The deaths of seven Hindu pilgrims from Gujarat in Kashmir by jihadi terrorists sent shock waves across India. They were on their way to the famed Amarnath cave when their bus was ambushed. All the passengers might have been killed but for the presence of mind of the driver who pressed the accelerator pedal enabling the bus to speed away to safety. Questions were asked about the sel-evident breach of security, with no armed escort, which is mandatory for such journeys. And why was the bus on the road after darkness?
Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba and her predecessor Omar Abdullah condemned the attack in the strongest terms. The Chief Minister went to the site to comfort the bereaved and the traumatized living. Muslim clergy of Darul Uloom Deoband described the outrage as barbaric. The Minister of State at the Centre, Jitendra Singh, denouncing the attack, said India would not be cowed, but KKashmir’s Hurriyat separatist leadership accused Minister Singh of indulging in ‘nationalist rhetoric’ and ‘ignoring ground realities’ and ‘degrading the resistance.’ (Hindu, Times of India, Telegraph July 11, 12, 13).
Converted Hindu jihadi arrested
Sandip Sharma, Class VII school dropout from Meerut, went to Delhi in search of a job and was enticed by a jihadi link man, since arrested, and introduced to a jihadi handler, now absconding, who took him to Kashmir, where he joined the Laskar-e-Toiba, robbing, banks, bombing property and killing the innocent. He was caught hiding in a house, where three jihadis were killed in an encounter with a security unit. Sharma, who had changed his name to Adil, found hiding in one of the rooms, was arrested (Times of India July 12.)
Rahul Gandhi blames Modi
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the terrorist upsurge in Kashmir, saying that his policies ‘had created space for terrorists in Kashmir.’ He tweeted: ‘Modi’s policies have increased space for terrorists in Kashmir. Grave strategic blow for India.’ In his haste to defame, he slipped up: ‘for’ should have been ‘to’. (Times vof India July 13).
Congress bears the cross of a man who remains unelectable, and so will his party be, unless and until it finds a way of relieving him of his duties and putting him out to grass.
Three jihadis killed
Three jihadis, meanwhile, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Budgam, Kashmir, after being trapped in a house. Their bodies were recovered from the debris together with weapons and ammunition and explosives (Hindu July 13).
Army vice chief Empowered
To address the critical shortages in defence, the government has vested the vice chief of the army with financial powers to procure critical spares and ammunition in specified sectors. ‘After the Uri (Kashmir) attack last year, there was a review, which found critical deficiencies in 46 types of ammunition and certain spares for 10 types of weapons platforms. There is no restriction on the amount,’ said a senior Army officer. There should be preparedness for a short intensive battle of 15 days. (Hindu July 13).
CPI(M) for ending ties with Israel
The Politburo of the Communist Party of India has called on the Indian government to end its strategic relationship with Israel on the ground that this violated the traditional norms of India’s foreign policy, and that it served the ‘interests of Imperialism.’ India must return to its long established position of unqualified support to the Palestinian cause. As Palestine had multiple voices – the PLO and Hamas, for example – the obstacles to finding a reliable interlocutor are formidable. President Pranab Mukherjee was forced to cut short his visit to the Palestine Authority because hostile extremist demonstration turned violent. He made a hurried exit to Israel, where he was received cordially (Times of India July 7).
Gopal Gandhi for Vice President
Gopal Krishna Gandhi has accepted the nomination of the Congress, CPI (M) and Trinamool Congress for the Vice President of India. Other opposition leaders are undecided (Hindu, Times of India, Telegraph July 10).
India-Israel UAV deal
India is to acquire 5000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) worth $3 billion. These are urgently required by all three services of the armed forces for border surveillance. The country’s Defence Research & Defence Organization (DRDO) are also designing UAVs but as their tasks vary, India will also be tendering for these machines on the international market (Hindu July 13).
Indian-Israeli CEOs Forum agreements
The meeting of the India-Israeli CEOs Forum meeting in Tel Aviv identified 12 strategic areas of cooperation and signed up to implementing them. These include radar, anti-ship missiles, air defence systems as well as UAVs. While major Indian companies such as the Kalyani Group, Mahindra Aerospace, Dynamatic Technologies and Elcom took the lead, smaller niche firms like Alpha Design Technologies Garware Wall Ropes were also in the loop. Israel’s Elbit Security Systems announced its intention to increase its stake in the joint venture with Alpha Design Technologies from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. Further collaborations deals are to be announced in the coming months (Hindu July 13)
Muslim presence in Bengal varsities low
The Muslim presence in Bengal’s state and Central government universities and institutions were abysmally low, according to the sixth All India Survey of of Higher Education for 2015-16, prepared by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The institutions mentioned in the survey included Presidency University, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, the Indian Institute of IT Technology, Kalyani et al, and private institutions of higher education, the Muslim enrolment overall varied from zero to 3 per cent.
Population disparity
What is especially disturbing is that Muslims constitute 27-30 percent of West Bengal’s population. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress would surely be better served if they allotted more financial resources for scholarships and stipends for deserving Muslim students instead of squandering scare resources on madrasas, imams and moulvis. (Hindu July 13).
Amazon to invest in India’s food retail
Amazon has got government approval to invest in India’s foods retail sector. This means the e-commerce giant in constructing a fully fledged food business through its subsidiaries in the country. The approval also allows Amazon to launch its own private label category for the food business. Amazon will pose a serious challenge established players such BigBasket and Grofers, but cracking the food chain will require ingenuity, imagination, enterprise and patience (Mint July 11).
Ahmedabad World Heritage City
Ahmedabad was dubbed a World Heritage City – a first for India - at the 41 st session of Unesco’s World Heritage Committee meeting on July 8 in Krakow, Poland. It received almost unanimous support from countries across the globe for its syncretic Hindu-Islamic architecture that reflected the co-existence of multi-faith society of Hindu, Muslim and Jain communities (Times of India July 10).
Maruti riding high
Maruti Suzuki has cut prices across several sectors to pass on the benefits of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to consumers. The introduction of the GST had been smoother than government and business thought, said company Chairman R.C. Bhargarva.
While he said that wos too early to comment on the GST effect on sales, he affirmed that Maruti Suzuki India’s June sales, the month prior to GST’retail sales were very high.’ (Mint July 11)
Sensex crosses 32,000-mark
Benchmark stock market indices soared to a lifetime high as record low inflation and a sharp fall in the factory output spurred investor expectations of a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rate cut. ‘A combination of slowing growth and low inflation has stoked expectations of a rate cut by the RBI next month,’ said Karthikraj Lakshmananan, Senior Fund Manager, Equities, at BNP Paribas Mutual Fund (Mint, Hindu, Telegraph July 14)
Argumentative Indian censored
This is the title of a documentary film made on eminent economist Amartya Sen by Suman Ghosh. All films in the country have to be vetted by the Board of Censors, and a no-objection certificate issued before the film can be released. The present board cut out words like ’cow’ ‘Gujarat’, ‘Hindutva’ for reasons best known to themselves. These words appear almost daily in the print media and heard morning, evening and night on television channels, so it beggars belief that they were cut. Why should a functioning democracy need an officious cabal of bovine moralizers to sit in judgment for the public good? (Telegraph July 13).
Shastri takes over the reins
Ravi Shastri has been selected by appointment committee to be the head coach to the Indian cricket team. A former captain himself with vast experience of international and domestic cricket in all formats, he is popular with the team and captain, Virat Kohli, who Shastri says has yet reach his peak.. This, he believes, will happen over the next few years. The present had the all-round talent to become the best ever in India’s annals. The last few months have been fraught with the controversial departure of the much respected Anil Kumble, one of India’s all-time greats. India’s performances, hereon, at home and abroad, will be subjected to close critical scrutiny (Hindu, Times of India July 13).
