the world got trumped or did it?

the elation and exuberance that has marked the advent of trump and trumpism, if you will, in the world politics marks a radical trend in the 21st century world that has so far been governed by paradigm of interconnectedness of markets and people. Trump is taking America and the world back to the westphalian treaty of 1648 that marked the sovereignty of nation states. However its not just Trump, the phenomenon is global as was seen in the Brexit vote and the rise of radical right wing in Germany and France. The elections is Germany may sound a death blow to chancellor Angela Merkel and her libertarian policies.

However we have a new player at the world stage, an underdog so far who is now challenging the US hegemony. No points for guessing the name. Mr Xi in the Davos 2017 world economic forum turned out to be a messiah for the supporters of globalisation and common market. He has been applauded as the saviour of the existing discourse and more so because intellectual pundits here in India compared him to the dismal and almost conspicuous by absence performance of the Indian leaders and corporate people. However Mr Xi's speech as bright as it may be is nothing but than a farce. Following are the questions that Xi should have answered if at all he was the new harbinger of globalisation

1. How many syrian refugees did u admit to ur country. Why none? oh is it because u never allowed the existing ones in Xinziang to have their religious freedom and let them even celebrate Ramdan. One can simply compare this to Saudi Arabia hankering for world peace and coexistence. Ironic indeed.

2. In defence Mr Xi says he is only talking of markets and capitalism and global trade not people per se. Ok lets take on this argument accepting for the moment the facile premise on which it is based. If you are such a supporter of free goods and markets then why this competitive devaluation? why this beggar thy neighbour policy? why this muscle flexing and pomp and show of military might? why this 2nd scramble for Africa?. Clearly Mr Xi has no answers to it , for if at all one supports the market forces there has to be no us and them. it is only the private sector and the smithsian invisible hand that should operate. Xi's deliberate manipualtion of the currency and market so as to suite the chiniese economy goes against the principles of fair play and treating all nations as one and the same.

This concept is very well enunciated in the Free Market Access and Most favoured nation of World Trade Organisation. And there are established duties and levies on practices of dumping and countervailing.

Why oh why then is the world attributing these accolades to China and it's leaders.

3. How is it that China proposes to reconcile market forces with its imperial aims in south china sea, The ASEAN region and beyond. Clearly one can see the iron hand of dictatorial state in the velvet glove of free market. Pure bull shit and horse shit is what Mr. Xi is talking about. China is friends with Pakistan so that the latter may continue its proxy wars and bleed India, our mother land, by a thousand cuts. why you ask? Leaving the strategic implications aside a destablised India is not as attractive to market forces as a peaceful one. This to mention but one of the instances where Mr Xi can be seen as throwing away the garb of free market and engaging in real politik to have his way.

But sadly for Mr Xi India topped the FDI rank in 2015 beating China despite its malevolent efforts. One is reminded of the poem by one of our most beloved Prime Minister - Shri Vajpayee Ji

 
                       हम जंग न होने देंगे!


विश्व शांति के हम साधक हैं, जंग न होने देंगे!
कभी न खेतों में फिर खूनी खाद फलेगी,
खलिहानों में नहीं मौत की फसल खिलेगी,
आसमान फिर कभी न अंगारे उगलेगा,
एटम से नागासाकी फिर नहीं जलेगी,
युद्धविहीन विश्व का सपना भंग न होने देंगे।
जंग न होने देंगे।

भारत-पाकिस्तान पड़ोसी, साथ-साथ रहना है,
प्यार करें या वार करें, दोनों को ही सहना है,
तीन बार लड़ चुके लड़ाई, कितना महँगा सौदा,
रूसी बम हो या अमेरिकी, खून एक बहना है।
जो हम पर गुजरी, बच्चों के संग न होने देंगे।
जंग न होने देंगे।


Truly our leaders are blessed with sagacity and vision that transcends the selfishness of these rapscallions. Ever since the beginning PM Nehru had vouched for Hindi Chini bhai bhai, coming out with the Panchsheel agreement but china wasnt able to mend its ways.


coming back to XI and Davos , he began his speech quoting Dickens Hard Times- It was the best of  times, it was the worst of times- as something defining the 21st century world too. Well how much of the responsibility are you willing to take Mr Xi for the worst times that many of us faced because of China. Ask the Tibetans, the Tiwanese, the Vietnamese, the Indian smartphone market, Indian steel market and the plight of simple potters and artisans who cant even sell their DIYAS now in Diwali thanks to ur dumping.


Both the monk committee and the cox committee report highlighted the use of corporate espionage done by chinese market forces when operation outside having vast implications for the sovereignty of the country they are based in.

Having exposed hypocrisy of Xi, lets now move on to the Trump and the emerging trumpian world. I think its good news for India leaving aside the H1b visa issues and the buy American agenda. But thats miniscule compared to the strategic advantage we now have with trump in office. And i wouldnt be accused of far fetching if i said that strategic ties pave the way for commercial ones and vice versa. Clearly, the anti china agenda espoused by Trump has placed India already in a sweet spot. We might see the continuation of LEMOA reaching upto


Mann ke mere ye bharam,
Kachche mere ye karam
Leke chale hai kahaan,
Main toh jaanoon hi na

Tu hai mujhmein samaya,
Kahaan leke mujhe aaya,
Main hoon tujhmein samaya,
Tere peeche chala aaya,
Tera hi main ek saaya,
Tune mujhko banaya,
Main toh jag ko na bhaaya,
Tune gale se lagaya
Ab tu hi hai khudaya,
Sach tu hi hai khudaya - 

bronge age civilsations, except minion which was iron age

Iron Age India, the Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), succeeds the Late Harappan (Cemetery H) culture, also known as the last phase of the Indus Valley Tradition. The main Iron Age archaeological cultures of India are the Painted Grey Ware culture (1200 to 600 BCE) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700 to 200 BCE).

Much of what would become ancient Greek culture traces its lineage back to the Bronze Age civilization of the Minoans, centered on the island of Crete. Flourishing from roughly 2000-1500 BCE, the Minoans became one of the most powerful forces in the Aegean, expanding their cultural idea across the Mediterranean and creating the first foundations of a unified Western culture.

However, their power wasn't simply militaristic. It was economic. Through trade and exchange, the Minoans managed to secure lots of power, and left quite a legacy.

Overview of Minoan Economy

Crete, the largest of the Greek islands, is built of fertile soils in a region of moderate temperatures and reliable rainfall. Basically, it's a great place for agriculture. Not only did the ability to grow lots of food result in the conditions necessary for the Minoans to develop the first advanced civilization of Europe, but it also gave them the tools they needed to build a strong international economy.

The Minoan economy was based in the maritime trade of agricultural products like wine, olives, and figs in exchange for minerals and other resources like copper and ivory. To facilitate this trade, the Minoans not only built quality roads that connected their farms and exchange centers to numerous ports around the island, but also maintained a massive and impressive fleet of ships.

Evidence of Minoan products and cultural influences have been found in mainland Greece, Asia Minor, the entire Mediterranean coast of the Middle East, and even as far as Egypt. Products and artistic ideas from each of these cultures have also been found in Minoan Crete, so we can tell that there was a high degree of exchange between these groups.

The Minoans traded products like wine in vases like this one

Thalassocracy

Our understanding of the Minoan economy really rests on two defining principles. First is that of the thalassocracy, or maritime empire. According to later mainland Greek sources, the Minoan kings developed an extensive maritime empire that stretched across the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas.

This would have given the Minoans something of a trade monopoly in this region, controlling ports and the exchange rates of various products. Allegedly, their navy was feared by all and their merchants were found in every port of the region.

The Minoans also intentionally transported their arts and cultural ideas into regions where they held ports, ''Minoanizing'' other cultures to make them friendlier to the Minoans.

Minoan fresco of Minoan ships and a harbor

The Palace Economy

The other definitive trait of the Minoan economy is how they managed their economies at home. The traditional view is that the Minoans were one of the first civilizations to develop a palace economy, in which royal administrative centers were used to gather up and then redistribute all the products and services needed in Crete.

Basically, instead of developing a monetary system where goods could be exchanged based on set values, the Minoans sent all their goods to these palaces, who then split them up and redistributed them among the people.

Ruins of the Minoan palace of Knossos

This assumption is largely based on the sudden appearance of major administrative palaces across Crete at the height of Minoan growth, as well as the lack of other standard systems of markets and money. Towns like Gournia, Zakros, and Knossos seemed to have been built almost entirely around these administrative centers, which scholars assume were used to organize and redistribute commodities

Minoan Food and Medicines

As you might expect for a civilization located on the beach, one of the primary food staples of the Minoans was fish. Although they ate fish, they probably did not eat much of other types of meat. They raised sheep, goats, and cattle primarily for the production of wool and milk, though they did sacrifice bulls occasionally. Grains, particularly barley and wheat, were also important staples for the Minoans.

In addition to the basic fish and grain diet, the Minoans also grew a variety of fruits. Tree fruits such as apples, figs, and pomegranates were the most common type. The Minoans also had some vineyards where they produced grapes which they made into wine. Olives were a particularly important product because the Minoans used them to make olive oil which was used in religious ceremonies.

The Minoans were active in growing and using herbs for health purposes as well. They produced an incredible variety of herbs - probably more than are in most people's kitchens today - and thought each had unique healing or restorative properties. Some herbs, such as lavender and sage, were made into oils, much like you can find essential oils in the store today. Anise, a plant similar to licorice, was probably used to soothe digestive problems. They also used herbs like coriander and saffron as well. The Minoans were also engaged in beekeeping and apparently produced large amounts of honey. Honey was used for religious ceremonies but was also believed to have restorative effects.

forest right conflict,,,,revenue village and forest village

Why in NEWs:

• The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act,2006 (FRA)clarified that these communities had the sole right to sell proceeds from forests but this has been the subject of an ongoing tussle between Maharashtra’s Forest Department and the Union ministry of tribal affairs.
  
• Recently tribal affairs ministry agreed to hand over control of forest management to the state’s forest department, after having initially insisted that tribal communities had exclusive rights over trade in forest produce.
  
• This is yet another instance that highlights how the implementation of PESA and FRA have been fraught with challenges--many of them genuine and yet many others a consequence of bureaucratic and political inertia, incompetence and malice.

Background:

• In 2014, the state government had passed regulations that ensured its forest department retained control over forest management, which includes the large-scale trade and sale of forest produce. The tribal affairs ministry found this in violation of FRA, which empowers tribals and other forest-dwellers to hold sole rights to manage the forests, including sale of forest produce in areas where they have traditional claims. The tribal affairs ministry repeatedly told Maharashtra that its rules were prima facie in violation of and irreconcilable with the law.
  
• Tribal  ministry had previously concluded that only tribals and other forest dwellers had rights to manage their forests under FRA.
  
• But after a meeting in November, 2015 at the Cabinet Secretariat between the environment and the tribal affairs ministries, the latter has made a turnaround and re-interpreted the legal provisions of FRA to give the state government control back over the forests with some conditions.

Timeline May 13, 2014: Maharashtra government notifies the Indian Forests (Maharashtra) (Regulation of assignment, management and cancellation of village forests) Rules, 2014, also called the Village Forest Rules. August 13, 2014: MoTA issues a letter stating that the Rules were prima facie in violation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006. August 19, 2014: MoTA receives communication from Ministry of Rural Department (MoRD), Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation and also the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) asking it to withdraw the letter. December 5, 2014: MoTA tells the principal secretary (forest), Government of Maharashtra, that the said rules encroach upon and are irreconcilable with the provisions of FRA and Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA). January 21, 2015: MoTA receives communication from the chief minister of Maharashtra, informing it that legal opinion is in favour of Village Forest Rules, as rendered by Senior Advocate PinkiAnand. April 8, 2015: MoTA receives a copy of the legal opinion. May 19, 2015: MoTA provides point-by-point rebuttal of the legal opinion and reiterates its stand that VFR is in direct conflict with provisions of FRA. November 27, 2015: MoTA does a u-turn and states that the overlapping provisions of VFR and FRA must be harmoniously construed. December 8, 2015: MoTA issues another memorandum endorsing that a Gram Sabha could pass a resolution stating that no forest rights are likely to be claimed.

Forest Rights Act: The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 is a result of the protracted struggle by the marginal and tribal communities of our country to assert their rights over the forestland over which they were traditionally dependent. This Act is crucial to the rights of millions of tribals and other forest dwellers in different parts of our country as it provides for the restitution of deprived forest rights across India, including both individual rights to cultivated land in forestland and community rights over common property resources.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 2006 ACT

• For the first time Forest Rights Act recognises and secures
  
• Community Rights or rights over common property resources of the communities in addition to their individual rights
  
• Rights in and over disputed land Rights of settlement and conversion of all forest villages, old habitation, un-surveyed villages and other villages in forests into revenue villages.
  
• Right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource which the communities have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use.
  
• Right to intellectual property and traditional knowledge related to biodiversity and cultural diversity
  
• Rights of displaced communities
  
• For empowerment of these communities, the FRA clarified further that these communities had the sole right to sell proceeds from forests.
  
• Right to hold and live in the forestland under the individual or common occupation for habitation or for self, cultivation for livelihood
  
• Rights which are recognized under any state law or laws of any autonomous district council or are accepted as rights under any traditional or customary law of the concerned tribes of any state.
• Right to in-situ rehabilitation including alternative land in cases where the STs and other traditional forest dwellers have been illegally displaced form forestland.

Challenges in FRA’sImplementation

• The process of documenting tribal claims is not an easy one, involving democratically constituted gram sabhas (village assemblies) as per the provisions of the 73rd constitutional amendment on panchayati raj and PESA. This is compounded by the ongoing power struggle between the bureaucracy and tribal communities--one that the latter is likely to lose unless there is robust political intervention on their behalf. One of the manifestations of this has been a limited interpretation of the acts, with governments recognising only individual property and not community ownership of land. This is sometimes attributed to a lack of evidence on the ground for the stated joint ownership.
  
• A lot of ambiguity had been observed in the formation of Forest Rights Committee. In many states the panchayat system is not very strong and in some cases the panchayat elections are not held regularly. In that case the Gram panchayats are not operational up to the desired level necessary for implementation of the Act. The target people are primarily tribal and the Gram panchayat responsible for the formation of Forest Rights Committee comprising of these people are not efficient enough to implement the Act in letter and spirit.
  
• The Gram Sabha/ Forest Rights Committee have to receive all types of claims of rights and document it with proper receiving, but in most of the states the Gram Sabha/ FRC do not have desired infrastructure and technical know how to keep these records
  
• The main target group of this Act are mostly illiterate and therefore filling and submission of forms regarding the claims becomes very difficult. In this situation many middleman and some bad elements starts operating with vested interest.
  
• There is lack of awareness about Community Forest Resource provisions among local communities as well as government officials. The act provides right on thirteen different types of community rights but only two or three rights are often seen to be claimed and without proper corroboration, which often led to rejection of claim.
  
• Community Forest Resource claiming process is complex and several evidences are often asked to be filled by officials. The evidences are needed to be collected from Revenue Department and forest department. In most cases information are not available for public domain and need to be collected through Right To Information Act. These procedures are difficult for the communities to handle. Therefore most of the time the claims are found pending because of lack of evidences.
  
• As per the provision in Act it’s the responsibilities of the government department to provide required documents to the individual & communities as evidence but it is not taken up by the concerned departments. The person seeking rights individual or community have to struggle hard to get a piece of evidence.
  
• In absence of authentic records of evidence in situation discussed above the role of revenue and forest departments becomes very important and the actual eligible people also have to face serious problems in claiming rights for them.
  
• The tribal department has been declared as the nodal department for enactment of this Act, but the records for the forest lands are in possession of either forest department or the revenue department. In view of this situation it is really very difficult to have a good liasioning between all three departments i.e. the tribal welfare department, the revenue department and the forest department.
  
• In most of the cases the meeting of Gram Sabha is not organised in accordance with the requirements of the Act, again attracting the role of the middle man or official of revenue or tribal welfare department.
  
• Receiving the claims and its verification needs involvement of the Forest Rights Committee, the claimant, revenue official and forest officials. The liasioning among all these stakeholders is an extremely difficult task. In fact this is the most difficult activity as far as the implementation of Forest Rights Act is concerned since none of the above departments work together. One very importants activity at this stage is the preparation of map for which technical expertise is a must. Thus the verification of claims and preparation of maps in the most serious bottleneck in implementation of this Act. The authentic maps are also not available in many cases again attracting the intervention of revenues or forest department.
  
• It is also very difficult for villagers (Forest Rights Committee) from remote areas to travel large distance to submit the claims to the Sub-divisional level Committee. In such cases the district collectors and sub-divisional officers have to authorise the official of welfare department to receive the claims from the Forest Rights Committee but then it is difficult to track the station of those claims as in most cases the officials are ignorant and claims are not forwarded in time.
  
• In most of the states the authentic data regarding the occupation of land before the cut off date i.e. 13.12.2005 such as remote sensing maps etc. are not available for whole area thereby creating a major problem in ascertaining the claims for rights over the land.
  
• In protected areas, the process of claiming right is continuing but due to lack of organization, there are efforts to illegally relocate them.
  
• In some cases sub-divisional level committee arbitrarily rejects claims on the basis of superfluous criteria and lack of evidences. At this stages also there are some confusions regarding the acceptance of the evidence for recognition of rights.
  
• Even at the district level committee there has been cases of serious violation such as.(a)The titles were distributed with reduction in extent of resources claimed, moreover the rights were granted on very few common property like grazing land, water bodies and Non Timber Forest Produce. Habitation rights and other such important rights are ignored.(b)The customary rights and traditional boundary are ignored in provided titles for unilateral reduction in size of land.(c) GPS technologies are abused to manipulate maps and areas for which titles are being given.(d) It is also seen that few cases are hanged between Forest Rights Act, 2006 and Sub Divisional Level Committee and are not taken to District Level Committee for further action.(e) Both IR and CFR rights are denied to Other Traditional Forest dwellers community.

How it affecting Tribals:
Not recognising common property resources that tribes collectively manage and live off is not only economic injustice, but also breaks the (in many senses, highly evolved) traditional order of tribal societies.

Way ahead to Reform:

• The government has largely struggled to make local governance work in tribal areas. When funds are allocated for local bodies in tribal areas, they are often not accompanied by the requisite hand-holding and capacity building to utilise funds and execute projects. This has been the case even in states like Kerala that are considerably ahead of others when it comes to local governance. Without better infrastructure such as roads and markets, these communities will continue to struggle to make good use of their forest resources.
  
• While the eventual outcome (for the moment) in Maharashtra is disheartening, it is encouraging that the ministry of tribal affairs seems to have campaigned quite hard to protect the rights of tribal communities. Irrespective of the current decision, it leaves behind a paper trail that can be used by officials and activists in future. This is yet another reminder that the ‘state’ is not a monolith, and understanding that enables us to work much better with the state.
  
• Political support is key; and in this instance, the dice was loaded heavily against tribal communities.
  
• Governance in tribal areas suffers from many of the same problems that panchayati raj suffers from, and then some. There is an understandable degree of natural friction between the “development” priorities of the state and the “development” priorities of tribal communities, with a third perspective of the “development” priorities of civil society that is working to improve tribal welfare. Between these competing priorities, the state remains the behemoth, with an ability to invoke its power of eminent domain--part of which it had ceded through PESA and FRA. State’s effort in handling Tribal rights will be key to make it success.

drdo achievements

Samyukta is a mobile integrated electronic warfare system. Touted to be the largest electronic warfare system in India, it was developed jointly by DRDO, Bharat Electronics Limited, Electronics Corporation of India Limited, and Corps of Signals of Indian Army.^[1][2] The System is fully mobile and is meant for tactical battlefield use. It covers wide range of frequencies and coverage of electromagnetic spectrum is handled by the communication segment and the non-communication segment. Its functions include various ELINT, COMINT and electronic attack(ECM) activities.^[3]

Arjun tank

AAkash surface to air missile 

Naag

Prithvi

T90 bhisma not drdo but from russia

Without referring to Pakistan, China on Tuesday advocated “preserving the strategic balance and stability in South Asia,” after India successfully test-fired Agni-V ballistic missile.

“China always maintains that preserving the strategic balance and stability in South Asia is conducive to peace and prosperity of regional countries and beyond,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying in response to a question.

Long range ballistic missile Agni-V was yet again successfully test-fired from Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, on Monday, signalling the coming of age of the country in the nuclear deterrence programme.

This is the fourth success in a row of Agni-V, which can carry a nuclear warhead weighing 1.5 tonnes over a distance of more than 5,000 km. The surface-to-surface missile lifted off at 11.05 a.m. with a dummy warhead.

The previous successful missions were executed on April 19, 2012, September 15, 2013 and January 31, 2015.

Officials of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which designed and developed the missile, called it “a wonderful moment” and “a huge success.”

Agni-V's re-entry system worked perfectly. Its nose-cone that encases the warhead is made of carbon-carbon composites, which can withstand a searing temperature of about 3,000 degrees Celsius when the missile re-enters the earth’s atmosphere.

The importance of the success of Agni-V lay in the fact that it was fired from a canister mounted on a massive TATRA truck. A gas generator at the bottom of the canister ejected the three-stage missile that weighs 50 tonnes and measures 17 metres long. It has a diameter of two metres. A launch from a canister mounted on a truck gives the missile flexibility of movement.

Agni-V can be made vertical in three minutes and fired from a roadside in a town.

Former spokesperson of DRDO Ravi Gupta said, “We have come a long way. This is a major landmark in the journey of India’s missile programme, with its acquiring a powerful nuclear deterrence... This is a wonderful moment.”

The missile was tested in its final, deliverable version to the Army. Its configuration has already been frozen.

The bouquet of Agni-I, Agni-II, Agni-III, Agni-IV and Agni-V form the bulwark of India’s nuclear deterrence programme. All of them can carry nuclear warheads. While Agni-I has a range of 700 km, Agni-II can take out targets 2,000 km away, Agni-III can travel 3,000 km and Agni-IV 4,000 km. The Army has already deployed these four missiles. Prithvi-II too can carry nuclear warheads.

All these missiles form part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

Manipur

Since 1 November 2016, Manipur, a state in north-east India is facing economic blockade by United Naga Council.The UNC opposed the creation of seven new districts in state. United Naga Council (UNC) declared 'economic blockade' on 1 November 2016 in response. They alleged the the new districts encroach on ancestral land of the Nagas and it is done to weaken their vote in upcoming state assembly elections.^[1][2]

 Naga groups unhappy because the creation of new districts jeopardises their claim for a Greater Nagalim , which would include Nagaland and earstwhile 4 hill districts of Manipur. Manipur is adamant at not ceding its territory to the Nagas.

2. Blockade imposed by UNC to protest the creation of 7 new districts. The Naga groups claim they were not consulted while announcing the districts, government says it was done for administrative ease.

10. BJP which was gaining ground in the state has suffered a setback, as it is being identified as a party close to the Naga groups by the majority of the state.

The dates for the election to the Manipur Legislative Assembly have been announced. Polling will be in two phases, on March 4 and March 8. Results will be declared on March 11. A fortnight ago, there was speculation that the election may be preceded by a spell of President’s Rule in the wake of the indefinite economic blockade by the United Naga Council (UNC), a civil organisation in Manipur which claims to be the apex body of all Naga tribes in the State, but these have since been put to rest.

Blockade numbs Manipur

The blockade is now two and a half months old and Manipur continues to reel under the effect of shortages of many essential commodities, petrol and cooking gas in particular. Petrol stations are shut, but whenever there is some indication that some of them have been replenished for rationed distribution, miles-long queues of vehicles form outside them, sometimes overnight. The market understandably is sluggish and prices of commodities have gone up. Daily wage earners are the hardest hit. Demonetisation has made their trauma even worse. Thankfully, Imphal valley is a fertile, rice-growing region, ensuring that the people have not gone hungry. Had it been otherwise, there would have been mayhem on the streets by now.

Election pundits have been busy interpreting how this sorry state of affairs would play out in the March election. The foremost questions are: Would the hardships caused by the blockade turn the people against the ruling Congress? Would the Bharatiya Janata Party’s challenge become any more formidable because of it?

Significance of Assembly composition

The Manipur Assembly has 60 seats. Of these, 40 represent the valley inhabited predominantly by non-tribal Hindu Meiteis; 39 of these are for the general category and one is reserved for Scheduled Castes. The BJP had hoped it would be able to reap a harvest here, partly because of the community’s religious affiliation. Twenty seats represent the hills and 19 of these are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, after the Kangpokpi constituency in the erstwhile SADAR (Selected Area Development and Administrative Region) hills came to be de-reserved to accommodate its sizeable population of Nepalis. Of the 20 hill seats, Nagas normally hold sway in 11 to 12. The rest are generally won by Kukis and aligned tribes.

Given that the BJP government at the Centre is holding peace talks with the Naga militant group, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), the party’s State unit was hoping that it would be able to win a majority of the Naga seats as well with the blessings of the militant group. Its main rival here is the Naga People’s Front, which too would be vying for the NSCN(IM)’s support. The Congress, which once had a lion’s share of the Naga seats, has, in the past few months, been marginalised as the NSCN(IM) and Naga organisations such as the UNC are opposed to it. Many Naga Congress MLAs and former ministers thought it prudent to resign from the party ahead of the election wishing to retain their seats. In Nagaland, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and the BJP are allies.

Electoral master stroke?

However, the UNC’s blockade — which began on November 1 in anticipation of the Manipur government giving in to the long-standing demand for upgrading the SADAR and Jiribam subdivisions to full-fledged districts — has upset these equations radically. This became even more so after the government, at a cabinet sitting at midnight on December 8 to defy the UNC’s coercive protest, created not just the two districts the UNC was opposed to, but seven by splitting seven of the State’s nine districts.

The UNC considers four of the seven split districts to be a part of the ancestral Naga homeland and was quick to accuse the Manipur government of splitting this homeland, although, as the government contends, how districts can split people is incomprehensible. This is particularly so because the Assembly and parliamentary constituencies have remained untouched.

The worry of the BJP’s State unit amid the current ethnic polarisation is how proximity to the NSCN(IM), an organisation avowed to the dismemberment of Manipur to form a sovereign Greater Nagaland, and the UNC (which many consider to be a surrogate of the former) may alienate its support base in the valley where 40 seats are at stake. The Congress Chief Minister, Okram Ibobi Singh’s move in this sense may be an electoral master stroke, not for the splintering or otherwise of any homeland, but for leaving rival BJP on the horns of a dilemma.

Security Scan - Complex Challenge of India's Internal Security

two things security challenges linked to marxist conception of development. ie for security issues are

inherently linked to the developmental discourse and if people remain alienated then no amount of

hardcore combat strategy would work. thus it has to be complemented by ground level developmental work and mainstreaming the fringe elements which also resonates with the pms motto of sabka sath sabka vikas.




other is the vajpess moto of insaniyat which essentially talks of the same solution ie working for the

solution maintaining the human dignty and respect and not imposing stuff like afspa

a return to normative politics as mentioned by commodore
threat of radicalisation in mosques and madrasas  suffi stream vs sunni wahabism. use the sufi mentors

• All the setbacks to his dialogue initiatives, including Kargil conflict, high- jacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandhar and terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, notwithstanding, Vajpayee did not allow the peace process to derail despite serious provocations by the Pakistan army and the ISI. jang na hone denge hari bhari sarhad ko lal rang na lene denge.. one can attribute indias 8% growth rate and high fdi and fii post NDA  during upa 1 and 2 to the prudent decision.
• His NDA government continued to encourage confidence building measures and people-to-people contact in the larger interest of peace and tranquility in the sub-continent, an essential ingredient of progress and development of the region where one-third of the population lives below the poverty line.

henery viii

Fitzroy or FitzRoy is an Anglo-Norman name originally meaning "son of the king" (a corruption of the French "fils du roi"). In several cases, this surname was used by an illegitimate son (or daughter) of a king and is still borne by their descendants.

The surname FitzGerald comes from the Norman tradition of adding Fitz, meaning "son of" before the father's name. So, "Fitz Gerald" means in Old Norman and in Old French "son of Gerald". Gerald itself is a Germanic compound of ger, spear, and waltan, rule. ... The name can also b

e used as two separate words Fitz Gerald.

Initially, Henry defends the faith

St Benets Abbey, Norfolk, which fell into decay after the dissolution of the monasteries  ©England in the sixteenth century, was a land of contrasts. Much less urban than either Germany or the Netherlands, it nevertheless possessed a thriving international trade centre in London and in Oxford and Cambridge, two universities of outstanding reputation. The universities, in fact, would play a significant role in the early campaigns against Luther. Henry VIII turned to their finest theologians for arguments allowing him to enter the lists against the growing threat of Lutheran heresy. This initiative would earn him from a grateful Pope the coveted title, Defender of the Faith.

The progress of the Reformation in England was closely bound up with Henry's personal affairs. His increasing desperation to secure release from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon forced him to contemplate radical steps that went very much against the grain of his own instinctive theological conservatism. In this respect the Reformation in England would follow a model much closer to that of Scandinavia than Germany or Switzerland. Although England, like Bohemia, had its own indigenous mediaeval heresy in Lollardy, Luther's attack on the church had initially produced little resonance in England. Luther's works were imported into England at an early stage, but this may very often have been for the convenience of conservative theologians who bought them to refute them, such as Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas More.

HENRY VIII: FIRST YEARS AS KING 

Henry VIII took the throne at age 17 and married Catherine of Aragon six weeks later. Over the next 15 years, while Henry fought three wars with France, Catherine bore him three sons and three daughters, all but one of whom died in infancy. The sole survivor was Mary (later Mary I), born in 1516.

Henry was an active king in those years, keeping a festive court, hunting, jousting, writing and playing music. He issued a book-length attack on Martin Luther’s church reforms that earned him the title “Defender of the Faith” from Pope Leo X. But the lack of a male heir—especially after he fathered a healthy illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, in 1519—gnawed at the king.King Henry VIII (1491-1547) ruled England for 36 years, presiding over sweeping changes that brought his nation into the Protestant Reformation. He famously married a series of six wives in his search for political alliance, marital bliss and a healthy male heir. His desire to annul his first marriage without papal approval led to the creation of a separate Church of England. Of his marriages, two ended in annulment, two in natural deaths and two with his wives’ beheadings for adultery and treason. His children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I would each take their turn as England’s monarch.

catherine was the daughter of " catholic monarch"  isabella and ferdinand of spain whose union brought abt the union of spain