Asian Lite News Archive

Category: COLUMNS

  • British leaders eye Indian-origin voters

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    Ironically, Britain – the oldest democracy in the world – could see this community play a major role in deciding the next government…writes Kaliph Anaz As the campaigning for the British parliamentary election enters its final phase, Prime Minister David Cameron and other leaders are eyeing undecided voters, especially among the 700,000 strong community of…

  • Cameron visits Neasden Temple

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    Prime Minister David Cameron visits the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in North West London. The following is the transcript of his speech at the temple: “Jai Swaminarayan. This is the third time I’ve been to Neasden Mandir and I want to thank you for the warmth and kindness you have always shown Samantha and me…

  • Asian voters crucial to win British polls

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    Some 30 million votes will be cast in Thursday’s general election, but the opinion of just a small group of people could decide who walks through Number 10…writes Kaliph Anaz As the election enters the crucial 48-hrs phase, Prime Minister David Cameron and other British leaders are own prowl to bag the undecided voters. Asians…

  • WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

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    By BIKRAM VOHRA Indian media, in recent years, has begun to believe in an irrational sense of entitlement. It is manifested in an odd conviction that it is owed an advance warning. There seems a rage over the Rafale purchase deal fuelled more by indignation that its mandarins were not told about it and were…

  • Tabloidization of Indian News

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    Tabloidization is the death of good journalism. But I don’t blame our anchors or journalists for this tsunami of tabloid news. I also strongly disagree with the widely held hypothesis that blames the Indian viewer – Indians love tabloid sensationalism … Indians have base, tabloid tastes. So if our anchors are not to blame, and…

  • Waiting for Wassabi!

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    If the Boko Haram wants to kidnap little girls, the Taliban blow up a village and some mentally deranged idiot shoot up a Mall, that’s life. But to make Kanye West and Kim Kardashian wait 30 minutes for a sushi table in Calabasas, California is just not acceptable. The world is going to hell in a…

  • The P.G. Wodehouse of medicine!

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    Vikas Dattain his weekly column Book-Shelf Involving a long and gruelling stint of study to qualify and everyday exposure to human pain and suffering, the practice of medicine is perhaps one of the last you could expect to serve as a base for comedy. But it is the saving grace of humanity that it too…

  • Islam snubs Tobacco campaigns

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      London researchers say tobacco companies have perceived that Islam as a threat to its attempts to sell more tobacco products in emerging markets in Asia …writes Kaliph Anaz for Asian Lite, UK’s No 1 newspaper for British Asians Researchers have found evidence of attempts by the tobacco industry to reinterpret Islamic teaching to make smoking…

  • Argentina plays Gandhi card on Falklands

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    Argentina invokes Gandhi over disputed islands with Britain…writes Hadra Ahmed for Asian Lite, UK’s No 1 newspaper for Brtiish Asians   With Argentina still going through sovereignty disputes to reclaim the Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas with Britain, the South American country is applying the way of Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘ahimsa’ –…

  • Arab balance of power being shaped

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    By Saeed Naqvi  “As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods; they kill us for their sport.” King Lear This could well be a powerful chorus, the primeval cry from the Arab street as the Americans erect a new balance of power in West Asia now that the Iranians have been brought into…

  • THE DAY OF THE ‘ITTING SON

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    BY BIKRAM VOHRA Just read about the Baltimore Mom who spotted her teenage son taking part in the present riots and marched up to him as he was proceeding to combat the police and larrupped him one. ONE RESOUNDING WHACK.  Then she dragged him back home yelling, whatchathinkyouaredoing. Good for you lady. Far too many…

  • Pandits deeply divided over possible return to Kashmir

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    By Sheikh Qayoom While politicians debate the possible roadmaps for a return of migrant Pandits to Kashmir Valley, the community remains deeply divided over the issue. H.N. Jattu, 81, president of the All India Kashmiri Pandit Conference, feels this is not right time to return to a place from where Pandits fled in thousands after…

  • Guwahati, Srinagar at highest earthquake risk

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    By Chaitanya Mallapur Guwahati and Srinagar are the two Indian cities at highest risk of being devastated by an earthquake, with 36 other cities in areas prone to earthquakes, according to government data. Guwahati and Srinagar fall in what is called “very severe intensity zone”, or zone V, the highest-risk earthquake zone. Eight cities, including…

  • The plight of leprosy patients in India

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    According to the 12th Five Year Plan, India aims to achieve complete elimination of leprosy by 2017. Leprosy is perhaps the only disease against which there is no vaccine. This is because the bacteria cannot be cultured outside the human body. Despite being easily treated now and discovered to be much less contagious than previously…

  • Is moving from farms to factories the answer?

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    By Amulya Ganguli  The stir against land acquisition took a tragic and macabre turn when a farmer hanged himself during an Aam Admi Party (AAP) rally in the heart of the national capital. The mortifying episode only showed how the political exploitation of a complex problem was diverting attention from what really needed to be…

  • Indian media’s lack of intrest in world affairs

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    By Saeed Naqvi Werner Adam, the late foreign Editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine, used to tell me a story about his meeting in Moscow with India’s ambassador, T.N. Kaul. Kaul had barely started his conversation with Adam when his secretary tip toed in and handed Kaul a slip of paper. “Dobrynin on the line,” Kaul whispered…

  • UN Raps UK Motor-mouth

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    “The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches. This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper. The Sun’s editors took an editorial decision to publish this article, and – if it is found in breach of the law – should be held responsible along with…

  • Older people alerted upon scams

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    Jacqui Kennedy, Director of Regulation and Enforcement, looks at how Trading Standards are protecting older and vulnerable people from scams Britain’s population of older adults is increasing, which raises numerous issues ranging from healthcare and housing to pensions and money worries. So when a letter arrives promising a prize or lottery win, it can be…

  • India’s inevitable rise to the top

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    Bhim D. Asdhir writes on India’s rise top in world affairs in UK’s leading newspaper Asian Lite. India’s meteoric rise to global prominence is inevitable. Perhaps, US President Barack Obama, writing in Time Magazine on April 16, puts India’s and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise to prominence best: “Today, he’s the leader of the world’s…

  • The changing demographics of Bengal’s tea estates

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     Avishek Rakshit writes on the changing demographics of Bengal’s tea estates in UK’s leading Asian newspaper Asian Lite. Even as seven tea gardens in the north Bengal hills remain closed, labour demographics in the estates producing the globally famous Darjeeling tea have begun to rapidly change with local workers migrating to other areas and states and those…

  • Modi’s stewardship in confronting climate change

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    Rajendra Shende,an IIT-alumni, is chairman of the TERRE Policy Centre and former director UNEP writes about Modi’s stewardship on confronting climate change in UK’s leading Asian paper the Asian Lite. US President Barack Obama, in his 166-word eulogy in Time magazine that named Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the 100 most influential people in the…

  • “The Shortcut To Deradicalization Is The Long Road”

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      By Alon Ben-Meir Every Arab state, regardless of the extent to which it is involved in combating violent extremism, must recognize that there is no shortcut to defeating this scourge, and those who are looking for quick fixes are in for a rude awakening. Whereas military force is selectively necessary to destroy irredeemably ruthless…

  • India’s space journey after Aryabhata

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    Venkatachari Jagannathan writes about India’s long and exciting journey into space and beyond in UK’s  top Asian newspaper.  India’s first satellite – Aryabhata – was launched successfully by a Russian rocket on an April day 40 years ago, taking the country on an exciting space odyssey as far as the Moon and the Mars. The year…

  • Afghanistan rebuilding itself with India help

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     Ranjana Narayan writes about how India is playing a part in rebuilding Afghanistan in Asian Lite the top Asian newspaper in UK As Afghanistan rebuilds its institutions, including in the fields of governance and education, after decades of war, Afghan officials say they have a lot to thank India for. Completing a workshop in capacity…

  • Women who will make you shiver!

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    Vikas Datta looks in to the world of  women writers “… the female of the species is more deadly than the male,” said Rudyard Kipling and he might have meant writers excelling in frightening us with tales of supernatural horror and terror. In fact, the horror genre was one where women authors held their own against their…

  • India & Social Progress Index

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    India ranks 101th in the Social Progress Index among 133 countries, lower than even Nepal. Saeed Naqvi analyses the plight of the new world power  The embarrassing news that India ranks 101th in the Social Progress Index among 133 countries, lower than even Nepal, may well be the right occasion to narrow the focus on states which…

  • The ‘Days’ of the Jackal

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    Frederick Forsyth’s ‘novel’ career in international intrigue…writes Vikas Datta for top Brtish-Asian newspaper Asian Lite If you want to know how to attempt the assassination of a statesman, track a Nazi war criminal, organise a coup in Africa (or avert one in Russia), get a false passport, blow up a safe or assemble a bomb (conventional or…

  • AAP’s self-annihilation

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    Is fate on Modi’s side as AAP leaders attack each other over petty isssues…writes Amulya Ganguli  The Aam Admi Party’s (AAP’s) suicidal tendencies are bound to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) more than any other party because the saffron outfit is politically better placed to exploit them. If the AAP hadn’t been driven by competitive egos, it might…

  • The humanitarian crisis at Yarmouk

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    By Dr Omar Gabbar writes about life in Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria. In recent months and years, the name ‘Yarmouk’ has come to be a byword for suffering. A Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Syria’s capital Damascus, its population has variously been ignored, starved, bombed…

  • ‘Tory vision good for BAMEs’

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      By Amandeep Singh Bhogal, Conservative Candidate for Upper Bann, in Northern IrelandOn May 7, this country will face the most important general election of a generation. The choice is clear: between a competent Conservative Party that is working through a plan to build a brighter future for you, your family and Britain – regardless…

  • Hillary Vs the rest

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    By Arun Kumar   The US presidential race took off with Hillary Clinton finally jumping into the fray with an aura of inevitability, but that analysts suggested may turn out to be the former secretary of state’s biggest handicap. In her second bid to break the glass ceiling and return to the White House, the former…

  • Rediscovering Gandhi in a globalised age

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    By Rajdeep Pathak  It’s almost a month since British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond visited India, a few days before Mahatma Gandhi’s statue was unveiled at Parliament Square in London in the presence of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Call it a coincidence, the visit was appropriately timed on March 12, the day 85 years ago…

  • Gujarat, Delhi or Tripura?

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    By Saeed Naqvi The embarrassing news that India ranks 101th in the Social Progress Index among 133 countries, lower than even Nepal, may well be the right occasion to narrow the focus on states which might be examined as milestones. This examination will have to be done by serious social scientists. An itinerant journalist can…

  • Kashmir home we left behind 25 years ago

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    By Shilpa Raina I have always found it tedious to answer the question: “Which is your hometown?” Not because I am a daughter of an army officer or belong to a family of travellers, but because “I was born in Srinagar and was brought up in Jammu.” I have been using this statement since the…

  • The actions of ISIS are an indignity to Muslims around the world

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      Imam Qari Asim MBE – Imam at an award-winning mosque, Leeds’ Makkah Masjid and Senior Editor at Imamsonline.com If anyone had doubts as to the level of depravity ISIS will resort to, then daily examples of murder, rape, slavery, torture and now destruction of religious and cultural heritage will give a glimpse of what…

  • REALLY, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE

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    BY BIKRAM VOHRA There you are at the airport all checked in and waiting to board, looking forward to a few hours of anonymity and solitude. Time to read a book, watch a movie, switch off that horrendous mobile phone, have no intrusions, actually ease off and savour the flight. Might as well start the…

  • Muslim families urged to help relatives

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    Muslim families across Britain are being urged to take action if they suspect a loved one might be planning to travel to Iraq or Syria through an innovative nationwide campaign. The Families Matter campaign was welcomed to Leicester at an event hosted by the Federation of Muslim Organisations; part of a national community tour across the…

  • Likud’s Victory Is Israel’s Defeat

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    The Europeans, Americans, and Palestinians, who have had extensive experience with Netanyahu throughout the peace process, fully recognize his duplicity. He has lost every grain of credibility and no one will trust that he will negotiate in good faith in the future …writes Dr. Alon Ben-Meir Those of us who regularly observe and try to…

  • BBC exposes Tory cuts on benefits

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     The BBC News investigation uncovered several benefits under consideration for change, including Carer’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Job Seekers Allowance, Disability benefits and Industrial Injuries Compensation Scheme. Over 10 million people are receiving benefits from the government depending on their conditions…reports Kaliph Anaz The Conservative Party of Prime Minister David Cameron facing the wrath of…

  • SONIA: A ramshackle alliance and a missing son

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     Why Rahul Gandhi decided to a take a break, recalling his earlier periodic slumming in Dalit households, will not be clear till he breaks his silence. But, as of now, some of the effects of his absence are becoming clear. The most obvious of them is that Sonia Gandhi has had to return to active politics to…

  • VAJPAYEE: A giant in Indian politics

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    In the six decades he was in electoral politics, the now ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee, presented the Bharat Ratna on Friday, catapulted from one who lost one election after another to a colossus who eventually became India’s only non-Congress prime minister to last a full five years in office. In the short but tumultuous period…

  • India must be wary of Tamil extremism in Lanka

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    By M.R. Narayan Swamy  As Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins to build a relationship with Sri Lanka’s new leadership, the one thing he needs to be wary of is the extremist Tamil position in the island nation. Modi made history by becoming the first Indian prime minister to visit Sri Lanka after 1987 when Rajiv…

  • A day of Resolution for Pakistanis

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      Dr Qari Asim, MBE, Chief Imam, Makkah Masjid Leed 23rd March holds a significant place in the history of Pakistan. 75 years ago, on 23 March 1940 in Lahore Minto Park (now called Iqbal Park), the founding fathers passed the momentous Pakistan Resolution (Qarardad i Pakistan), which gave birth to the idea of an…

  • A lot at stake in region and beyond

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    By Hardeep S.Puri and Omar El Okdah  In contemporary politics, the flow of historical forces cannot be understood by glimpsing a mere snapshot. The unprecedented fourth-term election of Benjamin Netanyahu is indeed a significant event in itself. He will now go down in Israeli history as the longest serving head of government. It is the…

  • Modi’s modernity vs saffron orthodoxy

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    By Amulya Ganguli  Historian Ayesha Jalal has writen in her latest book, “The Struggle for Pakistan”, that “at the root of Pakistan’s national identity crisis has been the unresolved debate on how to square the state’s self-proclaimed Islamic identity with the obligations of a modern nation-state”. The same problem has begun to affect the reputation…

  • ‘Bibi Reveals His Duplicity’

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    By Alon Ben-Meir In a follow-up question to the statement that Prime Minister Netanyahu made during an interview with the Israeli website NRG–in which he stated that “I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory, gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel”–he was asked if that meant…

  • Temple for Godse hurts Gandhi grandson

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    The unveiling of Gandhi statue at Parliament Square in London was shadowed by a comment from Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma. Gopal,  a former diplomat and a state governor, said when Britain was honouring Mahatma with a statue at a prime spot in the capital, a section in the Indian society denigrating the father of…

  • SHOUTING AT THE WRONG PERSON

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    What is wrong with Jeremy? The Top Gear host unleashed a heap of F words on a crew member. What is going wrong with us…writes Bikram Vohra Do you know how much energy you and I expend shouting at the wrong people. We are paying a bill at a hospital and the man in front…

  • The Funny Side by Nury Vittachi

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    Be warned: We have entered the age of over-reacting A colleague accused me of having a tendency to over-react, so I have no choice but to burn down his house and curse his family for seven generations. Fair’s fair, right? I learned to respond strongly to things from a former boss who used to say…

  • Young girls must reject dangerous attractions

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    The dozens of young Muslim girls who are running off to Syria to become jihadi brides – wives of potential martyrs – are obsessed about a death cult far more sinister than any vampire or zombie fiction has to offer…writes Ustadah Khola Hasan  Despite the age of strident feminism and self-assertiveness, teenage girls are still…