials from the state.

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The stations will connect several neighborhoods including Kilpauk, New Avadi Road, Shenoy Nagar, Aminjikarai, Anna Nagar and Thirumangalam, giving access to mass transit facility for its residents for the first time. A part of the line will run about 18 metres under the arterial Poonamallee High Road.

With the underground line, commuters can head anywhere from Nehru Park to the airport in one direction, and to Little Mount in the other, in about 60 minutes with a single ticket. However, they may have to switch corridors at the Alandur metro station, which is the elevated transit hub.

Metro rail's first line was launched in June 2015 between Koyambedu and Alandur, covering a distance of 11 km through an elevated corridor. It was followed a nine kilometer elevated line from Little Mount to the airport in September 2016.

Chennai Metro Rail has carried out a special study that reportedly shows train vibrations do not affect the buildings close to the underground stretch. This is of significance in the backdrop of tunneling work leading to several road cave-in incidents across the city and the first underground stretch is all set to open in a few days. According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), the lining of tunnels is built in such a way that it can withstand a substantial amount of vibrations of trains. Also, a low vibration technology has been carried out before laying tracks at places where hospitals or laboratories are located, they said.

Rubber pads placed. “We place rubber pads between stage one and stage two concrete of tunnel; after this process, the tracks are laid. The pads of 40 mm will dampen the vibrations from trains. These have been placed in 12 locations across the city, including Kilpauk Medical College, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Vee Care Hospital. Hospitals have sensitive equipment which may feel even the slightest of vibrations and disrupt its functioning; hence this idea,” an official said.

In other areas too, though such pads are not laid, they claim the study and subsequent trials with trains show the vibrations are not beyond the permissible limit. Experts from IIT Madras said the precast segments that a tunnel is made of will take in the vibrations from trains.

B.N. Rao, another professor of civil engineering at IIT Madras, said, “I haven’t looked at the report but they may have arrived at values and consequently gone ahead with operations based on varied factors. This is because, usually, the vibration values will vary depending on the soil structure, the depth of tunnel and the speed of trains and its acceleration and deceleration in various areas.”

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PM Modi inaugurated India’s longest tunnel in Jammu Kashmir Indian railway has been making all out efforts to improve rail service to the people by constructing new long bridges and tunnels and dedicating them to the nation.

Chenani-Nashri tunnel, India’s longest highway tunnel, on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 02.

The prime minister was accompanied by road transport and highways and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari and minister of state for PMO and MP from Kathua-Udhampur constituency, Jitendra Singh.

Here are a few facts about the project: 1. The length of the tunnel is 9.28 km. The world’s longest highway tunnel is 24.51 km and is in Norway; 2. It will reduce the travel distance between Jammu and Srinagar by 30.11 km, which will help save fuel worth Rs 27 lakh daily; 3. Built on the lower Himalayan range at a height of 1,200 metres, it will cut travel time between the two cities by at least two hours; 4. The project cost is Rs 3,720 crore, Rs 1,200 crore more than the initial estimated cost;5. Work on the tunnel system started on May 23, 2011; 6. The main tunnel is 13 metre in diametre, the parallel escape tunnel is 6 metre diametre and are connected by 29 cross passages at 300-metre gap; 7. The tunnel boasts of an integrated system that will control communication, ventilation, video surveillance, power supply, SOS call box, fire fighting and incident detection and an FM signal repeater; 8. It is part of a 286-km-long four-lane project on the Jammu-Srinagar highway; 9. It is meant to avoid stretches of National Highway 44 prone to avalanches and landslides. Patnitop, Kud, and Batote will be bypassed now and 10.

The speed limit in the tunnel will be 50km/hour and headlights will have to be low beam

India's longest river bridge Meanwhile, India's longest river bridge, capable of withstanding the weight of a 60tonne battle tank, will be inaugurated in Assam close to the border with China on May 26 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the inauguration of the 9.15-kmlong Dhola-Sadiya Bridge over the Brahmaputra River, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start the celebrations of the NDA government's three years in office from this eastern-most part of Assam. It is 3.55 km longer than the Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai, making it the longest bridge in India.

The bridge is seen as an attempt by India to shore up its defence requirements along the Sino-Indian border, particularly in the northeast, besides providing easy access to the people of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam with air and rail connectivity.

"The prime minister will dedicate the strategically important bridge to the nation on May 26. It will bolster the road connectivity in the Northeast as the bridge will be 77

used by people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh besides defence forces extensively," Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told PTI. The construction of the bridge began in 2011 at a project cost of Rs. 950 crore. The design is such that the bridge can withstand the movement of military tanks.

"Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have huge strategic value to the country. Since the bridge is located close to our border with China, it will help quick movement of military troops and artillery in times of conflict,� Sonowal said.

The bridge is located 540-km away from Assam's capital Dispur and 300 km away from Arunachal Pradesh's capital Itanagar. The aerial distance to the Chinese border is less than 100 km.

After Kaliabhomora bridge near Tezpur, there is no bridge over the Brahmaputra for the next 375 km upstream till Dhola, where the new bridge is constructed.

Currently, all transportation between the river's two banks is carried out through water only.

The bridge, when opened for the public, will cut down the travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by as much as four hours. As there is no civilian airport in Arunachal Pradesh, this bridge will help people of the state to reach the nearest rail head in Tinsukia and the airport in Dibrugarh easily. Sonowal said the delayed works of the bridge was expedited after PM Modi assumed the charge in 2014. The bridge was originally scheduled to open in 2015.

The BJP government in Assam will complete one year in office on May 24. The bridge is one of the key projects of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the Northeast and is built in public-private partnership with a construction company.

Chapter-11: Turkish President Erdogan supports Kashmiri cause!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _______

Turkey, the only Muslim European power, is a very important NATO member and a close ally of USA. Turkey-US relations bloomed and blossomed thanks to what the Americans perceived as a permanent Russian threat to the world on ideological grounds.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited India on an official two day trip from April 30 to May 1. President Erdogan embarked upon his India visit soon after he won the referendum to strengthen his presidency with more powers and he met Indian PM Narendra Modi on a variety of bilateral and multilateral issues. Both signed important bilateral agreements.

Turkey is an important world power, no matter howsoever close it may be with India’s arch-rival Pakistan, and India and Turkey have to build on their many convergences and build mutual trust soon. This is possible at a time when both countries have very strong leaders and stable governments.

President Erdogan is the most important popular Muslim leader advancing Islamic system that is opposed by all anti-Islamic forces globally. When Erdogan took up the Palestine issue, Israel, its close military ally, got wild as it does not allow any nation to breach the Zionist terror blockades meant to torture the Hamas Palestinians, and thus the “historic” bilateral ties have been strained badly.

PM Modi is in the mould of President Erdogan in terms of popularity and power. He has been Turkey’s prime minister for 12 years and now president for the last twoand-a-half years. This is his first foreign visit after scoring a comprehensive victory in a controversial referendum recently which gave him overwhelming powers and further cemented his place in the country’s power structure.

Besides economic aspects, the Turkish president and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held lengthy discussions on terrorism this week during Erdogan's two-day visit to India. Both parties agreed that there was no justification for terrorism, and urged all countries to disrupt terrorist networks and financing and "stop cross-border movements of terrorists," The Turkish president, during his trip, also raised concerns about the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (Feto). Ankara has demanded schools in India administered by a foundation linked to Fethullah Gulen ─ a US-based preacher who Erdogan accuses of instigating a failed coup in Turkey last year ─ be shut down. "As far as the Turkish concerns about Feto are concerned, they were mentioned to us. Any organisation in India, whether it is Indian or foreign, obviously has to work within the parameters of our laws and our norms and regulations," Baglay said.

After talks with Modi, Erdogan assured India of Turkey’s full support in the fight against terrorism in general. Modi on his part said that “no intent or goal or reason or rationale can validate terrorism.” President Erdogan has different view on “crossborder terrorism” that India blames Pakistan for. On the question of exiled Turkish cleric Fehtullah Gulen, who is accused by Erdogan of plotting the 16 July coup against his government, the Turkish president described organisations associated with him as “terrorist” and hoped India would take necessary steps to rein in their activities. Both condemn terrorism.

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Anti-Islamic media

Anti-Islamism had been a top pastime theme of global media lords who seek to discredit Islam as a terrorist region and Muslims as pure pure terrorists. These media news and reports make the anti-Islamic elements extremely happy.

Global anti-Islamic media continues to harp on anti-Islam themes and Turkey, the only Muslim nation in Europe spearheading for Islamization of the society, has been the target of all anti-Islamic media globally. They shamelessly supported and hailed the coup efforts of enemies of Turkey but President Erdogan, his AKP and people at large successfully faced the their challenge to Islam in Turkey.

Global state terrorism has been targeting Turkey, among top Muslim nations, to help the enemies of Islam destabilize the nation with the help of anti-Islamic elements operating within and from the Western nations.

Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his day-long visit to India extended "full solidarity" with India in battling terrorism. After extensive talks with Erdogan, in which the fight against terrorism formed a major part, prime minister Narendra Modi said both the countries have agreed that "no intent or goal, no reason or rationale can validate terrorism".

PM Modi said that he and Erdogan "agreed to work together to strengthen our cooperation, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to effectively counter this menace."

During the talks, which extended by nearly two hours beyond the scheduled 60 minutes, India and Turkey agreed to boost bilateral trade from the current level of just over $6 billion and expressed the resolve to fight the global menace of terrorism together. "(The) president and I are clear that the strength of our economies presents an enormous opportunity to expand and deepen commercial linkages between our countries," Modi said while addressing the media.

PM Modi said that at the level of the two governments, "we need to approach the entire landscape of business opportunities in a strategic and long-term manner".

India and Turkey are two large economies," he stated. "Our bilateral trade turnover of around $6 billion does not do full justice to convergences in our economies.

Clearly, the business and industry on both sides can do much more.

For this reason, Turkey's relations with the West are not optimal but Turkey’s relation with Russia, China and India is qualitatively improving Turkey’s earlier 'West-centric' foreign policy towards a 'multidimensional foreign policy'.

Turkey a source of stability for Mideast

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The meeting between Modi and Erdogan was widely reported in Turkish Daily Sabah and commentary and opinion touched upon the future of India-Turkey relations, the kind of stability it would bring to West Asia. The paper also brought out the Israel angle which most media in India failed or refused to touch upon. India as a new strategic partner of USA is automatically a military ally of Israel as well and their bilateral military tie ups are going up with a lot agreements for latest Israeli terror goods meant to kill Kashmiris are being signed in New Delhi.

Israel seems to use India to push for reactivation of Turkish-Zionist military ties.

Turkish-Indian relations and the Israeli angle' noted that Israel is a key aspect for the India-Turkey relations as Turkey's move towards India has come after Turkey signing a reconciliation deal on 27 June, 2016 with Israel. Israeli sources say that there is a visible move towards "openness and comfort" between India and Israel in discussing all facets of bilateral relations and India should take advantage of the warming relations between Turkey and Israel and enhance cooperation among its West Asian partners.

However, neither American, neither British nor Russian newspapers like Sputnik News, Russia Today, and The Moscow Times had lent much coverage to President Erdogan’s India visit. In West Asia, The Khaleej Times, Gulf News also had minimal coverage and did not generate any commentary as such. The reason for this important media omission has obvious reasons.

President Erdogan is a wily politician and is a past master in the art of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds. Recently he had a dinner meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad even as he has been aiding and abetting Salafi jihadis against him. Indian strategic communist says President Erdogan has been trying to mollycoddle New Delhi with sweet nothings while having a very close relationship with Pakistan.

India wants Turkey, like USA and Russia do now, to ignore Pakistan and support its occupational crimes in Kashmir valley. Erdogan does not oblige New Delhi, however.

India stresses cooperation with India in the field of counter-terrorism should be a major area of interest for Erdogan as Turkey is in the grip of a spate of New Delhi asks as to what kind of value can he impart to this exercise when his government is closely involved with a country like Pakistan?

Convergence

Former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who should be credited for redefining India-Turkey relations, now waiting for a breakthrough to qualify for another qualitative step forward. In 2001, then Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani 81

was the first high-level dignitary of the NDA government to have visited Turkey which concluded with an important agreement on an extradition treaty. Later, in 2003, prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had gone on his landmark visit to Turkey — no Indian prime minister since then had gone to Turkey until prime minister Narendra Modi, in 2015, went to Antalaya to meet the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the margins of the G20 summit which was followed by another meeting on the sidelines of G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China in 2016.

There was much more visible convergence between India and Turkey on trade and commercial ties. The political and religious differences between them didn’t prevent the two sides from pledging to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2020 from $6.5 billion now.

Turkey has largely been seen as a moderate Islamic democracy with a population of about 80 million, strategically situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Indian leader PM Narendra Modi noted that India and Turkey were two large economies which present an enormous opportunity to expand and deepen commercial linkages. He urged Turkish construction companies to participate in India’s efforts to bolster infrastructure.

At the outset it should be appreciated that the top Islamist ruler from Turkey shared dais with the top Hindutva leader in New Delhi and both struck harmonious cord and signaled friendly rapport. Different religions do not necessarily come in the way of friendly relations between and among nations. But Turkey’s ties with India have been rather indifferent, according to New Delhi, thanks to Turkey’s closeness to India’s arch nuclear rival Pakistan on key issues.

While Turkey’s close ties with Pakistan and Ankara’s ever-deepening involvement in several urban development projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has riled India no end, Turkey too has its own concerns with India, right or wrong.

The Turkish side expressed supported for India’s bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Indian media reported. President Erdogan batted for India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, something which has been stridently opposed by China. But Erdogan hyphenated his ‘gesture’ with a similar status for Pakistan, a country with which Turkey has extremely close political and strategic relations, and supporting Pakistan’s case for NSG membership. This is what he said in an interview to an Indian TV news channel: “Both India and Pakistan have the right to aspire for NSG membership. I think India should not assume such an attitude. If Turkey was fair enough to support Pakistan, it was fair enough to support India. We are very objective and positive to the NSG process.”

Trade and regional cooperation potentials notwithstanding, India and Turkey have some problems that keep overwhelming the perception of their bilateral relations.

Three issues will always be asked when it comes to deepen India-Turkey relations.

First, how much Pakistan determines Turkey’s India perception, second, Turkey’s 82

perception of Kashmir, and third, what is Turkey’s view of reforms in international institutions, which should ideally result in including India in the United Nations Security Council as permanent member.

India-Turkey cooperation in fields related to science, technology, education, culture and development areas have massive potential and both countries need each other to achieve their national interests and development goals.

Disagreements

President Erdogan has been honest in telling the world about his intent on supporting global Islam and helping Muslim nations in whatever way it can.

Turkey’s Islamist ideology is seen above politics and does not compromise on the religious ideas. This explains why Istanbul supports Palestine and Kashmir sovereignty demands overtly as part of its ideology.

Diplomatic pleasantries, signing of agreements aside, Erdogan remarked that India should ideally be taking a 'multilateral' approach to hot button issue of Kashmir, however, India politely, but firmly said that Kashmir was a bilateral issue to be sorted out by India and Pakistan only. Neither of the press representatives mentioned any of this in the official press briefings. However press in Pakistan reported favorably about Erdogan's comments. Pakistan has always welcomed the statements and endeavors aimed at addressing the human rights issues in IoK (the so-called India-occupied Kashmir) and the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the statement concluded."

President Erdogan, the founder of Islamist government in Turkey, supports Islamic governments against the will and wishes of anti-Islamic forces, nations, including Pakistan and support s the struggle of Palestinians and Kashmiris for sovereignty and human dignity. Turkey’s concern for Palestinians and Kashmiris is besides the rapport it maintains with India and, to some extent, Israel. In fact, ties between the two countries have been difficult because of their divergent positions on the IndiaPakistan dispute over Kashmir.

For quite some time, the Erdogan government has been asking India tough questions about Gulen and believes that Gulen’s movement, which Ankara dubs as FETO or Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation, has “infiltrated” India, a charge which about New Delhi has neither evidence nor any credible information. Turkey wants India to take action against FETO but has thus far failed to give any concrete information to India on the basis of which action can be taken.

Erdogan had last visited India in 2008 but that time as the prime minister. The Gulen issue was not an irritant in India-Turkey bilateral relations then because Gulen was a major ally of Erdogan. The two fell apart only in 2013, when major 83

corruption scandals against the Erdogan government broke out. This time Erdogan’s stakes in India are much higher.

Turkey is not much impressed by Indian way of getting endorsement of its veto membership from every visiting dignitary and President Erdogan, therefore, did not sign the endorsement sheet extended to him.

Multidimensional foreign policy

Once a reluctant Muslim partner, Turkey has become a close ally of the Gulf countries, thanks to Iran’s growing hegemonic ambitions and Egypt’s preoccupation with its domestic crisis and absence of American leadership from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) security architecture. Iran’s regional role has become deeply dependent on its military cooperation with Russia and other non-state actors like Hezbollah — something that Iran’s Arab neighbours are extremely worried about.

Turkey’s normalized relations with Russia have a stabilizing role in the region — where it can assume a balancing role among various competitive powers. Despite many serious differences over Syria, Turkey remains in good terms with Iran, however, allowing Turkey to use its leverage to mediate between Iran and its Gulf neighbours.

On Syria, Russia needs Turkey more than any other country to find a lasting political settlement; Russia has been advocating for a political outcome. Since the fall of Aleppo, Turkey has also refocused its Syria policy from regime change to counter terrorism, narrowing its differences with Russia and Iran. Turkey’s counter terrorism response is defined by threats: Islamic State’s presence in many urban areas of Syria and Iraq; and expansion of Kurdish separatist forces closely linked with internationally recognised terrorist group PKK. In 2016, Turkey adopted a goalone military operation against Islamic State in north Syria starting from Jerablus and stopping at Al-Bab, effectively converting Euphrates as a buffer zone between the two sides of Kurds-held areas. However, the 15 July failed military coup attempt caught Turkey unaware of another terror threat, the Gulen network many Turks perceived only as a threat by “spiritual cult”.

In an extremely complicated Syrian crisis, the Assad government has successfully used the threats tactically against the Syrian rebels, by softening its view on Syrian Kurdish groups and using “Islamic terrorism” card interchangeably with Islamic State, the opposition forces and Al-Qaeda groups. As terrorist attacks increased against Turkish targets in 2015 and 2016, Turkey’s frustration against its Western allies’ support to the Kurdish groups deepened.

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Turkey’s relations with its Western allies have gone berserk on Western indifference to what Turkey considers most serious threat to its national security. European leaders have been delaying Turkey’s EU accession. The trust deficit between Turkey and the West is widening. In this context, Turkey’s relation with Russia, China and India is qualitatively improving Turkey’s earlier 'West-centric' foreign policy towards a 'multidimensional foreign policy'.

Turkey’s South Asia engagement is likely to deepen after India has renewed its interest in the Southern Corridor of Asia-Europe Rail (SCAER) project which will connect Istanbul with Kolkata, extendable further to Myanmar and Thailand.

Officials from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey have already concluded their first meeting in New Delhi on 16 March, 2017. Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) was originally proposed

by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in 1980s and endorsed by concerned countries in 1992. The rail link, if started, can revolutionize India’s trade connectivity to Central Asia, Europe and West Asia.

Kashmir

India has murdered over 1000,000 Muslims in occupied Jammu Kashmir. Many Muslims, especially the youth, have disappeared without nay traces. And many secret graveyards have been discovered in Kashmir region.

Kashmir remains the flashpoint of tensions in South Asia where India and Pakistan obtained nukes to fight for entire Jammu Kashmir nation now being occupied by Pakistan and India- India does it brutally and seeks the endorsement of veto powers, particularly the super power USA. Brutal occupation of Kashmir enabled India to enhance its military prowess and nuke manufacturing efforts. India is not ready to address the Kashmir issue bilaterally through peaceful means as has been stipulated in the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration. India and Pakistan keep fighting each other, engaged in cross border fires to terrorize Kashmiris.

Like Israel which has managed to delay the establishment of a soverign Palestine but still says it would resolve the conflict by direct negotiations with Palestinians, India also says it is always ready to talk about Kashmir and all other issues with Pakistan so that "peaceful solutions can be found bilaterally". That is a bogus statement to fool the world.

Turkey views Kashmir issue as a composite one involving both India and Pakistan.

India on the contrary, wants Turkey to ignore Pakistani claims and support Indian case in Kashmir. Istanbul is eager to help Kashmiris regain their lost sovereignty.

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On the question of Kashmir—the Himalayan region that India says is part of its territory, something disputed by Pakistan—“India put forth its views that Kashmir was an integral part of India. Erdogan had stirred a hornet’s nest by saying that there should a “multilateral dialogue” on Kashmir—something India has been opposed to; India seeks to bilaterally resolve all its disputes with Pakistan. India has always said it would never brook any third party involvement on the Kashmir issue which is essentially a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. Erdogan had, in an interview before his arrival in India, suggested that the two countries needed to 'strengthen multilateral dialogue' in an attempt to find a solution to the Kashmir issue.

Always opposing any outside interest in Indian criminal operations in Kashmir to kill and terrorize Kashmir Muslims, India quickly dismissed Turkish President Erdogan's suggestion of multilateral talks on the Kashmir dispute, insisting the matter must be resolved bilaterally through talks between Islamabad and New Delhi. India says this knowing fully well that both India and Pakistan, the shared illegal occupiers of Jammu Kashmir, would never want to solve the problem because any credible solution means surrendering of Jammu Kashmir to Kashmiris.

India believes that terrorism issue helps it case for Kashmir and is eager not to loe out Kashmir. India is happy about cross-border terrorism and state-sponsored terror because that made India a strong nation now having established “strategic partnership” with USA and many western powers that sells terror goods to both India and Pakistan.

It is true that Pakistan-Turkey relations are more emotional than Turkey-India relations. Pakistan is projected as a country of Islamic leadership in third word despite the fact that India remains the second largest Muslim country in the world, without OIC membership though. The question many Muslim countries do not ask is: who is more important Pakistan or Kashmir, Pakistan or Indian Muslims? Weak faith could be a major reason for that.

India asks USA, Russia and other major powers not to take up the Kashmir issue for any international debates and as per its demand, USA also says that India and Pakistan would finalize the issue, even as Indian forces mercilessly kiln Kashmiris by missing the extra military laws.

India says it wants to end terrorism and also directly control Pakistan and it policies and politics, but never wants to solve the Kashmir issue. Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said, in a veiled reference to Pakistan that the Kashmir issue has a "prominent dimension of cross-border terrorism" that needs to be stopped by "those who are perpetuating it.

Pakistan’s 'pro-Muslim' and 'pro-Kashmir' credentials are often received uncritically.

Turkey’s strong secular and democratic credentials bring great respect and regard for Turkey in India in stark opposition to the fragility of Pakistan's democracy.

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Turkish president's offer of mediating between India and Pakistani was welcomed

by Hurriyet leaders in India-held Kashmir. Hurriyet Forum Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq observed that the Turkish president "is well aware of how the Kashmir dispute is the main source of tension between the two nations -India and Pakistan.

Turkey being an important Islamic country, and having cordial relations with both India and Pakistan, will hopefully make efforts to end the political uncertainly prevalent in the region since decades," Farooq said. "Being an active member of Kashmir Contact Group at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Turkey has always advocated the solution of Kashmir issue in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir, and Ankara can play a vital role in the resolution of this issue to end the tension in this region," he maintained.

It is not surprising to observe that Turkish media has been mostly fair and objective in its coverage of India-Pakistan affairs, rather, many Turks have a clear understanding that Turkey should not come into Indo-Pakistan’s trap or support internationalizing the Kashmir issue.

Future

India and Turkey seem to converge on the need to build a stronger economic relationship, committing themselves to a vast increase in trade over the next few years, but seemed to disagree on political issues such as Kashmir. India says Kashmir has been made an integral part of Indian constitution but Turkey wants a soverign Kashmir.

India and Turkey waited fourteen years to see this moment once again. Turkey wants to play a vital role in bringing India and Pakistan together and resolve the Kashmir issue as well.

There are many good reasons to believe that the leaders of the two nations will find Vajpayee’s legacy as a common point to advance India-Turkey relations. The regional contexts in which the two countries are working support their role as well.

Turkey, for example, notwithstanding setbacks in Syria, remains an influential and a key regional power to define the future outcomes of crisis in Syria and Iraq.

Indian strategists want Erdogan and Modi to come to an understanding on India’s NSG bid, as this can expedite India entry to NSG. For Turkey, India’s increasing economic and security profile is very important. India comes off as strong and powerful with its huge young and skilled population, a rich cultural base, and most importantly democratic institutions. India’s research and development profile: space program, especially micro-satellite and nano-satellites program, research in generic drugs, scientific research institutions have all given India a confident industrial and development scenario. This is what has been the main force behind redefining India’s strengthening relations with some major Muslim countries, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Egypt, almost unbound from any regional rivalry perceptions.

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If New Delhi realizes and give up its faulty policies being pursued since it occupied Jammu Kashmir without the will and wishes of Kashmiris, towards Kashmiris and Pakistan, and think constructively about regain peace by allowing Kashmiris regain their lost sovereignty, that would genuinely build up its relations with not only Turkey and Pakistan and Kashmiris, but entire Islamic world and even entire world.

Peaceful regional cannot be guaranteed by genocides of Kashmir Muslims and silencing their rights to protest against occupational crimes perpetrated by brutal forces.

Erdogan's visit should start a new era of bilateral engagement where both sides should invest efforts to understand each other. But keep your fingers crossed as India would not change its petrified mindset towards Kashmiris or Pakistanis, so don’t expect an overnight transformation of India-Turkey relations following Erdogan’s visit.

Chapter-12: US presidency poll 2016: Will Trump emerge victorious?

-Dr. Abdul Ruff ________ General remarks The 2016 presidential poll to elect possibly the most suited person to guide the nation and world at large, is taking place as Americans, fed up with terror wars and erratic climatic disorders, have begun to think about a possible political systemic change rather than regime change and a new world order to move away from militarism, unilateralism, unipolarity and exploitation and towards real democracy and collective work for freedom and happiness – unheard of in any capitalist nation.

Americans will vote on 8 November to decide who will be the country's next president to lead the nation to a peaceful path without wars and bloodbaths.

However, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have presented a crude irony to the poll by which American people have been provided with a choice between not only the two most unpopular candidates, but also the two most reactionary candidates in modern history.

At the outset, neither Trump nor Hillary is capable of making anew reformed and enlightened America and they would only continue with Bush-Obama policies of invasions and militarism. In that sense Americans are unlucky lot. However, most US leaders think Hillary can bring more resources to the nation than Trump by terror wars. That is not the strength but weakness.

The final 2016 presidential debate as part of official poll campaign took place on October 19 night, and expectations were not high either. Apparently, both leaders debated only those issues that seemed agreed upon in advance. That has been the 88

practice of US politics cutting across the two-party system. The presidential candidates, therefore, have not been asked embarrassing questions on some of the critical issues facing the nation like fighting illegal wars abroad in Middle East on fake pretexts in order to secure energy needs.

Debates in US presidential poll campaign are just a formality and what the candidates say would not have any relevance for the presidency as the presidents are controlled by capitalist-imperialist lobbyists, war monger intelligence-Pentagon, and mainly regulated for pro-Israel policies by the Jewish members of Neocons.

The final debate, moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, faced questions on debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots and the candidates’ genuinity and fitness to be president. These topics have already been widely covered in previous debates. Particularly the final presidential debate, meant to make the presidential candidates to come to terms with the rising demands on USA, did not discuss anything about some of the most pressing concerns Americans as well as the world face, like climate change, terror wars as permanent war feature, poverty and corruption and campaign finance. According to an analysis of the first two presidential debates there has been a “significant emphasis on Russia, terrorism and taxes.” So far, those topics have received a whopping 409 mentions combined, with 77 of those dedicated to Trump’s own taxes.

Campaign Finance and fundraising Generally, money power decides the poll outcomes everywhere. The candidates spent not only their own money but also money received from corporate lords and super rich during the immoral fundraising dramas. Since the common folk and the poor certainly don’t make large campaign contributions, they don’t have powerful lobbyists in Congress and Senate representing their interests. Everything is planned and executed in USA for the rich and those who “generously” give money to the candidates during the immoral fund raising. Eighty-four percent of Americans think money has too much influence in their political campaigns. But moderators have asked not one question about it in the debates.

Clinton and Trump have raised a jaw-dropping $911 million and $423 million respectively, including money from super PACs. In state and local races across the country, donors have poured more than $1 billion so far this year. USA also promotes lobbyists to make money from foreign nations and companies.’ This is the root cause of rampant corruption and nepotism in America. Therefore, USA clearly cannot overcome the phenomenon of rampant corruption in all domains.

Trump said he supports campaign finance reform that would keep registered foreign lobbyists from raising money in US elections. The one campaign finance mention in the debates Hillary Clinton said, perhaps without any serious intent that she wants to “see the Supreme Court reverse Citizens United and get dark, unaccountable 89

money out of our politics.” The Hacked emails prove coordination between Clinton Campaign and Super PACs” shows consistent, repeated efforts by the Clinton campaign to collaborate with Super PACs on strategy, research, attacks on political adversaries and fundraising.” That’s against the rules of the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision. The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center announced earlier this month that it had filed two sets of complaints with the Federal Election Commission, charging that both the Trump and Clinton campaigns have improperly coordinated with super PACs. Presidential debates are mere gimmicks?

The presidential candidates, if they sincere about future of Americans and humanity, should have concentrated on the following issues: 1. How to end terror wars, essentially on Islam?

2. How to recast a normal foreign policy for promoting world peace and genuine democracy?

3. How to put an end to media Islamophobia trends?

4. How to solve the dangerous climate change?

5. How to attack poverty and save the poor and under privileged? Much more, of course!

But they just performed the campaign formality without nay commitment..

Climate change, poverty and campaign finance reform are just three issues the mainstream media has refused to raise questions about in the debates. Also, both the candidates and media are silent on issues like China, gun control, education, student debt, voting rights, drugs, abortion, and reproductive health, NSA/privacy/surveillance, Native Americans. Global warming directly threatens economy and capitalism. According to a World Economic Forum survey of global experts in 2016 global warming tops the list of potential threats to the global economy. But this issue has been mentioned in the debates by Hillary Clinton, in passing. According to Pew Research the people are concerned about climate change, with 73 percent of all registered US voters saying they care either “a great deal” or “some” about the issue.

USA, China and India are the top polluters of environment. Like Hillary, Donald Trump is also a climate denier and has said on his medium of choice that global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive. Trump has pledged to undo the Obama’s climate initiatives, including the Paris climate agreement and the Clean Power Plan, which would require power plants to clean up their emissions. Trump has also vowed to expand fossil-fuel exploration. Clinton just has a detailed plan for combating climate change, with the promise of “taking on the threat of climate change and making America the world’s clean energy superpower.” But ways and means are not discussed by her. While she has gained a number of endorsements from leading 90

climate groups, her acceptance of natural gas as a so-called “bridge fuel” disturbs some, including 350 Org (climate) which says it’s just a fast lane to more climate destruction.

Speaking for the first time in his entire campaign with some seriousness, Trump touched a number of ultra-right talking points, interestingly, to support the poor, also calling for the appointment of Supreme Court justices, for a wall along the USMexico border and to deport millions of undocumented workers, and pointing out, correctly, that President Obama has deported many millions already. He did not repeat his Islam-hate rhetoric. Instead, Trump appealed to the economic grievances of working people, declaring that expelling immigrant workers, renegotiating trade agreements to bar foreign imports and slashing taxes on the wealthy and the corporations would generate an unprecedented economic boom, with annual GDP growth of six or seven percent. He declared that “millions of people are registered to vote that should not be allowed to vote,” then added that Clinton herself “should never have been allowed to run for president because of what she did with emails and so many other things.”

For the first time in any of the debates, the question of a US-Russian conflict in Syria was broached when Wallace asked Clinton directly about her support for a nofly zone over Aleppo and other contested Syrian cities. A no-fly zone meant war with Syria and Russia, and if a Russian plane violates the no-fly zone, does President Clinton shoot it down? Clinton simply ducked the question, claiming that the no-fly zone, an act of war against Syria and its allies, Russia and Iran, would be the subject of “negotiation.”

Treacherous politics of poverty World wars and the so-called cold war with Soviet Russia made USA what it is today, the rich super power that can bully any nation that does not obey its instructions, follows its footsteps. Perhaps for this reason USA does not want to stop criticizing and attacking Russia. As the effective boss of UN and UNSC, NATO, G-7, World Bank and IMF, etc, strangest and loudest campaigner of so-called democracy, USA has been able to retain its control over the world and press its global prowess into action to weaken any nation.

It is not just the third world but even the developed nations have poverty, both known and covert. Despite over 45 million Americans currently living in poverty, not a single question has been asked about that either, and the issue has barely been mentioned. In fact, Democrats had no questions on poverty in any of their primary debates. That is because Democrats have taken, along with terror wars, the burden of poverty as well prompted by Republicans as well as their own. Child poverty rates in the United States, at 21.6 percent, are nearly double the OECD average of 12.4 percent. Before running for president, Jewish leader Bernie Sanders, who still claims to be a socialist, called poverty one of the “great moral and economic issues” that Americans face now. The Census revealed that the 91

number of Americans living in poverty had increased to over 46 million, the highest number ever. “Poverty in America today leads not only to anxiety, unhappiness, discomfort and a lack of material goods. It leads to death,” Sanders said.

For Americans and Neocons democracy means only the polls and has got nothing to do with poverty like issues. Neither the Republicans nor democrats are serious about poverty control mechanisms. The latest hacked Clinton emails show that in the 2016 primary Clinton’s aides were wary of ideas that could alienate centrist and conservative voters who are skeptical of welfare. Despite the fact that nearly 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 60 will someday themselves experience the official poverty line.

In the name of democracy and regime change, USA has promoted only authoritarians. And it’s not just countries that are more or less new to the club of Western principles. For instance, more than a quarter of French citizens are prepared to accept a more authoritarian state, according to a recent survey. In the USA, critics see a war mongering and arrogant Clinton, the rise of Donald Trump – who has spoken openly of reining in press freedoms, intimidated judges, and taken a generally bellicose tone – as a turn toward a strongman-like figure.

People would have loved to see the presidential candidates discuss their plans for combating poverty. Trump talks about poverty, about creating more jobs, which he aims to achieve by cutting taxes and government regulations and renegotiating trade deals to bring more jobs back to America. He’s also called for a new tax plan to help defray child care costs for working parents. Clinton has detailed plans to fight poverty on her website, including: expanding the tax credit for children; providing universal preschool for 4-year-olds; subsidizing child care; increasing the minimum wage to $12 an hour; and investing tens of billions of dollars in poor communities, including for housing and job training. To pay for her proposals, she would increase taxes on the wealthy, but she won’t do it. .

US/NATO unilateralism vs. Multilateralism Far more rapidly than most people are aware, the quarter-century of war waged by the unilateral US since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the fifteen years of the "war on terror," is leading to a direct confrontation with the larger geopolitical rivals of the USA, led by Russia and China. This immense war danger has been virtually excluded from the presidential election campaign and all but ignored by what presents itself as the political "left" in the USA. After a quarter-century of unending war, including eight years under Obama--the first president to serve two full terms with the country continuously at war--there is no functioning antiwar movement.

In the name of democracy and regime change, USA has promoted only authoritarians. And it’s not just countries that are more or less new to the club of Western principles. For instance, more than a quarter of French citizens are 92

prepared to accept a more authoritarian state, according to a recent survey. In the USA, critics see a war mongering and arrogant Clinton, the rise of Donald Trump – who has spoken openly of reining in press freedoms, intimidated judges, and taken a generally bellicose tone – as a turn toward a strongman-like figure.

None, other than USA, wants unilateral actions. Unilateralism, represented by USA is challenged by multilateralism of Russia, backed by China and a few others have landed Americans in perpetual troubles. Americans are unhappy. The 2016 presidential election has left a strong impression of the USA as a fractured, gloomy nation. According to the latest American Values Survey, nearly two-thirds of Americans say neither major party represents them, while 74 percent are pessimistic about the country’s direction – up from 57 percent just four years ago.

Nearly three-fourths say the country is either stagnating or falling behind, according to a Time magazine poll. The American-led Western order of governance and economics is on the wane. Even among young adults under 30, more than half are fearful for the future. This mood of pessimism requires that the winners of the election listen to the views of people who think differently from them.

Within Western so-called democracies – from Britain to the US itself – people are disillusioned with the their systems that promotes only capitalism and colonialism, care only for the rich and corporate interests, resulting in reactionary populist movements are pushing back against the rotten rules and systems that have stayed for decades. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is feeling betrayal by USA. In “autocratic” countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, leaders feeling badgered by the USA over human rights are turning to China and Russia, too. When the Philippines’ tough-guy President Rodrigo Duterte announced in Beijing last week that “America has lost” and that he was “separating” from the USA to align with a rising China, it could only send a clear message to the world about the current weak status of superpower. Yet, US leaders cannot leave out Israel – the major cause of its decline.

Americans are in a period of struggle between democratic governance and a more authoritarian vision of rule both nationally and internationally. People feel that their culture and identity are under threat; they sense that governing systems are no longer working, and they want some strong response to that. As America has become a less-dominant presence in the world, the countries that have risen to play a larger role are broadly “democratic” and adhering to free-market norms and multilateralism – from Turkey to Japan to India, South Africa, and Australia.

Moreover, China and Russia have been seeking to expand their influence for years as America has been forced to withdraw somewhat from its leading role. But the “authoritarian market state” has not drawn many converts.

The world order launched following the end of a disastrous World War Two, making USA the richest nation on earth and the current US picture, can be seen as the birth pangs of a new world order – less Western-centric and still retaining the old order’s

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foundation of democracy and liberal economics. Organized movements like the tea party or Black Lives Matter don’t fade away.

Post WW-II world has been fully controlled and regulated by the USA. Now the Western-built system of international order is no longer serving the world’s needs.

The USA and Europe are less willing to intervene when other parts of the world are unable to respond effectively to conflicts and other global challenges. That has meant a decline in Western influence. Indeed, 500 years of the West ordering the world is at an end, and that sounds terrible. And, broadly speaking, the emerging multipolar global order is largely based on the principles that the West espoused.

And, a decline of dependence on the part of independent nations!

Americans have seen these alternative means of civic engagement show up on the margins of politics. New communities have formed, often on the internet, around local food, alternative energy, home-schooling, or work sharing. Americans don’t simply stew in political resentment. They create new paths, outside official democracy, to find people of similar interests and values. The Digital Age has accelerated this trend to redefine what is public. It can also mean understanding how Americans are turning their disappointment with politics into new forms of civic activity. If they are not finding the social goods they seek through elections, they must be looking for them elsewhere.

These alternative civic bonds do not merely fill the gaps of government services.

They can create whole new communities, cutting across the traditional political divisions. Yes, Americans “must always believe that they can write their own destiny.” These are based on hope, not gloom. The 2016 election winners does indeed have work to do in listening to the currents of American society that are moving ahead on their own. A good leader tries to run ahead of the people in the direction they are going. This shift is happening as the global systems established by the West face unusual headwinds.

Frustrated populations are increasingly tempted by strong alternatives to the status quo, the diplomat says. Internationally, a breakdown of the long-reigning Western order is prompting the Russians and Chinese to promote multilateralism- a new version of international relations on their side. But China and Russia have made little headway. Already at the time of the international financial crisis, the Chinese were putting out that their system was better than the American democratic system. The financial crisis saw the emergence of the multipolar G20 where once the all-Western G7 had reigned.

The usual battle for the White House by two-party system is nearing the end point.

WikiLeaks has embarrassed the Clinton campaign by releasing thousands of hacked emails purportedly from her campaign chairman’s account. FBI files alleging a State Department official sought a “quid pro quo” to alter the classification on a Clinton server email added to the campaigns – and Obama government’s – woes.

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Zionist USA: USA, the cause of Zionist crimes in Palestine Israel wants Hillary, a strong supporter of Zionism and expansionism by crimes, to be the next president. Hillary Clinton has long been the frontrunner in this contest but there have been times where she has looked far from comfortable. The most recent examples came back-to-back in early September. First, she made headlines by labeling half of Donald Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorable", allowing her rival to conclude it was evidence of her disdain for "hardworking people". Mrs. Clinton had been suffering from pneumonia fuelling further rumours about her health - rumours that some of her critics have been pushing for months. The news about her “sudden illness” helps Hillary in poll rating. Her poll numbers took a noticeable hit in the days that followed, but they appeared to recover towards the end of September.

Terror wars launched by the foolishly arrogant USA in energy rich Muslim nations have further narrowed down the space for genuine cooperation, peace efforts and promotion of freedoms in US policies. The continued support for Israeli fanaticism and colonialist crimes in Palestine has dented the prestige of USA more than anything else. In fact it is the US policy for Israel and the latter’s ideas about a new world order where Israel’s threats to Arab world, its crimes and genocides in Palestine are respected that has complicated and weakened US efforts for secured world.

Like Israeli establishment, US establishment also generally decides who should be the next president and what should be his agenda, and they work for that end, it is still seen busy with a Hillary win and Trump defeat. Clinton has become the consensus candidate of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus, and, increasingly, of the Republican as well as the Democratic wing of the political establishment. It is significant that Trump never made any reference to the Republican Party during the debate, while Clinton repeatedly invoked the names of Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and contrasted them to Trump. Hillary is ready to claim to be the next president in January 2017.

Israel controls and attacks not just the Gaza Strip but even areas in West bank. The UN human rights rapporteur has accused Israel of denying Palestine’s right to development thus causing rampant poverty, “epic" unemployment and economic stagnation, while illegal settlement activity is leaving hundreds of Palestinians homeless this year alone. Over 1,100 people have been left homeless so far this year in Area C of the West Bank, as Israel demolished some 780 Palestinian homes.

Area C is fully controlled by Israel and comprises of some 60 percent of the total territory in the West Bank. It is the area where the Jewish settlements – illegal under international law – are located.

So far this year, Israel has destroyed 780 homes there, compared to 453 demolitions that were conducted in 2015. Last year's demolitions left some 580 95

Palestinians homeless, while this year 1,129 people were left without a roof over their heads. In addition, further 125 Palestinian homes were also demolished in East Jerusalem since the start of the year. As a result, 164 Palestinians were left homeless this year in East Jerusalem. Overall, more half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinian Authority considers West Bank to be a part of a future independent Palestinians state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Illegal occupation remains one of the main stumbling blocks on the way to achieve a twostate solution with Israel.

A day earlier, as part of the Israeli government’s ‘carrot and stick’ policy, the country's security cabinet reportedly approved a series of Palestinian building plans in Area C. The Deepening of the occupation, the constriction of basic human rights and the utter absence of a political horizon leading to self-determination for the Palestinians have reinforced an atmosphere of despair and hopelessness “Poverty is rising. Unemployment is rising to epic levels. Food insecurity is becoming more acute. The Palestinian economy is becoming more stifled and less viable under the occupation,” Michael Link, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said delivering his report to the UN General Assembly in New York. The next president has to revise the US policy for Mideast and Israel and make it neutral- if not pro-Palestine.

Observations The US poll looks like an establishment conspiracy against Trump and hence questions on Trump's unwanted sexual advances scandal. To date, the controversies have appeared to hurt Trump more than Clinton, who has gradually expanded her lead over the Republican GOP (Grand Old Party)nominee in recent polls. Several women, supporting Hillary, have since accused him of making unwanted sexual advances in separate incidents from the early 1980s to 2007.

Trump has denied the allegations, calling them "totally and absolutely false." Why have Hillary and her party have resorted to cheap politics? The usual battle for the White House by two-party system is nearing the end point. World is damn sure that irrespective of who win the battle would continue the Bushdom agenda of permanent war on Islam by using many Muslim rulers like Syrian leader Assad.

Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week. Clinton, the Democratic former secretary of state, led Trump 44 percent to 40 percent, according to the Oct. 14-20 poll, a 4point lead, with the Nov. 8 election fast approaching. That compared with 44 percent for Clinton and 37 percent for Trump in the Oct. 7-13 poll released last week. But today the trend has again changed favoring Trump by one percent. If the upward swings and shifts continue Trump would land in White House to control the world. Americans can no longer leave the electoral process to the two parties or the media conglomerates with who they’re in cahoots. The stakes are too high. But Americans do not have more than just two candidate choices and have to abide by the conventions. The American political mood is dark and pessimistic just now. This 96

will force those elected in November to listen even more to those they oppose.

What they find may surprise them.

Foreign policy occupies a low attention from both candidates as they do not want to expose strategy of USA. America and the West must withdraw from being world policemen and a new breed of global strongmen are trying to take over leadership, Russia and China topping the list. Many countries now rising to prominence claim they do share America's core values. American ally seemingly eschew the longdominant Western order of democratic principles and free-market economics to embrace a more authoritarian and state-driven vision of economic and political rule.

The routine US presidential poll campaign formality is over. The third and final debate is finished! The candidates go their separate ways without a handshake.

Clinton walks off stage first. Of course, no love lost there, that's for sure. What would be the fate of Americans? Though both candidates are unsafe for the people, trump could be given a chance to prove his worth. In order to overcome the high level expectations and manipulations, Trump and his advisers should be prudent enough to understand the under current in the campaigns trying to wean away the votes from Trump camp.

The highlight of the final debate is that it has witnessed a reformed Trump performing. USA would wait for some more years to have their first ever woman president who is honest and sincere, unlike hawkish warmongering Hillary who over exposed as a terror inspired US leader. Hillary is surely unfit to lead Americans and world. ____________________________ (Monday, November 13, 2017)

Chapter-13: Turkey’s parliament backs new constitution!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _____

Turkey's parliament has given preliminary approval to a new constitution which will increase the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The parliament approved the two final sections of the 18-article new constitution 15 January after a marathon week of debating that began on 9 January and included sessions that often lasted late into the night.

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The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) mustered the necessary 330 or more votes - a three-fifths majority - needed for the adoption of the constitutional change and sending it to a referendum for final approval. The constitution plan will now go to a second reading in the Ankara parliament expected to start on 18 January where the 18 articles will again be debated one by one.

The proposed changes, which will create an executive presidency for the first time in modern Turkey, are controversial and far-reaching. The president will have the power to appoint and fire ministers, while the post of prime minister will be abolished for the first time in Turkey's history. Instead, there will a vice president, or possibly several.

The debates have been fractious and last week saw some of the worst fighting seen in the parliament in years with punches thrown, deputies bloodied and one lawmaker even claiming to have been bitten in the leg. To secure its necessary majority, the AKP has relied on the support of the rightwing Nationalist Movement Party, the fourth largest in the legislature.

Critics are quick to claim it amounts to a power grab by President Erdogan. But the president says the changed system will resemble those in France and the United States. The new constitution will allow the president to appoint and dismiss ministers, and it will abolish the post of prime minister for the first time in Turkey's history. Instead there will be at least one vice-president.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) boycotted the vote. Several of their MPs have been jailed on charges of supporting Kurdish militants, which, the HDP says, makes the vote controversial as they have no right to participate.

Debates over the constitution changes have been heated. Last week a fight broke out in parliament after the AKP clashed with Republican's People Party (CHP) members when an MP tried to film a voting session during a debate. The CHP, the biggest opposition party, opposing the changes, is being used by anti-Islamic forces from the West to try and derail the ruling AKP government’s reforms.

The constitutional amendments will give the president more scope for declaring an emergency. President Erdogan, 62, came to power in 2002, a year after the AKP's formation. He spent 11 years as Turkey's prime minister before becoming, in 2014, the country's first directly-elected president - a supposedly ceremonial role. Not since the days of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of the modern Turkish Republic, has any figure dominated the country for as long Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The president's grip on power was seriously challenged by an attempted coup on 15 July. Yet he was back less than 12 hours later, some say in an even stronger position than before. And he had out-maneuvered the plotters. Turkey has been in 98

a state of emergency since a failed coup in July. The status was extended after a series of attacks on the country, including a mass shooting in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve.

As Premier and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has brought Turkey years of economic growth, but to his critics, seeking to destabilize the former Ottoman Empire so that it would appear to be a part of weakened Mideast and deny it the status of being an European nation, he is an autocratic leader intolerant of dissent who harshly silences anyone who opposes him. And dissenters range from plotters and their supporters, a 16-year-old arrested for insulting the president to a former Miss Turkey who got into trouble for sharing a poem critical of the Turkish president.

Last year’s failed coup claimed at least 240 lives and, according to officials, also came close to killing Erdogan, who had been staying at the Aegean holiday resort of Marmaris. Within hours, he appeared on national TV and rallied supporters in Istanbul, declaring he was the "chief commander". But the strain on the president was clear, when he sobbed openly while giving a speech at the funeral of a close friend, shot with his son by soldiers during the attempted coup.

All ant-Islamic nations seek Turkey to undo Islamist ideology and adopt the system of “open politics� and deformed culture and civilization of the West and the rest. .They say President Erdogan is known to harbour ambitions of creating an executive presidency, to regain some of the powers he relinquished when his tenure as prime minister ended in 2014.

While the ruling AK Party enjoys a fierce and loyal support among Turkey's conservative, Muslim base, his silencing of critics after the coup has caused alarm in anti-Islamic media abroad. Turkish journalists who oppose the islamist government have been investigated and put on trial, foreign journalists working against the government have been harassed and deported.

Critics have accused Erdogan of using the judiciary to silence political opponents who seek to destabilize the Islamist nation, and there have been many allegations of trumped-up charges. But his supporters applauded President Erdogan for taking on previously untouchable establishment figures that saw themselves as guardians of the state created by Ataturk. Erdogan also unleashed the power of the state to crush mass protests in Istanbul in June 2013, focused on Gezi Park, a green area earmarked for a huge building project. The protests spread to other cities, swelled by many secularist Turks suspicious of the AKP's Islamist leanings. A major corruption scandal battered his government in December 2013, involving numerous 99

arrests, including the sons of three cabinet ministers. Later it turned out to be an opposition tactic to discredit the ruling party and Erdogan.

And Erdogan’s strong (‘authoritarian’) approach is not confined to Turkey's borders.

A German satirist is under investigation in his home country for offending the Turkish president on TV. In June 2015 the AKP suffered a dip in the polls and failed to form a coalition. But the party swept back to power in November with 49% of the vote, in elections overshadowed by the end of a ceasefire with the Kurdish militant PKK. Parliamentary elections and presidential ballots will be held simultaneously, with the draft giving 3 November 2019 as the poll date.

Erdogan's rise to power

Born in 1954, Recep Tayyip Erdogan grew up the son of a coastguard, on Turkey's Black Sea coast. When he was 13, his father decided to move to Istanbul, hoping to give his five children a better upbringing. As a teenager, the young Erdogan sold lemonade and sesame buns on the streets of Istanbul's rougher districts to earn extra cash. He attended an Islamic school before obtaining a degree in management from Istanbul's Marmara University - and playing professional football.

In the decades before the AKP's rise to power, the military intervened in politics four times to curb Islamist influence. And Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for years embraced Islamist-rooted politics. When he became mayor of Istanbul in 1994 he stood as candidate for the pro-Islamist Welfare Party. He went to jail for four months in 1999 for religious incitement after he publicly read a nationalist poem including the lines: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers."

When he became prime minister in 2002 as head of the AKP, he asserted civilian supremacy over the army. In 2013 he triumphed over the military elite when senior officers were among a large group of people convicted of plotting to overthrow him in what was known as the "Ergenekon" case. Those convictions were later quashed.

Erdogan raged against "plotters" based outside Turkey, condemning supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally turned rival in self-imposed exile in the US. He also lashed out against social media, vowing to "wipe out" Twitter. Erdogan has denied wanting to impose Islamic values, saying he is committed to secularism. But he supports Turks' right to express their religious beliefs more openly. He opposes efforts to discredit Islam and Islamist government in Europe. Turks love him for what he is and how much he loves his country. That message goes down particularly well in rural and small-town Anatolia - the AKP's traditional heartland.

Some supporters nicknamed him "Sultan" - harking back to the Ottoman Empire.

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In October 2013 Turkey lifted rules banning women from wearing headscarves in the country's state institutions - with the exception of the judiciary, military and police - ending a decades-old restriction. European nations condemn this. Critics also pointed to Erdogan's failed bid to criminalize adultery, and his attempts to introduce "alcohol-free zones", as evidence of his alleged Islamist intentions.

Erdogan's political opponents saw a lavish new presidential palace only as a symbol of his alleged authoritarian tendencies. Perched on a hill on the outskirts of Ankara, the 1,000-room Ak Saray (White Palace) is bigger than the White House or the Kremlin and ended up costing even more than the original £385m ($615m) price tag.

Erdogan owes much of his political success in the past decade to economic stability, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5%. Turkey has developed into a manufacturing and export powerhouse. The AKP government kept inflation under control - no mean feat, as there were years in the 1990s when it soared above 100%. But in 2014 the economy began flagging - growth fell to 2.9% and unemployment rose above 10%.

Turkey has been increasingly playing a positive role as Islamic leader globally. On the international stage President Erdogan has bitterly condemned Israel previously a strong ally of Turkey - over its ill-treatment of the Palestinians as Zionist policy to eliminate them from Palestine lands. Turkey sent an aidship “Marmara” to breach the Israeli blockades at Gaza strip where Israeli military keeps killing the Palestinians, including children. .Israel pursues expansionist fascist policies to clear the lands for proliferation of illegal settlements in Palestine territories. Both Israel and Egypt cause severe problems for the Gaza Palestinians by maintaining terror blockades around.

Although there is now a rapprochement, the policy not only galvanized his Islamic base, but also made Erdogan a hugely popular leader across the world, particularly in Middle East. He has backed Syria's opposition in its fight against autocratic Bashar al-Assad's government in Damascus. He has also supported the freedom struggle of Kashmiris and condemned killings of Kashmiris by occupation forces under Israeli supervision.

Erdogan’s tentative peace overtures to the Kurds in south-eastern Turkey soured when he refused to help Syrian Kurds battling Islamic State militants just across the border.

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Turkey, like Saudi Arabia, is a strong candidate for UN veto status, but it has pressed for its so far as the UNSC is not seriously thinking of increasing the strength of veto members on UN.

Veto has harmed genuine interests of many nations like Palestine but fascist nations like Israel have benefited greatly from it.

Erdogan’s important dates

1994-1998 - Mayor of Istanbul, until military officers made power grab 1998 - Welfare Party banned, Erdogan jailed for four months for inciting religious hatred Aug 2001 - Founds Islamist-rooted AKP (Justice and Development Party) with ally Abdullah Gul 2002-2003 - AKP wins solid majority in parliamentary election, Erdogan appointed prime minister Aug 2014 - Becomes president after first-ever direct elections for head of state July 2016 - Survives attempted coup by factions within the military ___________________

Chapter-14: On perpetual Indo-Pakistani tensions over Kashmir!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff ______ Anyone who closely watches Indian news and debates over TV channels, especially in English and Hindi would attest an ugly truth that as its core policy India does not at all seek peace with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Islam and Muslims and it is still determined to kill the remaining Kashmir Muslims. Indian TV channels in English are fully devoted to terrorism, cricket and anti-Pakistanism as part of antiIslamism.

India promotes cross-fire dramas as part of Sept-ii hoax in order to advance it national interest abroad. It is therefore not sure if India would any time end hostilities and hate politics with Pakistan over Kashmir even if all Kashmiris accept Indian sovereignty in a referendum if held. Indian military congestion in Kashmir would not be reduced as forces would continue to control the Muslims there and for which Indian regime would, like USA and Israel, discover new threats, meant to terrorize and attack Muslims. After all, Manipur in India continues facing military atrocities endorsed by New Delhi with extra powers. India would curtail all basic freedom to Indians as well and if anybody opposes they are tracked brutally.

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India and Israel though are not strange bed partners but who promote trade-in terror goods. None in the world media is allowed to criticize Israel and India as both track world media reports and opinions and pay to say no articles appear in the press or internet criticising colonialist crimes being perpetrated by Indi and Israel.

They are among the fast emerging strategic partners globally coordinating their colonialist operations. .

India thrives on anti-Pakistani and anti-Muslim and terror victim planks, though it also plays a premier role in spreading terrorism.

Indian media and political parties hate Kashmiris for the issue an international one thanks to Pakistani efforts to take to international forums the Indian techniques of committing genocides in Kashmir. In main India both national political outfits - and secret allies on anti-Islamism - BJP and Congress, having to end the struggle in Kashmir, have one agenda now: to somehow pacify Kashmiri Muslims with some false promises and also to delete the historic case against Hindu criminals, who pulled down the Historic Babri Mosque on 06 December 1992 on a deep rooted Indian conspiracy against Indian Muslims and Islam. This destructive politics has got the backup, guidance and help from Indian state and successive governments.

Indian corporate media lords work very closely with military-intelligence organizations to promote Islamophobia in media so that India looks somewhat democratic and”safe”.

India committed a gracious crime by annexing Jammu Kashmir even if on the advice of former colonial master Britain and now anti-Islamic trends have come handy to perpetrate crimes against Muslims in Kashmir. It is therefore not difficult to comprehend the reason for this collective anti-Pakistani and anti-Muslim mindset of Indian regime, military, media and intelligence is the simple colonialist calculation that any peace with Pakistan would force India to shelve official tensions and try to be good to Indian Muslims albeit with a pinch of salt , Further, the promotion of bilateral ties with Pakistan would make India slowly lose global sympathy as a major “terror victim” and would eventually its nukes and military advantages to threaten the neighbors. In short, if it promotes peace and friendship with Muslims neighbors, India would lose its big brother status it enjoys now arrogantly. Many strategic guys think India cannot afford to lose its “strategic” advantages by mending ways with regional Muslim nations and Kashmiri and Muslims. India does not seek to end communal politics.

Above all, both India and Pakistan would lose Jammu Kashmir which both jointly occupy- while India does it brutally by targeting Muslims in Kashmir and India 103

proper sending s warning to UK (and USA indirectly) for occupying India for centuries before granting independence in 1947, while Pakistan make Kashmiris “love” Pakistan as a “reliable” defender of Kashmiris Muslims, while it keeps killing Muslims indoors as per instructions of USA and also from India received through Washington along with service charges in dollars.

Wars, conflict, crisis and disruption of diplomatic relations and bogus talks or dialogues between the two nuclearized South Asian states are a central part of history of the region. India as well as Pakistan promotes tensions and both are not scared of them for many more years so that they continue to occupy Jammu Kashmir with backing from China, Russia and USA - all veto powers. Both are eager to escalate the tension by cross border fires, terrorizing the besieged Kashmiris.

Kashmir has been a contested area of South Asia since the partition of British India in 1947. The region is claimed by both India and Pakistan; the Indian-controlled part has periodically been convulsed by protests.

Tensions between the two nations have run high since India forces killed a Kashmiri militant commander. Then, last month, 19 soldiers were killed on an army base in India. At least 19 people have been killed as a result of India-Pakistan border disputes in Kashmir that have occurred in recent weeks, prompting some to wonder if the conflict could escalate into a drastic war over control of the region. Both nations have denied responsibility for bringing the first strike, and leaders in each country have accused the other of violating a 2003 ceasefire agreement that curbed violence in the area.

As Pakistan remains focused on Kashmir, India has been alertly pursuing an objective of maligning Pakistan in the world alleging that it is a terrorist state and it manufactures and exports terrorism. This allegation makes USA and Israel happy as India has not blamed these two fascism nations of inventing and popularizing terrorism. India does not do that because it wants their active help in targeting Muslims in Indi and Kashmir.

This summer in Kashmir saw some of the worst conflict - and worst challenge for Indian military - since 2010. Massive numbers have turned out in public demonstrations against often oppressive Indian rule and endorsement of a new age of militancy. Some 85 civilians have been killed, and at least 11,000 injured, hundreds of them by pellet guns, weapons that have become controversial symbols of this summer’s turmoil for the serious eye injuries they have inflicted. Schools and commercial establishments have been periodically closed under curfews, and the internet cut off in an effort to prevent protests. Thousands of protesters have also been arrested in the ongoing crackdown, including Abyad’s older brother, who was detained on July 8 and continues to be held in a police station.

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India, like USA, Israel and Russia, has no concern for the murder of Muslims in Kashmiris because as Hindu majority India is eager to retain it illegal occupation at all costs even by paying huge resources to USA.

South Asian nuclear powers with a lot of poverty, Pakistan and India have not signed NPT and there seems less possibility for regional cooperation in the nuclear field By following the Israeli and American strategies against Arab world and Russia, respectively, India is keen to maintain superiority over Pakistani military postures.

But Pakistan’s maintenance and advancement of minimum credible deterrence at the moment discourages India to go for misadventure by launching a missile war against Pakistan. After having the full spectrum deterrence, Pakistan now has the capability to cover all kinds of threats. India has very aggressive strategic posture to contain Pakistani military, aiming at the nuclearization of Indian Ocean and projecting military power in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. However, they not allow the situation to escalate into a full-fledged war.

Voicing its concern over India's nuclear capabilities, Pakistan called on the member states of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to make a well-considered decision over including India, keeping in view the long-term implications for the global nonproliferation regime as well as strategic stability in the region "This build-up has been facilitated by the 2008 Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver granted to India, which not only dented the credibility of the non-proliferation regime and undermined its efficacy, but also negatively affected the strategic balance in South Asia," said Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakariya at a weekly press briefing, reports the Dawn.

Pakistan has been asserting that India's rapidly expanding military nuclear program poses a grave threat to peace and stability in the region and beyond. The FO spokesman warned that another country-specific exemption by the NSG on the membership question would further exacerbate the ill effects of the 2008 exemption. "It remains our hope that the NSG member states would make a wellconsidered decision this time keeping in view its long-term implications for the global non-proliferation regime as well as strategic stability in our region," he said.

India says that seven civilians, including two children, died following cross-border firings. Officials have evacuated several civilian villages along the disputed border region and moved them into government-operated shelters for their protection. In Pakistan, more than 10 people were killed over the weekend and Monday. "It appears as if a full blown war is going on between India and Pakistan," Mohammad Saeed, a resident of the village of Mohra in the region, told Reuters. "Please have mercy and stop it.� Armies from each nation patrol the Line of Control, which divides Kashmir into two separately governed regions. Cross-border firings between officials of the two nations continued, officials confirmed.

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Such disputes have led to two of the three wars between the nations in the last 70 years. As decades of tension continue to mount, some young Kashmiri men are joining militant forces to fight India, seeking a route to self-determination for the region after years of frustration and oppression. This time the uprising has spread to every artery and vein of Kashmir. This is the third generation of Kashmiris since 1947, and their anger is such that they don’t want to budge.

Now, some worry that the stakes have become so high and the region so volatile that conflict could escalate into a nuclear exchange over the territory.

But other nonviolent tactics are at play in the conflict as well. India has threatened to skirt the provisions of a water treaty that regulates how the two nations share resources from three rivers by constructing two hydropower plants that would divert more water to India. Experts have criticized the tactic, and Pakistan has responded by saying it would consider a violation of the treaty to be “an act of war or a hostile act against Pakistan.” "It's highly irresponsible on part of India to even consider revocation of the Indus Water Treaty," Sartaj Aziz, foreign policy adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said last month. "Threats of a water war are part of a military, economic and diplomatic campaign to build pressure on Pakistan."

Each nation also expelled diplomats last week when tensions rose to a government level. The decades-old conflict has left those in Kashmir disenchanted with politics between the two nations and apt to support rogue militant causes. As protests continue in the region, some say militant groups, and local support for them, could continue to grow in response to government actions. “People have lost faith in the political struggle,” Shujaat Bukhari, editor of Rising Kashmir said: “I’m not saying everyone in Kashmir is a militant. But everyone sympathizes with the militancy, and that is a new reality.” He fondly remembers the 1970s and '80s in his native Kashmir – a place that was peaceful and verdant, where the now 63-year-old artist could interact with visiting artists from around the world and paint landscapes.

For Khytul Abyad, such an artist’s paradise seems an elusive dream. Born in 1993, the 23-year-old artist watched as Kashmir’s beauty was overshadowed by political crackdowns, torture, Army bunkers on every street, and long waits in traffic as Army convoys passed by. For her, growing up in Kashmir mainly meant negotiating the ongoing conflict between Kashmiris opposed to India’s occupation of their land.

Mr. Hussain and Ms. Abyad are working to document the conflict they have seen explode around them this summer, as tensions over India’s occupation of Kashmir soared after the killing of the popular militant rebel leader Burhan Muzaffar Wani.

For both of them, Kashmir’s brutal history has become the canvas, their art their channel of dissent, protest, frustration, and hope. And they see others choosing the 106

same path. “In 2008, 2010, and 2016 uprising, we've been seeing new artists emerging, either as musicians, rappers, poets, or painters,” says Abyad. “Being in a curfew for months, not being able to go out of home … this is the perfect time for art to emerge because there's so much going on inside and the frustration becomes internal, rather than external,” she adds.

Abyad and Hussain’s perspectives are shaped by their very different experiences: While Hussain knew Kashmir before the armed rebellion started in 1988, Abyad was just 18 months old when unknown gunmen assassinated her father, Mirwaiz Qazi Nissar, a popular pro-freedom leader and a Muslim cleric. As she grew older, words like azaadi (Freedom) and tehreek (movement) became familiar rallying cries.

It was during the 2008 unrest that Abyad took up her paintbrush in protest. Nearly 80 people were shot dead and many injured in the uprising sparked by government land being transferred to a Hindu shrine board, where the board wanted to construct concrete structures. “I had never seen so much anger in people,” says Abyad, who has exhibited her work publicly and is participating in upcoming exhibitions and biennales. “It was tehreek, I thought. I saw people being beaten up inhumanely. I saw people who weren't ready to go home even after teargas shells were fired at them, people who wouldn't stop shouting 'We want freedom' until police would take them away.”

Like everyone, Abyad also experienced intense fear that she hadn't known before.

“This fear turned into sadness and brought anger,” she says. When she couldn't go out and throw stones at the soldiers, it was art that became her outlet. Without being able to speak about her anger and frustration, art showed her the way to communicate the harshest of emotions in the gentlest manner. Her work is mostly a reflection of life in Kashmir and the events that have changed its history over the years. In her sketches, these days, she has been drawing short stories about various elements of the ongoing uprising, based on her own experience. “Wherever there is conflict, there's discomfort, and discomfort gives rise to art,” she says.

Hussain’s early work was shaped by much more quotidian experiences. As a student at Mumbai’s JJ Institute of Applied Arts from 1971 to 1976, he would often visit home for vacation. After his education, he returned to Kashmir to introduce the graphic designer course in the Institute of Music and Fine Arts (IMFA). “Life was peaceful, and there was so much to do as a graphic designer,” says Hussain, now a highly acclaimed artist. “I used to paint as well. We had art camps every year and artists from across the world used to visit these camps. We had great fruitful interactions with them. It would not be an understatement to say that it truly was an artist’s paradise.”

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At the IMFA, opportunities were many, including the highly creative and culturally diverse environment when artists from all regions and religions would work together. “My works talked about our rich cultural heritage, expressed my admiration for the natural beauty through landscapes, photo documentation of our vernacular architecture, especially the lattice work,” he says.

Then the conflict broke out; Hussain lost all the artwork he had created in 1993 amid protests. What he managed to salvage was then lost to floods in 2014. But that has just spurred him to do more paintings like “Death and Resurrection,” a series in the form of painted relief in mixed media that shows the conflict he has witnessed. He mourns the younger generation’s lack of awareness of an earlier Kashmir – one of his paintings, “Look Behind the Canvas,” depicts three generations of women in Kashmir – showing Mughli, whose son was forcibly disappeared, and Rafiqa, whose husband is also disappeared, and his own daughter. In the painting, he has also incorporated cuttings from the newspapers during 2010 mass uprising as a small collage.

After the work was finished, however, Hussain tore it apart, as a metaphor for Kashmir's situation.v “I was so scared to see the situation of young boys dying in 2010. I found that there is no end to this violence and situation will not be better," he says. "We are waiting for somebody to come, who can feel our wounds. I tore apart this painting but somebody will come who will put this painting back together again.”

Similarly, in July, when Abyad, a recent graduate of the IMFA, read about lead pellets being fired at civilians, the reaction came out on paper. More than 1.3 millions pellets have been fired in the first 43 days of the uprising. The hospitals are filled with young men wearing blackout glasses after undergoing operations to get out the pellets and then try to restore sight. “We have been confined to our homes for the past 52 days with violence all around us,” says Hussain, who has also been making digital art on pellet survivors. “It’s heartbreaking to see children losing their eye sight to pellets," he says. "Digital media is the quickest means of depicting the plight of these children to the world. Such brutal acts must be stopped."

On July 9, the capital of Indian-occupied Jammu Kashmir went unexpectedly quiet.

Police barriers and barbed wire blocked the streets of Srinigar as military helicopters passed over blue skies crowded by mountains. Thousands of protesters were rioting in the streets 24 miles south. The sudden shutdown came after Indian Army forces killed 22-year-old Burhan Wani, a popular Hizb ul Mujahideen Kashmiri militant with a 1 million rupee ($15,000) Indian-issued bounty, late Friday evening in southern Kashmir. Outrage over Wani’s death turned the militant into a martyr 108

overnight, and by Wednesday, the death toll reached 35, with hundreds more injured in clashes between separatist protesters and Indian troops.

As is routine when fighting breaks out in the Valley, which has been disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947, anti-Indian separatist leaders called for a four-day shutdown of the city. Shops, restaurants, pharmacies, and fruit sellers were closed in solidarity. The mood was grim, and few dared venture out of their homes.

But on the edge of the city, it was as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Dal Lake is Srinagar’s prized “jewel,” an economic powerhouse for a struggling region that draws tourists with its staggering mountains and serene waters. Nearly 70,000 locals reside near its shores, and depend entirely on tourism and fishing for their livelihood. And Dal’s façade of normalcy in recent days speaks to the tensions here as Kashmiris both chafe against Indian control and at the same time try to keep their shaky economy going. “Every Kashmiri wants to protect Dal Lake,” explains Asif Qureshi, bureau chief of a local news station in Srinagar. “It is the jewel of Kashmir. It’s a safe zone, blocked in from Dal Gate to the Boulevard near the Army Cantonment.”

On Sunday, as the rest of Srinagar remained on tense lockdown, water-skiers glided blissfully across Dal Lake. Fruit and souvenir sellers rowed in brightly-painted shikara boats around the silky blue water looking for tourists. Shikara boat owners offered rides to Indian families on vacation. “It’s our first time on Dal Lake,” said Sagar Choudri, a tourist visiting from Maharashtra who’d just finished water-skiing.

“We feel good here. People are very nice to us. We heard a little about the strike, but we feel safe.”

Nearly 10 miles wide, Dal hosts some 880 wood-carved houseboats, leftover from the British before partition when the Dogra Maharaja of Kashmir prohibited them from building houses on land. Now, the Dal economy supports thousands of families across Srinagar – from taxi drivers to houseboat owners to cooks to fruit-sellers. It is one of the only areas that remains immune to fighting that can break out on short notice in Kashmir, which remains one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world. Green and white signs across Srinagar read: "Dal is our identity. Let us join our hands to preserve it." “There is no tension, there is no military here. Dal Lake is peaceful, Dal Lake is safe, Dal Lake depends 90 percent on tourists,” says Latif Ahamed, a young shikara boat owner who stayed open during the strike, hoping to catch a few stray tourists. He sounded weary of talking about the recent fighting.

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But it is not an easy topic to avoid. Dressed in the uniform blue kurta worn by shikara union workers, Mr. Ahamed explained that in addition to the economic difficulties of working as a shikara guide, his work carried the added burden of political pressure: Could he afford to follow suit and shut down his business? He had decided to stay open over the weekend, despite pressure to remain shut.

“People are angry with us, the city people,” he said, referring to shopkeepers in other neighborhoods in Srinagar. “They come to us they say, ‘Why are you open?’

And I say, ‘Our family, we’re poor people. We earn only 500 rupees.’ You strike four to five days. What will I eat?”

Nearly every shop in Srinagar obeyed a statewide motion by Syed Geelani, the “father” of Kashmir’s separatist movement, to go on a five-day strike in protest of the killings. It has become a customary symbol of expressing discontent against the government – and is hard to defy. But it is often Kashmir’s urban poor who bears the brunt of these strikes. Ashiq Ahmad Kulo, a brass and silver jewelry seller, felt similar tensions as he rowed around Dal over the weekend looking for tourists.

“Burhan Wani was a good person,” Kulo says from his shikara. “He was our Muslim brother, so we’re feeling sad about this. We are feeling totally bad. We want freedom. I am also hating the politics. But we have no shops, no regular salary. We people are depending only of the tourism.”

The costs of unrest are well known here, and lurk in recent memory. Fighting was so extreme in 2008, and later in 2010, that tourists stopped coming in entirely – Dal Lake was forced to shut down, more than 200 people were killed, and many youths were unemployed. The periodic unrest has meant that Jammu and Kashmir has one of the highest unemployment rates in India, with roughly 600,000 unable to find work.

But in the past five years, tourism has revived, with more Indians once again venturing north. During peak season, food and jewelry sellers can earn as much as 10,000 rupees ($148) in a single day. But during days of lockdown, which frighten off many tourists, the daily income ranges from zero to roughly 1,000 rupees, depending on the business. After fighting broke out this weekend, many tourists left early; Air India offered its customers outside Kashmir free cancellations for trips booked to Srinagar. “I stay open because everywhere nothing is open,” says Rafi Kulo, a local drink seller who sold water, juice, and soda. “But tourists suffer from thirst. I prefer to give people food, drinks. When protests happen, business always goes down. Before this situation we could earn 10,000 per day.

Most floating businesses on Dal Lake remained open over the weekend for tourists: Kashmiri silk and scarf shops, coat sellers, fruit and vegetable sellers, and even 110

floating restaurants advertising popular Indian fast food like vegetable biryani, methi pakoora, zeera rice, dum aloo, and “Italian pasta.” “We people depend 100 percent on the tourists,” said Firdous Ahamed, owner of the floating restaurant Mango Bango. “In 2008, there was a killing on the road, local people got killed by police, in front of Dal Lake. And we people came out, we said, ‘We never fight for anything. Why is this happening here?’ ”

For Mr. Ahamed, the region's dependency on India is clear. Many here wonder if an independent Kashmir would be able to survive, even if some current constraints on its economy were lifted. “We don’t think we have anything here to be independent.

We don’t have nothing here, economically,” Ahamed adds. “We’re a small matchbox. Like India, if it stops, we can’t burn anything. We can’t have any factories here. We are depending on India. We say just give us democracy. That’s it. If we get democracy, like a right to talk, that’s the main thing.”

Observation

Whereas Pakistan has been internationalize the Kashmir issue so far now India, after its “surgical attacks on Kashmir on some bogus reason to weaken the Kashmiri struggle for freedom has got the opportunity to belittle Pakistan by internationalizing the Uri event.

RSS controlled Modi’s government tried its best to isolate Pakistan but failed miserably. it to be India proposed to BRICS Summit to declare Pakistan a terror state but China stood with Pakistan and rejected Indian claim.

India media are so happy that Indo-Pakistani ties are further straining and go complicated indefinitely as Uri provided the much waited chance to thrash Pakistani embassy officals.

For the sake of peace, stability and tranquility the UNSC must step in and push them to agree for a peace deal while releasing Jammu Kashmir under their joint occupation while China would also do the same as it also occupies a part of Azad Kashmir without striking secret deals with India and Pakistan. .

In order to retain occupational parts of Palestine, Israel also supports India directly and Pakistan does it passively. It is therefore necessary to clip the terror clip of the Zionist regime in Mideast and dismantle all its WMD obtained illegally form the west.

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Indi a as well as Pakistan must now realize that they cannot occupy Jammu Kashmir indefinitely and must, therefore, wake up the protest calls of Kashmiris.

The usual cross border firing dramas must end.

So long as India and Pakistan continue to cross fire to terrorize Kashmiris, the perpetual Indo-Pakistani tensions over Kashmir would not end especially when the UN and UNSC allow India to go on regular rampages in Kashmir and expand secret graveyards in the valley.

Chapter-15: India: Sasikala and Dinakaran ousted from AIADMK! (Sasikala family should be out of AIADMK for party unity: Former CM O. Pannerselvam!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff __________ The ruling AIADMK faction “Amma”, now operating under jailed Sasikala’s guidance seems to be keen to regain the party symbol somehow by bringing back the O Panneerselvam faction without effecting any basic changes in the party or government. More importantly, the Amma AIADMK Party and government would still be under the grip of Sasikala family and refuse to shed the Mannargudi clan links.

Reports suggest that the AIADMK ministers met and decided to oust Sasikala and Dinakaran from AIADMK with a view to accepting a major condition of former CM O. Panneer Selvam for real unity of the party founded by MGR and developed very carefully by Jayalalithaa. However, OPS has also demanded a judicial investigation into the death of Jayalalithaa.

Fragile merger move There has been a move from both factions to reunite the party factions on a plan accordingly, O Panneerselvam to be the party’s general secretary and E Palanisamy to remain CM. Top Ministers of the AIADMK (Amma) government called a late night press conference in Chennai on April 17. The ministers, divided in two camps, held meetings at the residents of Thangamani and Udumalai Radhakrishna.

The OPS camp has agreed for patch-up, “if their conditions are accepted”.

According to NDTV, E Palanisamy could remain as the chief minister, whereas, Panneerselvam could be awarded the post of AIADMK general secretary. The report 112

further claims that the sudden decision was taken by AIADMK top brass considering the threat of arrest looming over the party’s incumbent defacto leader TTV Dinakaran.

It was earlier reported in the media that former CM O. Pannerselvam had earlier expressed his desire to form a united AIADMK without conditions but today speaking to media at his home town Periakulam from where he has been elected to state assembly, that so long as Sasikala and family remain in the party there is no chance for genuine reunion of factions.

With ruthless action to remove O. Panneerselvam from the CM and treasurer posts, Sasikala is the root cause of all troubles the party is facing since the demise of Jayalalithaa.

On April 18, 2017, while addressing the media amid the rumours of a possible merger with the Sasikala faction, O Panneerselvam said that Jayalalithaa's legacy is the foremost. While addressing the media amid the rumours of a possible merger with the Sasikala faction, O Panneerselvam said that Jayalalithaa’s legacy is the foremost for us and asked both the factions to unite. However, he mentioned that Sasikala’s elevation as General Secretary still invalid according to Times Now and added that both Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran are involved in corrupt practices. “Dinakaran was not even member of the party till Amma’s demise, elections for office-bearers of AIADMK was itself illegal,” he was quoted saying by the news agency ANI. OPS made it clear that his faction will not go in any kind of merger if their demands including removal of Sasikala as party chief, are not accepted. The OPS factions have asked a probe in Jayalalithaa’s death and stand by it even as the talks of unification are going on between the two camps. OPS alleged that money was paid to the voters for the RK Nagar bypolls. “During the election campaigning in RK Nagar many malpractices were done, Rs. 4000 offered to voters. We have submitted all this to EC yesterday and asked to inquire into matter (election for AIADMK office-bearers after Jaya’s demise),” he said.

OPS said that Sasikala has betrayed Amma’s cause and was even sacked by Jayalalithaa along with Dinakaran and the party needs to be saved from dynastic politics. However, KA Sengottaiyan had said earlier that OPS faction didn’t raise any question on Dinakaran or Sasikala. “There are no talks on the issue of TTV Dinakaran and Sasikala, nor did OPS faction raise any question on the same,” Sengottaiyan said.

The AIADMK was split on February 7, 2016, when Panneerselvam lashed out against AIADMK supremo VK Sasikala, accusing her of usurping power against the 113

will of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Subsequently, Panneerselvam was shown the door by party top brass.

The two warring camps of AIADMK recently fought over the the party symbol, which was eventually freezed by the Election Commission. Both the camps were compelled to use different symbols moving into the by-election for RK Nagar assembly segment, the seat which was represented by Jayalalithaa.

Earlier in the day, senior AIADMK leader M Thambidurai pitched for reconciliation between the two camps. “There was no split in AIADMK, but only dissidence. Things could be resolved if both the factions talk. We are ready for merger if OPS camp comes forward,” he said.

The ruling AIADMK (Amma) prepared the ground for a possible truce with the rival AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) with a consultative meeting of Ministers held at the house of Electricity Minister P. Thangamani here, “welcoming” former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam’s (OPS) statement he was prepared for a rapprochement “if approached”. Briefing journalists after over an hour-long meeting of Ministers, Finance Minister D. Jayakumar said, “We discussed only two things. The party has to be united and an affidavit to be filed before the Election Commission to retrieve the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol.

It not yet clear if speculation that Sasikala had resigned as party general secretary is true. Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam interjected and said, “it is a blatant lie”.

Jayakumar said he did not have any information about her resignation.

No blind merger

In a twist to the developments of the last 24 hours, the former Chief Minister, O. Panneerselvam, on April 18 Tuesday ruled out the merger of the two factions of the AIADMK if V.K. Sasikala remains in a united party. He demanded the ouster of her family, including T.T.V. Dhinakaran, from the AIADMK.

The AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) leader said, "MGR and Amma were always against family rule. So, we will not rest until the Sasikala family is thrown out of the AIADMK. Party should not be in the hands of a family." Earlier, sources in his camp said talks with the other camp would be only with conditions. "This talk of 'no conditions' is all bunkum," they added. Panneerselvam made it clear that he cannot go back on his core demand of a probe into the 'mysterious' death of the

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former Chief Minsiter, Jayalalithaa. "We will continue our demand for a CBI inquiry into the sudden demise of Jayalalithaa."

Team formed for talks with OPS camp: Sengottaiyan. "A team has been formed for talks with the O. Pannerselvam camp for a possible merger", says School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan. He held discussions with AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary Dhinakaran at the latter's residence in Chennai.

Panneerselvam has expressed the confidence that the Sasikala faction leaders would approach him for merger talks. On speculations about the merger of the two AIADMK factions and that he was going to be made “general secretary,” he said no one has approached him for it so far.

“If approached, we are ready to sit and talk and I have confidence that they leaders will come for talks,” he told reporters at the airport.

MLAs meet on board INS Chennai

On board ''INS Chennai'', Finance Minister Jayakumar refused to attach any significance to an MLAs meeting. Earlier in the morning, responding to Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisami's call, legislators of the AIADMK AMMA assembled on board ''INS Chennai'' and ''INS Sumedha'' for a 'day at sea' event.

Late on Monday evening, as many as 26 Ministers met at Electricity Minister Thangamani's official residence on Greenways Road in Chennai.Another meeting was held at the bungalow of Housing Minister Udumalai Radhakrishnan, in which a few Ministers participated. Later, they joined the meeting at Mr. Thangamani's residence.

Welcoming Panneerselvam's ''call'' for unity, Jayakumar said the AIADMK lawmakers discussed ways to unite the party and get back the 'Two Leaves' symbol frozen by the Election Commission. Jayakumar denied rumours that Sasikala and Mr. Dhinakaran have resigned from the party. ''This is like a sibling fight. We'll join hands soon'', he said. All 128 AIADMK MLAs are staying united and favour a merger.

Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha M. Thambidurai left for New Delhi on Monday evening. Thambidurai may meet Election Commission officials regarding the tussle over the ''Two Leaves'' symbol.

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Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Thambidurai meet twice fuelling speculations. When Thambidurai spoke to media at the Secretariat, he too welcomed Panneerselvam’s remarks. Going by the footage shown on television channels, women Ministers appeared to have stayed away from both the meetings.

But the prominent absentee was Palanisami. Jayakumar, S.P. Velumani and C. Ve Shanmugam answered queries from journalists. The Ministers said they would discuss the possibility of merger with OPS camp after Mr. Dhinakaran comes back to Chennai.

The women ministers too joined the meeting at Mr. Thangamani's residence and thus began the second round of discussion. Close to midnight, the Ministers were seen leaving Thangamani's residence. _______________ Chapter-16: Tamil Nadu: Is AIADMK on its way out of power soon?

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _______

Once, rather not very long ago, a powerful party AIADMK is now split and weakened because of one-person – Sasikala, who sought to take over both the ruling party and government, taking full advantage of unexpected death of CM Jayalalithaa.

Today, due to shock therapy treatment administered to the party and government causing factional feud in AIADMK does not look like they are trying to find a way out to work together to save the MGR-Jayalithaa rule and party, though both of them do talk on those lines merely as a formality to fool the party workers.

From the views expressed on TV debates by prominent members of ruling Amma AIADMK, one basic opinion within the ruling dispensation under Sasikala/Dinakaran It is clear that the Palanisamy supporters also don’t want to get rid of Sasikala and her relatives in the government and obstructionist elements in the party fear that once O.Panneerselvam becomes CM and General Secretary, as most party people and general masses expect, these elements would lose their place in the party and government. Now apparently they are able to control the Palanisamy government.

They refuse to put an end to the dangerous Sasikala clan in the part and government.

These MLAs and ministers have not at all approved of Jayalalithaa appointing OPS as acting CM, ignoring or over looking many senior ministers in the cabinet. In fact,

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these elements are instrumental in installing Sasikala and Dinakaran as party bosses and approved every action she under took.

More than OPS faction, EPS is worried about retaining power in the state but the Sasikala fans do not want OPS to assume power and are indeed ready to let DMK come to power by replacing the AIADMK government. And if that happens, obviously the time of AIDMK should be over once for all. Sooner than later most members of Amma and OPS Puratchithalaivi Amma factions would switch to DMK while BJP, waiting in wings, would be readily wooing many of the disillusioned to serve the cause of Hindutva. They would then begin praising BJP and other Hindutva parties as the “true nationalist parties�.

That would be like playing joint cricket exercises in IPL. Sasikala faction is keen to deny any chance for OPS to become CM of the state or General Secretary of AIADMK because t Sasikala and Dinakaran continue to control the MLAs and government even by being outside the organizational and government apparatus. Sasikala and coterie had worked secretly to sack OPS form the CM post and Treasurer job.

In fact, Palanisamy is damn sure he is just a temporary CM and would have to vacate it when Dinakaran and Sasikala order him to do. Many MLAs and ministers in the AAIDMK are in touch with Sasikala and Dinakaran.

Since Amma faction tires to play mischief with OPS faction by refusing to concede OPS demands to make the party free from Sasikala family in all sense, there is no likelihood that OPS would agree to be fooled once again now by those closed to the Mannargudi family.

Thus all efforts by the Sasikala faction to use OPS faction only to just get the twoleaf symbol to win polls, starting with RK Nagar constituency have come to nothing.

In RK Nagar electioneering, OPS became a star and people seem to have begun taking him as their leader. That is the reason why the Sasikala and Dinakaran decided to stay low and let the government talk to OPS faction for unity mainly to get back the party symbol and then play reckless politics within to sideline OPS and his supporters.

Now that Sasikala faction has lost the battle to OPS, it must let OPS assume CM post and General Secretary so that AIADMk is back function as a cohesive party and government. They could review the situation after a year and take corrective measures.

Otherwise, AIADMK is fasting losing power in the state as its image is gravely shattered. .

Hard headed Sasikala supporters may not like OPS to rule the state as their chinnamma leader is in jail in disproportionate assets case, for looting the money of common people of the state.

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Because of arrogance of a foolish Mannargudi clan, not only the ruling AIADMK but also the Tamil Nadu is suffering. Tamils may not excuse the party and government if they continue to play the drama.

Chapter-17: On Turkey-EU moment of reckoning!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _______

Turkey’s efforts to genuinely align with other European powers have not yet yielded fruits as many European members of EU, like Germany, have created obstacles to Turkey’s official entry. Religious and civilizational issues have been brought in by EU to harm the European unity with Turkey playing its role. .

Western powers and their media lords want to declare Turkey as failed state like they have been decorating Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, etc. All these Muslim nations have been destabilized by militaries of US led NATO and their terror allies.

Fragile relationship

Turkey hopes to be fully defended from destabilization moves by the new referendum being put to vote across the globe as Turks and their Diaspora vote to take the historic decision. The result of the referendum on changing the constitution will be announced on April 16- a few days from now- President Recep Tayypip Erdogan is sure to win it for the nation.

With an adamant Europe on accepting Islamic Turkey as being their partner, even after 13 years, Turkey and Europe are locked in the bitterest of feuds, marked by threats, fiery epithets and petty slights that could mark the end of Turkey’s ambitious national project to gain coveted privileges as a full member of the European Union. President Erdogan has suggested as much last month that while Turkey could maintain its economic relations with Europe, “we may have the need to review ties at the political and administrative level.”

EU has realized now that they need an economically vibrant Turkey more than the other way round, though, true, beyond the heated rhetoric, both parties have much to lose from their fight, which threatens to further isolate Europe and Turkey at a moment when both are turning inward and succumbing to xenophobia and nationalist rhetoric.

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The eventual breakup, if at all, would leave the European Union bereft of a Muslimmajority partner that might have served as a hopeful sign of inclusion and diversity, including for millions of Muslim immigrants living in Europe, and a counterbalance to right-wing, anti-immigrant parties that are gaining in prominence.

Turkey has played a pivotal role in helping with the refugee crisis by acting huge chunk of refugees from Europe. This humanitarian assistance for Europe clearly makes the premises of Turkey when it is admitted into EU. Although Most Turks oppose the Turkey’s move to be a part of weak EU, Turkish government still pursued the case legally.

All over the world, in the name of democracy and party rule, just one person controls the nation and system A to Z. However, when it comes to an Islamic nation, all anti-Islamic forces join hands to question the ruler if he tries to strengthen the nation, its security, economy. We know in the name of democracy father Bush and his son Bush ruled the USA for years followed by Obama and now Trump is doing that with colonialist and Zionist mindset, driven by ultra fanaticism. .

After the its tensions with Israel, Turkey has been on the hit list of the anti-Islamic nations, forces, their media lords. After the shamefully failed coup in Istanbul to target President Erdogan and destabilize the only Islamist state on earth, the enemies of Islam have joined hands to use all available and created avenues to target Turkey and Erdogan but Turks, who decide the matters, stand solidly by president Erdogan.

European nations refuse recognize European Turkey being in European continent because that is an Islamic nation and defend Palestine while entire Europe is now anti-Islamic fort. .

The entry talks between Turkey and EU have been prolonging without any positive results as they oppose Turkey in the new EU. Economy Turkey’s economy grew at a faster pace than anticipated last quarter as households boosted spending, supporting activity following the failed military coup. Turkish households and the government boosted spending after July’s attempted military takeover. The political convulsions that followed hurt consumers and contributed to 119

the economy’s first quarterly contraction in seven years. Private consumption, traditionally the main driver of growth, increased 5.7 percent.

The Turkish currency strengthened after the report and was trading 0.3 percent higher at 3.6430 per dollar in Istanbul. Gross domestic product expanded 3.5 percent in the October-to-December period, faster than all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, which saw an expansion of 1.9 percent.

Seasonally adjusted output rose 3.8 percent from the previous three months.

The Turkish government adopted a series of expansionary fiscal policies to counter the slowdown, which may add as much as one percentage point to the budget deficit by year-end. Private demand picked up in the final quarter of 2016, fueled by household spending on everything from services to consumption goods. Based on strengthening consumer sentiment, it will probably increase at similar levels this year while public spending emerges as an even bigger driver of growth.

Government consumption could strengthen if fiscal policy is loosened further, drivers of growth are likely to shift. Investment should continue to pick up from last year’s slump. State spending, including on civil servants’ wages and purchases of goods and services, rose 0.8 percent in the final quarter of last year from the same period in 2016. Incentives to boost employment and agricultural production, and tax breaks for the tourism industry, were among stimulus measures rolled out.

The government took some action to boost private consumption. It was important for Turkey not to enter a “technical recession,” Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said in a televised interview after the GDP report. “There’s a moderate recovery in growth in the first quarter. The recovery will accelerate from the middle of the second quarter.” Government measures to ease restrictions on household demand usually have an effect with some delay, meaning faster consumption growth in 2017. Still the 2017 economy of Turkey is crying out for attention.

Democracy and authoritarian security The coup attempt that failed to click has indeed caused serious problems for Turkey and its AKP government. And the Turkish state’s institutions are becoming more rigidly authoritarian to be very alert.

The schism could have also immediate repercussions, most notably for a European Union deal with Turkey to stem the passage of migrants headed to Europe. Turkish officials have repeatedly threatened to scuttle the deal.

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The latest arguments have been sparked by recent events, including a referendum in Turkey that could change its system of government from a parliamentary system to what is known as an executive presidency. A “yes” vote in the referendum would allow Erdogan to run for an additional term, and possibly remain in office until 2029. He could nominate a suitable candidate to replace him in due course who would continue the policies of the AKP. .

Democracy is a usual phrase used by Western nations as par tof anti-Islamism.

Turkish officials supporting the change have been prevented in recent weeks from addressing expatriate Turkish voters in Europe, drawing a furious reaction from Erdogan and his government that has included accusing the German and Dutch governments of Nazism. European officials, in turn, have become more openly critical of Erdogan’s government.

As the frequency of the insults has moved beyond diplomatic crisis to unbridled hostility, it has laid bare tensions that had been building for years. The recent, unusual flare-up was a sign of how severely the bond between Turkey and Europe has deteriorated. The EU calculates if they keep criticizing the AKP government as being authoritarian, the Islamist party would disappear!!! The fact is Turks love the party and government of Erdogan.

Ambassadors have been summoned and national leaders vilified on front pages from Ankara to Amsterdam. The frenzied rhetoric has also raised safety concerns, for Turks living in Europe and for Westerners residing in Turkey. Erdogan issued a warning last month, saying that unless the Europeans changed their behavior, “no European, no Westerner will be able to take steps on the streets safely and peacefully,” local media reported.

Turkey’s entry into the EU was always going to be a difficult proposition until recently but the refugee crisis made the Europe sit back and ponder over the valuable help of Turkey. Turkey — a Muslim-majority country of 71 million people that was belittled and referred to derisively by many European leaders as “too big, too poor, too different” — always had more to prove than Eastern European countries that were incorporated in the EU enlargement process

After Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party took power in 2002, the government renewed its push for membership and took steps, including abolishing the death penalty, that led to the beginning of formal negotiations in 2005. Over the next decade, Turkey’s bid proceeded in fits and starts, facing stiff resistance especially

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from Germany, the Netherlands and France. The moribund negotiations led to an “an accumulation of tension, frustration and disillusionment European mindset Turkey’s effort to formally become part of Europe stretches back decades, to 1959, when the country first applied to join the European Economic Union, the precursor to the European Union, which was formed in 1993. European critics of Turkey’s accession highlighted “cultural difference” — a euphemism for its status as a Muslim-majority country — as well as its ongoing dispute with Cyprus and its human rights abuses.

Europe and USA are undergoing a period of human rights abuses. A visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels said the referendum campaign in Turkey “is accelerating this moment of reckoning — laying bare the perennially unbridgeable inconsistencies in the relationship.” “It is becoming very difficult to continue with the pretense of Turkish accession” into the EU for several reasons, he said, including post-coup democratic constraints in Turkey and the political dynamics in Europe. “Unfortunately, we have reached a possible turning point in the TurkeyEuropean relationship.”

There are differences of opinion about where to lay blame for the current impasse.

Religion is the main problem for Europe as they are eager to promote only their religion- Christianity in EU and oppose Islamic faith and rituals.

Despite the obstacles, Turkey has taken measures, including consistently upgrading its democratic standards, but that has not thwarted the naysayers in Europe.

Instead, “the exact opposite happened. The obstructionism on the European side strengthened the hand of those in Turkey skeptical of this vision, for a variety of reasons that have to do with ideology, governance, culture and so on.

Over time, they came to be more influential in charting the course for Turkey.”

Aydintasbas said the present, worsening relationship “was not a foregone conclusion” but rather the result of misunderstandings and missed opportunities over years. “What would have happened had the Europeans been more willing to open the doors for Turkey, at a time when Turkey was desperately carrying out reforms?” she said. The last decade was an especially critical moment — a “high point” for Turkish democracy, between 2000 and 2008, when civilian leaders gained the upper hand over Turkey’s powerful military and enthusiasm for the European project in Turkey was at an all-time high.

But national leaders in Europe, including Angela Merkel in Germany and Nicolas 122

Sarkozy in France, decided that Turkish accession was “not a good idea,” and in the years that followed, the accession effort stalled.

In July, a failed coup attempt in Turkey further doomed the relationship, as the Turkish government embarked on wide-ranging crackdown on enemies and dissidents while castigating Europe for not expressing a sufficient amount of solidarity. In November, the European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution freezing the accession talks with Turkey.

Popularity of president Erdogan Recep Erdogan guided Turkey through a fast developing economic power. Confetti and fireworks greeted Recep Erdogan when he returned to Turkey in December 2004, flush with the good news that his country had been invited to start talks to join the European Union. Addressing cheering crowds in the capital, Erdogan, then the prime minister, said the invitation was a sign of Turkey’s growing international clout.

After decades of effort, Turkey “will take its rightful place among modern and civilized countries,” he said at the time. “From now on, democracy will have a different meaning, and human rights and freedoms will be practiced in a more meaningful manner.

Turks in Turkey and world over see president Erdogan who has brought the country forwards not just economically and politically but also added prestige to the nations as the savior but the enemies view him as driving the great European nation it to ruin and the global media project these opponents in Turkey who helped the antinational coup as the hero of anti-Islamic media. The Turkish Diaspora in Europe, controlled by anti-Islamic forces and media lords, is split, but most of them support Erdogan, judging by a visit to the Turkish embassy in Bern, Germany – hot spot of anti-Islamic movement in Europe, where Turks are voting on a constitutional referendum.

One of the Turkish origin Swizz women, who says she has lived in Switzerland for 35 years, answers swissinfo.ch’s questions on behalf of the pro-Turkey group. “We voted for the future of our country. Turkey isn’t turning into a dictatorship as the Western media claim,” the young mother says, adding that she can’t understand why her children in Swiss schools are being told that democracy in Turkey isn’t in particularly good shape. “Turkey’s going in the right direction. Look at how things have developed in recent years while Erdogan’s been in power,” she says. She is 123

convinced that those people getting arrested in Turkey have only themselves to blame. “We go there every year and don’t have any problems at all.”

One European family of Turks say: “We voted for the future of our country. Turkey isn’t turning into a dictatorship as the Western media claim,” the young mother says, adding that she can’t understand why her children in Swiss schools are being told that democracy in Turkey isn’t in particularly good shape.“Turkey’s going in the right direction. Look at how things have developed in recent years while Erdogan’s been in power,” she says. One young man with a baseball cap and sunglasses has voted, but it sounds as though he supports Erdogan. “I voted for a strong Turkey.

Our aim is 2023,” he says earnestly, referring to the date of Turkey’s centenary.

Until then Erdogan plans to portray himself as the father of a new nation who has boosted production and implemented great infrastructure projects.

Turkey grew by 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. Added to upward revisions of the previous two quarters, that brings Turkey’s annual growth in 2016 to 2.9 percent. The same number was 6.1 percent in 2015. Turkish growth may have stumbled in 2016.

The government’s medium-term program (MTP) was expecting 2016 growth to reach 4.5 percent at the outset, but that was revised down to 3.2 percent. So with 2.9 percent growth in 2016, does it mean that the MTP was successful in anticipating the growth rate in 2016? Definitely not. The MTP numbers are from Mars, while the newly announced 2.9 percent is from Venus. They are based on different calculations of GDP. If we still had the old series, 2016 growth, due to the Coup and the slowdown in global growth, could well be around 1 percent with this performance. That is why Turkey’s growth is far below the country’s own target.

Unemployment is rising to levels high even for Turkey, and those tourism jobs were going to be sorely needed. Can the country power through all this on a super presidency?

There are also domestic reasons for Turkey’s slowdown. Start with the “State of Emergency a la Turca” and rising current account financing needs, and the lack of a strong economic reform, not to speak of the sharp depreciation of the Turkish Lira.

Uncertainties related to social cohesion issues related to Syrian refugees, Kurds and the others also belong in this category. Can we just expect all of these issues to be addressed by a referendum?

The Turkish economy, at the end of the day, is part of the European economy. Half of our exports go to European markets, where things were slow in 2016 and remain so today. 2016 was the ninth consecutive year where the EU’s growth was below the long-term average (1990-2007). This week’s Brexit letter to Brussels, as well as the French and German elections on the horizon, all makes things even more difficult for the EU. Uncertainty is never good for business. Turkey’s April referendum isn’t going to change any of that.

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This war has dialed up existential angst in Turkey significantly. Cornered in the field, Ankara has been trying to be a spoiler, but keeps getting knocked down by regional powers and the U.S. As a consequence, we now have a PKK state on EU border.

Observation

Europe should recognize the right of Turkey to stay as an Islamic nation with an Islamist government.

All strenuous efforts by EU members to force Turkey give up its Islamic identity have failed and EU has now realized that Turkey shall remain an Islamic nation and being ruled by an Islamist party AKP which is firmly rooted in Islamic cause. The coup cum assassinate attempt in Turkey also failed.

It seems the EU led by Germany is reckoning the fact that its needs Turkey as a member of European continent and EU. European states have to reckon with many problems the mega organization facing following the Brexit.

It is expected Turkey’s growth and political status would rebound automatically with a ‘Yes’ vote in the April referendum on shifting Turkey to an executive presidential system. The slowdown in Turkish growth is directly related to the regional uncertainties created by the Syrian civil war.

There are countries like Israel that do not want any rapprochement between Turkey and EU. But European states should guard themselves from negative influence of such forces on their future. ________________

Chapter-18: Pro EU Emmanuel Macron elected president of France 2017 -Dr. Abdul Ruff ______

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Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France on May 07 with a businessfriendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union (EU) to be the second European nation to be out of EU by following Brexit.

The 39-year-old former investment banker, who served for two years as economy minister but has never previously held elected office, will now become France's youngest leader since Napoleon with a promise to transcend outdated left-right divisions. The projections, issued within minutes of polling stations closing at 8 p.m showed Macron beating Le Pen by around 65% to 35 - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election surveys had pointed to.

Macron, the 48-year-old's share of the vote was set to be almost twice that won by her father Jean-Marie, the last National Front candidate to qualify for a presidential runoff, who was trounced by Jacques Chirac in 2002.

Against mainstream politics Emmanuel Macron is a former investment banker who has won Presidency and for the first time will hold an elected office. Running as an independent, Macron formed the “En Marche Party” after serving as economics minister under French President Francois Hollande. He has described himself as "pro European Union and pro immigrant."

Macron describes himself as being pro European Union. In his political rallies, Macron encourages supporters to wave both the French tricolor and the European Union flags. One commentator remarked: “He is the man Europe wants”.

So much so that European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker broke protocol of staying neutral and publicly congratulated Macron for winning the first round against Marine Le Pen. A commission spokesman later clarified that according to the EU, the decision facing the French electorate “was a fundamental one”, between Macron, who represents pro-Europe values, and Le Pen, who “seeks its destruction”.

Macron was expected to be propelled to power an estimated 8.25 million voters switching their allegiance from also-rans Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Benoit Hamon and Francois Fillon. The centrist candidate won 23.9 per cent of the first round of voting and looks set to win 60 per cent of the final round on May 7. Marine Le Pen came second in the initial vote with 21.4 per cent, and is predicted to score 40 per cent in the second round.

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When the race to win the French presidential election has entered its final days and first round with Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen both vying to win over it wasn’t quite clear whom the electorate as voters wanted to choose. The two candidates face off in the second round on May 7, where Macron is widely tipped to become the president of France - he would take 65 per cent of the vote in a second-round run-off against Le Pen.

People have lost trust in the existing mainstream parties. It was expected that Macron - a centrist - should be able to attract a wider spectrum of second-round voters than Le Pen, pulling in left-leaning voters from Hamon and MĂŠlenchon as well as those leaning to the right that voted Fillon in the first round.

Marine Le Pen Ms Le Pen is the outsider with odds of 13/2, however most bets have been placed on the far-right candidate. Le Pen's high-spending, anti-globalization 'France-first' policies may have unnerved financial markets but they appealed to many poorer members of society against a background of high unemployment, social tensions and security concerns.

The market for the Next President naturally exploded into life on polling day and with the race narrowed down to the last two there is still plenty of bets coming in.

Macron had a very clear lead over Le Pen once votes were counted and he was trading as the strong odds-on favourite with an 88% chance of winning. Despite this fact, Le Pen accounted for 70% of bets placed since the first round but remains trading at 13/2, so the bets being placed on her are likely to be small punts from bettors expecting the type of last minute upset world has become accustomed to in recent politics.

Marine Le Pen performed much better this time as she achieved her highest vote shares in the North East of France when she failed to make the second round in 2012. It was no different this time around with there being a clear East-West divide in the way that the country voted. Le Pen attracted her highest vote share in the department of Aisne, to the North East of Paris. More than one in three votes went to the Front National leader in Aisne - double the number that went to Macron.

However, support for Le Pen within Paris was conspicuous by its absence. Fewer than one in 20 voters cast their ballots for the far-right leader. This is a lower proportion than who did so in 2012. Three days on from a terror attack in the capital that claimed the life of a police officer, it makes Paris one of just four areas of the country where Front National support fell compared to 2012. Macron scooped up 34.8 per cent of the vote in Paris, his strongest area of support.

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Aside from in Paris, though, Macron's vote share tended to be higher in the North western areas of France; areas like Ille et Vilaine and Finistere in Brittany.

Ms Le Pen has announced that she is temporarily stepping aside as the National Front leader in a last-ditch attempt to win voters on a non-partisan platform. “This evening, I am no longer the president of the National Front. I am the candidate for the French presidency," she said.

Candidates support Macron Immediately after the first round of voting, Fillon and Hamon urged supporters to back Macron in order to prevent a Le Pen presidency. Fillon, once the favourite to win the election, said in his concession speech: "The National Front has a history of violence and it would bankrupt France, especially by plunging us into EU chaos and taking us out of the Euro,” he said. "Extremism can only give rise to division within France and so I urge you to vote against extremism.”I will vote for Emmanuel Macron, it's my duty."

A massive 72 per cent (1.65m) of his supporters now said they will back Macron, with just two per cent (45,000) switching to Ms Le Pen and 26 per cent (595,000) abstaining. Jean-Luc Mélenchon stopped short of endorsing Macron, but has launched a poll of his supporters.

Forty-three per cent of Fillon voters (3.1m) switched plan to vote for Macron, with 31 per cent (2.23m) supporting Ms Le Pen and 26 per cent (1.87m) abstaining.

Hamon echoed his words, calling the National Front “an enemy of France”.

Macron the consensual candidate The second round is important as the top two candidates fight the final results. The top two candidates Macron and Marine faced off in a second run-off on May 7. Of the nine elections since the first direct presidential election in the Fifth Republic in 1965, three have seen the winner of the first round lose out in the second. This led to the elections of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1974, François Mitterrand in 1981 and Jacques Chirac in 1995.

The consultation was sent to 450,000 registered supporters, and says: None of us will vote for the far-right. Half of Mélenchon voters polled by PrésiTrack plan to vote for Macron, which translates to 3.5 million extra votes. Another 18 per cent (1.27m) are set to back Ms Le Pen and 32 per cent (2.2m) plan to abstain.

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When asked who they thought will be elected as president, 80 per cent said Macron with just 16 per cent backing Ms Le Pen. When asked who they would like to see elected, 59 per cent said Macron and 33 per cent said Ms Le Pen.

Macron has vowed that he would be “a president of all the people of France”. In recent days his campaign has been overshadowed by fresh attention of his marriage to Brigitte Trogneaux – his former high-school teacher who is 24 years his senior.

Macron has been the bookies' favourite to become president, with the last average of the polls before the election showing him considerably ahead of Le Pen. For those who have lost faith in political polling, asking people who are prepared to put their money where their mouth is the best way to predict elections.

Observation

Apparently, the election was meant as a national referendum on whether France should follow the UK path by opting for Francexit or remain inside the EU and the results reveals that people want the French nation to stay in EU. Pro EU Emmanuel Macron ‘s emphatic victory, which also smashed the dominance of France's mainstream parties, will bring huge relief to European allies who had feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain's vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump's election as US president.

Macron will be sworn into office as the French president. It was a record performance for the National Front, a party whose anti-immigrant policies until recently made it a pariah in French politics, and underlined the scale of the divisions that Emmanuel Macron must try to heal.

Macron's immediate challenge will be to secure a majority in next month's parliamentary election for En Marche! (Onwards!), his political movement that is barely a year old, in order to implement his program. However, at least one opinion poll published in the run-up to the second round has indicated that this could be within reach.

After Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the 2015 General Election, many now believe that political betting markets can better predict elections, relying on the wisdom of a crowd of punters to sort and weigh all the probabilities.

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Macron is determined to implements "reforms" into the European Union, which would include having a common budget, finance minister, working together on defence and perhaps the biggest project: strengthening the Euro. “The euro is a weak deutsche mark,” Macron has said. “The status quo is synonymous, in 10 years’ time, with the dismantling of the euro.” “The truth is that we must collectively recognize that the euro is incomplete and cannot last without major reforms. It has not provided Europe with full international sovereignty against the dollar on its rules. It has not provided Europe with a natural convergence between the different member states," he added.

Macron has also said he was "wary of globalization" as "not everyone respects the rules so we will turn the protection of European industry into one of the major pillars of reinventing the EU." He is also determined to make Paris a rival to London when it comes to banking and finance, which will inevitably cause friction with the UK.

Some believe that a Macron win would end the populist wave that seemed to be making its way around the world after Brexit and the Trump win. That might be premature. However, Macron wants closer ties with the West and is seemingly wary of Vladimir Putin, which would be music to the ears of prominent leaders.

__________

Chapter-19: Russia vs. West: EU-Russia strained relations!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _____________

West continues to be anti-Russia even during the early reign of President Trump who claimed to try and drastically improve relations with its Cold War foe. End of ideology in Russia and Eastern Europe has not helped the situation improve significatnly.

USA continues to control policy making processes in Europe and does 130

not let Europe think for itself and EU does not want lose the US help. As such Russia’s efforts to bring EU out of US control mechanisms have not been successful for obvious reasons.

US hand in Ukraine

Russian ties with the western world have never been smooth though at times they are seen making some efforts to make up and even stop fighting each other. Mutual mistrust is the main cause for the conflictual situation and this mistrust is not without any base. The Sept-11 hoax that helped both to forget their differences and forge a common front against Islam on the promotion of media Islamophobia, could not sustain itself too long as the trust deficit between them is too strong.

USA influenced the government of Kiev (Ukraine), considered historically bound with Russia since its early formatary stages, to oppose Russia. That indeed annoyed Russian iron President Vladimir Putin who in order to redeem Russia’s lost prestige retook Crimea. Annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, now a part of Europe and EU,

by Russia has cut its relations with both USA and Europe almost simultaneously.

Mutual sanctions hurt EU and Russia, economically. USA continues to press EU not to lift the sanctions on Russia. It is three years since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and began its covert invasion of eastern Ukraine. At the time, it seemed like the start of a more ambitious Israel-like land-grab. His rhetoric implied that Ukrainian and Belarusian independence was only a historical anomaly.

President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB boss working in Europe, first came to power in 2000 by killing Chechen Muslims in a well planned military attack on Chechnya; he has made all efforts to make Russia super power once again and he shrewdly managed the foreign policy, made Russia emerge as a super power. When Putin 131

described Russians as “one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders,” Russia’s neighbors — some of them homes to large Russian minorities — wondered whether he meant to erase those borders. Eastern Europe, dotted with frozen conflicts of Russia’s making, is stuck in transition to an uncertain future. Though he still holds Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, Putin has alienated the rest of Ukraine. But the West also has little to congratulate itself on.

Putin’s pet project has been to bring in former Soviet states into Russian fold. Three years on, one is not quite sure if Putin’s project has made any headway. But the west says he has clearly failed. But Moscow’s willingness to use economic and military coercion in its neighborhood has alienated many who might otherwise have felt an affinity with Russia.

Conspiracy

With Superpower instinct, Vladimir Putin opposes the fall and disintegration of the mighty Soviet Union as a western conspiracy and said that Ukrainian and Belarusian independence was only a historical anomaly. When he described Russians as “one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders,” Russia’s neighbors — some of them homes to large Russian minorities — wondered whether he meant to erase those borders.

Today, the USA and the EU remain extremely cautious about Russia’s imperial intentions and see a hidden agenda of the Kremlin to revive Soviet Union in another format. Russia is unhappy that most of the former Soviet Republics have been admitted into US led NATO and Germany led European Union (EU). The European 132

Union has consistently dodged the issue of possible EU membership for any of the six former Soviet states that now lie in Europe (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). Russia has a clearer vision for the region than the West does. It has never treated the six states as fully sovereign. After Putin became president for the third time, in 2012, he stepped up efforts to keep former Soviet states inside what his predecessor, Dmitriy Medvedev, described as a “region of privileged interests”.

As USA guides European policies, Western leaders do admit that Russia has a veto on its neighbors’ foreign policies. But even a few want a fight with Russia even with US backing. They are scared of Russian military prowess. Eastern Europeans who want their countries (and Turkey that would join the EU) to meet European “standards” of governance and join Western institutions have become disillusioned by the West’s failure to offer full-throated support against the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, a After Kiev announced the travel ban on Samoylova from entering Ukraine for the next three years, the Russian TV network Vesti declared that Russian television will not broadcast this year’s Eurovision contest, though the broadcasting rights for the 2017 competition actually belong to a rival station in Russia, Channel One. It’s not yet clear if Channel One will agree to the EBU’s offer, having announced previously that it will send Samoylova as Russia’s contestant for Eurovision 2018, in light of Ukraine’s “unreasonable” decision.

Eastern Europeans who want their countries to meet European standards of governance and join Western institutions have become disillusioned by the West’s failure to offer full-throated support. Few Western leaders admit that Russia has a veto on its neighbors’ foreign policies. But even fewer want a fight with Russia.

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So what can Eastern European countries do if they do not want to be in Russia’s orbit but cannot join Western institutions? Have they lost their independent capacity to decide their own matters?

Region of privileged interests

Russia has a clearer vision for the East European and former Soviet zone regions than the West does. It has never treated the former six Soviet states as fully sovereign. After Putin became president for the third time, in 2012, he stepped up efforts to keep former Soviet states inside what his predecessor, Dmitriy Medvedev, described as a “region of privileged interests”. But Moscow’s willingness to use economic and military coercion in its neighborhood has alienated many who might otherwise have felt an affinity with Russia.

The top priority of EU should be establishing the rule of law. Countries where courts work and laws are stable will be more attractive to foreign investors and less vulnerable to economic pressure. The West can help by making it harder for local elites to launder the proceeds of corruption through the EU or US. Denying Turkey its due place in EU as a European state just because of Islamic religion is not at all fair.

Meanwhile, Russia needs to treat all regions fairly. Geography and economics mean that the Eastern Partnership countries would benefit from good political and trade relations with Russia. They should not shy away from this, as long as relations are on the basis of sovereign equality, consistent rules and mutual benefit. Ensuring that minority ethnic groups are fairly treated is also vital. Disaffected minorities 134

have been fertile soil for Russia to promote separatist conflicts — there is less scope for mischief if all communities have a stake in society.

The West should use the coming years to try to persuade Moscow that, whether or not more countries join Western institutions (and even the most advanced are decades away from membership), it is in everyone’s interests that they should be prosperous, stable and well-governed.

West tells Moscow that it is time to give up its nostalgia for empire. The biggest policy shift must come from both USA and Russia that continue to behave as though their prestige and fate depends on controlling Europe and neighbours.

Europe’s other imperial powers have realized that it is better to create shared economic and other interests with former possessions than to try to coerce them.

Putin said US-Russia relations have touched the lowest level now as President Trump continues to behave erratically, especially with his bombing Syria, in order to

get special media coverage.

A major issue

The European Union has consistently dodged the issue of possible EU membership for any of the six former Soviet states that lie in Europe (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). NATO leaders agreed in 2008 that Georgia and Ukraine “will become members of NATO.” But after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, NATO dragged its feet on fulfilling that promise.

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Europeans have an important job at hand as they have the future of the fragile union in their own hands. As they strive to remain united because in unity lies their strength they Russia a disturbing or destabilizing factor.

Both USA and EU talk about ‘common values” and say Russians do not share their values. While, any genuine rapprochement with Russia is difficult to foresee in their differences in the near future, the EU would strive to engage Russia where possible and speak out when their views clash as they are too important to one another. But any engagement is firmly based on the grounds of the international rules-based system and its principles and values. The spirit of Eurovision’s values of inclusivity goes against any real truck with Russia.

Between Russia and the EU, Eastern Europe's Future is Uncertain. Eastern Europe, dotted with frozen conflicts of Russia’s making, is stuck in transition to an uncertain future. It is three years since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and began its covert invasion of eastern Ukraine. At the time, it seemed like the start of a more ambitious land-grab.

Three years on, Putin’s project has clearly failed. Though he still holds Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, he has alienated the rest of Ukraine. But the West also has little to congratulate itself on. Eastern Europe, dotted with frozen conflicts of Russia’s making, is stuck in transition to an uncertain future.

Will European Union survive?

Lighting or illumination is considered to be a happy expression for something that has happened well, the Tel Aviv city hall building in Israel was illuminated in “solidarity” with Russia after the blast in the St.Petersburg metro in Tel Aviv, Israel, 136

April 3, 2017. As a terrorist nation, making terrorizing the besieged Palestinians as their major hobby, Israel is through about state terror operations and their needs.

Whether or not Israel was happy and over joyous about the terror attacks in Russia is not very clear, though.

The survival of European Union as multinational continental entity is a major theme of debates and media reports as the fate of survival depends on factors that seem to be intractable.

Obviously, Brexit has given a jolt to Germany’s efforts to strengthen the Union with further measures. Though many in Britain rethink the decision to quit EU for good, the decision of the people and parliament is final and only few formalities need to b completed to make UK a totally soverign nation.

In fact, the fate of EU had been the subject of heated debates even much before Britain opted out of EU. Over years of meticulous steps undertaken by the EU make it look a cohesive multi-nation, now it is much better than a few years ago.

Recently, European leaders came together to celebrate 60 years of the continent's greatest peacetime project: the European Union. And today, 60 years later, the vision remains alive and we can be proud of our achievements. Europe has turned from a continent of war to a continent of peace. This project has brought together 28 European states, more than 500 million people speaking 24 languages in one union, the EU.

The EU today might symbolize peaceful cooperation, respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality and solidarity among European nations and peoples. It is the largest trade power and development and humanitarian aid donor. The

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world's largest single market and the euro is the second most important global reserve currency.

Back on March 25, 1957, the Founding Fathers signed the Treaty of Rome – an act that resolutely put an end to the trend of devastating wars between neighbors on our continent. Fundamentally a people's project, Europeans pledged “farewell to arms” and “never again war.” President Juncker stated that they are the heirs of those who first established Europe, of those men and women who in 1945 returned from the front and the concentration camps to towns and villages which had been destroyed. He added that putting behind them animosities among neighbors and reconciling the feeling of national identity with a commitment to the common good, Europeans vowed to work toward a vision of a peaceful, united and prosperous Europe.

EU today may be home to the largest union of democracies in the world and legally European citizens are free to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe. It is at the cutting edge of innovation. EU membership has resulted in increased and shared prosperity. This makes them a strong partner when they all together need to adapt and to face the new challenges of the world: effects of rapid globalization continued armed conflict and the rise of terror, poverty and migration, a degrading environment and resource depletion.

USA insists that Russia is a destabilizing factor in their ties and the term "challenge" is also used nowadays to describe the state of EU-Russia ties. As spelled out in the EU Global Strategy, “managing the relationship with Russia represents a key strategic challenge for the European Union.” For the last couple of decades, the EU

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and Russia had assumed a strategic partnership based on the convergence of values, economic integration, and modernisation of our societies.

Economic partners

However, the partnership faced a breakpoint in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea and the destabilization in Eastern Ukraine. From that point forward and today, it is clear that Russia and the EU have some deep differences: they relate to the European security order, principles of pluralism and human rights, the need for an open market economy and a rules-based trading system. At the same time, Russia and the EU remain strategically important to each other.

The EU remains the largest trading partner for Russia, while Russia is the EU's fourth largest. We also have a number of shared concerns, such as the threat of terrorism, climate change and the situation in the Middle East. The success of the joint efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran demonstrates that we can cooperate in the international arena.

Many see Europe's long-term security in regime change in the Kremlin would welcome the opportunity to bring into question the incumbent's assertions that Russians are alone and embattled. A few small-minded individuals somehow think St. Petersburg does not "deserve" sympathy because of Sevastopol, who assume that every terrible incident is some kind of "false flag" operation instigated by Putin to generate some kind of "rally-round-the-flag" sentiment, is not only wrong, it’s dangerous.

To move forward by shedding the US luggage, the EU would continue to undertake substantial and significant steps that provide a direct impetus to 139

strengthening people to people contacts both within the Union and with Russia.

From cooperation across our common border through student exchanges to support for civil society – those are the efforts that form the real glue between our peoples.

Observation

The West seeks to spread confusion, dismay, suspicion and uncertainty, globally.

Everything is symbolic, and by not showing solidarity, Europe played into the hands of a Kremlin narrative that has been deployed again and again on far flimsier grounds. The Kremlin argues that the West is fundamentally Russophobic, and it delights in seeing woes of every kind besetting Russia.

Unlike the Cold War between superpowers, Europe wages a “hybrid war� or 'political war' against Russia engineering disinformation and political subversion. The corollary is that every time the European Court of Human Rights censures Moscow, every time an EU delegation calls for greater transparency, every time a Western observer notes flaws in electoral processes, it can neatly be discounted as European mischief-making at best, and at worst 'hybrid war.'

World is in the midst of a renewed Cold War and there are all kinds of reasons for Europe to feel hostile toward Russia, from its annexation of Crimea, to its aggressive intelligence activity. Nonetheless, there is a higher calling of human sympathy, a sense that we are all united in the face of the unexpected and undiscriminating threat of terrorism.

Many in EU seek a ban their dirty-money oligarchs and their paranoid-patriot lawmakers, but they do welcome their students, tourists, artists and entrepreneurs.

This supposedly denies the Kremlin's propagandists easy opportunities. Indeed, it 140

actively undermines their pernicious narrative that seeks to force Russians into an artificial choice between us and them, patriot or traitor.

NATO and EU do not want any truck between Russia and former Soviet republics most of them are now their own members NATO leaders agreed in 2008 that Georgia and Ukraine “will become members of NATO.� But after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, NATO grew panicky and dragged its feet on fulfilling that promise.

Notwithstanding the US opposition to Russia and future of Euro-Russia relations, 60 years of experience since the signing of the Rome Treaty shows that a united EU is capable of strengthening and extending the wellbeing of European people. And a united EU will be a strong and reliable partner to countries around the world, including Russia.

Chapter-20: Cricketism: Women WC 2017: Official match fixings, gambling, money laundering and betrayals!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal _____

England, which opted to bat first, won it by a dramatic end. Had English girls decided to bowl first, they would have offered more than 300 runs to Indians, including a couple of 100s and 50s and whiling bating they would collapse like waste cards. Indian bowlers would not have let England win to eat the full cake.

English girls are too lucky. .

---Cricket is a major gambling, being promoted by the corporate corrupt regimes. Official fixings help the batboys and girls to make fake records immorally and illegally. At times, some teams get cheated and betrayed too. But such nefarious issues are never discussed in public. Like the corrupt regimes engaged in gambling, etc, that are officially protected and defended by the corporate governments, the cricket frauds with bats and balls are also sufficiently protected 141

by the cricket governments and their judges. Black money and money laundering, shielded by the corporate governments, are a common feature of cricketism.

Indian sports: Bogus IPL records for Padma/President’s awards In cricket all records and rankings are bogus. IPL it is worst as the run rate should be above 8 runs per ver minimum and individual batboy should be given maximum 4s and 6s so that they get 50s and 100 within the stipulated 29 overs.

In IPL the most important teams should be Mumbai Indians team of Sachin so all teams should help that poor team according to the specifications of BCCI On April 20, Punjab team faced great Mumbai team sn the formula was to let Mumbai win and come to the top of the points table. But unfortunately, Punjab made about 200 runs with Amla getting 100 runs as his record. But the Punjab bowlers have been pressured by BCCI to let Mumbai win by huge runs in 4s and 6s and the process is on. They want to belittle the Amla’s 100. That is it. So nasty.

Did Australia play for India or has India betrayed an ally in match fixing?

Recently, the cricket team of Australia, the so-called “defending champions”, apparently accepted its defeat at the hand of a weak Indian women team.

As before Australia bowled to belittle the bowling and fielding boys and glorify Indian batgirls, just like the men cricket uniforms do.

It looks Australian girls in yellow had come to the field to let Indian shine and win as per the decision of cricket mafias that are engaged getting Indian national awards and money for cricket girls.

Or, did India betray Australian expectations of return favors form Indians for full hundred and 50s to Indian batgirls. Earlier, similar situation occurred as Indian girls bated first and got good grades in runs from the champions in yellows but Indian bowling girls let Australians win so that Indian could repeat the show later for semi-finals That seems to have happened and India betrayed Australians. Maybe India paid huge money to Australians for these great services to Indians. .

Amazingly, both boys and girls in cricket play mischief and let the batgirls shine with big runs and huge totals. They are being trained by the same teams that offer pro-baiting advises.

Now the final is going to be played where England has the upper hand but one is not sure what they have decided. Maybe they might even have a mind to make Indians shine as per the decision made among the cricket allies led by India. .

In cricket, like in real sports, and international politics, Pakistan is being targeted. Pakistani girls are weak but these so-called big teams have joined hands 142

to defeat Pakistan. They are deadly annoyed that their efforts t makes India shine recently failed and Pakistani boys won the ICC world title.

However, if England girls play for UK, India would end up with utter disappointment, surely.

Since the “defending champions”, Australia allowed Indian girls win the semifinal by offering big score that ASS batgirls would find extremely difficult to chase down- and indeed that happened- now England would also like to polish cricket boots from India, a close ally in both terrorism and cricketism, as a favor, of course, for useful return favors in cash.

Cricket nations have no shame as they want only their batboys and now he batgirls to get 100s and 50s for money and national awards.

If a team has decided to lose, then, it would be very easy. It is easier to lose than to win. The “losing” tam would just do the performance as a mere formality.

If, thus, England has already given a world to India to help poor Indians then the English girls can do work very well. They are well versed in it. Their batgirls would throw away their bats and with ball the bowlers would just offer big score with quick 4s and 6s , of course after a brief time of tough bowling to fool the public.

The final match has just begun and England decided to bat first and has already lost 3 prime wickets. Indian bowlers are not offering their former rulers enough 4s and 6s. However, English team is much better than any other team and can overcome every obstacle to win the finals. But then… Wait. It could be a usual drama of cricketers.

A few hours would let us know if cricket is total mischief and India world force UK through the diplomatic and money-mafia channels to to let Indian cricket girls also get Bharatratana awards, as Tendulkar and Co had been promoted

by Congress government and other political leaders, celebrities, corporate lords, big guys, etc.

Here, one does not know if the Indian payers also have to share the burden of mafia payments by the cricket board.

Will England win or let India win is the trillion dollar question that only the UK Premier May could only answer.

Post tournament report

English team eventually became the winner of the Women WC 2017 entertainment that took place in England.

The unexpected English win was another tragedy for India which had very recently lost ICC Men’s Cup to Pakistan, was ready to eat the WC cake.

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The WC cake was snatched by the good-smart looking London girls from hands of innocently looking Indian girls and English girls enjoyed it all by themselves, leaving only the empty box. .

Shrubsole gave England their first breakthrough, nipping one back off the seam to bowl the left-handed, and thoroughly out-of-sorts, Smriti Mandhana through the gate. Then Mithali Raj came in and played two gorgeously timed square drives that suggested the pitch - which had belied its grassy look and turned out slow and decidedly low - was beginning to get easier to bat on than at any point during England's innings. Giving up prematurely, she slowed down and ended up yards out when a sprint and dive could have saved her.

But India is too happy that the English bowling girds- just like their male players do- were very considerate to offer two big 50s to Indian girls and one was almost at 100 when she los their wicket at LBW and then onwards India began losing wickets and the game, making the hosts feel very happy. And bit by bit, India let slip a chase that was in their control for most part. A third-wicket partnership of 95 between Punam Raut and Harmanpreet Kaur had brought the equation down to 91 off 100 balls Then Veda Krishnamurthy, who had lived on the line between enterprise and recklessness in scoring 35 at over a run a ball, slogged at Shrubsole and holed out when India needed 29 off 33. The gates were wide open, and Shrubsole stormed through, yorking Jhulan Goswami two balls later to tilt the match decisively England's way.

The gap between balls remaining and runs required narrowed, and the pressure began to tell on India as soon as Kaur fell. Verma's promotion, Krishnamurthy's slog, and Shikha Pandey's run-out - when she and Deepti had brought the equation down to 11 off 16 with three wickets left - were consequences of this pressure. It all added up to India losing their last seven wickets for 28 runs.

Yet, English bowlers won the title for England. With India needing 10 to win with their last pair at the crease, Shrubsole gestured to her team-mates to calm down when Jenny Gunn put down a sitter, off her bowling, at mid-off. Shrubsole had no doubt the wicket ball would come, soon, and off her own bowling. She ran in again, knocked back Gayakwad's off stump, and finished with the best ever figures in a Women's World Cup final: 6 for 46.

While English girls celebrated, Indians were in tears and pains as they nearly missed the CUP and ice cream.

England has apparently kept its promise of offering good runs to at least two girls and that is why when the top player Mithali unluckily lost her wicket without any runs, the English bowlers began offering runs to another girl Raut up to 86 runs and Kaur 51.runs. That is just like men do.

A transformative World Cup for women's cricket ended with the final it in face did not deserve as both the bowlers and batgirls did not do their job. But a near full-house at Lord's, a tense finish, and every imaginable thrill and spill as per 144

cricket drama. In the end, of all the heroes of an overcast and occasionally drizzly day, it was Anya Shrubsole who stood tallest.

In fact, Indian girls had spins that worked well for India while England doesn’t have any spin bowlers and any real good seamers. They offer big runs in 4s and 6s.

It is indeed understandable that the same coaches training both men and women ask the players to promote batters so that they could snatch national awards meant for sports peole. They argue if bat boys and girls are not offered e good marks by bowlers there won’t be anyone to watch the games.

Do the spectators come to see only the batboys and their manipulated 4s and 6s and fake scores?

Why should even Arab Muslims now resort to cricketism? They also are interested in fake records and 100s and 50s as gifts. On pressure from cricket nations like Pakistan, England, India, Australia, etc, Arab nations are going in a big way to mint black cash and illegal wealth! Better, Arabs begin killing and taking away the belongings of others instead of playing cricket and make easy black money.

Nothing is real in cricket, except gambling. Fortunately, Olympic Committee does not recognize cricket as a genuine sport or even real entertainment. All cricket countries led by UK, India Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc have being pushing the Olympic committee members to consider cricket as sport, however. Cricketers and their nations refuse to reform cricket rules to make the pitch natural and rules in favor of bowlers who continue to suffer on the fields and without being able to complain to anyone, revealing whole truth of fixings. The way they jump to the sky and down earth like wounded monkeys makes the matter amply clear that batboys are supposed to enjoy while the bowlers must help the batters with good score for awards and money.

England, which opted to bat first, won it by a dramatic end. Had English girls decided to bowl first, they would have offered more than 300 runs to Indians, including a couple of 100s and 50s and whiling bating they would collapse like waste cards. Indian bowlers would not have let England win to eat the full cake.

English girls are too lucky. .

The Indian cricket girls, when they won the semi-final by defeating the defending champions, have been assured of big cash by BCCI. In fact, PM Modi and even the new President would have pledged more cash for the cricketers for their “historic” victory had they won the title. Apparently, the PMO office was drafting a nicely worded congratulatory message to BCCI and the innocent looking girls hoping to get the title. But the draft lies a waste over there.

Unlucky girls!

Shame, cricketism!

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