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Hindu Feb 3

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Content
The invisible face of terror

Won't accept preconditions for talks, says Koirala

India sees RIC meeting as gateway to Eurasia

Russia, China back India's inclusion in expanded APEC

Israeli Prime Minister calls for scrapping U.N. Gaza war probe

An ICBM becomes more versatile

SC lends powerful voice to free speech online

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

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The invisible face of terror

Tue, Feb 3, 2015

terrorism, The Hindu, international, freedom of speech,

We are back to the days of 9/11 and other terror events in the West, and the debate
assumes familiar directions: freedom of speech versus violent threats to it and the
enlightened West versus barbaric Islam. We are presented this black and white world
even by non-Muslim and non-western nations who have joined the project of moderating
and domesticating Islam. Of course, there have been nuanced positions which have
affirmed the right to free speech while at the same time calling out Charlie Hebdo for
its racist portrayals of Islam. But the issue is larger than this.
To fundamentally put this black and white picture into question, the whole notion of
freedom of speech needs to be untangled. Of course, freedom of speech is not an absolute
imperative in a democracy. But what is being missed is that freedom of speech in the
West is built on a vast array of unfreedom and violence, both elsewhere and within its
own society. Islamic terror is not only an occasion for shocking us into ruminating
about the need for reform in Islam -- as seems to be the dominant opinion -- but should
also be about the entire basis of the liberal democratic western civilisation, the various
kinds of violence unleashed by it and the silences about them.
This questioning should lead to the other crucial aspect: the need to account for material
and economic factors which are completely missing in the discourse surrounding fanatic
Islam.
The greatest tragedy of modernity is that state-sponsored violence sanctioned under
the guise of democracy is not classified as terror. So any amount of violence to maintain
liberal democracy in the West evokes no horror or calls for reform of state practices.
From 2003 to 2011, during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, nearly 5,00,000 Iraqis died
because the American state decided that Iraq was responsible for 9/11.
There are no solidarity marches and editorials condemning these dastardly acts, for the
celebrated freedom of speech masquerades as silence here. Modernity makes us believe
that beheadings of innocent individuals that are televised are gory and barbaric, while
the aerial bombing of women and children away from television cameras are the
inevitable costs of protecting "our" democratic freedoms. And anybody who dares to
break the silence to expose the phoniness of freedom of speech and the act of speaking
the truth is crushed under the boots of the democratic state just like Chelsea (formerly
Bradley) Manning, now serving 35 years in prison.
So let us not have any illusions about the freedom of speech that is currently being
defended. What does freedom of speech mean when we are taught to think like a herd
through various techniques of manufacturing consent by the elite, the capitalist market
and the surveillance state?

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The threats to freedom of speech in the West are, as the scholar Talal Asad argued
before, less from the fanatic fringe of Islamists who violently eliminate individuals and
more from the overwhelming consensus among western citizens that violence and terror
or limits to speech are not generated by their own societies. This invisible face of their
own role in some of the greatest acts of violence and destruction since the beginning
of western colonialism and continuing racism and neo-colonialism is one of the main
reasons for the conceit of modernity and the current morass that we are in.
This conceit gets even more intriguing when the West calls for the reform of Islam.
For it completely ignores its material interests in oil and the role it has played in shoring
up and strengthening the most conservative and fundamentalist trends within Islam,
like Wahhabism, which have grown exponentially with the help of petrodollars.
Vacuous responses The problems of today cannot resolve themselves unless there is a
simultaneous radical restructuring of both sides. Addressing, say, egregious gender
oppression by Islamic fundamentalism would have to go along with a critique of western
support to reactionary religio-patriarchies of states like Saudi Arabia (witness the
astonishing outpouring of grief and praise by the western leaders on the death of King
Abdullah).

Won't accept preconditions for talks, says Koirala

Tue, Feb 3, 2015

The Hindu, international, Nepal,

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on Tuesday said talks to draft a Constitution would go
on, but he would not give in to any precondition set by the Opposition.
On Tuesday, a meeting of the Opposition alliance decided to boycott the meeting of
the Constituent Assembly called for February 5. The Opposition refused to resume
talks with the government or participate in the Constitution-writing process until the
Proposal Drafting Committee was dissolved.

India sees RIC meeting as gateway to Eurasia

Tue, Feb 3, 2015

The Hindu, Eurasia, international, RIC, Russia, China, APEC,

India, China and Russia have recommended India's membership to the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) as part of a joint communique that seemed to reconcile
China and Russia's growing disenchantment with the United States with India's interest
in gaining a more prominent foothold in Eurasia.
As it received Moscow and Beijing's backing for an entry into APEC, India endorsed
the launch of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). Observers say that the
China-led initiative is meant to counter the less inclusive Trans-Pacific Partnership

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(TPP), another free trade agreement championed by Washington, but which pointedly
excludes Beijing.
On Monday, the Chinese got India and Russia to sign on a proposal to have a new
U.N.-driven collective security arrangement in the Asia-Pacific that seemed to counter
the U.S. "Pivot to Asia" policy, which provides the doctrinal basis for the amassment
of forces by Washington and its allies in the Asia-Pacific, seemingly to contain China's
rise.
The tri-nation communique advocated "the development of an open, inclusive, indivisible
and transparent security and cooperation architecture in the region on the basis of
universally recognised principles of international law."
China and Russia have already signed a $400 billion long term energy deal that would
ensure supply of gas for 30 years to the Beijing-Tianjin -Hibei industrial belt through
the "Power of Siberia" pipeline. The two countries have also signed, in principle, a
similar agreement that would bring gas from Russia's Yamal Plateau to China along
the western Altai route.
India's oil giant ONGC Videsh has also been involved in negotiation for a foothold in
the Arctic shelf. The joint communique also called for the immediate reform of the
international financial system to increase the voice and representation of emerging
markets and developing countries, with a focus on the implementation of the 2010 IMF
Quota and Governance Reform by the end of this year.

Russia, China back India's inclusion in expanded APEC

Tue, Feb 3, 2015

The Hindu, international, Russia, China, APEC,

Russia and China have endorsed India's efforts to formalise an iron-clad rejection of
international terrorism, amid a call by the three countries to end the era of a unipolar
world and rid the globe of the threat of "regime change."
Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping issued a comprehensive joint communique that
called for an ambitious reform of an international system that was respectful of the
diversity of home-grown political systems.
The communique recommended India's inclusion in an expanded Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC), a 21-nation grouping of Pacific Rim countries. The Ministers
endorsed India's impending membership to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
(SCO) after elevating the grouping, which is pillared by Russia, China and most of the
Central Asian States as "one of the key instruments in promoting multilateral political,
security, economic and humanitarian interaction in the region."
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which India is joining soon, has been

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holding major counter-terrorism exercises, in anticipation of the withdrawal of the U.S.

forces from Afghanistan. Recognising the threat to stability posed during Afghanistan's
upcoming transitional phase, the three Ministers called for supporting the Afghan
National Security Forces (ANSF), in tune with the withdrawal of the U.S.-led International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Without specifying the "Pivot to Asia" doctrine of the U.S., which involves concentration
of forces on China's periphery, a joint statement by the RIC grouping called for
advancing talks in the East Asia summit framework on rule-based security architecture
in the Asia-Pacific, driven by the United Nations.

Israeli Prime Minister calls for scrapping U.N. Gaza war probe

Tue, Feb 3, 2015

Gaza, The Hindu, international, Israel, Palestine,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called for scrapping a U.N.
commission tasked with investigating potential war crimes committed last summer in
Gaza after reports emerged that its chief resigned amid accusations he was biased against
Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu said the commission, set up by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights
Council, was an "anti-Israeli body" that has proved it has nothing to do with human
rights.
The U.N. commission was due to issue its report next month. Israel did not cooperate
with it, saying it was hostile to Israel and that its conclusions were known in advance.
The summer's war in Gaza, the third between Israel and Hamas since the group seized
the seaside territory, killed more than 2,200 Palestinians and 72 people on the Israeli
side. At least 1,483 Palestinian civilians were killed in the war 66 per cent of the overall
death toll according to preliminary United Nations figures.
Mr. Netanyahu has accused the U.N. commission of unfairly targeting Israel and ignoring
abuses elsewhere.

An ICBM becomes more versatile

Tue, Feb 3, 2015

Shourya missile, defense, missile, The Hindu, ICBM, Agni V, DRDO,

India's intercontinental ballistic missile, Agni V, has been turned into an even more
potent weapon of war. this missile, capable of sending a nuclear warhead to targets
over 5,000 km away -- thereby bringing much of China within its reach -- could be
launched from a truck-mounted canister. The ability to move ballistic missiles around
makes it difficult for an enemy to locate and destroy them. Placed in canisters, the

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missiles can be easily transported and launched with great rapidity in all sorts of weather
conditions. The canisters have another advantage as well -- they make decoys possible.
While these large truck-borne missile containers can be detected by spy satellites passing
overhead and may well be noticed by observers on the ground, it will be impossible to
tell those that actually carry missiles from ones that are empty.
However, launching a missile from a canister is more difficult, especially when it
involves a large missile like the Agni V. The missile must be ejected from the container,
using a gas generator, before its first stage can be ignited. Hurling this 17-metre-long,
50-tonne missile clear of its container requires far greater force, which must be provided
by large amounts of gas produced very rapidly. In doing so, neither the missile nor its
launch system should be damaged. Saturday's flawless launch shows that the country's
defence scientists have indeed mastered this complex technology. Three successive
Agni V flight tests have gone without a hitch over the last three years and DRDO
officials say the missile will be ready for induction into service after just one more trial,
which will be carried out later this year However, India's strategic planners will need
to bear in mind the fact that Pakistan and China have deployed nuclear weapons on
their missiles in a way that goes beyond conventional nuclear deterrence. Rather, their
strategy appears to create ambiguities over the escalation of a conventional conflict
into a nuclear one. Consequently, enhancement of this country's long-range ballistic
missile capabilities must go hand-in-hand with proper planning to deal with situations
that might lead to such apocalyptic weapons of mass destruction being launched.

SC lends powerful voice to free speech online

Tue, Feb 3, 2015

The Hindu, polity, Information Technology Act, freedom of speech, Article 19, Supreme
Court,

Facing a tough time explaining in the Supreme Court where free speech ends and
restrictions start for social media, the government on Tuesday said its laws are meant
to fight cyber crime and not curb free expression.
hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of certain legal provisions
in the Information Technology Act, especially Section 66 A. This section prescribes a
punishment of up to three years' in jail if found guilty of causing "annoyance or
inconvenience" on the Net, including social media.
In an earlier hearing, the government had submitted that comments expressing political
dissent, and "decent" humour were excluded from what constitutes "grossly offensive"
or "menacing" under Section 66 A of the Act.
Mr. Mehta had contended that prohibitions under the 2000 Act are "reasonable" and
in consonance with the restrictions placed on free speech in Article 19 (2) of the
Constitution.

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

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