Missionaries trying to create Christian belt : BJP

Ranchi: The Bhartiya Janata Party today alleged that missionaries were trying to create a Christian belt in the country through largescale conversion of the poor in the name of spreading education and health services.

Addressing a press conference here, senior BJP leader and Jharkhand state unit President Yadunath Pandey alleged that the missionaries were trying to create a Christian belt from Nagaland to Nagpur. ''The missionaries, who are enticing poor people for conversion in the name of education and healthcare, are no less than the mythical demon Taraka, who tried to kill Lord Krishna by trying to breastfeed poisonous milk to him,'' he said.

www.newkerala.com

Spiritual Prescriptions

Health is not mere absence of disease but a state of physical, mental, social, spiritual, environmental and financial well being. It is unfortunate that Allopathy does not define spirituality while spiritual health should be a part and parcel of normal health.

Spiritual health is well defined in the eastern philosophy, which includes texts like Vedas, Upanishads, Purana, Bhagwad Gita, Yoga Vashistha and Ayurveda.

In fact, many of the allopathic techniques and procedures have its origin from the Vedic text. The best description of cognitive behavior therapy and counseling comes from Bhagwad Gita which is a living example of Krishna's counseling to Arjuna when he was in acute anxiety-cum-depression with a conflict in his mind whether he should fight or not.

Vidur Neeti is a counseling given by Vidur to King Dhridarashtra when he was not getting sleep out of fear.

www.hindustantimes.com

India: Everything Gets Worse With Coca-Cola

PLACHIMADA, India - In the end it was the 'generosity' of Coca-Cola in distributing cadmium-laden waste sludge as 'free fertilizer' to the tribal aborigines who live near the beverage giant's bottling plant in this remote Kerala village that proved to be its undoing.

On Friday, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) ordered the plant shut down to the jubilation of tribal leaders and green activists who had focused more on the 'water mining' activities of the plant rather than its production of toxic cadmium sludge.

"One way or another, this plant should be shut down and the management made to pay compensation for destroying our paddy fields, fooling us with fake fertilizer and drying out our wells,'' Paru Amma, an aboriginal woman who lives in this once lush, water-abundant area, told IPS. Chairman of the KSPCB, G. Rajmohan, said the closure was ordered because the plant ''does not have adequate waste treatment systems and toxic products from the plant were affecting drinking water in nearby villages'' and that the plant ''has also not provided drinking water in a satisfying manner to local residents".

www.commondreams.org

India sends aid for New Orleans

India has dispatched an air force plane laden with 22 tonnes of relief supplies to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

India has already given the American Red Cross a donation of $5m to help relief efforts.

US officials now say that fears that up to 10,000 died in the disaster may be an overestimate.

bbc.co.uk

India's love for Made-in-China gods defines era

For centuries, devout Indian Hindus have said their daily prayers before images of their favourite gods carved out of metal or clay by village craftsmen.

Nowadays, factories in agnostic, communist China are producing Ganesha, Krishna and other Hindu idols out of plastic and porcelain at such low costs and high quality that Indians are lapping them up.

India's newfound love for mass-produced, "Made in China" images of their gods is driving many in the poorest sections of the nation's traditional idol-making industry out of business, repeating a pattern seen in its toy-making industry

www.nzherald.co.nz
www.hindustantimes.com