India: Last Week Summary

National Summary:

POLITICS:
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the BJP would oppose the Nuclear Liability Bill. The Opposition parties are objecting to the compensation cap of Rs 500 crore on the operator envisaged in the Bill. BJP also apprehends that through the legislation, the government is trying to enable foreign private companies to enter India's nuclear market.

MINORITIES' ISSUES
The chairman of the National Minorities Commission, Mohamed Shafi Qureshi, has asked the Centre to review its decision on allowing Tasleema Nasreen to stay in India. Referring to the recent violence in Karnataka over an article in a Kannada newspaper that was purportedly written by the exiled author, Qureshi, in a letter to Home Minister P Chidambaram and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, has said that the contentions made in the article are “derogatory, humiliating and insulting” to the “Prophet of Islam, women in Prophet’s family and his colleagues.” He has said that “the verses from Quran and references from Hadith have been twisted and interpreted in a way that portrays a savage and heinous image of Islam.”

HINDU FUNDAMENTALISM:
BJP president Nitin Gadkari stressed on the need for a modern idiom to articulate Hindutva for the youth. “Hindutva cannot become any political party’s agenda,” Gadkari said by way of explaining that it was “more of a way of life”. “Our credo has always been ‘justice for all; appeasement of none’. A true Hindu can never attack a Muslim, and a true Muslim can never attack a Hindu. A terrorist, on the other hand, has no religion, caste, or creed. It’s the pseudo-secular brigade that has unduly highlighted the religion of terrorists who happened to be Muslims,” said Gadkari.

INSURGENCY MOVEMENTS:
Operation against Maoists on 19 September, 2009 in Chhattisgarh proved fake. Security forces claimed a major victory in which 30 Maoists and six police personnel were killed but villagers from Gachanpalli and the neighboring hamlets of Gattapad and Palachalam told that at least 12 of the 30 killed were innocents with no links to the Maoists.
A 48-hour bandh called by Maoists in seven States began on a violent note, with extremists blowing up a rail track between Midnapore and Godapiasal in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district.
Over 11,000-km rail line across the country has become vulnerable to Maoist attacks. The states affected by naxal menace are West Bengal, Andhra, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

ECONOMY:
The Reserve Bank of India raised its key short-term lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points each as part of its tight money policy to combat inflation. The repo and reverse rates (short-term rates at which the RBI lends and borrows from banks) were hiked to 5 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively, and could make banks commercial lending dearer. These measures should anchor inflationary expectations and contain inflation going forward, the RBI said.
Overseas investors have infused a net Rs 14,732 crore or USD 3.2 billion in Indian stock markets in March, taking their total inflow so far in 2010 to nearly Rs 15,500 crore. With this renewed shopping in local market, the total net inflow by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) has crossed the Rs 15,000 crore (USD 3.4 billion) level so far this year, as per data available with the capital market regulator SEBI.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exuded confidence the economy would grow by 8.5 per cent in the next fiscal and accelerate to 9 per cent the following year from an estimated 7.2 per cent this fiscal.

GEOSTRETGIC FRONT:
Indian authorities will be able to question David Coleman Headley, accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and facing 12 terror charges in a Chicago court, but within the United States, only but Indian government officials are still hopeful for Hadley’s extradition.
In light of the dip in ties with Islamabad, the Ministry of External Affairs has advised the government to walk out of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline but continue talks with Tehran for a deep-sea pipeline that avoids Pakistan.

INDIAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR:
Making his first contact with a senior Chinese functionary on his trips abroad, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has met Director Foreign Affairs Ying Gang and discussed a possible Chinese role in resolving the Kashmir issue.
Regional Summary:

NORTHERN STATES:
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced that his regime would launch a State-wide urban infrastructure development programme called Rajiv Gandhi Urban Development Mission, Haryana. He said it would focus on providing affordable housing for the urban poor, water supply, sewerage, integrated solid water management and other civic amenities.

EASTERN STATES:
The West Bengal government is raising a counter-insurgency force to be trained by the elite Greyhounds force based in Andhra Pradesh for specialising in counter-guerrilla activities of Maoists active in certain parts of the State.

SOUTHERN STATES:
The controversial Bill to bring about a ban on cow slaughter and draught cattle received approval of the Andhra Legislative Assembly amidst stiff resistance put up by the Opposition.
In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court on Thursday permitted Andhra Pradesh to provide four per cent reservation in jobs and education for backward members of the Muslim community, but referred to a special bench the issue of its constitutional validity.

WESTERN STATES:
The Anti-Naxal Task Force will soon intensify its operations in the Maoist hotbed of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, drawing an additional 9,000 security personnel. Official sources said that about nine battalions (9,000 personnel) of the CRPF are on their way to the South Gadchiroli as part of a strategy being planned for the area which has witnessed heightened Naxal activities in the last one year.

For full report of last week please visit

www.gilanifoundation.com/

India's Economic Miracle Loses Its Shine

India's top officials are increasingly self-congratulatory about the country's growth trajectory. Last month the Finance Ministry issued a report stating that India could overtake China to become the world's fastest growing economy within four years. Minister Pranab Mukherjee foresees double-digit growth "in the very near future." But amid all the triumphalism, no one in New Delhi seems to be focusing on just how sustainable—or not—that growth will prove.
That's probably because, like the rest of Asia, India experienced rapid expansion for years on the back of the Federal Reserve's easy money policies, which inflated the global economy and saw capital pour into the Asia-Pacific region. The 2002-08 boom in India had little to do with fresh action from New Delhi, which used the upswing to run up notable deficits and spread the wealth around with generous cash payouts to the poor.

But with booms come busts. The Federal Reserve is still running easy money policies, but the U.S. economy is sluggish, as is Europe. Without those engines of growth—and no discernible economic reforms of its own—it will be hard for India to repeat the previous decade's performance.
There are already signs of a slowdown. By the government's own tally, real GDP growth slipped to 6.0% for the October to December quarter, versus 6.2% the previous year. The failure to move back toward the pre-financial crisis pace has been dismissed as due to a weak monsoon and other transient factors, with a return to 9% growth portrayed as around the corner. It is at least as likely that 9% growth will prove transient.
New Delhi is struggling to meet its commitments. In its February budget presentation, the Congress Party-led government pledged to cut its deficit to a still hefty 5.5% of GDP. This is supposed to be accomplished on the back of revenue gains from a faster economy. But the government promised the exact same thing last year, and the deficit reached 6.9% of GDP.
Persistent budget deficits cloud the prospects of a generation of rapid growth, as interest burdens rise and the government has to raise taxes or debt to fund it. There is also harm in the here and now: The Reserve Bank has been forced by record government borrowing to maintain exceptionally loose monetary conditions, or risk choking off private credit. This has allowed inflation to move into the 9% range in barely a year. Last week's rate hike by the Reserve Bank is welcome but tightening probably started too late. Monetary authorities have little leeway given the Congress Party's demands for both high growth and cheap deficit financing.
Congress isn't helping by sticking to a program of populist handouts, despite the fiscal constraints. Scheduled tax overhauls have been delayed and diluted, with the government again reduced to cries of "next year." Food imports have soared despite hideously expensive fertilizer subsidies.
Congress claims growth will motor ahead on a surge of public infrastructure spending. Technically, that might be true: Government spending on infrastructure automatically adds to current GDP. But the future returns are likely to be dismal. Public infrastructure programs almost always exceed both schedules and budgets, and many are never completed. Further, foreign companies have voted with their feet on commercial value. Wholly-owned foreign infrastructure projects are permitted, and incentives have been offered. But the foreign share of much-touted public-private infrastructure partnerships is negligible.
It was not infrastructure spending that moved India beyond the "Hindu rate of growth." The way to achieve durable expansion is to repeat the 1991 big-bank reforms: liberalize, liberalize, liberalize. But for now, the Congress-led government is headed in the wrong direction, and slowly taking the shine off of India's economic miracle.

By DEREK SCISSORS
Mr. Scissors is a research fellow for economics in the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703775504575136761316818470.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopBucket

QUESTION

1. Do you think India would be able to maintain 9% growth rate in next fiscal year?
2. In your openion, India's aspirations to overtake China to become world's fastest growing economy is realistic approach or not?

'Rs 33k cr needed to clean India's rivers'

Diehard devotees may not believe this. But it's true that the water of the holiest among holy rivers -- the Ganga -- fails to meet the drinking and bathing standards after it leaves Garhmukteshwar and is most polluted in Kanpur. The national river meets all three standard parameters -- Bio-Oxygen Demand (BOD), Dissolved Oxygen and total coliform -- only at Rishikesh. For a river water to be fit for bathing and drinking, BOD should be less than 3mg/litre and less than 2mg/litre respectively, DO should be more than 5mg/litre and over 6mg/litre, and total coliform must be less than 500 mpn/100 ml for bathing and less than 50 mpn/100ml for drinking. The water meets the BO and DO standards till it reaches Garhmukteshwar but even there the total coliform count recording is a high 7,500. At Kanpur, it is virtually a drain with the total coliform count recording an unbelievable 2,40,000. But, the inherent recharging ability of the Ganga, despite all the pollution, saw it maintaining a high DO level of over 6 throughout. A report of the Planning Commission submitted to the Supreme Court went deep into the reasons for the pollution in the Ganga and said the main culprit is the discharge of 8,250 million litres of untreated sewage daily into the river. "Domestic sewage generation and existing sewage treatment plant (STP) capacity in the Ganga Basin is about 12,000 mld and 3,750 mld. In class I and II towns along the main stem of Ganga river, the corresponding figures are 2,900 mld and 1,017 mld respectively," the report said. It admits, "There is a wide gap between domestic sewage generation and STP capacity installed, to the extent that 65% sewage flows into the river and other water bodies untreated." It takes into account the similar state of affairs with other rivers and says a rough estimate indicates that the National River Conservation Plan projects all over India would cost upto Rs 33,000 crore to create additional STP capacity of about 38,000 mld by 2020. "For the Ganga basin alone, the resources required to create 8,250 mld of additional capacity to meet the present shortfall can be to the tune of Rs 7,180 crore," it said and the project requirement till 2020 could be to the tune of Rs 9,788 crore. Regarding the funding, it said: "The resources required are large, but not daunting. This could be provided under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM). The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) I&II were initiated to control direct discharge of sewage and industrial effluent into the river from 29 major and 23 small cities, as well as 48 towns, from Uttarakhand to West Bengal. Though over Rs 1,000 crore was spent, its results were abysmal. The CAG has in the past taken a dim view of the implementation of the clean Ganga initiative and said Rs 1,000 crore had gone down the drain without any tangible improvement in the water quality.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rs-33k-cr-needed-to-clean-Indias-rivers/articleshow/5695049.cms

India: Last Week

National Summary;

Politics
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad Yadav along with other regional parties including the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) is determined to oppose the women reservation bill in the Lok Sabha. These parties are apprehensive that just a few upper class women would only be benefited. They have demanded reservation-within-reservation, seeking reservation for deprived classes and Muslim women within the quota.
The government decision to introducing a Bill in the Lok Sabha regarding the limiting compensation in case of a nuclear accident is criticised by BJP and Left parties. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties have resolved to oppose the Bill and seek its referral to the Standing Committee for closer scrutiny. The BJP, the Left parties and environmental organisations are opposed to several clauses, including compensation from foreign companies in case of an accident. They are also against another clause that frees operators from any liability if the accident was due to grave national disaster of exceptional character, armed conflict or act of terrorism. The passage of the Bill is crucial to operationalise the India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement and allow the entry of private U.S. companies which have already been assigned land for a nuclear park. France and Russia have also been informed of land being earmarked for their companies and the Bill will also benefit them.

Minorties' Issue
Deobandi and Barelvi sects are warming up in UP to each other to oppose the Women’s Reservation Bill which has already created unrest among Islamic scholars and bodies. This development caused concerns for Congress which is trying to revive itself in the Hindi heartland.

Economy
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, or Sensex, gained 218.19, or 1.3 percent, to 17,383.18, the highest level since Jan. 20. Gross domestic product in the country may expand 8.2 percent in the 12 months from April 1, from an estimated 7.2 percent this year. Foreign fund inflows into India’s stock market climbed to a record 834.2 billion rupees in 2009, beating the previous high set two years earlier in local currency terms, as the biggest rally in 18 years lured foreign investors. The inflation rate is expected to reach the two-digit mark in the coming months.

Geostrategic
India and Russia signed several agreements in the defence and strategic spheres, besides taking steps to extend their partnership in new areas such as energy and fertilizers during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Agreements including supplementary agreements on the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov to finalise cost and technical issues, and a deal in the military aviation sphere that includes the purchase of more naval version MiG-29 fighters. Russia will build up to 16 nuclear reactors for power stations in India. Russia wants to boost trade with India to $20 billion by 2015 from the current $8 billion.
Indian and Chinese officials struck a positive note on Sino-Indian ties, saying the long-running border dispute had become increasingly less relevant to bilateral relations, in spite of renewed tensions seen in recent months.
Despite growing ties India and US disagree on issues regarding Afghanistan and Pakistan. At a time when Washington is searching for an exit strategy from the Af-Pak region, India emphasis that it is important for the international community to stay the present course in Afghanistan for as long as it is necessary. India is upset on the proceeding of the Af-Pak issue where it is loosing ground and all efforts to replace Pakistan’s role in the region have not brought results.
Pakistan is determined to bring water issue on table along with Kashmir dispute. It proposed some measures to make Indus Water Treaty more effective but India refuses to accept allegations.

Social Front
India's cabinet approved a proposal to allow foreign universities to set up branches, potentially opening a huge market to international educational institutions. About 160,000 students a year leave India to study abroad, according to the National Knowledge Commission, an advisory group to the prime minister. Analysts say the bill could help accelerate India's economic growth, which has been powered in part by its best educated programmers, engineers and managers. This would give stimulus to quality education and the knowledge economy.
The water of the holiest among holy rivers -- the Ganga -- fails to meet the drinking and bathing standards. For a river water to be fit for bathing and drinking, BOD should be less than 3mg/litre and less than 2mg/litre respectively, DO should be more than 5mg/litre and over 6mg/litre, and total coliform must be less than 500 mpn/100 ml for bathing and less than 50 mpn/100ml for drinking. A report of the Planning Commission submitted to the Supreme Court went deep into the reasons for the pollution in the Ganga and said the main culprit is the discharge of 8,250 million litres of untreated sewage daily into the river. The National River Conservation Plan projects all over India would cost upto Rs 33,000 crore to create additional STP capacity of about 38,000 mld by 2020.
Regional Summary:

Central India/Hindi Heartland
Riot hit Bareilly is calm apparently but remained tens. Security forces patrolled the streets this communal violence-hit city. “Though situation is tense, it is completely under control, and no incident of clash or violence has been reported from any part of the city since morning,” the forces said. A three-member BJP team led by MP Maneka Gandhi was prevented by Uttar Pradesh authorities from going to the city.
At least 12 people were injured in a bomb explosion in a jeep near Lakshmipur in Bihar's Jamui district on Thursday.

Eastern States
The School Education department of West Bengal has decided to appoint 35,000 primary teachers within the next two months.

Southern States
The Andhra Pradesh assembly will pass a resolution on Thursday urging the central government to bring an amendment to the Presidential Order to protect jobs for the Telangana people in Hyderabad.

Western States
The Gujarat government rejected the Congress demand for the resignation of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the wake of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) summoning him for questioning in connection with the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre.
In a suspected case of child sacrifice, five children of a family were killed in a village in Hingoli district and four persons, including three women, have been arrested in this connection.

India Last Week

NATIONAL SUMMARY

POLITICS

The disputed women reservation bill (33% seats for women legislature in both houses) has been passed in Rajya Sabha after fourteen years long struggle. RJD, LJP, SP and some other opposition parties opposed the bill. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav alleged that it was a conspiracy to prevent Muslims, backwards and dalits from entering Parliament and state assemblies. He contended that when not a single Muslim MP was elected to Parliament from several states including Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana, how Muslim women could be elected without reservation. " Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad declared that the Women's Reservation Bill was ‘a political blunder' and a conspiracy hatched by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party to suppress representation of women from the backward classes.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha Criticised the Union budget that it would aggravate the problems of price rise and fiscal deficit.
Minorities' Isuues

Muslim community decided to reach out the eminent political parties for their support against the reservation of 33% women seats in parliament. The groups, led by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat and the All India Milli Council have decided to reach out to as many parties as possible barring the BJP and convey to them that those supporting the Bill could face a Muslim “backlash”.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has summoned chief minister Narendra Modi for questioning regarding the murder of ex-Congress MP Ahsan Jafri and 68 others in the Gulburg Society massacre of February 28, 2002.

INSURGENCY MOVEMENTS
Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said the objective of the Maoists engaged in an armed ‘liberation struggle' is to overthrow the Indian state by 2050, as indicated by documents seized from them. Maoists did their homework before launching attacks and their approach was that of a well-trained army surveying the place, making notes and studying every aspect. The analysis is as good as any that the armed forces of any country do,” he said. 908 people lost their lives last year the highest since 1971 in naxal violence. The Home Secretary said that even though the joint anti-naxal operations were going on, the rebels had not suffered any significant reverses, and that the government would need seven to eight years to have full control over the areas lost to the Maoists.
Human rights activist and civil society criticised the use of force by government against rebels. Writer and human rights activist Arundhati Roy said: “The government's use of the military to solve political problems is not new. The government has long since followed a policy of extermination against the Maoist movement. But each time the movement has come back stronger and better organised as it is not the people but an ideology under attack and this ideology cannot be wiped out by attacking tribals in the name of defeating Maoism. Home minister P Chidambaram said government has the legitimate right to use as much force as necessary to regain control of areas dominated by the Maoists and made it clear that talks with it could only take place if the ultras abjured violence. Terming Naxalism as a "graver problem" than jihadi terrorism, P Chidambaram vowed to effectively tackle the threat from Maoists, who have declared a war against the Indian state, before the term of the government ends.

ECONOMY
India continued to be the most optimistic nation in terms of hiring plans for the next three months, driven by strong job opportunities across all sectors including finance and realty sectors, global staffing services firm Manpower said. According to the quarterly 'Employment Outlook Survey', India Inc's hiring outlook improved by 4 percentage points for the April-June period compared to the previous quarter. Indian companies have rated cyber security as a major concern. In the light of increased cyber attacks, over 42 per cent of enterprises perceive cyber crime as a bigger threat than terrorism, crime and natural disasters. This was one of the findings of ‘2010 State of Enterprise Security Study,' a global study carried out by Symantec Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., where Indian companies from sectors such as telecom, hospitality, manufacturing, retail and technology participated.

GEOSTRATEGIC
India believes sanctions on Iran are counter-productive, the government told Parliament in the first public articulation of the government's views on U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on Iran. Indian government “has conveyed to the U.S. government that sanctions on Iran have proved to be counter-productive and that all differences with Iran should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and negotiation.”
Pakistan’s allegation that India is violating Indus Water Treaty by stealing its share of water is refuted by India. According to New Delhi’s assessment, Pakistan’s water troubles are an outcome of its own “poor water management” Pakistan has not built enough water storage capacity and is, therefore, leaving surplus water go completely unutilized. This is, therefore, giving rise to water scarcity in the face of a rapidly growing population in Pakistan.
According to a report prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India has the maximum number of women dying in the Asia-Pacific region because of discriminatory treatment in access to health and nutrition and sex-selective abortion, report reveals shocking levels of gender disparity in the country.

Regional Summary:

THE NORTH
Over 20,000 youths from Punjab attempt illegal migration every year to 57 different countries. The trend is also spreading to the neighbouring states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, says a report “Smuggling of Migrants from India to Europe and in particular to UK from Punjab and Haryana” released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

THE EAST
A month has passed since West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced that the state government would provide for a reservation of 10 per cent in government jobs for Muslim OBCs and that a committee would be formed to facilitate it, nothing has been done so far. In fact, officials of the Backwards Classes Welfare department are wondering whether such a committee can mark out Muslim OBCs. The chief minister said at his press conference on February 8 that a committee comprising officials from the minorities department, the BCW department, the Minorities Commission and the BCW Commission will be set up to look at the issue. No such committee, however, has been formed so far. Most of the officials at the BCW department this reporter talked to said they had no idea about such a committee.

THE WEST
MNS chief Raj Thackeray said the Hindi language should not be forced on the people. "I am not opposed to Hindi but do not force Hindi on us,"

For complete report please visit Gilani Foundation

Bareilly sitting on powder keg, curfew reimposed

Tension has again gripped the western UP city of Bareilly, which witnessed riots last week that left hundreds of shops gutted and scores injured. After a brief respite, the city has been under curfew again for the last four days. Things almost reached a flashpoint on Wednesday night when an estimated 10,000-1,5000 strong crowd gathered in the heart of the city. They had come to listen to a speech by Sunni cleric Subhan Raza Khan (popularly known as Subhani Miyan), the head of the famous Ala Hazrat dargah (also known as Khankahe Niyaziya mosque). People from many localities in old city were implored via loudspeakers to come out on the streets and protest against the detention of local Muslim leader Tauqir Raza Khan. Tauqir, son-in-law of Subhani Miyan and national president of the powerful Muslim organization Itihad-e-Millat Council (IMC) was arrested from IMC office by police on March 8 in connection with the rioting. A curfew has been on many areas of the city since then. Many sections of the IPC such as inciting people and plotting riots were slapped on him. According to reports in the local media, Khan had been booked in the past too under various sections of the IPC, including anti-national activities, but this could not be confirmed. He is considered a prominent leader with big following. Police has been hunting for one of his associates known as Dr Nafees for inciting people; he has gone underground. In a damage-control exercise on Wednesday, chief minister Mayawati changed the local administration top brass, including the district magistrate, the DIG and the SSP. The DM, Ashish Kumar Goyal, was sent packing and additional charge was given to the Pilibhit DM, Anil Garg. DIG-cum-SSP MK Bashal too was removed on Thursday. DIG Anti-Terror Squad Allahabad zone Rajib Sabbarwal has been given additional charge in his place. Sources said the commissioner, Majid Ali, too is likely to be replaced, but no formal announcement has been made yet. Mayawati had also rushed the chief secretary (home), Kunwar Fateh Bahadur Singh, and the DGP, Karamvir Singh, to the city on Wednesday, the second time within a week. Despite this, things reached a flashpoint on Wednesday night when a large number of members of one community came out on the streets. They were demanding unconditional and immediate release of Tauqir Raza Khan. They alleged their leader was being unnecessarily persecuted by Mayawati. Once they started shouting religious slogans over loudspeakers, members of the other community also came out in large numbers on the other side of the two streets. The city narrowly missed a major riotous situation after the entire police and local administration reasoned with them. In another related development, the Bareilly Bar Association president, Ghanshyam Sharma, and his associates appeared in the court on Thursday to plead for bail to Tauqir Raza Khan. A large crowd of other advocates protested against their move and the court had to be adjourned amid heavy slogan shouting. The bail plea, which could not be heard, has now been scheduled for Friday. But lawyers of the city have now called for a strike strike and said they would oppose his release tooth and nail. They have also sent a signed memorandum to Mayawati, demanding that NSA be slapped on Tauqir Raza Khan. Friday could well be Bareilly’s litmus test. Friday, or the Juma day, is an important day of prayers for one community, and they have been implored by their leaders to come out and pray on the streets in big numbers. A high-profile Ram Barat (marriage procession of Lord Ram) too is scheduled to pass through the city streets as a precursor to Ram Navami celebrations. Tension has been simmering in the city since communal riots took place on March 2 following clashes over a religious procession. Curfew was clamped in major parts of the city after these clashes left several injured and hundreds of houses and shops set afire. Police has arrested 266 people in connection with the violence. After reports and pictures of Wednesday’s buildup appeared in the local media on Thursday, the city administration swung into action and also sealed the city’s borders. The curfew in parts of the city which was relaxed on Thursday, was also reimposed after two hours following reports that members of one community were being brought in large numbers in trucks and tractor trollies from the neighbouring townships.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bareilly-sitting-on-powder-keg-curfew-reimposed/articleshow/5672848.cms

Read More......

http://twocircles.net/2010mar09/release_maulana_tauqeer_raza_khan_muslim_bodies.html

http://www.24dunia.com/english-news/search/reason-behind-bareli-riots.html

Question

In your openion who is responsible for Riots in Bareily???

1. Muslims

2. Hindus

3. State Administration

India aims to be world's fastest growing economy

MUMBAI, India -- Just how fast can India grow? Ask Manal Farooq, who can't make gloves quickly enough.
"We are facing a major problem," said Farooq, a senior executive at Marvel Gloves Industries, which produces 3 million pairs of gloves a month, most used in industrial production in India. "Despite importing gloves we are not able to meet demand."
The run on gloves began five months ago, said Farooq, whose customers include Ford and Nissan.
It's been driven by a record rebound in manufacturing, spurred in part by government stimulus, which has led India out of the Great Recession faster than many imagined possible.
So abundant is the optimism that India's Finance Ministry, led by Pranab Mukherjee - not a man given to hyperbole - has made a bold assertion: India could soon overtake China's growth rates.
"It is possible for India to move into double-digit growth and even become the fastest growing economy in the world within next four years," the Ministry said as part of an economic survey released in February.
The catch: bridging the chasm between the possible and the probable.
Given the growing productivity of Indian workers and large working age population, it's certainly possible for India's economy to speed up, say economists and businesspeople.
But in practice, overtaking China would require fundamental changes in the way India does business. Creaking or nonexistent infrastructure and cumbersome government bureaucracy are drags on businesses large and small. And few think the bureaucratic and political hindrances that make it hard to execute even the best-laid plans will be removed anytime soon.
Also in doubt is how much faster growth will benefit the mass of Indians who've seen little or no gain from the country's much lauded economic rise since liberalization began in the early 1990s.
So far, the economic makeover has worsened income inequality in India, and despite five years of near nine percent growth, over 450 million people struggle by on less than $1.25 a day. A similar problem of widening inequality also blights China, which has grown an average of 9.7 percent a year over the past three decades.
But higher levels of business investment in the past decade have raised profits and wages and in turn produced a large pool of corporate and household savings that was unimaginable in India 10 years ago.

"The productive capacity of the economy has gone up," said former International Monetary Fund economist Renu Kohli. "My only caveat is that as far as implementation and execution of projects and policies is, India is a slow mover. It doesn't move at the speed China does."
Financing isn't the problem, nor lack of good ideas, she said.
"The constraint lies in procedural issues, land acquisition and the capacity of even private participants to execute those projects without delays," she said. "For that to change, it's not entirely clear what a budget or change in policies can bring about."
India's top spending priorities in its new budget, released Feb. 26, are social programs and infrastructure. Next fiscal year, the government plans to spend 1.37 trillion rupees ($30 billion) on social programs and 1.7 trillion rupees ($37.9 billion) on infrastructure.
The mix reflects the ruling Congress party's general approach - ramp up economic growth with pro-market policies and then redistribute the spoils through a massive hodgepodge of social spending, subsidies and employment guarantee programs.
Many say that to sustain growth in the long-run, the nation must do a better job of enriching millions of people at bottom of the heap.
India's fortunes are less coupled to global markets than export-dependent China's, but they are linked to the rural economy. Putting more money in the hands of the poor and near-poor has helped bolster domestic demand.
The programs that helped most - farmer loan waivers worth over $15 billion, a massive rural job guarantee program, and higher minimum prices for rice and wheat - were implemented in the run up to last year's national elections. But they ended up shielding a large part of the economy from the global meltdown, said Himanshu, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, who goes by one name.
Unless rural incomes rise, India could face a bottleneck in domestic demand, said Himanshu.
"Sixty percent of our population is still working in agriculture," he said. "Even the corporate sector is now saying that for growth what you require is growth at the bottom because that's your market."
Giving farmers a more certain future as India's economy industrializes could also speed progress. Farmers concerned about losing their land in exchange for promises of jobs and one-time cash payments, which quickly get spent, have stopped or slowed the development of mines, power plants, factories and special economic zones.
Naushad Forbes who directs Forbes Marshall Pvt. Ltd., a large Indian manufacturing company, wishes the government would take a more encompassing approach to helping "Bharat," or the rural poor.
"India's economy is coupled to 'Bharat'," he said. "We have to as a country, as we mature, move away from the budget being a list of giveaways to something more holistic," he added.
Fixing India's clogged ports, sweeping power blackouts, inadequate roads and overstretched airports would also be a huge boost to productivity.
Goldman Sachs has estimated that India may need $1.7 trillion over the next decade to double its electricity capacity, increase the length of paved roads by half and substantially expand railway, port, airport and irrigation networks.
Spending that money well could prove challenging. The Delhi School of Economics surveyed 894 infrastructure projects between 1992 and 2009 and found that time overruns ranged from 61 percent of projects in the power sector to nearly 100 percent of railway, health and family welfare projects. Most were caused by government administrative delays.
India's new budget did please some circles - analysts and investors, who praised Mukherjee for his fiscal discipline and productive spending priorities.
Given the manufacturing boom, the enlightened policymaking and all the road-building that's going on, why doesn't Farooq, the glove maker, just ramp up production in India instead of relying on imports to meet rising demand?
"There are certain constraints," he said. "We need to take a lot of procedures and approvals. We need to take the right land, import the machines, train the people. It will take a long time."
Besides, he said he's getting fed up with the number of public holidays in India.
"By the time you start production, you have some festival for a particular religion or caste."
"Last week only, there were three holidays."
So where does Farooq get those 1.5 million pairs of imported gloves each month?
Chiefly, China.

By ERIKA KINETZThe Associated Press


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031100309.html

Uproar in India Over Female Lawmaker Quota

The upper house of India’s Parliament passed a bill Tuesday that would amend the Constitution to reserve one-third of the seats in India’s national and state legislatures for women, after the measure stirred two days of political chaos that could whittle the governing coalition’s majority to a dangerously thin margin.
The vote, which is an early step in the process of amending the Constitution, brought pandemonium to Parliament, as a small group of regional caste-based parties waged a fierce fight to block it, arguing that it would diminish their influence.

The parties, allies of the governing coalition led by the Congress Party, have threatened to withdraw their support, which would reduce the coalition’s voting majority to single digits and jeopardize crucial legislation like India’s budget, which was just introduced. The chaos surrounding the bill threatens to undermine what has been an otherwise stable coalition government, analysts said.

Tuesday’s vote was the first of four hurdles the measure must clear. The lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, must pass the bill, then the proposed amendment will need to win approval from at least half of India’s state legislatures. Then India’s president, a largely ceremonial post, must sign off.

The amendment is a long-sought tool to improve the lot of women in India, the world’s most populous democracy. Despite having had several formidable female leaders — including former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, the current leader of the Congress Party — Indian women lag behind men in virtually every sphere of life.
Various governments have been trying to get the amendment passed since the 1990s, but each has failed despite wide support across the political spectrum. The fight over the bill illustrates the often vicious competition between caste, religion, ethnicity and gender over who will benefit most from laws designed to reduce inequality.
Opponents of the bill say that it will favor wealthy upper-caste women at the expense of the lower castes and Muslims.

“We are not against women reservation,” said Lalu Prasad Yadav, leader of one of the parties seeking to block the amendment. “Give reservation to poor India, to original India. Ninety percent of the population is deprived in India.”

Critics of the amendment say that it will only worsen what is already a big problem — powerful men substituting their daughters, wives and sisters as proxies in political office.

The amendment would effectively make nearly half of the seats in the lower house of Parliament reserved, which would only heighten the competition for the remaining, unrestricted seats. Muslim politicians said they would suffer under the bill as well. Syed Shahabuddin, a former member of Parliament, said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the amendment would cut Muslim representation in half.

Muslims are a crucial component of the Congress Party’s vote in many states. Trinamool Congress, one of the governing coalition’s crucial members, said late Tuesday that it would abstain from voting for the amendment over concerns about how it might affect Muslims. Opponents of the amendment disrupted the parliamentary session, sitting on the floor and chanting slogans.

“Government dictatorship will not go on,” they shouted. Take back the women’s reservation bill. Take back the anti-Muslim bill. Take back the anti-Dalit bill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/asia/10india.html

INDIA: KEY HAPPENINGS IN LAST WEEK

NATIONAL SUMMARY
POLITICS
External affairs Shashi Tharoor's remarks on Saudi Arabia's potential as an interlocutor in India's ties with Pakistan provoked criticism from BJP and other political parties including Congress. Congress president Sonia Gandhi said, "India's position on no to third party mediation in India-Pakistan issues is unchanged. There is no change in the Congress position." BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi termed Tharoor's remarks "unusual" and reiterated India's known stand that no third party can intervene in issues between India and Pakistan. BJP’s senior leader L.K Advani criticised government on holding talks with Pakistan and stated it a response on US pressure.
MINORITIES' ISSUES
Lok Jan Shakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday demanded a 10 per cent quota for Muslims in government jobs and a mechanism to ensure that funds allocated for the welfare of the minorities were fully utilised.
INSURGENCY MOVEMENTS
Responding on Maoist leader Kishenji's truce offer the government asked them to ensure ceasefire for 72 hours to facilitate talks. Top government officials have said Kishenji's offer for talks may be considered if he could ensure complete ceasefire for 72 hours.
GEO STRATEGIC/ FOREIGN RELATIONS
Indian foreign exchange reserves fell by USD 528 million for the week ended February 19 to USD 278.672 billion compared to USD 279.2 billion in the previous week. After a year long financial crisis finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is confident that economy would soon break the double-digit growth barrier and said the stimulus measures will not be fully withdrawn until a robust recovery is achieved. High food inflation and the ambiguous nature of recovery in exports due to the uncertainty prevailing in the developed economies still cause concerns.
India and Saudi Arabia finalised 10 pacts, including an Extradition Treaty and agreements in the economic sphere for signing during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the country. Manmohan Singh is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Saudi Arabia in 28 years. Singh received a vary warm welcome from Saudi King and declared his visit very successful. India is keen to build relations of geo strategic importance with Saudi Arabia. Country’s increasing demand for energy resources and Saudi Arabia’s influence in the region forced India make an attempt to strengthen ties with the oil rich and most respected country of the Muslim world. According to analysts it is an attempt to pressurise Pakistan to overview its policy in the region.
Killing of 9 Indians in last week’s Kabul blast again provoked a debate whether it is the part of conspiracy to an oust India from Afghanistan? Pakistan is against the target of accusation even though Richard Holbrooke said in a statement that Indians were not the target of blast but then he had to change his statement on Indian pressure.
SOCIAL FRONT
US report on International Narcotics Trade released by the state department said that most of the drug transiting through the country is bound for Europe. The report, however, noted that the bulk of heroin seized in the past two years has been of domestic origin, was seized in South India, and was apparently destined for Sri Lanka.
According to the latest data by the Ministry of Home Affairs for three years, cases of child rape continue to rise as a total of 4,721 cases were registered during 2006, 5,045 in 2007 and 5,446 in 2008 across the country. Madhya Pradesh registered 892 such cases, Maharashtra (690), Rajasthan (420) and Andhra Pradesh (412) in 2008, the data said. A total of 411 such cases were registered in Chhattisgarh, 301 in Delhi, 215 in Kerala, 187 in Tamil Nadu, 129 in West Bengal, 106 in Punjab and 104 in Tripura, it said. Whereas, Gujarat has registered 99 cases, Karnataka 97, Bihar 91, Haryana 70, Himachal Pradesh 68, Orissa 65 and Goa 18. Uttar Pradesh tops the list of States and Union Territories with the highest number of 900 child rape cases in 2008 followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
REGIONAL SUMMARY:
CENTRAL INDIA/ HINDI HEARTLAND
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is determined to make Bihar a developed state by 2015. Sixty-three people, all women and children, were killed and another 64 injured in a massive stampede at an ashram at Mangarh in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. The tragic incident took place when a portion of the entrance gate collapsed under pressure of the surging crowd that thronged the ashram belonging to Kripalu Maharaj to collect food and utensils. The dead included 37 children and 26 women.
NORTH
A new swine flu case has been reported in Himachal Pradesh after a gap of over a month, with this, the number of Influenza (H1N1) cases in the state has risen to 45.
THE SOUTH
Andhra Pradesh assembly opposition parties staged a protest on price rise issue. Members of assembly belonging to TDP, CPI, CPM, BJP and Praja Rajyam Party demanded that the issue be discussed through an adjournment motion. As their demand was rejected, the opposition members stalled the proceedings and Speaker N Kiran Kumar adjourned the House for 15 minutes. The opposition parties also demanded an immediate roll back of the hike to save the common man and wanted the state government to move a resolution in this regard.
Two persons died and eight others were injured in Shimoga district of Karnataka on Monday following violent protests over the publication of an article by Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on the burqa in a vernacular daily.



DESPITE OF REGAINING PACE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RISING INFLATION/PRICE RISE IS A SERIOUS CONCERN FOR INDIA. DO YOU THING IT COULD BE A HURDLE IN INDIA'S WAY TO BE AN ECONOMIC POWER???

India: Preparations of Commenwealth Games 2010,,, Where are human rights activists?????

India is trying to build glory for Commonwealth Games 2010 on the shoulders of 600,000 children dragged from all parts of India to prepare New Delhi for the event. Indian govt tried to sabotage Beijing Olympics through terrorism in China's Tibet, with help from the Americans and Brits. At least China did give the world a firstclass sporting event. India's gift is a sugarcoated event that hides misery. Watch this Indian report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ0RJOY4CIA

Indian Aircraft Crashed

Aircraft of The Indian Naval Aerobatic Team 'Surya Kiran' fly in formation during the India Aviation 2010 show at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad on March 3, 2010. A naval aircraft taking part in an acrobatics show on the first day of an air show in the southern Indian city has crashed. The plane, a two-seater Kiran MK-II built by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics, was part of a four-plane formation when it crashed. The accident occurred on the opening day of the India Aviation 2010 show, a five-day civil aviation exhibition.

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/gallery.asp?SubID=5511&page=1&GTitle=India%20Aviation%202010&pubdate=3/3/2010

I love India but the country rejected me, says M F Husain: Secular India Exposed?????

Political leaders, intellectuals and artists in India kept silent when right-wing outfits targeted him, legendary painter M F Husain says "with deep pain" in his heart.

"I still love India. But India doesn't need me. I am saying this with deep pain in heart," Husain told Gulf Madhyamam, Kerala-based Malayalam daily Madhyamam's Doha edition, in an interview.

"India is my motherland. I can't hate my motherland. But India rejected me. Then why should I stay in India?" the 95-year-old painter said in his first interview after accepting Qatar citizenship.

"When Sangh Parivar outfits targeted me, all kept silent. No one, including political leadership, artists or intellectuals came forward to speak for me. But I know the fact that 90 percent of the people of India love me. They are with me," he said.

"Only 10 percent of people, including some politicians, are against me," Husain said.

Husain has dozens of lawsuits against him across the country for his paintings of goddesses that some Hindus find sacrilegous. The artist has been living abroad as a fugitive since 2006.

He said he was not worried as people across the world love him.

"India's continuing governments could not protect me. So, it is very difficult for me to stay in such a country. Politicians are eyeing only votes."

"Now, they are asking me to come back. I was in exile...There was no one to speak for me. No governments recalled me. Now they are asking me to return after one country offered me citizenship. How can I trust a political leadership that refused to protect me?" he said.

"Is there any surety that I would be given protection in India?" Husain asked.

He stressed that the cases against him went against an artist's self-expression, and maintained that he did not want to hurt anyone's sentiments.

"It is a move against art and the artist's self-expression. I never intended to hurt anyone's sentiments through the art," he said.

"I only expressed my soul's creativity through art. Art's language is universal language. People who love it beyond all narrow viewpoints are my strength," he said.

"I enjoy complete freedom in Qatar. Now Qatar is my place. Here no one controls my freedom of expression. I am very happy here," he said.

Husain added that he would visit India, if he gets the opportunity.
Times of India

India's Budget Bore

Investors reacted with a yawn to Friday's budget presentation by Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee—the Mumbai market closed almost flat on the day. That was less an endorsement of the government's reform agenda and more a sigh of relief that the Minister was prepared to reduce the fiscal deficit after two years of a major expansion.

Mr. Mukherjee mostly accepted the recent recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission, a government committee that by law recommends reforms to the president. For the first time, Delhi has signed up to a fiscal adjustment path explicitly designed to cap domestic government debt, reducing fears of a clash between public-sector spending and the private sector's financing needs. That is what markets were probably initially cheering.

But in other ways the budget disappoints. Back in July, Mr. Mukherjee had optimistically promised that India's states would adopt an integrated goods-and-services tax by the start of the new fiscal year on April 1. A GST will be a major step toward integrating the domestic market and will allow a myriad of state and local taxes to be refunded to exporters, improving their competitiveness. But thanks to various constitutional and implementation problems, the tax's introduction has been postponed by a year.

Another measure unveiled last July was a complete reform of India's fiendishly complicated and exemption-ridden system of direct taxation. The intention was always to have the new direct tax code take effect from April next year; however it was widely expected that the draft legislation would be unveiled in this budget. Here, again, Delhi was forced to extend the time for consultation.

Equally worrying was the government's inability or unwillingness to deregulate gasoline and diesel fuel prices. Despite India's heavy and growing dependence on imported crude oil, the government doesn't automatically pass on price fluctuations to final consumers of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and bottled cooking gas. This creates huge problems for publicly owned energy companies, which are stuck paying the price differential, and for Delhi, which has to provide budgetary support by periodically issuing oil bonds. The price controls have also effectively shut down the private energy distribution sector.

I was a member of a government panel tasked at the time of the last budget to give policy makers ideas on how to fix these problems. For both fiscal and equity reasons we recommended a flexible pricing regime for petrol and diesel, with upward adjustment in the prices of kerosene (largely used for rural lighting) and bottled cooking gas, as had two separate panels before us.

The finance minister's response in Friday's budget was distinctly underwhelming: "decisions on (the panel's) recommendations will be taken by my colleague, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, in due course." At the same time, he reintroduced customs duties on imports of crude oil that had been waived at the time of the surge in oil prices, as well as raised central excise taxes on gasoline and diesel by one rupee (two U.S. cents) a liter. The latter move was used as a trigger for an unprecedented walk-out by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and some members of the government's support base, even as the minister spoke.

What a missed opportunity. When the Congress Party-led government returned to power last May, investors were relieved that the government's former, antireform Communist allies were ejected from the coalition. Mr. Mukherjee is the Congress Party's most experienced minister. He was expected to explore the full potential of further liberalization, navigating as much as possible the complex waters of the Congress's coalition. And the political calendar could not have been more favorable, with the government reasonably certain to serve out its five-year term and no major state legislature election till the end of the year.

Economic reform in India remains a slow and fitful process, with considerable posturing and positioning by coalition partners and resistance by key policy makers in the core of the Congress Party itself. So investors are perhaps inclined to applaud Mr. Mukherjee for at least donning the mantle of fiscal restraint. But if he wants to hear market applause this time next year, the finance minister will have to move more aggressively to expand the liberalization that has already sparked significant growth.

Mr. Bery is director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704754604575094812339882450.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

India Prepares for a Two-Front War

There is one country responding to China's military build-up and aggressiveness with some muscle of its own. No, it is not the United States, the superpower ostensibly responsible for maintaining peace and security in Asia. Rather, it is India, whose military is currently refining a "two-front war" doctrine to fend off Pakistan and China simultaneously.

Defending against Pakistan isn't anything new, and Delhi has long viewed China with suspicion. But in recent years India has been forced to think more seriously about an actual armed conflict with its northern neighbor. Last year Beijing started a rhetorical clash over the Dalai Lama's and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visits to Arunachal Pradesh state, which China claims as its own. In the two years before that, Chinese border incursions into India almost doubled. Not to mention China's massive military buildup and concerted push for a blue-water navy.

In response, the Indian military is rewriting its so-called "Cold Start" doctrine. Cold Start's initial intent was to provide the armed forces with more rapid and flexible response options to Pakistani aggression. The Indian military believed that its ground forces' slow and lumbering mobilization after the 2001 terrorist attacks on its parliament played to Pakistan's advantage: International opinion turned against decisive Indian military action. Delhi also worried that its plan to send in heavy forces to weaken Pakistan was unrealistic and might well trigger a nuclear response.

So Indian strategists searched for military solutions that would avoid a nuclear response but still provide a rapid retaliatory punch into Pakistan. The resulting doctrine was built around eight division-sized "integrated battle groups"—a combination of mobile ground forces backed by air power and tied together through an advanced system of sensors and reconnaissance capabilities. The Indian Army would advance into Pakistan and hold territory to use as leverage to end terrorist attacks launched from Pakistani soil.

But as China has grown more aggressive, Delhi has begun planning to fight a "two-front war" in case China and Pakistan ally against India. Army Chief of Staff General Deepak Kapoor recently outlined the strategy: Both "fronts"—the northeastern one with China and northwestern one with Pakistan—would receive equal attention. If attacked by Pakistan and China, India will use its new integrated battle groups to deal quick decisive blows against both simultaneously.

The two-front strategy's ambitions go even further: In the long term China is the real focus for Indian strategists. According to local newspapers, Gen. Kapoor told a defense seminar late last year that India's forces will "have to substantially enhance their strategic reach and out-of-area capabilities to protect India's geopolitical interests stretching from the [Persian] Gulf to Malacca Strait" and "to protect our island territories" and assist "the littoral states in the Indian Ocean Region."

Of course the existence of a new doctrine does not make it an operational reality. But a cursory glance at India's acquisition patterns and strategic moves gives every indication that India is well on its way to implementation. Delhi is buying and deploying sophisticated command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance networks; supersonic cruise missiles; lightweight towed artillery pieces; and new fighter aircraft with supporting electronic warfare and refueling platforms. India has already bought C-130J aircraft from the U.S. for rapid force deployment. The navy is planning to expand its submarine fleet, to acquire three aircraft carriers, and to deploy them with modernized carrier-based fighter aircraft. In addition India plans to deploy fighters and unmanned aerial vehicles at upgraded bases on the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the eastern Indian Ocean.

India is not looking for a fight with China: It simply understands it is prudent to develop a military that can deter Beijing. President Obama's accommodating stance toward China and his apparent lack of interest in cementing partnership with Delhi have focused Indian minds, as have his failure to invest in resources his Pacific commanders need.

While America has a strong interest in sharing the burdens of checking China's expansionism, it should be concerned when its friends react in part to a perception of American weakness and Chinese strength. Ultimately, the U.S. is the only country with the power and resources to reassure its allies they need not engage in costly arms races with China. But first the U.S. must identify Chinese military power for what Asian allies know it to be: a threat to peace in Asia.

Mr. Blumenthal is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240004575085023077072074.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines