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Violence After the anti-Christian violence in Orissa and some other adjoining state now communal violence has escalated in the north-eastern state of Assam. Almost 25 persons have died till now in the clashes between Tribal Bodos and the illegal Bangladeshi migrants. 19 dead people belong to the minority Muslim community while the remaining 6 were Bodos. Four persons have died in the police firing . More than  50 people have been wounded in the violence related incidents. State government on Saturday, September 4 had issued the shoot-and-sight orders to prevent the further incidents and army has been deployed in the three violence hit districts.

Incidents According the state officials, situation is under control but very tense. National Highway no.52 has been closed because of the attacks on the vehicles. Though state government has imposed indefinite curfew in the affected areas and police and paramilitary forces are staging flag marches, violence is taking place despite all this. First violence had took place in the Udalguri district but has spread to neighboring Mangaldoi and Sonitpur districts.  Some cattle had been stolen from a  Bodo village which is considered to be the reason of the violence. After it on Friday in Mohanpur(Udalguri), a minority community mob had killed the six Bodo tribesmen with arrows and sharp weapons who were the members of the village defense committee. In the overnight retaliatory violence more than 300 houses have been set ablaze and more than seven people had been killed.  The state government has suspended a DSP and had transferred a deputy commissioner.

Illegal Immigrants According to the unofficial reports minority community villagers have fled their homes and have taken shelter in various relief camps. They had fled their homes after the miscreants had attacked their villages and torched their homes or because of fear of attacks. It is being said despite the curfew large mobs of armed with traditional arms and country made guns are roaming the affected districts and are targeting the minority community villages. The situation has become tenser after some local Television channels had shown some movie clips of the Bangladeshi Flags being hoisted on the housed of minority community. It must be learnt that millions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants are living in India and for last many years local people of Assam are protesting against the illegal immigration.

Violence There is no end in violence against Christians in the state of Orissa and the situation is worsening day by day. Earlier the violence was limited only to the district of Kandhmal but now it has spread to the  adjoining districts also. More than 100 houses were set on fire in the district of Boudh on Thursday, September 2. The death toll in the violence has risen to more than 35 according to the official reports by it seems that it is much more than the government claims. More than a month has passed and displaced people are still living in relief camps. Government has failed even to provide the security to the people living in the relief camps. Last week there were some incidents when some relief camps were attacked.

Police Inaction There are reports that state police has done a very little to protect the minority community people from the violent mobs. Many victims have claimed that they were assaulted even in front of the police personal. They pleaded to the cops but they did nothing to protect them from the violent mob. Some people have alleged that some senior police officials are trying to suppress the matters that have been reported to the police and FIRs have been lodged in various police stations. Police has not started even the investigations in various violence related cases in which some people have lost their near and dear ones.

Rape Case A crime branch team started the investigation case after 39 day of the incident in which a nun was raped. It happened only after the collection of report by the police on Thursday. A nun and Pastor Thomas Chellam were assaulted by a mob but were saved by the police. The nun had not confirmed about the rape charges in the recorded statement but had lated on filed a written complain in which she had alleged that a man from among the mob had raped her in an adjoining building. The two lady doctors who has conducted the medical examination of the nun on the same night at the Baliguda Hospital had confirmed the rape. Police has collected the report only two days ago which shows the police’s attitude to handle the violence related cases. Till now police has arrested four persons who are supposed to be involved in the crime. State government had suspended the Inspector in-charge of Baliguda police station, K N Rao for ignoring the case.

Infiltration As the elections in the state of Jammu and Kashmir are nearing a rise in infiltration has been noted in the state. In recent months security agencies have foiled many infiltration bids and have killed many foreigner militants. It is the trend that whenever it is the election time the infiltration increases and always the motive is to disrupt the elections. In recent times, we have seen many cease fire violations by the Pakistan military.  Indian Border Security Force has alleged that Pakistani rangers provide cover fire to the militants to sneak into the Indian side. But Pakistani military has denied these charges and claimed that it are the militants who fire at the Indian forward posts to provide cover to the infiltrators.

Firing After the ceasefire and peace process declarations between India and Pakistan violence level had downed significantly. Most of the militants’ leaders operating inside the Indian territory had been eliminated by the security forces. Anti-India forces want to keep the Kashmir issue burning so they have increased their efforts to reinforce the weak militant outfits by infiltrating inside the Indian territory. On September 26 Indian forces had killed two Lashkar-e-Taeba militants while they were trying to infiltrate. In another infiltration on Thursday night, October 2, a militant was killed in exchange of fire when Indian security forces challenged a group of infiltrators. In another incident a gun battle between Indian troops and militants ended on Thursday in which 13 militants and a soldier were killed. Militants had infiltrated from the Pakistan side on Friday September 26.    

Cease Fire In last six day, Pakistani army has violated the cease fire agreement thrice. Pakistani military tried to push the militants into the Indian territory on September 27, October 1 and 2  by providing them small arms’ cover fire and all these attempts were foiled by the Border Security personal. All these incidents are the clear indication of the difference between the words of the Pakistani leadership and the Military deeds. Only a week ago Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pak President Asif Ali Zardari had met in USA and had decided to strengthen the peace process. But such kind of incidents have shown the lack of will on the part of Pakistani side. Pakistan can not misguide itself by differentiating between the Kashmiri militants and the Talibans. If it does so then it won’t be wrong to say that it will not succeed to win its ‘own war’ on terror.

BanIndian Union Health Ministry has launced a camaign through print and electronic media to make the people aware of the anti-smoking notification. Indian government has banned the smoking at public places. The rule will be implemented nationwide from October 2, birth anniversary of Fater of Nation Mahatma Gandhi at the public places that involves offices, restaurants, hotels, court buildings, libraries and railway stations. It also involves the hookah bars and pubs. Union Health Ministry has issued the ban notification under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution), Act 2003.

Objection Ministry had issued the notification on May 30 and since then it had been challenged in many courts by ITC and Hotel Association of India. Health Ministry had requested the Sepreme Court to hear all the cases in one go. After hearing the petition, court allowed the ministry to go ahead with the notification on the ban on public places from October 2. In the notification, government has made no distinction between private place and public place. And this confusion can creat problems. Petitioners had challenged the notification on the basis of these points. There are some other problems too, that will arise with the implementation of the notification. Nothing has been mentioned about the implementing agencies. To which agency or officer one can complain if a person is found smoking. Where the fine of 200 will be deposited if someone is found smiking.

Implementation With the implementation of notification scene as well as the nature of the states’ partying and nightlife will change.When someone smokes at the public place, smoker and non-smoker both are affected. Though government has implemented the ban from October 2 but it will take years when the real affect of the ban will be seen. It will take a lot of time for the smokers to change their behavior at public place. There are many policemen who themselves do smoking. It is the irony that now the same guys will chase the smokers. In the initial stages it will be difficult to convince the people. Some sceptics have said that ban can not be effectively implemented and it will remain only on papers. Will it remain on papers or not but one thing is sure that it will discourage those people who are curious to know the affects of smoking.   

Surrender 305 tribla ultras from the United Liberation Front of Barak Valley (ULFBV) joined the mainstream on Tuesday, September 30 when they laid their arms and amunition in a function headed by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. Excise and Border Areas minister Gautam Roy, Principal Secretary (Home) Subhas Das, Director General of Police R.N. Mathur and General officer Commanding of 21 Mountain Division of the Army, Major General Chander Prakash were also present in the function. The outfit had declared unilateral ceasefire on June 7. CM welcomed them into the mainstream by giving a red rose to every one and promissed to initiate the development process of the backward areas. Most of  ULFBV militants belong to the Reang Tribe that lives in the Hailakandi and Karimganj districts of Assam. The outfit was formed in 2001 and had raised the arms in demand of restoration of land to the tribal people and the development of the area.

CM State government had ensured the outfit  that their demands would be considered after which they had agreed to lay down the arms and return to the mainstream. Accorting to the Stete IGP (special branch) in recent years more than 13000 militants have surrendered out of which 8.626 have been facilitated with the rehabilitation packeges. State government has promissed them to provide every kind of help to lead a dignified life including the rehabilitation package for surrendard militants approved by the Government of India. CM also hoped that two other militant uoutfits- DHD (Jewl faction) and Karbi Longri N.C. Hills Liberation Front will also lay the arms very soon. Both these outfits have expressed their willingness to join the mainstream.

Situation In recent years many militant outfits of North-Eastern state have shunned the violence and have joined the mainstream. It is being expected that very soon the other outfits will realize the futility of violence and fruits of peace. Violence is not the ultimate solution of the problems. Issues can be solved though diolog not through arms.People have understood this ‘mantra’ that leads to peace and prosperity. North-Eastern states have been ignored by the successive Central governments for decades. Which caused a lot of distress among the people of these states. Anti-India forces exploited this distress to destabilize India by raising militant outfits and providing them every kind of help. But now situation has changed and peace has started to return in this region.

Stampede 179 people have been reported to be killed and hundreds injured in a stampede that took place in the centuries old Chamunda Devi Temple Jodhpur on Tuesday, September 30. It is the Navratra festival and thousands of devotees had gathered at the temple to pay there homage as it is was the first day of the nine days of Navratra festival and it was a holiday. This incident  is the virtual repeat of the Naina Devi  temple stampede in which 146 people had died on October 3. According to the eye witnesses the exact number of the killed people can not be confirmed as more dead bodies are being recovered from the temple and many seriously injured people have succumbed to their injuries. Injured people have been admitted in various city hospitals.

Reasons Some eyewitnesses have blamed the inadequate deployment of the police personal to manage the huge crowd of the devotees. Some people have said that the incident happened when some people pushed each other to get entry into the small premises of the temple. It resulted in the stampede. According to some eyewitnesses some devotees slipped on the steep temple path which causes the stampede. According to another theory a temple wall fell on the devotees which caused panic among the devotees and caused stampede. Most of the dead are males as the stampede took place in the separate men’s queues. According to the state officials only 15 to 20 people had died at the spot while the others succumbed to their injuries in various city hospitals. People died because of suffocation. Most of the dead were young people.

Temple Chamunda Devi Temple is situated atop Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur. It was built by Maharajah of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh in the 15^th century. During the Navratra festival devotees can go to the temple everyday. This temple is run by Mehrangarh Museum Trust of Maharaj Gaj Singh. The tragedy happened very early in the morning and the local administration was not aware about the incident for some time and it also took time to provide first aid and ambulance services to the injured. Most of the victims were carried physically as there were very few vehicles. Two km long narrow and steep way had also made it impossible to drive a vehicle to the temple.

Population The state of Jammu and Kashmir touches the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Republic of China. The total area of the princely state was 22,22,236 sq. kms. Presently, 78114 sq kms area is under the illegal occupation of Pakistan while 42,685 sq kms area is under the occupation of China. It must be learnt that 5130 sq kms was illegally handed over to China by Pakistan. According to the climate state can be divided into three parts first is Jammu, Kashmir and the cold desert of Ladakh. Total population of the state is 10.07 million out of which almost 75% population lives in villages while the remaining is urban population. Population density is 99 per sq km. Density rate in the regions of Jammu and Kashmir is from medium to high while Ladakh and northernmost areas are sparsely populated. It is one of the most literate states of India as its total literacy rate is almost 55%.

Tourist Places It is called the crown of India because of its natural beauty. Most of the state is constituted Himalayan mountains. Jhelum, Indus, Tawi, Ravi and Chenab are the main rivers that flow through the state. Nature has blessed it with beautiful mountains, forests flora and fauna. The giant size chinar trees and wild life have always attracted the nature lovers. It is one of the most hot favorite tourist destination in India. Tourists not from India but also from abroad visit the state during the summer season. There are many other religious pilgrimage places that are visited by thousands of pilgrims, both Hindus and Muslims every year. Amarnath cave and Vaishno Devi Temple are some of the famous religious places in the state. Kashmir, Srinagar, the Mughal Gardens, Dal lake,Gulmarg and Pahalgam are some other most visited tourist places.

Occupation Apple and saffron are the main agriculture products of the state. Kashmiri Apple and saffron are the world famous agricultural products for their unique quality. Except it paddy, wheat and maize are the other major crops that are grown in the state. Gram is the main crop that is grown in the Ladakh region. Wood from Kashmir is used to make the high-quality cricket bats. Kashmir’s horticulture products are also word famous.

Judgment On September 24, a Bhandara court in Maharashtra pronounced the judgment in the famous case of Kairlanji massacre in which four members of a Dalit (schedule caste) family were brutally murdered by a mob. Court sentenced the six out of total of 11 accused persons to death while two have been sent to life imprisonment. And the remaining three accused has been acquitted by the court for lack of evidence.

Incident In September 2006, A Dalit woman Surekha Bhotmange, her daughter Priyanka had identified the assailants to the police whom they had seen assaulting a police-patil. Police had arrested the accused on September 29 and had released them on bail on the same day. They in the evening had attacked the house of the Dalit family and killed four members of the family brutally. The mother and the daughter were dragged out of the house by the mob, stripped and were beaten up with wooden sticks and bicycle chains. There heads were banged repeatedly against a wall till they died. The violent mod did not end here, they killed two more male members of the family Sudhir (18) and Roshan (21). Because of the slow and biased investigation process by the state police department, Dalit agitation had broke out and had taken a violent turn. Violence had expanded in the whole state and a train was set on fire. After it, state government had handed over the inquiry to a special CBI team and the some police officers had been suspended. This issue remained in headlines for many days and many national leaders had expressed their view against the shocking crime.

Discrimination In this case, a Dalit family had to face the ire of some people of upper caste. The way they were brutally murdered show the attitude of the upper class people towards the lower class. In most parts of India, Dalits and other low caste people face discrimination and are mostly treated like bonded laborers. In the Bihar foods we have seen that even in the relief camps Dalits are being discriminated. This kind of discrimination has given rise to many social problems. In some state Dalits have converted to Christian religion. But it divided the society more as we have seen in the state of Orissa. But with this court verdict, people’s trust in the judiciary has been re-established and also a message has been sent to the upper classes that they will have to change their centuries old attitude towards the lowers sections of the society.

State The State of Jammu and Kashmir is India’s northernmost state. It is one of the most favorite tourists’ destinations in India. Its geography, culture and the seasons of the state has always attracted the tourists to visit it. Jammu and Kashmir consists mainly three reasons. First is Jammu that is also the winter capital of the state. Second is the Kashmir which consists the city of Srinagar, that is also the summer capital. And the third region is Leh and Ladakh, that is also called the “Little Tibet”. In the Jammu region most of the population is Hindu, while is Kashmir, Muslims and Tibet is inhabited mostly by the Buddhist population.

Rulers Before the 12^th century it was ruled by successive Hindu empires that include the Maurya and Kushan Empires. But by the mid of the 12^th century it was occupied by Turkish rulers who spread Islam in the region. Later on it was occupied by the Mughals. In the end of the 18^th century it was captured by the First Sikh ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore. But after the downfall of the Sikh rule it was ruled mainly by the Dogra rulers. When India got independence it was divided into two parts, India and Pakistan. But the princely states were not merged in any of the part. It was left to their rulers to choose to merge their region into the country of their choice. But Pakistan violated the agreement and attacked  the state with the purpose of capturing it. Following it ruler of the state Maharaja Hari Singh accepted the accession of the state into India. Indian forces entered the state to save it from the further occupation  but were not allowed by the then Government of India to flush the invaders out. After that the state of Jammu and Kashmir has always remained the bone of contention between both of the countries and they have fought three wars with each other.

Special Status 60 percent area of the state is controlled by India, 30 percent by Pakistan and the remaining 10 percent by the Republic of China. State of Jammu and Kashmir is the only state of India that has its own flag and constitution. defense, communication and foreign policy are directly handled by the Parliament of India and the rest by the state government which has been provided with  special autonomy under section 370.

Incident The Chief Executive Officer of Italy based company Graziano Transmissioni, which manufactures auto components, was allegedly killed by an agitating group of workers of the company who had been dismissed from their jobs on disciplinary grounds a couple of months ago. A meeting was being held between the management and the dismissed employs to sort out the matter but altercation broke out between both of the parties on some issue. Amid the heated arguments, a security guard opened fire following which a group of other 100 suspended workers,who were waiting outside the factory premises became violent. When the CEO came down to calm down the workers he was manhandled and bludgeoned to death by them.

Meeting Two months ago, company had dismissed almost 200 employees who had turned violent during their agitation while demanding the hike in their pay. Since then they were demanding reinstatement and had been invited by the management for talks to sort out the matter. But during the meeting management demanded their written apology as a pre-condition to reinstate them. This condition infuriated them and turned them violent.

Problems After the economic revolution in India, a lot has changed. But a very little change has happened in the financial and working condition of lower level workers. There are huge disparities in the wages of regular and temporary workers.  In unorganized sector workers are paid poorly. Lack of job security, poor working conditions and callousness of the management towards workers are the major reason of simmering anger among workers. Tough private investment has created lakhs of jobs but in small companies workers are paid poorly. In most of cases they are paid less than the daily wage limits set by the government. If workers agitate then they are fired from their jobs. Government of India has not made such rules that can deal with these problems. Noida incident is just an eye-opener. It is the time for all the private companies and the center government to apply a new approach to tackle such problems. Government must make some rules that will provide job security to the workers and will also address their wages related problems. On the other hand it is the responsibility of the management to deal with the workers with compassion other wise no body can prevent such kind of incident from happening.

Mamta Mamta Banerjee is one of the most prominent Indian leaders of the present time. She is the only leader from West Bengal, who has challenged the three decades old communist rule in the state. It must be borne in mind that she had once defeated the most prominent CPI leader Somnath Chaterjee. In recently concluded state Panchayat elections she had defeated the ruling communist party  in the rural areas which are considered to be the later’s strong base. She has remained the Railway Minister of India during the rule of National Democratic Alliance government.

Career This firebrand woman leader was the youngest parliamentarians ever when was defeated the veteran communist leader Somnath Chaterjee in the Lok Sabha election in the year of 1984. She has been elected as a Member of Parliament form the state of West Bengal five times. Twice as a Congress member and trice as Trinamool Congress President. She was Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development during the rule of Rao government but had resigned form the cabinet because of government’s callous attitude towards the development of the sports in India. During her political career as a Congress leader she has always remained in headlines because of the unorthodox methods of agitation. Some times she had insulted the Parliament Members inside the Parliament and had to face criticism for her actions.

Ties In the year of 1997 she deserted the Congress party  and formed her own party named All India Trinamool Congress.  Her party emerged the main opposition party in her home state which dared to challenge the thirty years of rule of the communist party. In the year of 1998 she allied with the NDA alliance and was given the charge of Railway Ministry. But in 2000 she snapped her ties with the NDA and formed an alliance with the Congress Party to contest the West Bengal Assembly elections.

Agitation After that she has focused mainly on the state politics. During this time she successfully opposed the state government’s moves of industrialization. The result was it that some foreign companies who had decided to invest huge amounts departed from the state. Though with this move she has won the support of some rural sections but it has gave a severe setback to the industrialization in the state. She is currently in news for her ongoing agitation against the Singur Tata Nano car plant. But this time she has put herself in a tight spot. If Tata shuts down the Nano production  plant, which it has threatened to do, it will result in a loss of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and which will eradicate her main urban vote bank. It will not end here because many other interested inverters will also prefer to invest in some other parts of the country.

SEZs India has emerged as the second fastest growing economy after China and is the hot favorite destination for the foreign investment. For it, special economic zones are being made to attract more and more investment. It requires acquisition of land to establish economic zones which is mostly objected by the farmers. Recently, we have seen that at many places in India, where land has been acquired, state governments have to face stiff resistance from the farmers. In most of such chances farmers’ struggle turned out to be violent and all the related governments’ had to revoke their orders excluding some cases where farmers had agreed to give their land after the related state governments had increased the compensation packages.

Land One such example is of Sigur in West Bengal where Tata’s Nano project is being set up. Though people want industry in the state but they don’t want it at the cost of farmers. They want that agriculture as well as industry should co-exist. But some unwilling farmers want their land to be given back to them. All this issue has forced the Tata to stop the production of world’s cheapest car, Nano and to think about some other destination where it can be produced. Tata had not acquired the land directly but the state government. State government is responsible for whole of the issue as it ignored the plight of the farmers while it acquired the land. Now it has become the national issue which has triggered a now debate in the corporate world.

Maharashtra But farmers of Raigad Maharashtra are not as unfortunate as there Singur counterparts. They participate in the voting that was conducted to judge about their view about a special economic zone. In the voting more that 6000 farmers of 22 villages participated.  Even those farmers who had agreed to give their land, submitted anti-SEZ opinions. It must be noted that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group has planned to set up one of India’s biggest SEZ in the state for which it wants to acquire 10,000 hectares of land out of which 3000 hectares of land lies in 22 villages. Last month Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had accepted the demand of the anti-SEZ committee to hold a referendum to know the views of the farmers.

Conspiracy After the Jamia Nagar(Delhi) encounter, in which two militants had been killed and one had been arrested, Indian security agencies has uncovered the deep rooted controversy hatched by Pakistan based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taeba. All the blasts were carried out by Indian Mujahideen and SIMI cadres. Till now it was being believed that  IM is a offshoot of SIMI but after the arrest of some more IM terrorists, Delhi police have revealed the link between SIMI and Lashkar. After the encounter police have seized the laptop of one of the killed terrorists which contains Al-Qaida related literature. Some pictures stored in hard disk of the computer has also established the link between various arrested IM and SIMI militants.

Arrests With it the truth has come to surface that serial bomb blasts were triggered by the SIMI and IM terrorists and many SIMI sleeper cells had worked in the conspiracy. It has also become clear that various SIMI cells knew about the blasts but did not know about the timing. Arrested militants have also revealed the exact details about the various serial blasts. It has been revealed that almost 15 terrorists are involved in the Delhi serial bomb blasts. On Sunday Delhi police arrested some more terrorists who revealed about their further planning. Police have arrested four terrorists who had planted bomb in Delhi. According to police sources they were planning to explode 20 more bombs at various important locations in Delhi.

Lashkar Hand Indian security agencies have discovered that SIMI and IM was provided with the logistic as well as financial support by the Pak based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taeba through Dawood Ibrahim. It is being said Lashkar had organized training camps to train the SIMI and IM cadres and had also provided two cars that were used in the serial blasts. ISI was under great pressure from western nations  for its relations with the Taliban terrorists. So it had distanced itself from the Lashkar-e-Taeba. So Lashkar proffered to train  more and more Indian people instead of directly participating in the terrorist activities. So SIMI and IM were the best suitable choice.

Explosion Militants struck again the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday evening, September 20 when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside of the Marriott Hotel. According to the reports the suicide bomber had come with a explosives laden truck and blew it off in front of the gates. It is being said that  almost 1000kg of explosives were used in the blast. It was so powerful explosion that Marriott’s lobby and reception which is almost 100 meeters away from the explosion site was totally destroyed and a 20 feet deep and 100 feed wide crater has been left at the explosion site.

Timing When the bomb blast occurred an Iftaar party was going inside the hotel and  many dignitaries including some Americans were inside the hotel. It must be noted that the hotel is located in the high security zone. Security is always kept tight as it is mostly visited by foreigner dignitaries. The explosion happened after some hours of President Asif Ali Zardari’s maiden address to the Parliament in which he had promised to root the terrorism and extremism. When the explosion came President, Prime Minister and other important Pakistani leaders and Generals were attending a party that was very near to the explosion site.

Impact At least 60 persons were killed and more than 200 have been reported to be injured in the explosion. After the explosion, hotel building had caught fire which turned it into an inferno. Many people died while they jumped form the six-storey building to save them selves from the fire. Investigating agencies have suspected the Al-Qaida hand behind the bomb attack. Ever since Pakistan’s initiation o f military action against the Taliban militants hiding in the NWFP, incidents of suicide bomb attacks have increase inside Pakistan. Almost 1000 people have been killed in less than six months in such incidents.

War Pakistan is reaping what is has sown. Its successive governments fueled militancy in India and Afghanistan but it also provided a ground for the Islamic fundamentalists’ backed Taliban to grow inside Pakistan. Now its own brainchild,  Taliban have become the biggest threat to the world and for Pakistan. Coalition forced have started the attacks inside  Pakistani territory in pursuit of Taliban militants.  In such circumstances it becomes necessary for the Pakistani government to wage a war against the terrorists who have become the biggest threat to its unity. But this war will not end with the military action. It will take years to wipe out the influence of the fundamentalists from the society and prevent their resurgence.

Efforts Bush administration is trying hard to get the Indo-US nuclear agreement cleared by the Congress before September 26, a day when this session of the Congress will end. Bush administration has said that uninterrupted fuel supply to India is only a ‘political commitment’. Bush administration is trying very hard to get the clearance by 25 September when Indian Prime Minister will meet the US president. It is being expected that on that day both the countries will sign some agreement that will resume the nuclear trade between both of the countries.

Agreement Elections are scheduled to be held in both of the countries  by the end of this year. Neither Washington nor New Delhi want to leave the fate of the nuclear deal in the hands of the next governments and for it both the governments are trying hard to start the nuclear trade as early as possible. Voting was held on the deal in the US Congress on Friday. To assure the US lawmakers, various US government officials have said that if India conducts a nuclear test successor US government will react according to the US laws. Many US lawmakers had raised questions regarding India’s claims on n-tests. In answer to these questions, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns told lawmakers that India has the sovereign right to test and US has the sovereign right to respond. He told that if India violates the IAEA safeguards agreement the deal will end with it.

Visits The agreement will become operational with the approval of US Congress and both the sides are determined to sign the deal in the September 25 meeting. If Congress does not approve the agreement then US will be the biggest loser as India has got the right to do business in civil nuclear energy with other countries after the NSG waiver and France and Russia are very keen to resume nuclear trade with New Delhi. France has even offered uninterrupted fuel supply and reprocessing rights to India. Prime Minister will visit Paris on September 30 and Russian President will visit New Delhi in the first week of December. It is being expected that India will sign some agreements with both these countries during this time.