World's AIDS Day is Friday, December 1 -- a day commemorating the millions of lives lost to this deadly disease, reminding us of the millions suffering from HIV or AIDS, and the millions still at risk. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005 of which, more than half a million (570,000) were children.
Let these numbers sink in. They are huge. As YouthAIDS (youthaids.org) National Yoga Ambassador, Seane Corn points out, "There is no vaccine and there is no cure and the life-extending drugs that are available to us in this country are far out of reach for most of the 40 million people who currently live with HIV." She also points out some other harsh stats:
Two young people become infected with HIV every hour in the U.S.
50% of all new infections occur in young people between the ages of 15-24. Most of them don't know they carry the virus.
15 million children have been orphaned by AIDS -- that is the equivalent to every American child under the age of 5.
AIDS kills one child every minute.
What can you do? You can take action that shows you care:
The John Abraham Collection is being launched and the actor promises to wear only his brand once the clothes are out. This was an offer from international clothes brand Wrangler. "Like the Sean John collection in New York, we'll have the John Abraham Collection of clothes in Asia. The clothes are going to carry my name and signature," says John with some pride and much affection. "They'd reflect my personality and the kind of clothes that I feel comfortable wearing. I'd see no need to wear other brands because my collection would have everything that I aspire to wear." John's designers would be from Milan and London and are the same guys who design for Diesel. "This deal is being franchised through the biggest denim manufacturers in the world, who also manufacture some of the biggest jeans labels like Diesel, True Religion and Seven.” "The John Abraham Collection will come out of the same factory. The only difference is that the prices will be economised for the Asian market. A pair of jeans with my name will cost anything from Rs.2,500-4,000 in India." Women need not feel left out. "There's a ladies line-up of clothes that I went to inspect myself. They're lovely. I do know what women want," he chuckles. "This is the first time that Wrangler US has lent its name for a private clothes collection. And that's because their growth in India after I became their ambassador has been noticeable. That's why Wrangler decided to be gracious to me." John has obviously swung a very lucrative deal. "The John Abraham Collection is going to take care of a lot of things in my life in the next five years, including paying for my marriage and my honeymoon," he says. Is John sure he won't like to wear other brands once his own label comes in? "I'd be very upset with myself if I didn't find everything I want to wear within my brand.” “I want my fans to wear only John Abraham clothes. The line-up is very retro. This is one more way to connect with my fans," he adds.
Recently in The Times of India there was an article / advertisement about Pizza delivery Companies which guarantees you free pizza if they fail to deliver within the specified time (like 30 minutes). Have you ever wondered who pays for the free pizzas??
Well, the delivery boy is made to pay for the pizza. They are paid such low wages and the price of the pizza is deducted from their monthly wages which can amount to up to 60% in some months (It becomes difficult to run their family). To deliver the pizzas the delivery boys take high traffic risks as delivery becomes their priority. Their life and safety risks are neither looked into by the Pizza Shop Management nor the Pizza Delivery Boy himself. (They are more concerned to avoid the deduction from their salary).
If this type of exploitation is carried on in your city's pizza logistics we should stop availing the home delivery system, because to deliver our pizza one person may be risking his life. Is the life of an Indian citizen so cheap and of no value?
In case he is late in delivering the pizza, we are enjoying the free pizza at the hard earned money of a poor delivery boy. Is it fair or right on our part to do it?
As a human, please think and if you feel that this is wrong, please spread the message and stop having the so called FREE pizzas delivered at home.
US supermarket giant Wal-Mart is to enter the Indian retail market after announcing a joint agreement with India's Bharti Enterprises. The two companies said they had signed a deal to "jointly explore business opportunities" in India.
Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal said the two companies intended to open "several hundred" stores across India under the
Wal-Mart brand name.Wal-Mart's deal comes after Britain's Tesco ended talks with Bharti. Large overseas retailers such as Tesco and Wal-Mart are currently barred at the retail level in India, but not in the wholesale market.Bharti's agreement with Wal-Mart is likely to run into opposition from India's small shopkeepers, who currently account for the majority of retail sales, said BBC World Service economics correspondent Andrew Walker.
Why Blog? A question that non-bloggers and bloggers alike ask. Jeremy Wright and Paul Scrivens replies...
Jeremy Wright replies to a non-blogger who says blogs are useless:
Blogging's something for anyone and everyone. I can't think of anyone who can't benefit from knowing more people, never forgetting a thought again and improving on their thoughts with little or no effort.
For some blogging will be like a diary: a historical record of their thoughts at a moment in time. For others it'll be like speed-networking. You get to know people in a shallow way and then develop a relationship.
For still others it'll be something else entirely.
Paul Scrivens replies to a blogger who feels that he has nothing to add "to what is already being written about by the likes of Dan Cederholm, Didier Hilhorst, Shaun Inman, Dave Shea, Jeffrey Zeldman and other giants of usability, design, and the web": The blogosphere has a funny habit of elevating people to certain statuses based on some basic assumptions. All the people in the list (for kicks I will call them the "Fab 5") above are well respected and rightfully so because they have done something to earn it. However, to think you cannot offer something new and possibly better than those guys is an unreasonable thing for anyone to think. Look at me for example....
People like to hear what you think. People like opinions. People like to learn....
Write with passion and everything else will fall into place.
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt has been pronounced guilty in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.Dutt has been found guilty under the Arms Act and not TADA.In a major relief, Justice Kode while announcing the judgement said Dutt was not a "terrorist".According to reports, Dutt is likely to seek bail on Tuesday.The famed actor of Munnabhai fame could get a maximum sentence of three years.Bollywood has come out in open support of Dutt with director Karan Johar and actor Boman Irani welcoming the verdict."Sanjay is like family to us and it's heartening to know that the verdict is finally out. Everyone knows that Sanju is an innocent man," said Johar.The main charges against Sanjay Dutt include receiving some of the weapons used in the blasts from underworld don Abu Salem and keeping them at his residence.Dutt had actually admitted to the charges in his confession, which he made shortly after his arrest, but he later retracted the same. Meanwhile, co-accused Yusuf Nulwala and Kersi Adajania have also been found guilty under the Arms Act.
Charges Section Sentence Verdict Criminal conspiracy Section 120(B) IPC Minimum five years Acquitted Aiding and abetting terrorist acts by keeping weapons in his possesion Section 3 (3) TADA Minimum five years Acquitted Possession of arms and ammunition Section 5 (TADA) Minimum five years Acquitted Possession of arms and ammunition Sections 3,7 and 25 of Arms Act Three years Convicted Contravening provisions of Arms Act Section 6 (TADA) Five years Acquitted
Dutt's confessionIn his confession recorded on April 22,1993, Sanjay Dutt had admitted that Salem had visited his Pali Hill residence in January 1993.The actor maintained that Salem was brought to his home by Samir Hingora and Hanif Kadawala - proprietors of Magnum Video, who are close associates of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.Salem, according to Dutt, had brought three AK 56 rifles, some magazines and 250 rounds. But Dutt said he kept only one and returned two AK 56s back to Samir and Hanif. Dutt said he needed the weapons to protect his family as they had received threatening calls during the 1992 Mumbai riots.Despite repeated complaints, he said the police did not give the family any protection. But when he heard about the blasts and the arrest of Samir and Hanif, he asked his friend Nulwala to destroy the gun.
Charges: Dutt & Company Accused Charges Sanjay Dutt Received weapons from Abu Salem from consignment of arms used in Mumbai blasts Samir Hingora Took Abu Salem to Dutt's residence Ibrahim Moosa Accompanied Abu Salem, Samir Hingora to deliver arms at Dutt's residence Manzoor Ahmed Convicted of carrying arms out of Dutt's residence Zebunissa Kept at home weapons earlier hidden in Dutt's residence Yusuf Nulwala Destroyed an AK 56 rifle on Dutt's instructions Kersi Adajania Helped Nulwala destroy the AK 56 rifle in his foundry Rusi Mulla Kept Dutt's pistol at his residence. Later gave it to Marwah Ajay Marwah Acquitted of storing Dutt's pistol at home
Wi-Fi is great...when it works. Overall, Wi-Fi hotspots aren't universally reliable—in other words, I never know where I'm actually going to be able to get a signal. Thankfully, the cell phone carriers have been offering a solution that access-hungry users need to know about: 3G data cards.
For months, I have been praising—at the top of my lungs—the virtues of high-speed, 3G data cards from Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint. These cards go into the PC slot of your laptop and use the high-speed networks of cell carriers to give you broadband speeds anywhere there's a mobile signal. You can also use some PDA phones, such as the Treo 700, as an EVDO modem. If you live in a major urban area, you'll get about 10 times a dial-up connection. In more rural areas, you can still surf, but at slower speeds that are about three times a dial up connection. The easiest (though also the priciest) option is to just get one of the new laptops from Lenovo (the Thinkpad series) or Panasonic (the Toughbook 74 and the new W5, pictured), which have EVDO-capability built right in.
This means I no longer have to worry about whether there's Wi-Fi or not in the airport lounge where I'm trapped due to flight delays. I also don't have to spend the lousy $6.95 for one-hour's Wi-Fi network use, buy cards with codes on them, search around for a strong network, or any of the other countless little hassles and expenses that come with trying to get online with Wi-Fi.
It seems as though not a day goes by without a full-page newspaper ad by Sprint or Verizon advertising their Broadband Connection and BroadbandAccess services, respectively, and yet, I don't run into many people outside of tech circles who actually use these thing. And that's too bad, because they actually work. I can't say that about a lot of tech—that it actually works. My experiences with Sprint and Verizon have so far been seamless—nary a glitch and I've been using their cards for months (in fact, I'm using Sprint's card right now).
My limited experience with Cingular's card was a little less flawless. I wasn't able to get the fast speeds that I got with Sprint or Verizon during a recent airport lounge wait, but I'll follow up with a more extensive review in the future. What the Cingular cards—in particular the Option GlobeTrotter GT MAX LaptopConnect card—have over the Sprint and Verizon cards is the ability to get a signal in GSM zones with mid-speed GPRS and high-speed, 3G UMTS networks (essentially, using networks around the rest of the world except for South Korea and Japan, for those of you who want to use these cards when they travel internationally).
The next step for these cards is even more bandwidth. Good news for those who like down download video and load-up graphics-intensive sites—Verizon will be upgrading download speeds by up to 50 percent some time this fall, according to an earlier post by Chris Null. For an overview of the EVDO services, check out these posts from Becky Worley, Robin Raskin, and Dory Devlin.
It should have been Fernando Alonso’s race, but in the end Michael Schumacher’s 91st career victory earned him sufficient points to match the Spaniard’s score in the driver standings as they head for the penultimate round in Japan next weekend.
On a wet track Renault’s Alonso swept to a 25-second advantage over Schumacher in the Ferrari prior to the first set of pit stops. But then things began to go wrong for the champion. First Schumacher stayed on the same set of intermediate Bridgestones during his stop, whereas Alonso changed his Michelin front inters. The new ones did not give him anything like the performance of his originals. Then, to compound everything, a sticking right rear wheel nut in Alonso's second stop cost him at least seven seconds.
By that stage, lap 35, Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault was leading but under attack from Schumacher. The Italian made his second stop on lap 41 and was still leading when he left the pits, but then he ran wide and Schumacher, who had stopped on lap 40, pounced.
Alonso’s final set of dry tyres was back up to par, and he soon caught and passed his team mate and started to slash into Schumacher’s advantage. But that wheel-nut problem would prove decisive, and the German finished 3.1 seconds to the good, elated. Each now has 116 points, with two races left.
Nick Heidfeld should have been fourth for BMW Sauber after a great run. But the final corner proved his undoing. Jenson Button had been scrapping hard for fifth with Honda team mate Rubens Barrichello in the closing stages, when slight rain made the track treacherous. Button slid wide at one stage and fell behind McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa. He eventually recovered and repassed the Spaniard when De la Rosa made a mistake of his own, and going into the final lap Button used traffic to go round the outside of Barrichello. Going down to Turn 16 he caught Heidfeld and trapped him behind Takuma Sato's lapped Super Aguri. As Button ducked down the inside, Barrichello hit the back of the BMW and spun it, damaging his own nose.
Button thus grabbed an unexpected fourth, De la Rosa gratefully snatched fifth from Barrichello, and the unfortunate Heidfeld had to be content with seventh ahead of Mark Webber in the Williams, who earned the final point when Red Bull’s David Coulthard half spun out of eighth place on lap 49. Four laps earlier the Scot had collided with Felipe Massa there, eliminating the Ferrari driver who had been trading fastest laps with Alonso during a strong recovery drive from his back-of-the-grid start. Behind Coulthard, a single-stop run brought Tonio Liuzzi 10th for Toro Rosso, with Nico Rosberg in the Williams right alongside and Robert Doornbos also in touch in the second Red Bull.
BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica had an up and down race, getting shoved down the order early on in the opening lap melees in heavy standing water and high spray; later he was the first to switch to dries, just before the track was ready. He headed home Super Aguri’s Sato, Scott Speed in the Toro Rosso, Spyker MF1's Christijan Albers (who was also involved in the final-corner incident), and Sakon Yamamoto in the Super Aguri (who received a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags when being lapped by Schumacher).
Neither of the Toyotas finished, their only high point being a spell towards the end when Ralf Schumacher set a couple of fastest laps, Spyker MF1's Tiago Monteiro spun in Turn 1 and stalled, Massa’s rear suspension was damaged, and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, having run as high as second early on after overtaking Fisichella, dropped out with a stuck throttle.
Thus the championship fight could not be better poised as we head to Suzuka. As he said goodbye to his legion of Chinese fans, Schumacher savoured his first decent race in Shanghai and said: “Today was a little present to myself."
આ તે કંઈ જિંદગી છે ?દોડમદોડ ને ભાગમભાગઘડિયાળ ના કાંટા ને પગની ચાલઆ તે કંઈ જિંદગી છે ?ન આવે આડ ટાઢ કે તાપન દિવસ કે ન રાતઆડ આવે રૂપિયા ની માયાજાળસવાર બપોર અને સાંજઆ તે કંઈ જિંદગી છે ?નથી પડી ખાવાની કે પીવાનીન સુવાની કે ન ઊઠવાનીઆ જિંદગી ની ઘટમાળમાંરહે કામકાજ ની હારમાળઆ તે કંઈ જિંદગી છે ?નથી સગુ કોઈ નથી વહાલુંન કુટુંબ કે ન પરિવારઆજ-કાલના સંસારમાંબસ ડોલર જ છે જીવન વ્યવહારઆ તે કંઈ જિંદગી છે ?
તુ ચાલી ગઇ જીવનમાંથી તો ક્યુ આભ ફાટ્યુ?થાય છે અસર ઢેફાને પાણીથી કાળમીંઢ પીગળતા નથી.એટલી સલાહ આપી શકું બચીને રહેજે અમારાથીછીએ એક ગ્રહણ, લાગી જાય તો પછી ટળતા નથી.ભુલથી પણ સામે ન આવતી આવતા જન્મે,નનામી સાથે કદી નફરતના બીજ બળતા નથી.થોડી મુશ્કેલી પડે અને ખરી પડે એ નાજુક સિતારાઅમે એ સુર્ય છીએ જે સંધ્યા સમયે પણ ઢળતા નથી.આજે ખબર પડી પ્રેમમાં પણ લાયકાત જરૂરી છે.સરિતા જ સક્ષમ હોય, સરોવર સાગરમાં ભળતા નથી.હવે જ મારો જિંદગી સાથે સાચો ઘરોબો થયોગાંઠ બંધાઇ હતી કે ખોવાયેલા રત્નો મળતા નથી.
મીઠું-મધુરુ મલકાયો તારી યાદમાં આંસુઓથી છલકાયો તારી યાદમાં નહોતુ જવુ ફરી તારી દુનિયામાં અજાણી શક્તિથી સરકાયો તારી યાદમાં ત્રસ્ત થયો હતો સંસારના તાપથી ભર ગ્રીષ્મમાં ભીંજાયો તારી યાદમાં યાદ આવે પણ તુ ન આવે એટલે ભર વસંતમાં સુકાયો તારી યાદમાં કોની હિંમત હતી મને અડકી પણ શકે મરણતોલ ઘવાયો તારી યાદમાં દિવાનાઓના પ્રદેશનો થયો શહેનશાહ બન્યો સૌથી સવાયો તારી યાદમાં
Right around the corner from Trump Tower, Lance Armstrong jogged across Madison Avenue during rush hour, dodging a police motorcade speeding to the
United Nations, a bicyclist delivering Chinese takeout and two women in heels scrambling for the bus.
A crowded, hectic setting in midtown Manhattan, much like what he'll see in 6 1/2 weeks when he runs his first New York City Marathon. He thinks he can finish within one hour of the winner, and has done 6 1/2-minute miles in training.
But for all 26.2 miles?
"It's been harder physically than I expected," the seven-time Tour de France winner said Wednesday. "Just the pounding. The aches and pains associated with running. My hips, joints. Running is an impact sport, certainly as opposed to cycling."
"The longest run I've done, I think is 13," he said. "I better do a longer one soon. Probably not a bad idea."
The Nov. 5 race will certainly help Armstrong raise awareness and money for his foundation and cancer research. It will come a month after an important date in his life: Oct. 2 will mark 10 years since he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Armstrong is ready for something that will last well past the marathon — questions about whether he ever used performance-enhancing drugs.
"I've sort of prepared myself to deal with it for a long time," he said.
And could he envision a time when people will stop asking?
"Probably not," he said.
Drug use has been a hot-button issue in all sports, especially cycling of late. Recent Tour de France winner Floyd Landis tested positive for elevated testosterone and suspended American cyclist Tyler Hamilton is facing a new doping investigation.
Last week, Frankie Andreu and another former Armstrong teammate who spoke on condition of anonymity told The New York Times they used an endurance-booster before the 1999 Tour de France, the first of Armstrong's seven victories. Neither rider tested positive and both said they never saw Armstrong take any illegal substance.
Armstrong, who's often said he's the most tested athlete in the world, has never tested positive for drugs. Before he retired from cycling, he was subject to tests at any time — his manager said testing officials once showed up at the home of Armstrong's then-girlfriend, Sheryl Crow.
"I get lumped in with all of the stuff that happened," Armstrong said. "I mean, if something happens with.
Marion Jones or Barry Bonds or Floyd Landis or Tyler Hamilton, I get lumped into that."
Bonds, closing in on Hank Aaron's career home run record, has repeatedly denied taking steroids. A federal grand jury is looking into whether Bonds lied to another grand jury that was investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
"I have to say I understand what he's going through," Armstrong said. "I think there's probably more of an association just because of the BALCO stuff and the grand jury testimony.
"Barry is more — it seems from the outside — he's a tough character," he said. "He's not gone out of his way to try to fix the situation or make friends there."
Armstrong, instead, has vehemently refuted each allegation, either in the press or the courts.
"My impression is that people, or fans, or people potentially on the fence, they like it when you come out and fight. They like it when you say, 'No, no, no, you got it wrong, this is what is right' and you lay out the facts, again," he said.
"It's like our approach has been with these bozos that try to get sideways. We sue 'em," he said. "And we win every time."
Aamir Khan's LAGAAN directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar had reached the nominations for the best foreign film at the Oscars earlier. Now it seems again an Aamir Khan film but produced by UTV and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's RANG DE BASANTI has begun its journey towards the Oscars. Yes, RDB will be India's entry to Oscars next year
This year it was only a few films that were submitted to the Film Federation of India. Barring the Marathi BHOOK and Telugu AMMA CHEPINDI, the submission was dominated by mainstream Bollywood films.
Besides Rakeysh Mehra's RDB, the other contenders from Hindi films were Rakesh Roshan's KRRISH, Karan Johar's KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA, Naseeruddin Shah's YUN HOTA TO KYA HOTA, Rajkumar Hirani's LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI, Vishal Bhardwaj's OMKARA, and Madhur Bhandarkar's CORPORATE.
So, Aamir Khan heads to the Oscars yet again. We wish the entire team of RDB for the grand success.
A Texan went up to the airline check-in counter and boomed, "Howdy, ma'am. My name's Brown, spelled B-R-O-W-N. Ah'm from Dallas, Texas. Ah'm 6-foot 3-inches tall. Ah'm white from th' top of mah head to th' tip of mah toes, and I hate the Irish."
Well, she didn't know what else to do, so she took his ticket and showed him onto the plane.
He sat down in his seat, and turned to the fellow next to him, "Howdy, suh. My name's Brown, spelled B-R-O-W-N. Ah'm from Dallas, Texas. Ah'm 6-foot 3-inches tall. Ah'm white from th' top of mah head to th' tip of mah toes, and I hate the Irish."
The little fellow turned to him, "Well now, how d'ye do. My name is Patrick Michael O'Donnell. I'm from Dublin, Ireland. I'm 5-foot 6- inches tall, and I'm white from the top o' me head to the tip o' me toes, except for my rectum, which is brown. Spelled B-R-O-W-N."
Titanic was about to sink. People on the ship were shouting, crying, running and praying to God - just then a passenger had the following conversation with the captain.
Passenger: How far is land, from here?
Captain: Two miles...
Passenger: Only two miles, then why these fools are making noise. I have the experience of swimming even more.
Captain: .....????
Passenger: Just tell me in which direction, land is two miles from here?
A man once spent days looking for his new hat. Finally, he decided that he'd go to church on Sunday and sit at the back. During the service he would sneak out and grab a hat from the rack at the front door.
On Sunday, he went to church and sat at the back. The sermon was about the 10 commandments. He sat through the whole sermon and instead of sneaking out he waited until the sermon was over and went to talk to the minister.
"Father, I came here today to steal a hat to replace the one I lost. But after hearing your sermon on the 10 Commandments, I changed my mind."
The minister said, "Bless you my son. Was it when I started to preach 'Thou shall not steal,' that changed your heart?"
The man responded, "No, it was the one on adultery. When you started to preach on that, I remembered where I left my hat."
Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan tops a list of 50 Sexiest Asian Men in a survey conducted by Eastern Eye, an Asian newspaper published in Britain.
Abhishek, who was on number three last year, was shocked to hear he had topped the ranking in Eastern Eye's Sexiest Asian Men of 2006.
"Oh God really? That's interesting. Shocking actually. Are people blind? But wow, I would like to thank everyone. I don't agree with them but it is sweet," said Abhishek in a press statement.
Indian actress Priyanka Chopra was voted Sexiest Asian Woman of 2006 in last week's edition of the Asian tabloid.
Actor John Abraham, who won the Eastern Eye's title last year, is at number two. British Asian boxer Amir Khan is at third place, making him the sexiest male of the community in 2006 - a stunning rise from 44th place last year that reflects his boxing achievements this year.
"I am regularly informed by our female readers and staff about how 'fit' Abhishek is. He should be overjoyed. At least he can now claim to have won an honour that his legendary father has not," said Hamant Verma, editor of Eastern Eye.
Amitabh Bachchan was ranked at number 16. Other British Asians in the list include singer Jay Sean and actor Naveen Andrews.
The list was compiled by the staff at Eastern Eye, Britain's most popular Asian newspaper, and published in its Sep 22 edition.
"Abhishek was on top because of his appeal to the thinking woman. Having successfully stepped out of his father's shadows as an actor in his own right, he will surely build on that with roles in 'Umrao Jaan', 'Dhoom 2' and 'Guru' this year," said reporter Gouri Sharma, who compiled the list with colleague Anjali Mehta.
"No doubt his famous stubble will become fashionable with young Asian men across the country," added Gouri.
The top 10 sexiest Asian men are:
Abhishek Bachchan John Abraham Amir Khan Hrithik Roshan/ Dino Morea Yatin Sonic Upen Patel Arjun Rampal Saif Ali Khan Jay Sean
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has for the first time said that Pakistan's army was involved in the Kargil conflict. Pakistan has till now maintained that it's army was not involved, even though India had insisted to the contrary.
General Musharraf claims the conflict occurred because of India's attempts to find a casus belli (an event or political occurrence that brings about a declaration of war) by reporting 'make-belief attacks' from the Pakistani side.
"The Indian forces have been creeping forward since and despite the Shimla Agreement and it was because of this that the Pakistan Army decided to reinforce Pakistan’s forward positions along the Line of Control," he says in his forthcoming autobiography In Line of Fire, which will be launched by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on Monday, September 25.
"Pakistani maneuvers were conducted flawlessly with the Indians being completely oblivious of Pakistan’s new strength," he says, adding that "India’s response was a steady build-up throughout the month of May 1998."
"In international fora, India exploited the situation, which had a demoralising effect on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif," the General states. According to The Hindu newspaper, copies of the book have been leaked and that the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi has got access to excerpts of the book on chapters dealing with Kashmir, including the Kargil standoff.
Gen Musharraf has also revealed that Pakistan's nuclear capabilities were not ready in 1999, at the time of the Kargil conflict. He describes Kargil as "a landmark in the history of the Pakistan Army" as just five units “in support of freedom fighters” compelled the Indians to employ more than four divisions.
He said the withdrawal 'as no negotiation at all', but a capitulation by Sharif to demands made by US President Bill Clinton.
In a startling revelation, Musharraf claims not only was then prime minister Nawaz Sharif aware of the Pakistan army's plans and they even had a dry run before the incursions. Sharif was, in fact, involved throughout the planning and execution of the plan, adding that it was because of his (Musharraf's) personal foresight that the 'Indian plan of an offensive was pre-empted'. “He (Sharif) knew them much before he hosted Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lahore,” Musharraf claims in the book.
"I would like to state emphatically that whatever movement has taken place so far in the direction of finding a solution to Kashmir is owed considerably to the Kargil conflict,” Gen Musharraf claims.
AGRA SUMMIT
On the Agra Summit, Gen Musharraf squarely blames Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s advisers for the failure of the talks.
"I met Prime Minister Vajpayee at 11 o’clock that night in an extremely sombre mood. I told him very bluntly that there seemed to be someone above the two of us who had the power to overrule us. I also said that both of us had been humiliated. He just sat there speechless ..." Gen Musharraf claims.
He, however, describes Vajpayee as “positive and genuine,” adding that the initial flexibility displayed by Vajpayee has diminished later. "I think the Indian establishment — the bureaucrats, diplomats and the intelligence agencies and perhaps even the military -— has had the better of him."
In another chapter, Gen Musharraf conceded that it has become difficult for Pakistan to sustain its position on Kashmir when the Mujahideen in 'Held Kashmir are found guilty of terrorist activities in other parts of India and around the world... My efforts towards rapprochement with India and the significant thaw in our relations have saved Pakistan to a large extent from the blame of abetting what the world calls terrorism and what we call freedom struggle in Indian-held Kashmir,” he states.
WAR ON TERROR
On lines of his claim of a US threat to bomb Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, the military President says "had Pakistan not joined the US in the war on terrorism, it would have meant a bleak future for the country."
Pakistan took the decision to side with the US after it 'war-gamed the US as an adversary'. "Could Pakistan withstand a US onslaught? The answer was no, on three counts.
Firstly, it would have destroyed Pakistan militarily, thus wiping out the military parity it had achieved with India, the General argues.
Secondly, India would have exploited the standoff to gain 'a golden opportunity vis-à-vis Kashmir. "They might be tempted to undertake a limited offensive there; or more likely, they would work with the US and the UN to turn the present situation into a permanent status quo. The US would certainly have obliged... and India needless to say would have loved to assist the US to the hilt (in destroying Pakistan’s nuclear installations)."
Thirdly, Pakistan's unwillingness to cooperate with US would have destroyed Pakistan’s economic infrastructure.
US THREAT TO BOMB PAKISTAN
Dwelling on the post-9/11 scenario, Gen Musharraf says: "In what has to be the most undiplomatic statement ever made, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage added to what Colin Powell had said to me ("You are either with us or against us") and told the (ISI) Director-General that not only had we to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age. It was a shockingly barefaced threat, but it was obvious that the US had made up its mind to hit back and to hit back hard," he recalls.
In his book, divided into six sections, Gen Musharraf also dwells on the December 2003 attack on him, on the former PMs of Pakistan, his childhood, his family’s move from Delhi to Karachi and the future General's antics as a naughty and irrepressible schoolboy. Through much of the book Gen Musharraf is strongly critical of former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. He believes that Sharif’s personality was thoroughly crushed by his autocratic father Abbaji.
