Hunger Strike At Rajghat To Show Solidarity For Soni Sori

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Maldives and Indian Dilemma

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All the Images belong to @Sharaff. For more images Click here.

Violence erupted again in Maldives today, when the opposition lawmakers of Maldivian Democratic Party, to whom former President Mohammed Nasheed belongs, prevented the newly appointed President Dr. Waheed Hassan to deliver the opening address in Parliament.

Protest inside the parliamentary premises coupled with the protesters clashing with the police on streets still possesses a concern for the stability of Indian Ocean archipelago. Protests boiling on streets are not looking to cool down soon. Some of the shops apparently belonging to the government supporters were vandalised by the MDP supporters. Police arrested 34 people along with the younger brother of M. Nasheed, Nazim Sattar.

A twitter user who goes by the twitter name @Sharaff  tweets “The beginning of Waheed’s presidency is wrong. Hence any action to lead ahead by him is still wrong”.

Maldives still worries India, Indian foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai visited Male earlier this week.

India – now in damage control mode- is calling for early elections to resolve the crisis in Maldives. Earlier, it welcomed the government of Dr. Waheed after the ouster of Maldive’s first democratically elected president Nasheed. India realised its initial miscalculations of calling the transfer of power ‘internal development’ and ‘peaceful constitutional transition’.

Mr. Nasheed – who became president in 2008 in country’s first democratic elections after defeating Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who ruled Maldives with a iron fist for three decades – claims that he was forced to resign on “gunpoint” and “it was a coup”. He also suspects present president Dr. Waheed Hasan who was Mr. Nasheed’s vice-president. But Dr. Waheed denies theses allegations and says he is becoming president according to Maldivian Constitution.

India Today reported that when Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on February 8 sent a welcome letter to Dr. Waheed Hassan and vowed full support, Nasheed was in tears. “He felt he had been let down by a friend,” said Ameen Faisal, Nasheed’s close friend and the country’s national security adviser before transfer of power.

It was like dumping of world’s youngest democracy by world’s largest democracy. India should not have rushed to such a stand; India should have waited for authentic news and called for independent investigations in the transfer of power. Now Mr. Nasheed is calling for early elections as part of a deal brokered by India. But he has refused to participate in the Dr. Waheed’s government. If early elections take place and Mr. Nasheed returns to power, he will still be bound to work in India’s interests but what’s questionable is his commitment since India didn’t backed him despite his efforts to take India’s relations with Maldives to new heights.

Another major growing concern for India is that Islamists are strengthening their roots in Maldives. It’s in India’s greatest interest that Maldives doesn’t become the “Pakistan of Indian Ocean”. Pakistan has been offering a large number of Maldivians to study Islam in its madrasas. “Pakistan has launched a sustained campaign to indoctrinate Maldivians. The spread of radicalism in Maldivian society has increased.” says Ajit Doval, former director, Intelligence Bureau told India Today.

There is a great economic interest of India in Maldives, Indian firm GMR, who is in-charge of Male International Airport for next 25 years, has invested nearly 500 million dollars. Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), which is a part of Dr. Waheed’s multi party government, doesn’t want GMR to hold charge for next 25 years alleging that Mr. Nasheed had vested interests. Since Nasheed became president in 2008, India’s investment in Maldives grew from 60-65 million dollars to nearly 900 million dollar, which is very significant for a country whose GDP is 1 billion dollar. Nasheed largely favoured India over china; he claims that he refused twice to renew defence agreement of Maldivian National Defence Force with Beijing.

Many members of Dr. Waheed’s cabinet are from Gayoom’s era, including his daughter, so it may be the case that Gayoom is conspiring to return back to politics and he may be true face of regime change. If it happens it will be the murder of democracy in Maldives. India should make sure that it stands with democratic and secular aspirations strengthening the democratic institutions resulting in stability of Maldives.

India and Coups in South Asia

India and Coups in South Asia

Maldives’s first democratically elected president Mohammad Nasheed stepped down after police and military forces – in what appears to be a bloodless coup – refused to break antigovernment demonstrations against Mr. Nasheed instead forcing him to resign.

The 44 year old activist and journalist turned president, who was jailed for many years for writing controversial articles against earlier president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom,  told reporters a day after his resignation televised on state TV – also taken over by the armed forces – that “he was forced to resign on gun-point”.

Mr. Nasheed’s government was facing antigovernment protests especially by extremist Islamic elements from last two weeks after he ordered military to arrest chief criminal judge Abdullah Mohamed accusing him to be in pocket of Mr. Gayoom.

He was succeeded by Dr. Waheed Hassan Manik, who was vice-president under Mr. Nasheed’s presidency, first Maldivian to get P.hd and is considered a learned scholar who in past worked for United Nations. Dr. Waheed said he was oblivious to any coup plot, “I was not prepared at all.” Mr. Abdullah was freed by Dr Waheed .

Mr. Gayoom’s 30 year regime was replaced by Mr. Nasheed in first democratic elections in 2008 after he defeated Mr. Gayoom, who is a close friend of India. In 1988, India thwarted a coup attempt by nearly 80 mercenaries of Sri Lankan Tamil group PLOTE to oust Mr. Gayoom by sending 1600 armed forces personnel.

Mr. Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party said that they suspect Mr. Gayoom’s men are behind this “coup” and they want to bar Mr. Nasheed from 2013 elections after police allegedly recovered liquor bottles from his residence – in a bid to project Mr Nasheed as un-islamic and persecuting him for keeping liquor, according to MDP. MDP also allege that they informed India to intervene when the “coup was underway” but none helped. Mr. Nasheed was always on target on Islamic groups, effectively used by opposition leader Mr. Gayoom, especially regarding the issues of direct flights from Israel and diluting official religion.

India has a great strategic, economic and military interest with Maldives due to friendly relations & its strategic position for Indian navy in Indian Ocean.  India – calling it an internal political settlement – definitely acted smartly by being neutral in a political change with no prolonged violence and only Maldivians themselves managing their affairs. Dr. Manmohan Singh sent a letter to Dr. Waheed congratulating him and promising to be a close ally of Maldives, as it always has. Indian support will be crucial for Dr Waheed as New Delhi is the largest aid donor to Maldives and takes care of its maritime security as Maldives does not have a navy and possesses only a small army. India in 2009 agreed to patrol the country’s waters to stop piracy and based a navy aircraft there. Also, China – inclined to a regime change – which opened a diplomatic office in capital Male – only fifth country to do so – is looking to exploit the strategic position of Maldives for its navy.

Last month, Bangladesh army declared that it has prevented a coup against secular Sheikh Hasina led government by the hard-line Islamic elements of military which included several “middle-level” actively serving officers and some retired officers. Radical islamists are a major challenge for the government of Indian ally Sheikh Hasina who have got strong base in Bangladesh in last two years after revolt by Bangladeshi border guards in February 2009.

Bangladesh – especially capital city Dhaka – is a rapid growing tolerant muslim democracy whose radicalisation or instability poses a great concern for India. The radicalisation of either Maldives or Bangladesh would add to the woes of the region and foster intolerant policies inimical to Indian interests. Indian Prime Minister Dr Man Mohan Singh had signed important agreements during his visits to Dhaka in September and Male in December 11, for long-term partnerships with the two countries.

Pakistan, too last month, was looking poised for a military takeover amidst memo-gate scandal – in which allegedly then Pakistan’s ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani, who later denied all this but resigned from his post, gave a secret memo to US on behalf of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani asking for help in preventing any possible military coup after bin laden raid in Abottabad – and bringing the tension between military and civilian government to a new height.

All these coups or not coups indicate the fragile nature of democracy in South Asia; of course India is an exception. India can become a superpower only if its neighbours are stable and cooperative.

This article was written on February 9, 2012.

A version of this article was published in DayAfter Magazine

CAN ASIA SAVE IRAN ?

Majority believe that US financial sanctions and recent European Union oil embargo will deprive Iran of funds required for running its nuclear program but that may not be the case.  

On new year eve, US passed a law which restricts all foreign institutions doing business with Iran’s central bank to invest in US. This was followed by a January 24 European Union decision to stop importing Iranian oil starting from July 2012.  Reacting to sanctions, belligerent Iran threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz – a passage for flow of world’s’ more than one-fifth oil – claiming that west is waging an “economic war” on Iran. Replying to the Iranian threat of closing Strait of Hormuz, US warned of military action.

West says Iran’s nuclear enrichment program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons – a claim denied by Iran. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes – power and cancer treatment. But West wants Iran to stop its nuclear program which Iran has refused to do so.

Downplaying the effect of European oil embargo Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking to state television, said: “Once our trade with the Europe was around 90 percent but now it has reached to 10 percent and we are not seeking this 10 percent… experience has shown that Iranian nation will not be hurt.”

Defiant Iran is now seeking to pass a draft bill which will stop oil supplies to Europe with immediate effect until Europe revokes its oil embargo on Iran.  Iran’s deputy parliamentary speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar  said “If we are supposed to pay the cost of these sanctions in six months, then let Europe deal with an increase in oil prices and pay the cost right now.”

Describing the structure of draft bill, Vice-Chairman of the parliament’s Energy Commission Nasser Soudani told Fars News Agency “The bill has 4 articles, including one which states that the Islamic Republic of Iran will cut all oil exports to the European states until they end their oil sanctions against the country.”

Some are contesting the legality of these sanctions. Turkey says it is bounded to the decisions made by UN only. China and Russia believe these sanctions will backfire and work against European interests.  Kremlin warned EU of subordinating itself to US. Apart from financial sanctions, in September 2010, a powerful virus named stuxnet damaged several centrifuges at Natanz uranium-enrichment plant in Iran, possibly delaying progress by 2-3 years. Israel and US are believed to be behind this cyber attack.

Opportunity for Asia

Iran – whose 80 percent revenue comes from selling of oil – exports 60 percent oil to Asia, out of which 40 percent to India and China alone.  Iran is second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia among OPEC countries – pumping 3.575 million barrels a day and exporting 2.5 Million barrels per day of crude in December. – can find new buyers or may increase oil supplies to Asia. Iran’s largest customer for oil is China, followed by European Union, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey. Therefore, to make sanctions more effective, US is trying to pressurise Asia to join sanctions but India, China, Turkey has promised to continue buying Iranian oil. But Japan is discussing the situation with US and possibly may even support sanctions because of the closeness with US.

China – which has reduced its demand for Iranian oil – is speculated to be a major beneficiary. “I think the real beneficiary of [the EU oil embargo against Iran] would be China, because they will likely squeeze Iran and get their oil imports at $20 or $30 dollar discount, and use that oil to fill their strategic petroleum reserve,” Bank of America analyst Sabine Shels told CNBC.  Analysts believe China’s small reduction in demand may be a tactic to pinch Iran on oil-pricing “As the pressure gets more intense on Iran and Iran wants to ensure its oil revenue, I’m sure Iran will be eager to keep China as a customer and China will be in a good position to negotiate a good price,” Victor Shum, an energy analyst for Purvin & Gertz in Singapore said.

But the main problem for Asia will be how to pay back to Iran. There are unauthenticated reports that India, China and possibly Turkey also will pay in gold. But Indian government is yet to confirm this. Earlier due to financial implications of doing business with Iranian Central Bank, India was using the services of a Turkish Bank but now the Turkish bank has raised its hand and asked India of some alternate arrangements.

Will EU oil embargo backfire on Europe ?

If EU stops importing Iranian oil from July 2012 and fails to get any timely alternate arrangement – shortfall in oil supplies and the production changes could have devastating effects on the costs of industrial production, transportation, and market prices. And in worst case scenario – If Iran halts oil supplies to Europe even before July 2012 – then this EU embargo will effectively be deepening the crisis in the Eurozone.  Piero De Simone, one of the leaders of Italy’s Unione Petrolifera warned that Europe may have to import refined Iranian oil from Asia. Saudi Arabia is ready to fill the gap even though some doubt the Saudi capability. Worst hit countries will be those who are already facing severe financial crisis i.e Italy, Spain and Greece. Iran exports 18 percent oil to Europe with major shares of Italy (7 percent) and Spain (6 percent). Even if EU is successful of finding new oil suppliers, new oil producers will be extremely reluctant to do business with the countries that are empty pocket. Moreover, the rise in everyday prices, ranging from food to transportation, will not be limited to the European Union, but will have global ramifications.

Global oil price rise

IMF warned that latest sanctions by US and EU may increase oil prices by 30 percent.  OPEC also stated that although there is no shortage but oil prices may increase.  Civil war in Libya increased oil prices by $ 20 per barrel, now if Iran – which exports twice than Libya – stops supplying it may be even worse. Taking Iranian oil out of the global market could add as much as $40 to the price of a barrel of oil, Bank of America analyst Sabine Shels said in a recent CNBC interview. Turmoil in Nigeria and Iraq, a still- unsettled Libya and doubts on Saudi capacity to fill the void implies oil prices could rise in 2012.

Fall of Petro-dollar

Iran has paced up its move of not using US dollar and Euro – as policy in bilateral trade relations. Iran is discussing with India to settle payments with gold, Iran and Russia do business in Iranian rials and Russian roubles, while Iran trades with China and other asian economies by using using the Chinese renminbi, Iranian rial, Japanese yen, and other non-dollar and non-euro currencies. May be it could be the beginning of fall of Petro-dollar.

Iran is becoming more and more defiant of sanctions imposed by west. It’s true that much of US power is physical and other countries fear to confront US. If Iran is successful in overcoming these western pressures and remains undeterred – it may be possible in future more countries to refuse to succumb to US pressure. No doubt, there will be financial implication of it.

This article was written on February 4, 2012.

A version of this article was published in Day After Magazine

EUROPE’S DEBT CRISIS

There is a crisis in Europe and the further downgrading done by a credit rating agency hasn’t helped the least in building confidence within the member countries.

Standard & Poor’s, the credit ratings agency, increased the worries of European leaders by downgrading Europe’s main bailout fund European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to AA+ from treasured triple A.

The downgrade  was expected after France’s credit worthiness was downgraded (along with eight other countries) to AA+ from triple A, leaving Germany as the single major eurozone economy with triple A rating and putting more responsibility on its shoulders to rescue Euro.

S & P further challenged eurozone countries to increase their financial assistance to EFSF in order to avoid further downgrades.

Europe might further plunge into crisis as other Credit ratings agencies may also downgrade France and bailout fund.

The EFSF responded that the downgrade won’t reduce its lending capacity of EUR440 billion. “EFSF has sufficient means to fulfil its commitments under current and potential future adjustment programs,” EFSF Chief Executive Klaus Regling said in a statement.

“The capacity issue was a major concern. If the downgrade implied a lowered borrowing capacity that would be insufficient to fix the debt needs, then you’d see a more negative reaction on that news.” Don Mikolich, director of foreign exchange sales at CIBC in Toronto told Wall Street Journal.

John Chambers, chairman of S&P’s rating committee, told Reuters that the fund could retain its top rating if there was additional funding from Germany and other countries still holding on to their triple-A rating. But Germany has already said that it won’t increase its funding as its contribution to the rescue fund is sufficient for its working.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy downplayed the effects of downgrade, “in the final analysis, this doesn’t change anything.”

But clearly, downgrade was a major political blow to Mr. Sarkozy and his prospects in the coming election as he earlier said that France’s triple A rating is an asset which it cannot afford to lose. His rivals know where to place the blame. French voters in elections times are also aware of troubling issues their country is facing – debt, unemployment and economic insecurity. So coming elections will be a hard time for Mr. Sarkozy.

Germany’s role

Germany finds itself in an isolated position with downgrades of its large euro partners. And if the debt crisis keeps on escalating from smaller nations like Greece or Portugal to major nations like Italy or France, It will become very difficult for Germany to save itself.

Germany has been demanding major austerity measures in the face of threatening recession while France was the only top-rated country that apparently lobbied for more expansionary policies. This downgrade will leave it up to remaining triple A economies – Luxembourg, Finland or the Netherlands – to challenge Germany’s demand of severe austerity measures. Of those four, Germany is by far the largest contributor – Its  211 billion euro ($267.32 billion) contribution to the eurozone rescue fund is more than three times those of the other three combined.

European countries are already taking austerity measures to reduce their deficit by cutting public spending and increasing taxes. This has lead to violent street protests mainly in Greece.

It should be noted that French downgrade will automatically increase the German influence and its demands of budget cuts and tax increases – a policy S & P criticised. “We believe that a reform process based on a pillar of fiscal austerity alone risks becoming self-defeating,” S&P analysts wrote in their reasoning for the downgrades of France and eight other eurozone countries. According to S & P, Rising unemployment and uncertainty among consumers has hurt both tax revenue and growth.

EFSF negotiations with Greece

Greece will be hardest hit by these downgrades, it is already in negotiations with European Central Bank for second instalment of bailout package but European Central Bank says that Greece has failed to fulfil its conditionality mandated in first package so it has to hold the next instalment of financial assistance.

European Union and International Monetary Fund inspectors – the so-called troika – are in Athens for discussions on a second bailout for Greece . They are demanding private holders of Greek fund to accept large losses to make country’s debt burden more manageable.   But this visit faced thousands- strong protest march to Greek parliament demanding that austerity measures are inhumane and other humane policy should be worked out. They shouted slogans “get lost” and demanded inspectors to leave the Greece.

Greeks have been hit hard by the austerity measures negotiated for the first bailout package in 2010 which have seen tax hikes and spending.

Greece has amassed a huge amount of debt, repaying that debt looks nearly impossible. There is panic in European banks fearing if Greece goes default, it may hurt a large number of European bank and pension funds which have extended their credit to Greece. This review will be a major factor in release of second instalment off 130 billion euro bailout package which Greece needs desperately to save itself from going bankrupt. If the Greece doesn’t get this bailout then it will godefault by March 20, when 14.5 billion euros in debt comes due and must be repaid.

What is European Financial Stability Facility ?The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is a rescue fund created by the 17 euro area Member States to safeguard financial stability in Europe by providing financial assistance to euro area Member States who are facing financial difficulties. It provides loans to member states which “use this fund to recapitalise their financial institutions”. EFSF issues bonds or other debt instruments on the capital markets to raise funds. It is backed by guarantee commitments from the euro area Member States for a total of €780 billion and has a lending capacity of €440 billion, of which €250 billion remained available after the Irish and Portuguese bailout. EFSF is supported with loans of up to € 60 billion by the funds raised by the European Commission and guaranteed by the EU budget called European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and up to € 250 billion from the International Monetary Fund for a financial safety net up to € 750 billion. According to EFSF manual, “The Facility can only act after a support request is made by a euro area Member State and a country programme has been negotiated with the European Commission and the IMF and after such a programme has been accepted by the euro area finance ministers and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is signed.” It further states, “any financial assistance to a country in need is linked to strict policy conditions which are set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the country in need and the European Commission.” And if that country fails to meet the conditions imposed, financial assistance is halted.

What it means to India

If the European economies get into austerity mode it would result in slow growth in Europe. Governments will spend less and increase taxes to raise revenues which in turn will leave less money in hands of consumers and thus decrease growth. Indian companies doing business in Europe – who are already having a tough time – may be hit substantially.

India Inc. depends on foreign capital flows. Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) play a crucial role in driving Indian equity markets. If these worsening economic parameters in Europe induce a decline in the risk appetite globally, it could hurt foreign flows into emerging markets like India. FIIs based in Europe may hold back investments to emerging markets in India. It’s definitely not good news for India especially when Indian Rupee was the worst performing asian currency in 2011.

Following FIIs trends in equities, FIIs pulled out $ 358 m from equities in 2011, but on a positive note, FIIs are investing in debt markets. According to SEBI data, FII investments in debt markets are one of highest. In the first ten days of 2012, FIIs have put $ 2.4bn in the debt market. In the whole of 2011, they reported a net inflow of $ 8.6bn in the Indian debt market

It provides a opportunity for Indian govt on tackling fiscal deficit when year 2012 will bring higher subsidy burdens and lower tax returns.

This article was also published in Day After Magazine

snake charming – a lost profession

“Sahib… do something… otherwise the identity of snake charmers will vanish soon”, says Hawa Singh Nath, a snake charmer who had to give up his art of snake charming after he was put behind bars for owning a snake. Many snake charmers have a new vocation now and have started playing the ‘been’ or the snake charmer’s flute in marriages and cultural events to earn a living.

Snake charming, a thousand year old profession, was banned by the government in 1991 after animal rights activists pointed out cruelties meted out to snakes. This ban has hit nearly 8,00,000 snake charmers all over the country.  Though the ban was not implemented seriously since 1991, the police and the forest department officials have now enforced strict laws to protect the protect the various snake species.

Dina Nath, a snake charmer and owner of a one of its kind, snake charmers’ musical company,  now plays his ‘been’ in marriages. He has performed in many cultural events in India and abroad.

These snake charmers are mostly illiterate and have no other skills, “How can I feed my children when we cannot do anything else” says Hawa Singh Nath. He and Dina Nath blame the government for banning this profession and not providing jobs to snake charmers.

The animal right activists argue that for their own safety, these snake charmers remove snake fangs, pierce venom ducts with hot needles and sometimes even sew their mouths. All these acts make the snakes completely defenseless. These snakes are captured from jungles and kept in boxes all the time and snake charmers only feed them milk, which is insufficient nutrition for snakes.

But snake charmers say, “We take care of the snakes, more than our own children, we worship them daily”. Snake charmers claim that as a part of their tradition, they make a promise to the snakes that they are capturing them for 2-3 months and after the period they would leave them back in the jungles.

Many others like Hawa Singh Nath have appealed to the authorities with a hope that something will be done but it is difficult to find any hope on his grim face. He says “I have lost… That’s why I am sitting here after having given up my means of earning a living.”

Census reveals – 378 females per 1,000 males in a Haryana village

The figures from Census 2011 show that there are only 940 females per 1,000 males in India, an increase of seven points from census 2001. But the matter of grave concern is that the child sex ratio (0-6 age) has declined to 914 females from 927 in 2001. This child ratio of 914 is the lowest since 1947.

President Pratibha Patil reacting to the Census said that the brunt of this skewed ratio is being faced by men in Punjab and Haryana. They are not able to find brides in their villages and have to seek brides from other states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Bihar, sometimes by paying money. There are many middlemen providing wives to such desperate bachelors.

Haryana’s Jhajjar (774 females) and Mahendragarh (778 females) districts have the lowest sex ratio while Lahul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh have the highest sex ratio (1,013 females). Karora village in Kaithal district of Haryana has an alarming sex ratio of 590, and even more shocking is the situation of Bahrana and Dimana villages of Jhajjar district with a sex ratio of merely 378.

Though an increasing trend in the child sex ratio (0-6 years) has been seen in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in all remaining 27 states and Union Territories, the child sex ratio shows decline over Census 2001.

A 45-year-old farmer, Ram Prasad, says that he was proud of the fact that he had three sons but now he is running from one village to another to find brides for his sons. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that people ask for bride in return while marrying their daughters.

Many women in Karora village are reluctant to speak about it but accept that the menace of female feticide exists and there are many doctors who run the illegal practice of identifying the sex of baby during pregnancy and if the sex of the un-born baby is female, then some get themselves aborted.

Untouchables in Tibetan Buddhism

The 73 old Geshe Sopa Thoemey, a Shugden worshiper says Shugden devotees have no rights.

His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama is a symbol of love and compassion all over the world but a few in Tibetan Buddhism community questions this claim. They blame Dalai Lama of taking away their religious freedom. These are worshipers of a controversial deity named Dorje Shugden.

Dorje Shugden is a protector deity in Tibetan Buddhism but the worship of this deity was banned by Dalai Lama in 1996. He said that Dorje Shugden is an evil spirit which hampers the cause of Tibet and also shortens his life.

Ironically, Dalai Lama himself used to propitiate Dorje Shugden till 1975. And most of his teachings come from teachers who used to worship shugden.

Dalai Lama`s words changed the life of these practitioners. Those who continued worshiping this 350 year old deity were termed ‘anti Dalai Lama’ and ‘Chinese spies’. They were ostracized from the Tibetan community. Many cases have come to light where the shugden practitioners were not allowed to enter in hospitals, shops, restaurants, and monasteries.

A young  girl Perma (named changed) who came from Tibet to India to study  said, she had to leave her college in Shilong because of the discrimination faced by her for being a shugden devotee. I have never faced such discrimination in China [Tibet].

“The government says that all shugden devotees have the same rights as Tibetans. But in reality, we don`t have any rights.” said 73 old Geshe Sopa Thoemey, the acting president of  Delhi based Dorje Shugden Devotees’ Charitable and Religious Society.

“We [Monks] used to live like brothers with non-shugden monks before this problem surfaced but now the situation has so much deterioted that a shugden monk was not allowed to attend the funereal of her mother. ” says a shugden worshiper Tsering Lama

“We are not anti Dalai Lama, We respect him, He is a god even though he doesn`t love us.” said Perma.

In 2008, a referendum , in open, was organized in southern India monasteries where the monks were made to select either a yellow stick or a red stick with former stick for choosing Dalai Lama and red stick for Dorje Shugden. The shugden monks were expelled from the monasteries. All the monks who were expelled after the referendum have opened their own monasteries so that can freely worship Shugden.

Dalai Lama has upped the ante in recent years by encouraging the monasteries to expel shugden monks. In 2008, he said in a public speech “Recently monasteries have fearlessly expelled Shugden monks where needed. I fully support their actions. I praise them. If monasteries find taking action hard, tell them the Dalai Lama is responsible for this.” He further added “These monks must be expelled from all monasteries. If they are not happy, you can tell them that the Dalai Lama himself asked that this be done, and it is very urgent”.

Dorje Shugden Devotees’ Charitable and Religious Society also filed an petition in Delhi court against the Dalai Lama and Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) regarding the discrimination and violence incidents against shugden devotees. But the court stated their are not enough evidences to prove the claim.

Geshe Thoemey accuses Tibetan administration of not allowing Tibetans to study in Shugden monasteries, he says, “If students come to our monasteries, we wll grow but they stop students , they want to dry our monasteries “

But the Tibetan government in exile does not support these allegations. The govt considers  Shugden issue as a Chinese weapon against His Holiness.

Dalai Lama has been continuously taking up this issue in public speeches from 1996. “We request Dalai Lama to stop saying anything on this issue, if he doesn`t say anything then there is no problem.” says Tsering.

Since the Dalai lama is talking about the retirement, Its really difficult to see where the struggle for Tibet leads.

“There is no hope for Tibet, to happen such kind of thing you need blessings from your gods but you criticize the god who gives you blessings” said Geshe Thoemey

This video is added at 9.40 PM IST on 30 April 2011

Nehru Place Market – a ‘notorious piracy market’

Nehru Place market has always been popular destination for pirated softwares. United States Trade Representatives recently, in March , identified Nehru Place among the top 30 online and physical heavens of pirated goods.

The other piracy joints are  China”s popular website Baidu, Silk Market in Beijing, Pakistan”s Urdu Bazaars and Thailand”s Red Zones shopping areas.

Nehru Place in New Delhi is considered among Asia`s biggest IT markets. Sale of pirated and counterfeited products including softwares is worth 2 billion rupees.  The original copy of Final Cut Pro software costs 40-45 Thousand Rupees but a pirated copy costs only100-150 Rupees.

Ijaaj, in early 20s, who sells these pirated softwares says if its a light software and can be stored in a CD, then we sells that software in 50 Rupees and if its a heavy software and needs to be stored in a DVD then we sell it 100-150 Rupees. [The storage capacity of a DVD is nearly seven times that of a CD]. He adds if someone needs assistance in installing the software then we charge extra 200-300 Rupees.

The sale of pirated and counterfeited products including softwares causes loss of billions of dollars to the world economy. It is estimated that by 2015, the sale of pirated goods online will be worth US $ 1.78 trillion. In the report, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said these notorious markets not only hurt American workers and businesses, but are threats to entrepreneurs and industries worldwide.

The released report also includes numerous examples of websites involved in BitTorrent tracking and indexing, which facilitate the high speed transfer of infringing materials between users.

A man in his mid 30s, who refused to be identified, says that this work is done with the help of people in top positions.”For example, their is a employee in Hong-kong office of a company, we give him money and he gives us code. Then the code come to our bosses and then to our engineers and then to other distributors, they make thousands of copy and then it come in market.”

This illegal business thrives with in the knowledge of Police.  “Police doesn`t take weekly or monthly money, earlier, they used to but not now” says Somin. He further adds that but they face harrasment in the hands of police, they come and pick random boys and snatch all their money. We cannot say anything to them because we are also doing illegeal activity. If we say something, we will lose our living.

Dalai Lama urges Indian youth to preserve ancient traditions

Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama (Photo - Tenzin Choejor)

New Delhi, April 2: I am a messenger of Indian ancient ethos, “Where ever I go, I talk about the non-violence and religious harmony of India” said Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness Dalai Lama.

“Usually I describe India as our Guru, we are chela(disciple). I consider myself firstly the chela and then, messenger of Indian ancient thoughts.”

“On non-violence and spirituality, I have hardly anything to say to the Indian brothers (and) sisters; you know these things for last more than 2000 years. However to the younger generation who have interest in science and technology and computers, its worthwhile to remind the tradition. I would say develop your country and also maintain these traditions” said Dalai Lama here in Teen Murti Bhawan speaking in a discussion on ‘non-violence and spiritual values in a secular India’ to mark the celebrations of birth centenary of former president R Venkataraman.

The 75-year old Tibetan spiritual leader also urged India to play a more active role in “promotion of non violence and religious harmony.” He says India kept these two things preserved and they are “very much alive even today” but its time to show to the rest of the world, “World need that. These two things are not ancient but very relevant in today`s world.”

His Holiness claimed that secularism is a major factor for maintaining religious harmony and secularism includes respecting non-believers also, especially when majority of seven billion people today are not deeply pious but they still are part of humanity.” Even without practicing any religious values, one can be a very nice person.”

Apart from non-violence, religious harmony and secularism, he stated that India cultivated democratic ideas in him. “I learned what’s democracy, freedom of speech (and) freedom of expression”.

He reminisced that it was normal for Jawaharlal Nehru to disagree with us. Comparing it with china, he told “In other portion, china, not like that. I learned nine years (1950-1959) dealing with Chinese leaders. Of course chairman Mao (Zedong) was quite exceptional. But then later I found, his nice promises were not sincere, later not implemented”.

His Holiness also shared his yesteryear experiences with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and R Venkataraman.