The whole comment is full of false arguments and distortion of facts. I’ll revert.

1. India is much bigger both in size and population than Pakistan than from the same link you posted about the Embassies in Afghanistan. Can you explain Why Pakistan also has 5 Embassies/Consulates in the same cities where India has its consulates? India always had good relations with Afghanis and Pathans except a few dissidents:):) but Pakistan had never been so close to Afghanistan since it’s inception so Why does Pakistan need 5 consulates in Afghanistan?
So this argument is totally baseless.

2. You are totally mixing up things when you combine the small time incidents like Malegaon, Samjhauta with something as big as Mumbai attacks. Like many other incidents the Indian establishment blindly pointed fingers at Pakistan when Malegaon happened. But the main culprits behind that were caught and are already behind prison so this issue is dead and buried. That Colonel was not a part of any Big Organization like Taliban and there’s was a group effort of a very small bunch of people. The same thing is true for Samjhauta express.

3. TimesofIndia is a gossip newspaper and although it might be the biggest selling newspaper in India but any person interested in Politics knows that to get genuine news India has only One Paper the Hindu which can compare with The Dawn of Pakistan. The fact that you are quoting information from Indian sources regarding Mushrif and Mishra does not perturb me at all because it’s people like them and Arundhati Roy which makes India a great democracy where anyone and everyone can come up with anything for whateever reasons. The kind of freedom of speech you have here is probably not anywhere in the World except for certain very liberal countries like in the Scandinavia or even Netherlands. It’s good that the Sceptics like all these people and yourself bring out such issues in the open and I would be glad if all the facts are laid bare on the table for all of us to know who exactly is behind it.

4. If this is not enough already LeT members were planning to celebrate the 26/11 anniversary by attacking the National Defense College in Delhi amongst 4 other targets.

5. The culprits behind the small time Malegaon blasts have already been Punished but why are members of LeT like Hafeez are roaming openly in Pakistan and further inciting people against India.

6. Moreover the Pakistani government is not helping things by un-necessarily shifting the blame on India when just few months ago Mr. Rehman himself admitted that this Blame-Game will not lead us anywhere.

7. Even though there was an extreme public reaction to the Mumbai Blasts, the Congress government other than threatening and applying verbal pressure did not do much and Extremists like Hafeez and Dawood are openly living in Pakistan.

Is it not that Pakistan wants to use these people against India when the right time will come otherwise what could be the reason that they are protecting Dawood Ibrahim in Karachi when he is a listed International Terrorist in Interpol? If the Pakistani government really wants to sort out things with India then Why don’t they take any steps to punish such people who in the past have incited hatred against India or killed innocent people getting on with their lives.

Now there is no need to bring in Srikant Purohit as a tit-for-tat because he is already being tried for a Crime committed on the Indian Soil or for that matter Varun Gandhi for his hate speeches because he might be a Muslim-Hater but he has not uttered a word against Pakistan yet.

8. How can the Indians trust Pakistan when Pakistanis themselves do not trust their inefficient government? There might be extremists(both Hindu or Muslim) in India but at least there is a stable government at the Centre where there are certain very educated and responsible people like SM Krishna, Manmohan Singh and PC Chidambaran, Shashi Tharoor to name a few. Even though I am not a big Congress supporter but I am proud of such people and accept the fact that this is not only the best but the only alternative for the Indian people as the only other Party which can rival them is the BJP and they are on a downward spiral and unless they reform themselves and find an enigmatic leader like Vajpayee they are finished and the Gandhi-Raj will Rule India again for few decades once Rahul Gandhi is ready to be the PM.

Kashmir is a totally different issue. To understand Kashmir we will have to go in the past and start a totally new story. In any case, Pakistan has started the process of independence and autonomy of its side of Kashmir. Will India follow suit?

What happens anywhere inside India can be presumptiously blamed on Pakistan. Even if a bird dies off the coast of Australia, the assumption with which the govt in India functions is that the Pakistani govt is somehow the most ultimate cause.

I don’t imply with certainty anything about the Mumbai attacks, I don’t know, and I try to understand and hypothesize myself. However, Malegon blasts and Samjhota Express blasts have been blatantly done by elements within India, and that is a bare fact. However, in every incident, the country initially maligned is Pakistan. That is what appears on the BBC, CNN, and after evidence is unfolded to the contrary, the matter is deep buried and none of the international news media report it.

As for Taliban, they are more of a political organization, warlords, drug-dealers, and people who derive their sustenance through these means. The religious angle in this is only part of the equation and not the primary motivation. I still don’t see why India wouldn’t weaken Pakistan, the role of Indian embassies, and agents, in Afghanistan is well documented by Pakistani sources. That the international media avoids such discourse is not Pakistan’s fault. As you say, the Indians are really wary of Taliban and the “fanatics” over there. Consider this:
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-in/Afghanistan
There are 5 Indian embassies in Afghanistan. Now don’t tell me that 5 Indian embassies are there to print visas for the Taliban to enter India? Are you suggesting, that these people who are out to destroy India (as you say), are being given visas through 5 Indian embassies in Afghanistan, a country the size of Texas?
I don’t know about you, but I really doubt they are there to hand out visas. In fact there is one Indian embassy in Pakistan, and there are, I believe, three US embassies in India, and considering the amount of printing paper required for the visas of people migrating from India (Pakistan) to the US (both countries much bigger than Afghanistan, in population and size), India would be just about 20-30 percent Taliban by now.

Anyway, don’t take what I say personally, its just that all the Pakistani news channels are banned in India, the media doesn’t give the whole story, and Indians generally aren’t able to hear the other side of the story.

Just think about it, you say provide credible, Indian sources, but after searching for archives on major and “credible” Indian media, this is what I found of SM Mushrif:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/pune/Power-brothers-/articleshow/35967812.cms

The Times of India has found space in the magazine to write about the “power” brothers, but his book, “Who Killed Karakare” (which I have posted about above) hasn’t gotten any review or mention from any major news media in India. Unbelievable, right?

So, are we to confine our knowledge by, and believe, only that which major Indian media outlets are willing to convey?

It wasn’t uncle Sam, it was Pakistani media which discovered his supposed village (I believe it was DAWN) and found his father. At the same time, he had dissapeared from Pakistan years back (he was living with his father and had left abruptly). It could be many things in between, he has been variously cited as being in Nepal, Indian Agencies could have picked him– this is not too difficult to do.

Anyway, I’ll reply to the other parts later.

The Indian establishment at the top knows that a Weak Pakistan is not in India’s favour after all it is also a very highly populated country and amongst the top 10 highly populated Countries. I do not understand how can you believe that Taliban (Pakistani) could ever be friendly with Indians when they openly say that they are only fighting Pakistanis because they are listening to America otherwise their real enemy is India and if you just assume if today there was a war between India-Pakistan then there is absolutely no doubt that all the different factions within Pakistan would unite to fight the Indians. Even yesterday there was a report that said that Pakistani Taliban is going to transport some Talibanis on the Eastern Front to get into India during this winter – this exercise which we Indians have named Infiltration has been going since many years and was at it’s peak when Benazir was the Top Leader. Every winter there are armed personnel not necessarily Kashmiris who try to cross the Indian Border something which Javed A. Khan had acknowledged last year to create more attacks with in India and even then if he believes that no Pakistani has created chaos on Indian Soil (forget about our latest man the Kasab) then I do not really know what to say?

Why did the Pakistani government admit that Mr Kasab is a Pakistani? They could have gone on the usual denial route which had been taken all these years? Now don’t tell me that it was Uncle Sam again who pressurized them in doing so?

I can understand about Balochistan or Waziristan because there is a huge presence of Indians in Afghanistan but Indians supporting Pakistani Taliban is a complete hogwash by the confused Pakistani Government. As far as Balochis are concerned they are like cornered tigers in Pakistan. Do you know that there are hardly any Balochs even in the Balochian Regiment of Pakistani Army and instead it comprises of mainly Punjabis. There has been a long history of a deficit of trust by the Pakistani Establishment as far as Balochs are concerned and the main reason why this Baloch problem has really flared up now is because Musharraf blindly took lot of American Dollars while killing of many Baloch Leaders like Bugti and now they are really incensed and hence the demand for a separate Country/Leadership hence this problem just like the Talibani Problaim is an internal problem of Pakistan.

You talk about communal riots, have you lived through one to what it is like? most likely not, I know what it is because I have, and that is something someone who knows how it feels not want to happen again. I was 16 years old when communal riots broke between Hindus and Muslims in my small town back in India, it began as a small thing, like you said a spark, someone a member of the so called lower caster Hindu, he was an RSS sympathizer, naturally they got involved, it was allegedly by Muslim youths, so RSS folks attacked Muslim homes, no one lost their lives but there were plenty of bodily injuries on both sides and some homes had their compound walls destroyed.

Then came the Police, they did not spare anyone, they hunted down RSS, most of them fled town and went to live with relatives in other places, Muslim youths left homes too, Police took whoever they could get hold of, you what happens to those people who are unlucky enough to end up in Police station without me telling I figure. I was in school away, but no one came to our house, all of my uncles and my family lived without any problem, our family was not involved in anything, and we had no problem with any Muslims or RSS people. Police warned people that if there is another problem in this town things will become really bad, they will raid every home and take everyone, people were scared enough, few weeks went by, slowly folks who went in hiding came back. Life went on moving normally, there was fear in everyone’s mind and there was distrust in general with each other, but no violent incidents happened. When I came to live there after finishing school, things were almost normal, I stayed far away from RSS, I did not make any enemies with them, it’s not very smart to do so, especially if you are living with these folks around you, instead best thing is to mind your business and not get involved, I had Muslim friends, I went to their homes frequently, their family treated me with great love and respect, and I had no reason ever to distrust any of them. Sure there were some bad elements within Muslim community, just like on any community, you just stay clear of these folks, I did until eventually I left. People went along their business, Hindus and Muslims conducted business with each other, they talked to each other, they still had distrust in their back of their minds, but not all Hindus were extremist RSS, only some, so Muslims had nothing to distrust others. They were not extremely friendly with each other though, me and some of my other Hindu friends were exceptions, RSS folks were not very fond of us, but we didn’t care and we were minding our business anyway, and we had the backing of our families, so we had nothing to fear anyone.

My family still lives there, to date there has not been another incident in that town, people learned their lesson, no one wants to go through that again.

So, yes, India is not perfect, I know, I lived there, I know what a communal riot means, it’s horrible, but it’s part of being India, unfortunately, but I think even after all that there is still a common bonding, Hindus and Muslims in India are destined to live with each other, they have been for thousands of years, and they will continue to do so, with all their differences and their lack of trust with each other, they will find a way.

Bottomline is that Hindu religion is a very loosely defined religion, you can take it to the extreme, but large majority of Hindus are not crazy about their religion, they are non practicing in other words, and they want tolerance, they want to co-exist with Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and others. They will not let extremists take power. BJP has some power by way of controlling seats in Parliment, but the BJP itself is not an extremists party, only factions within it, by and large they try to project themselves as center party, but Indians know they are not, and they don’ get to do any of the extreme agenda they have. Sure they are right wing Hindu nationalist, but you must also consider BJP has it’s power coming from a few concentrated states, there are places they can evoke Hindu extremist sentiments and get votes, but they cannot change the shape of the country, if they had their way they would have built Ram temple in the place Babri Masjid was destroyed, but this did not happen, and this will not happen.

South India is unassailable to BJP, they will not win a single state and they will not get many parliamentary seats, if at all any from the Southern states. Without being able to each into the power corridors of South India, BJP cannot be called a nationalist party, they are concentrated in UP, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhaya Pradesh. They do not have much hold in East either. So in the end BJP is concentrated in some of the North Indian states, India is much more than that fortunately.

The normal tendency of any American towards Europe is that “We saved your asses in 1945″ and normally my answer to this is What have you done since 1945? starting with Korean Wars, Vietnam, skirmishes in South-America, support for Saddam during Iran-Iraq War and when he got out of hand taking over of Iraq, creating a big mess in Afghanistan and now Pakistan is also dragged into the mess and maybe in few years India would also actively involved in the Bush’s War on Terror. Most of this was due to insatiable appetite of the Americans for the World’s Oil. Consider this they are 5% of World’s population but consume about 20% of World’s resources and after these facts MF/BC/MC Bush had the audacity to say last year that People in India and China have started eating more that’s we have a Food Shortage Crises when at their own backyard they even started producing fuel frolm Corn.

There is so much coverage and good-will for the Americans in the Netherlands that Jokingly people say that it is the 53rd State of USA. 52 ofcourse being CANADA! But most of the Americans from the South like Mississipi,Oklahoma, Florida and Texas do not view Canada in any positive light and think that they are totally dependent on USA for their Security as Canada is protected from immmigrant troubles by America in the South and the Pacific Ocean protects them in the East while Arctic Snow protects them in the North and the West.

Omer,

Agreed that BJP won 116 seats as of now but if they do not reform themseleves before the next elections then this number is sure to go down in the next elections because BJP is suffering from lack of leadership and the current BJP president Rajnath Singh is a stooge of RSS and VHP and hence they took extreme Talibani style measures to expel Jaswant Singh and probably Arun Shourie.

Once upon a time when Vajpayee was at the helm of things educated middle class Indians like me saw BJP as an alternative not because of their connection with extremist Hindu groups but because they had some really educated people who did not get into petty politics as Congress Party had done since Nehru’s times. But now things are different and as a senior expelled BJP leader said they are now like Kati- Patang or Alice in Blunderland.

Also I would like to clarify that RSS is not essentially 100% extremist organisations I know many moderates all over India who were or are memebers of RSS but it is just that it also consists of a lot of poor and illiterate and ignorant people who just like many sections of the Muslim community in India only thrive on the Division between Hindus and Muslims and they want to keep this division intact for as long as possible.

Just like there are parts in India in Delhi,Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore and parts of UP where still people celebrate when Pakistan wins against India, there are places in India which are Hindu-Hotbeds and it was from such a place only where Varun Gandhi won but he can only go at the State Level because only in India we are so much obsessed with the word SECULARISM that he will never be able to win at the Centre as long he openly makes hate speeches against the Muslims.

Just yesterday the Deobandh issued a fatwa against one of the National Songs called Vande Matram which was so beautifully sung by none other than a Muslim although a converted one A.R.Rahman. They are trying to unnecessirily whip up emotions even when the objectionable parts of this song which said that One should always worship the land of your Country which was supposedly against the tenets of Islam as Muslims can only worship the Almighty Allah (PBUH) had been removed as early as 1960′s when Nehru only appointed a commitee to extract the acceptable lines from Vande Matram.

Even the great poet Allama Iqbal has said:-

patthar ki muraton mein samjha hai tu Khuda hai
khak-e-watan ka mujh ko har zarra dewata hai

Which if i understand correctly means that worshipping your Country and worshipping God goes hand in hand. I would request Javed A.Khan to pour his thoughts on the correct interpretation of these lines taken from the Poem sach keh dun ai brahman gar tu bura na mane

It is a wrong assumption that the ignorant blokes of the sub-continent, Malaysia and Indonesia view SA as the most perfect society or the most perfect Heaven on earth. Most people openly say that the Saudis are very rude and arrogant and the only reason they have to tolerate them is because of the two holy lands Mecca and Medina. And, mind you it is not Saudi Arabia’s property. They are taking undue advantage of the fact that these two holy lands are in that country.

It is the governments of the sub-continent and Malaysia, Indonesia etc., they suck up to the Saudi Shaikhdom and that is only to get some charity and protection.

There are many, many educated people who say that Mecca and Medina should be independent like the Vatican and there should be no Saudi influence or control over it.

Since the last few years the Saudi government has imposed very high Hajj and Umra fees and it is a wrong assumption that they spend their petro dollars towards the improvement of these places during the Hajj season. There are 3 million people performing Hajj every year and if they pay 1000 dollars towards the Hajj fees (not to mention the amount they spend in SA during their stay, the fees alone collected is 3,000,000,000, how much is that ……… 3 billion? This is just the Hajj fees that is collected, there is Umra fees to and millions of people perform Umra during the entire year, so double that amount.

It is more than enough to provide 5 star facilities but, look at the mess that happens during the Hajj time and the economy gets a big boost from the Hajees who stay in the hotels and buy consumer products, the service industry gets a big boost. And the amount of lambs, goats, cows and camels that are slaughtered and sacrificed by these people are all collected by the Saudi government and processed in the food labs and even the skin and bones are processed, packed and profited upon. So, who are they fooling?

So, who is saying that these hypocrites are doing any favour to the Muslim world? When their own Shaiks or any member of the ruling family comes to the Kabah for the Tawaf, the security forces cordon off the entire area for them and they perform Hajj like V. VIP’s like no one should be touching their shoulders.

When the Saudi, Kuwaiti, UAE and other nationality students they come here and say, brother, brother, brother, I tell them to F off, I am not your brother. The way you guys treat Indians and Pakistanis in your country is highly deplorable, you treat them like trash and here you call us brother? Go, F yourself. And, they can’t do anything to you here, they simply listen like cowards. And, I remind the Kuwaitis that when Saddam Hussain’s forces entered Kuwait, they are the first one to run away to Saudi Arabia and to the UAE, whereas some Indians and Pakistanis remained in Kuwait throughout the Gulf War.

What F’king business has Osama Bin Ladin has in Pakistan and Afghanistan? That MF is a Saudi and the Americans are still friends with the Bin Ladin family and the Saudi government. Reportedly all the nineteen so-called terrorists involved in 911 bombing were Arabs, 15 Saudis, 3 UAE nationals and 1 Egyptian or, whatever that number is, but there was not a single Pakistani or Afghani among them and since 911 Afghanistan is being bombed. Whereas, there is nothing to destroy and yet they keep bombing that Godforsaken country.

What in your view constitutes power?

BJP won 116 seats versus 205 seats for INC. It is true that there is a huge difference, but the fact remains that the BJP is the only alternative to INC (and seats in parliament= political power and leverage).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051702212.html

To quote from the above:
“Instead, the party said Gandhi was a victim of a political conspiracy. Despite debate about whether he had damaged the party nationally, Gandhi won his constituency and became the BJP’s star campaigner in many other areas. ”

His rhetoric did make him win and, in fact, became the BJP’s “star campaigner”. This is what I mean, it worked. It was calculated on his part.

In Pakistan extreme parties never come close to winning, none of the alternatives to the present govt are any extreme Muslim parties (take PML N, PML Q, MQM, and so on– in fact MQM and the like have secularism as a key point on their agenda).

I understand what you mean, the Taliban is an extreme case, but what you fail to see is that, India is a much more volatile– and religiously diverse– country and anything can happen. The only thing an invisible force needs to do is spark communal riots, extreme snetiments will emerge, and things can change in a very short time. Especially, since normal and secular people like you are unwilling to recognize people like SM Mushrif’s concern, and the fact that the goverment quietly “mopped up” Colonel Prouhit’s– and others– confessions after Karakare’s death and the whole issue, for all its purposes, is under the rug. So, what would you know what is happening from behind? If they have infiltrated some parts of the govt, army, then the only thing left after a certain point in time is, that one day some major incident happens, communal riots begin, and these extreme forces come out and take power (you simply don’t know how profound their influence may be, when the “official” govt deliberately brushed the incident under the rug).

On your items #1 to #4, point #2 comparing Hindutva ideologues to Taliban is taking it to the extreme and laughable. No one would ever state these two are same, Hindutva ideologues such as RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, and Shiv Sena are for sure extremists, and they do have their supporters, but they will never ever get to the level of danger that Taliban proposes, not because they are lesser evil, but because they will never get that power. Indians are far more secular society than any in the sub-continent to let that happen.

In fact BJP has to run as a toned down version of these ideologues to get into power, why was it that LK Advani who is the more hard core leader could not get to PM position in India, and they had to compromise by having the more secular and hence the less hard liner AB Vajpayee become PM? Because the Indian society will never allow a Hindu hardliner to be the commander in chief.

They seek power, through the watered down BJP, but as Varun said before BJP is finished in India.