While Indian leaders have appealed for calm after a series of co-ordinated bombings ripped through the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, leaving at least 45 people dead and more than 100 wounded, some things about the bombings make little sense, says The Independent.
“While Gujarat – whose recently re-elected Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of allowing the 2002 killings to take place – is the centre of Hindu-nationalist, or so-called ‘saffron’ politics, many of Saturday’s bombs went off in Ahmedabad’s old quarter, which has a largely Muslim population. Some were set off near a hospital.
“Indian media said the organisation (behind the attack) is believed to be a coalition of three well-known militant groups – the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat ul-Jihad-al-Islami – but there was no independent confirmation of that.
“Despite widespread speculation over the bombers’ identity, the Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, refused to point the finger of blame. Arriving in Ahmedabad yesterday, he told reporters: ‘I do not wish to blame anyone right now, this is not in my capacity … It will not be right to give you half-baked information now. After we have received all details, we will shall inform you’.”
The New York Times says: “Over the past several years, terrorist attacks in India have become an everyday presence in everyday places. The targets seem to have nothing in common except that they are ordinary and brazenly easy to strike.” More here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.