Hindustan Times
Music and musicians have often been under attack in Pakistan. Their detractors earlier were right-wing religio-political outfits. The offensive now is led by the likes of Tehreek-e-Taliban and other hotheads who even consider as un-Islamic the “moving picture” as it appears on television. But Michael Jackson’s death was big news in that country. Read more
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Vinod Sharma on Monday, June 29, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Filed under india · Tagged Abrar-Ul-Haq, Ali Haider, india, Khuda Ke Liye, Michael Jackson, Pakistan, Shoiab Mansoor, un-islamic
I cannot recall having had a better weekend in recent years than this Sunday. Tele-watching Pakistan in the T-20 finals wasn’t just a sporting delight. It was a spectacle the terror-smashed country so richly deserved to realize that it could stand as one in a battlefield. Read more
(8 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Vinod Sharma on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Filed under World · Tagged Pakistan, T20, T20 World Cup, Twenty20 World Cup
Moderate cleric Dr Sarfraz Naeemi’s assassination by a suicide bomber has shocked liberal opinion in Pakistan. He became a victim of the Deobandi Taliban for daring to pit he Brelvi school of thought against their ideology of violence.
Considered close to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Naeemi presided over the Lahore based- Jamia Naeemia seminary that was the first to introduce computer education for its students. Read more
(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Vinod Sharma on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Filed under World · Tagged Dr Sarfraz Naeemi, ideology of viloence, Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, suicide bombings, Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
The story might well be apocryphal but it’s very much part of the foreign office folklore. Then a joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs, Muchkund Dubey had the habit of talking loudly on phone. His boss and foreign secretary M K Rasgotra occupied a room a few paces away from Dubey’s in the South Block. Read more
(6 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Vinod Sharma on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Filed under india · Tagged 15th Lok Sabha, leaders, MPs, parliament debates, parliamentary debates, politicians, speeches
Must the BJP reinvent itself to become a centrist alternative to the Congress? For over a decade now, the saffron party has lived with regional groupings by obfuscating its core Hindutva ideology. But the mask comes off during election time, as it did after Varun Gandhi’s hate speech and closer to the voting date in Gujarat when it projected Narendra Modi as Prime Minister to the embarrassment of L K Advani and total disregard of alliance partners like the JD (U). Read more
(8 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Vinod Sharma on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Filed under india · Tagged centrist alternative, hindutva, negative campaign, saffron party, shahnawaz, sharad yadav
