LT. COL PUROHIT: ACTS OF TERROR AND FINDING ESCAPE ROUTE

Ram Puniyani

 

In the wake of the various acts of terror and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s motor cycle being traced, it became clear that the investigating agencies are acting on the wrong thesis that ‘all terrorists are Muslims’. A Pandora’s box opened and the link of ex-ABVP activist, Pragya Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey, retired Major Upadhayay, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Swami Aseemanand came to surface. Read more…

BRUTAL ATTACK ON PRISONERS (IN SRI LANKA) BY ARMED FORCES

The defeat of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) does not seem to have ended the anti-Tamil policies of the Sri Lanka government; brutalization of Tamil prisoners is one expression of such a policy. Read more…

INDIAN MUSLIMS’ MUSHAWARAT DELIBERATES ON NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

The Milli Gazette

 

A major organization of Indian Muslims expresses its views on logistics of travel for Haj, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pundits, treatment of Muslim prisoners, terrorism, rehabilitation of Muslims in Gujarat  and other issues. Read more…

MUSLIMS HELP IN TEMPLE CONSTRUCTION IN RAMADAN IN BIHAR

IANS

 

Patna: In an example of communal harmony in India, Muslims in the holy month of Ramadan have helped in the construction of a Jain temple in Bhagalpur town of Bihar. Read more…

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: India must ensure prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into Chhattisgarh killings by security forces

Public Statement (AI Index: ASA 20/024/2012 (2 July 2012)

 

India must ensure prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into Chhattisgarh killings of  innocent Adivasis by security forces. Read more…

CARNAGE AND THE MOTIVES: ANTI MUSLIM VIOLENCE AND ANTI SIKH MASSACRE

Ram Puniyani

 

Last few months (June 2012) Narendra Modi has been much in news for his spectacular rise in BJP hierarchy and his projection as the BJP nominee for the future Prime Minister. That there is blood on the hands of Modi, carnage of 2002 Gujarat, cannot be washed off with any amount of pouring the water of ‘myth of vibrant Gujarat’. Modi-BJP is also labeled as Fascist by many social scientists-activists. On many a political debates on TV or other forum, when such charges are labeled against Modi-BJP pat comes the reply, if Modi is fascist for Gujarat carnage, what about the Congress-the anti Sikh pogrom of 1984. Its true murder is a murder, inexcusable, irrespective of who does it. In that sense Congress is also guilty of letting Anti Sikh pogrom take place right under its nose, many of its cadres-leaders instigating the riot, while the police machinery at best looking the other way round. Read more…

SETBACK IN NEPAL

Srinivasan Ramani

 

The split among the Maoists at a time when there is yet another deadlock in the Constitution writing process in Nepal is a major setback for both the democratic process as well as the left movement in that country. Read more…

A CRUEL AND UNUSUAL RECORD [of USA]

Jimmy Carter

 

Although the US has never stood for human rights except when it suites its imperialist interest, it is till significant that a former US President is raising this issue. Read more…

HIGGS-BOSON

[The article below is an unusual piece in INSAF Bulletin but is being produced because of the profound significance of recent proof the existence of Higgs-Boson. The version without photos is included in August INSAF Bulletin and the version with photographs appears as a Supplement. We thank Professor Gurtu for writing this article for the readers of INSAF Bulletin.

 

Professor Atul Gurtu is an experimental particle physicist who recently retired from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai). His name appears among the top particle physicists of the world. From 2003-2011 Prof Gurtu was the Leader and Spokesperson of the Indian team in the CMS Collaboration at CERN, Geneva. He is currently an Adjunct Distinguished Professor at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. He will be happy to explain and clarify any points on recent discovery of the Higgs-Boson and can be contacted at atul.gurtu@gmail.com

 

Of course some would claim that Higgs-Boson was known to Indians from Vedic times and its properties are mentioned in Rigveda. Editors ] Read more…

OBITUARY: CAPTAIN LAKSHMI SAHGAL (1914 – 2012) – A LIFE OF STRUGGLE

Parvathi Menon

 

“The fight will go on,” said Captain Lakshmi Sehgal one day in 2006, sitting in her crowded Kanpur clinic where, at 92, she still saw patients every morning. She was speaking on camera to Singeli Agnew, a young filmmaker from the Graduate School of Journalism, Berkeley, who was making a documentary on her life. Read more…

OBITUARY: SUNIL JANAH, 1918 – 2102

Ram Rahman

 

Sunil Janah, the seasoned photographer whose searing coverage of the Bengal Famine and vivid political portraiture of the 1940s and 1950s helped chronicle a tumultuous era in the life of India, passed away at his home in Berkeley, California, this past Thursday. He was 94. Read more…

IS THE POLITICS OF PEOPLE’S WAR RELEVANT TODAY?

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Does people’s war have a future in countries like Nepal and India? Read more…

UCPN (M) FORMALLY SPLITS; NEW PARTY NAMED ‘CPN, MAOIST’

The United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) or UCPN (Maoist), the largest party in the dissolved Constituent Assembly, has formally split with the hardliner Mohan Baidya faction announcing the new party, Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist. Read more…

FORGING A NEPAL FOR ALL ITS PEOPLE

Prashant Jha

 

Ongoing battle over the nature of federalism, is not a battle between political parties, but different social groups. Marginalised and excluded communities have come together to struggle for a federal structure that would break the hegemony of hill Hindu upper castes. Read more…

BJP, MINORITIES AND 2014 ELECTIONS

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

 

Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to woo the Muslim minority to win the 2014 General elections. But can it, given its long record of waging war against Muslims the highlights of which were the demolition of the Babri mosque and Gujarat genocide of Muslim? Read more…

GUJARAT: MYTH AND REALITY

Bhalchandra Mungekar

 

A war of words has erupted between the chief ministers of Bihar and Gujarat. Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar has slammed Narendra Modi for taking pot shots at the state’s slow socio-economic growth. The altercation began with Modi saying that caste politics has ruined states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Hitting back, Nitish has said that Modi should look at the conditions in his own state before criticising others. Read more…

ANGUISH OF KASHMIR AND THE WAY OUT

Ram Puniyani

 

Time and over again while interacting with the youth from Kashmir what comes forth straight and striking is the pain and anguish of the youth, their frustration, their realization about the brutality of the system in which they live in Kashmir. Youth from Kashmir coming to different parts of India for various meetings and interactions generally display a high level of understanding of the issues involved and are vocal about the restlessness over their present and future. What have we done to be labeled as ‘terrorists, is one of the questions on their mind and lips. Why we in Kashmir have to face the torture from different quarters, including the one from Indian army. The restlessness is so much on display that one can gauge the depth of their feeling about the role of armed players, the militants and the Indian army both in different measures. Read more…

BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF BLIND FAITH

Ram Puniyani

 

No other country produces more holy men (and some times women) with spiritual powers as a thriving business than India. Here is a story of one Nimal Baba who became a multimillionaire solving  problems of others. Read more…

THE CONVICTION OF SEEMA AZAD AND HER HUSBAND BY AN ALLAHABAD COURT

Press Release

 

The news of the sentencing of Seema Azad, along with her husband Vishwavijay Kamal, charged under Sections 121, 121A and 120B of IPC and also under the relevant provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for possessing objectionable literature, to life imprisonment by a court at Allahabad on 8 June 2012 has come as a shock to the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and thousands of human rights workers all over the country. Read more…

THE EXIT OF RANVEER SENA FOUNDER BRAHMESHWAR SINGH

(ML Update, a CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine  05 – 11 JUNE 2012

 

 

Brahmeshwar Singh, the founder of the notorious Ranveer Sena and the mastermind behind dozens of massacres perpetrated by the Sena in Shahabad and Magadh regions of Bihar between 1995 and 2000, was gunned down at Ara in the early hours of 1 June. The cremation took place in Patna on the next evening. Read more…

DE-STALINIZE MARXISM

Prabhat Patnaik

 

 

Economist and the former Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board Prabhat Patnaik has said that “the developments in Kerala over the last several days have been a source of great pain and anguish” for him and called for interventions against the twin threats of “hegemonized bourgeois liberalism” and “feudal Stalinism” preying the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in Kerala and elsewhere. Read more…

TESTY WITH TEHRAN – HINDUSTAN TIMES

Suvrat Raju

 

Last week, negotiations between Iran and a set of world powers, led by western countries, ended with no resolution except for a promise to meet again. The West wants Iran to shut down its nuclear program. Iran points out that international law grants it a right to pursue civilian nuclear activities, and that the West has failed to produce any concrete evidence linking it to nuclear weapons. Read more…

CUBA: A REGIME’S TIGHT GRIP ON AIDS

(The New York Times May 8)

 

Havana — Yudelsy García O’Connor, the first baby known to have been born with HIV in Cuba, is not merely still alive. She is vibrant, funny and, at age 25, recently divorced but hoping to remarry and have children. Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: JUSTICE BEFORE RECONCILIATION: NEGOTIATING A ‘NEW NORMAL’ IN POST-RIOT MUMBAI AND AHMEDABAD

Author:  Dipankar Gupta

 

(Routledge, New Delhi, 2011, 186 pp., Rs 595, Hard Bound, ISBN 978-0-415-61254-8)

 

Review by  Mahtab Alam Read more…

SIT ON MODI – A SPECIOUS REPORT

Vinod Mubayi

 

In the deeply distressing as well as depressingly criminal history of communal riots in independent India over the last 50 years, the pogrom in Gujarat in 2002 stands out for the sheer scale of its brutalities and the prolonged period of sustained hostilities against the minority Muslim community who constituted less than ten percent of the state’s population. Read more…

JUSTICE OR FORGIVE AND FORGET?

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

In view of what is going on in Gujarat where victims have been denied justice for more than 10 years, a debate has started that one should forgive and forget and march forward and engage oneself in economic development which is taking place there. How long the victims will keep on wailing over what happened in 2002, however disastrous it might have been. Sometime ago Maulana Vastanvi who runs several madrasas and other high level secular educational institutions also expressed similar views and advised Muslims to join the developmental stream in Gujarat and benefit from it. We might forgive but can we forget? Read more…

THE 2012 QUEBEC STUDENT MOVEMENT – 100 DAYS LATER

William Ging Wee Dere (Montreal)

 

Montreal, QC: Quebec students are boycotting classes to demand more accessibility to higher education to roll back a 75% increase in university tuition. The current strike of 250,000 Quebec students, which began February 13, 2012, has lasted over 100 days and shows no sign of abating. Read more…

THIRTY-FIRST MARCH IN MONTREAL GATHERS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE!

Roger Rashi

 

It is well past midnight of May 25 and I have been marching non-stop for the past 4 hours. There are literally tens of thousands of people marching throughout Montreal tonight ! Read more…

POLITICS THROUGH FOOD HABITS

Ram Puniyani

 

In the middle of April 2012 Osmania University (OU) witnessed an unusual violence on the issue of eating beef. A section of dalit students’ were demanding that University Hostels should have beef on the menu. They also organized a beef festival in which a large number of students ate beef biryani (a dish of rice with beef). The festivity was not to last long as the ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad), the student wing of RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh), created rampage, a student was knifed, a bus was torched and ruckus was created in the university. The Vice Chancellor of OU knelt to the aggressive cow protectors and said that beef will not be introduced in the menu. Read more…

NEPAL: MAJOR PARTIES AGREE ON 11-STATE FEDERAL MODEL

The three major political parties of Nepal, United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPN-Maoist], Nepali Congress (NC) and United MarxistLeninist (UML) together with the Madhesi Front,  reached a breakthrough on the new constitution as they agreed on 11-province federal structure along with mixed governance system. Read more…

BLACKLISTED ISRAEL MILITARY INDUSTRIES MOVES DELHI HIGH COURT

The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the defense ministry and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) on a plea by the Israel Military Industries (IMI), Israel’s state-run defense equipment supplier, seeking to set aside OFB’s decision cancelling its contract to set up a plant to manufacture an advanced propellant for artillery ammunition at Nalanda in Bihar. Read more…

RED SALUTES TO THE DEPARTED COMRADE T P CHANDRASHEKHARAN OF KERALA

T P Chandrashekharan was a popular leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, a breakaway from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM. There is strong evidence that CPM was directly or indirectly involved in this political murder; if so, it is a new low for CPM. Read more…

RESIST THE CLIMATE OF INTIMIDATION OF ACADEMIA

“We Condemn The Attempt Of Bodies Like Deoband To Encroach On Our Academic Space” – Press Statement April 27, 2012: http://www.sacw.net/article2662.html)

 

It is a matter of deep distress that a threat from Darul Uloom Deoband has forced Prabha Parmar, a research scholar at the Chaudhary Charan Singh University to change the topic of her post-doctoral research: Use of magic and realism in the major novels of Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth. Taking strong exception to the UGC’s decision to award a post-doctoral fellowship to the scholar on a topic that included Rushdie’s writings, Darul Uloom Deoband demanded “immediate remedial steps to correct the high impropriety.” Terming the award an act of ‘glorification’ of Salman Rushdie, the seminary asked for the writer to be blacklisted and for the award to be cancelled with immediate effect. Read more…

PAKISTANI PROTEST BAND LAAL USES MUSIC AND SATIRE TO TAKE MARX TO THE MASSES

A story of how Mumbai citizens welcomed this revolutionary music group from Pakistan. Read more…

INDIA’S BROKEN PROMISE: How a Would-Be Great Power Hobbles Itself

Basharat Peer

 

This article analyzes the constraints in India’s drive to become a great power. Read more…

JUDICIARY DRAWS FLAK FOR BATHANI TOLA ACQUITTAL

Mohammad Ali

 

The acquittal of 23 activists of Ranvir Sena, the upper caste militia allegedly involved in the gruesome murder of 23 Dalits at Bathani Tola in Bihar, by the Patna High Court this past week puts a question mark on the commitment of the judicial system as well as the State Government for delivering justice to the underprivileged Dalits and minorities, argued activists at a convention on “Bathani Tola Acquittal: Political Complicity and Issue of Justice in Feudal and Communal Massacres” here. Read more…

PROTEST HARASSMENT OF MADHURI KRISHNASWAMI

May 27, 2012

 

Respected Friend,

 

I am attaching a few newspaper reports on the action taken by the Madhya Pradesh Government against Ms Madhuri Krishnaswami, of the Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan [JADS]. Madhuri is my niece and I have known her since her birth. Her father, the late Air Vice Marshall Srinivas Krishnaswami, served the country with great distinction. Madhuri is a Gandhian, and giving up all comforts and career chances, she has worked tirelessly for several decades in the interests of the tribal and dalit communities of Madhya Pradesh. The government has time and again trumped up charges against her. Once when she was charged with murder, it so happened that at that very time she was on leave with her father in Bangalore, and seen by several high-ranking officers there. Corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, and their contractor cronies, who are looting forest wealth and oppressing tribals and dalits, want her out of the way. Read more…

THE AUSTERITY OF THE AFFLUENT

P. SAINATH

 

 

A rural Indian spending Rs. 22.50 a day would not be considered poor by a Planning Commission whose Deputy Chairman’s foreign trips between May and October last year cost a daily average of Rs. 2.02 lakh (app. Rs. 200,000). Read more…

MAY DAY: FROM THE HAYMARKET MASSACRE TO THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT

Lawrence M Wittner  (Professor Emeritus History, State University of New York/Albany)

 

 

Many people might be surprised to learn that the May Day celebrations that occurred around the world this week were born more than a century ago out of a struggle by American workers for the eight-hour day. Read more…

INSAF BULLETIN EXTENDS MAY 1 SALUTE TO THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD!

CPM VOWS TO CONTINUE ON ITS SUICIDAL COURSE: “DEFEAT THE CONGRESS” AND “ISOLATE THE BJP”

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

India’s communist parties might not be a decisive factor in the outcome of forthcoming parliamentary elections in 2014 but their indifference to dangers of communalism and their inability to distinguish between Congress and BJP could be a disastrous and unprecedented mistake. Read more…

ELECTORAL EQUATIONS AND SECULAR VALUES

Ram Puniyani

 

In the January-February 2012 election in UP, Congress did worse and Samajwadi Party did better than expected. The Muslims of UP played an important role in the election outcome; only a decisive return to the uncompromising secular politics of Gandhi and Nehru can restore their confidence in Congress. Read more…

A JOURNEY THAT BEGAN IN DELHI REACHES ITS CONCLUSION

The Hindu

 

In this interview with a leading journalist, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, the leader of the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal explains the reasons for a shift in Party’s policy. Read more…

BAIDYA FACTION OF NEPAL MAOISTS TAKES OUT TORCH RALLY

As expected Maoist hardliners are unhappy with the decision of the Party to allow the deployment of Nepal army in Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) area. Read more…

PLA HANDOVER DECISION HAS FOILED CONSPIRACY AGAINST PEACE, CONSTITUTION: DAHAL

UCPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Wednesday said that his party’s decision to hand over the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) cantonments to the Nepal Army put to an end to all kinds of conspiracies against peace and constitution writing process. Read more…

MANUFACTURING A RIOT

Ram Puniyani

 

It is not for the first time that Hindu supremacists manipulate anti-Muslim riots. This time it was done in the historic old city of Hyderabad. Read more…

INDIA TO RESOLVE ALL ISSUES WITH PAKISTAN

India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through dialogue but it is necessary to have an environment free of terror to move forward meaningfully, the government tells the Rajya Sabha. Read more…

WHAT PAKISTAN SHOULD DO IN AFGHANISTAN

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

Pakistani and Afghans share the same religion and ancestry and yet Pakistanis living in Kabul feel safer being identified as Indians than as Pakistanis. Political analyst Pervez Hoodbhoy explains why this is so. Read more…

WHY KARACHI BURNS AGAIN AND AGAIN

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

For a very long time Karachi has been the place of sectarian violence, contributed by various factors. What turned an idyllically clean and peaceful city of earlier decades into today’s hell-hole? Hoodbhoy explains why. Read more…

WHEN MANMOHAN SINGH COMES TO ISLAMABAD

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

Once again the heads of Pakistan and India visit each other’s terrain with promises of peace and friendship. What is behind this noble, important and welcome gesture? Read more…

THE EXTREME MAKEOVER OF INDIA’S (POSSIBLE) NEXT LEADER

Parvez Ahmed

 

Narendra Modi, the orchestrator of anti-Muslim carnage of February 2002 is being portrayed as a man of the future; what is behind all this? Read more…

AN AMERICAN CITY COUNCIL PASSES RESOLUTION CONDEMNING 2002 GUJARAT RIOTS

Press Trust of India (Mar 29, 2012)

 

 

Washington: A US City Council has passed a resolution condemning the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat and expressed concern over the “denial” of justice for the victims. The resolution, passed this week by the City Council of Harvey, Illinois, expressed solidarity with the victims, including those who died in the Godhra train fire on February 27, 2002. Read more…

CHRISTIAN COUNCIL CONDEMNS SAUDI GRAND MUFTI CALL FOR DESTRUCTION OF CHURCHES IN WEST ASIA

(Press statement, New Delhi, March 29, 2012)

 

The All India Christian Council has condemned the call by Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah that it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.” Read more…

MAMATA BANERJEE OF WEST BENGAL IS DOING WHAT SHE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD AT

KOLKATA: “Smile in the face of adversity” seems to be the message of singer-turned-rebel Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman, who has penned a song mocking the West Bengal government after a Jadavpur University professor was arrested for group mailing a cartoon featuring chief minister Mamata Banerjee, railway minister Mukul Roy and Trinamool MP Dinesh Trivedi. Read more…

JOURNALISTS, ANALYSTS URGE LEADERS TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT PEACE

South Asian Media Net

 

Speakers at a seminar on April 18, 2012 called for complete demilitarization of Siachen Glacier and making it a tourism spot and peace park to promote harmony in the region. Read more…

A SHORT STORY: A LONG OVERDUE APOLOGY

Yoginder Sikand

 

The old man shook his head and answered, in a language I could barely understand. ‘No, sir, I’ve never heard of “India”.’ Read more…

ANAND PATWARDHAN’s LATEST DOCUMENTARY JAI BHIM COMRADE; A FILM WITH A DIFFERENCE

Priyanka Borpujari

 

 

(It took 14 years to make the 200-minute-long documentary “Jai Bhim Comrade” on Dalits. Director Anand Patwardhan explains why?) Read more…

APPEAL TO SUPPORT KOLKATA-BASED WEEKLY FRONTIER

Over the past 40 years many of you have had a chance to associate with and support Frontier, the weekly paper founded by Samar Sen in Calcutta. It is now available also as a webzine. Read more…

IMPLICATIONS OF THE RECENT ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS IN INDIA

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Although the performance of Congress in the Assembly elections in five states including the most populous state of UP  were far from impressive, state elections still reflect regional and not national concerns. Congress can still hope to win the parliamentary elections due in 2014 and prevent Hindutva forces represented by Bhartiya Janata Party coming to power. Read more…

INDIA, IRAN, ISRAEL, AND THE U.S.

Vinod Mubayi

 

 

Despite the travails of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) regime in India, which makes it appear as a battered boxer barely hanging on to the ropes, it has discovered a rare backbone in itself by adopting an independent stance geared to India’s interests with regard to the crisis brought about by the sanctions imposed on Iran by the U.S. and Western Europe coupled with Israeli threats to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. Read more…

TEN YEARS AFTER ‘GUJARAT’: THE MAN ACCUSED OF SANCTIONING IT IS POISED TO BECOME INDIA’S PRIME MINISTER

Stephanie Nolen

 

Crouched beside her husband waist deep in a rooftop water tank at 2 in the morning, Anjuman Bano listened to her Hindu neighbours debate. Would they smuggle the pair to safety? Or toss them to the mob howling for Muslim blood below? Read more…

GUJARAT: STATEMENT OF HONORABLE JUSTICE HOSBET SURESH

Sabrang Trust/ Citizens for Justice and Peace

 

How does one live with the recurring memories of a gruesome past? Of the hideous acts of mass murder, rape and destruction of properties and livelihood? We have recorded all such stories, as each one, the victims, and all kith and kin of the dead, narrated with tears in their eyes and with no hope of any future, in our report, Crime Against Humanity. Read more…

MUSLIMS ARE GUJARAT’S NEW OUTCASTES: SURVEY

Roxy Gagdekar

 

The 2002 communal riots not only drove Muslims into new ghettos all over the state, they also reduced them to the status of second-class citizens who do not seem to exist for the government. This is the finding of a city-based NGO, Janvikas, which conducted a survey on the status of the minority community in the state after the riots. Read more…

GUJARAT 2002: WHAT JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS?

Christophe Jaffrelot

 

Ten years after the 2002 violence, the results of judicial  proceedings have been very few in Gujarat. Read more…

TEN YEARS OF GUJARAT CARNAGE, CITIZENS COURTED ARREST IN AHMEDABAD

DEMANDING AMAN- EKHLASH-INSAAF

 

March 9, 2012: Today Movement for Secular Democracy (M.S.D.) and Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties organized a very spirited demonstration at Paldi Cross Road for Peace, Harmony and Justice in the state as a part of remembering of 10 years of Gujarat Carnage-2002 and the leading citizens of Gujarat courted arrest defying the police. Read more…

SPIRITED DEMONSTRATION IN NEW YORK ON 10th ANNIVERSARY OF GUJARAT POGROM

Vinod Mubayi

 

New York’s Union Square, a traditional arena for progressive groups, witnessed a spirited demonstration on March 3 commemorating the 10th anniversary of the pogrom when over 2000 Muslims were mercilessly massacred in Gujarat, the state often labeled as the “laboratory” of Hindutva and ruled by the BJP for a long time. Read more…

SAVING FACE – WITH GRACE

Kiran Omar

 

Pakistani Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won an Oscar for her documentary on the despicable practice of disfiguring women by throwing acid on their faces as an assertion of male supremacy and the efforts of a team of Pakistani and British doctor to  restore their dignity. Read more…

THE SHAFIA TRIAL: A QUESTION OF ASSIMILATION

Tamkinat Mirza

 

Afghan immigrant to Canada Mohammed Shafia with the complicity of his son and second wife orchestrated the murder of his  three daughters—Zainab (19), Sahar (17) and Geeti (13), as well as his first wife Rona Amir Mohammad,  just because they violated strict family discipline. This medieval concept of family honor is not  uncommon among  South Asians and needs social disapproval. Read more…

NINE HUNDRED FORTY-THREE WOMEN ‘KILLED FOR HONOUR’ IN 2011

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

 

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)’s annual report, many people became victims of extrajudicial killing in 20111. Read more…

THE NORM OF THE PATRIARCH

Ram Puniyani

 

Hindu fascist organization Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) claims to build moral character but its cadre who now occupy important positions in governments in many parts of India including Karnatka were caught displaying  lowest levels of conduct during the Assembly session. RSS’s political wing  Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is busy doing damage control. Read more…

BRINGING BACK WHAT’S OURS

Arun Kumar

 

It is very likely that Indians hold over  $500 billion of illegal money abroad. What are the facts and how to retrieve this asset, which indeed belongs to the people of India? Read more…

FIGURES BUST MYTH INDIA’S BUREAUCRACY IS “BLOATED”

Praveen Swami

 

Contrary to popular view, India does not have a high ratio of public servants relative to its  population except in  the conflict-torn or border regions. Read more…

THE SRI LANKAN CASE: RHETORIC, REALITY AND NEXT STEPS?

Centre for Policy Alternatives

 

The plight of Tamil civilians and  surviving LTTE  recruits represents on of the horrors of wars of attrition. Both the democratic forces of Sri Lanka and the world over have been urging the Sri Lanka government to abide by the internationally recognized norms of human rights. However, the steps taken by the government of Sri Lanka to restore basic rights of Tamil civilians have been too little and  recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission(LLRC)  have not been implemented. Read more…

SRI LANKA: AWAKENING CALL FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

The resolution introduced by Human Rights organizations of  40 co-sponsoring countries calling  upon the government of Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) has been approved by a majority. Read more…

MADNESS IS NOT THE REASON FOR THIS MASSACRE

Robert Fisk

 

 

The massacre of 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, near Kandahar by 38-year-old staff sergeant is being dubbed as an action of a  “deranged” soldier  rather than a manifestation of the policy of NATO against a poor country. Read more…

DON’T NORTHWOODS IRAN

Jacob G. Hornberger

 

America and its allies hyped American for the need to attack Iraq; now they are doing the same for an attack against Iran. In the first case it was the questions of weapons of mass destruction and now a scare is being created about Iran developing nuclear weapons. Read more…

LIVES OF MILLIONS HINGE ON SUPREME COURT’S RULING ON GENERIC DRUGS

Daya Varma

 

India’s generic drugs are a life-line for millions of sick in India and Africa because they are a lot cheaper than the brand name drugs sold by the giant pharmaceutical companies. For example, India’s generic anti-AIDS drug cost $120 per patient per year in contrast to the same drug, with brand name, which costs $1200 per year. Read more…

US SPECIAL FORCES STATIONED IN NEPAL

Rajan Pokhrel

 

Kathmandu: A top Pentagon Commander has said that the United States has stationed its Special Forces team of the US Pacific Command in Nepal to contain violent extremist forces. Read more…

LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA BY EMINENT DEVELOPMENT ECONOMISTS

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India (March 12, 2012)

 

Dear Prime Minister,

 

We welcome the tabling of a National Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha as an important step towards the elimination of hunger and under-nutrition in India. However, we feel that the Bill in its current form has some serious shortcomings. We are writing to propose a simpler and more effective framework for the Public Distribution System (PDS), which requires only minor amendments of the Bill. Read more…

SLAIN INDIAN POLICE SERVICE OFFICER HONORED

Aligarh Alumni Association (DC, USA) honors AMU alumnus, slain IPS officer, Narendra Kumar Singh by establishing a scholarship in his name. Read more…

CPI (ML) SEVERELY CONDEMNS ABDUCTION OF TWO ITALIAN TOURISTS BY MAOISTS

The abduction of two Italian tourists by  the Communist Party of India (Maoist) [CPI-Maoist] is yet another example  of  diverting  people’s attention from the crises faced by the ruling system. Read more…

ARREST OF THE JOURNALIST S.M. KAZMI PROTESTED

All India Left Coordination’s Statement

 

The arrest of senior journalist Syed Mohammed Kazmi in connection with the attack on an Israeli diplomat’s wife last month is condemnable, based as it is on accusations that carry little credibility. Read more…

MUSLIM COMMUNITY LEADERS CONDEMN JOURNALIST KAZMI’S ARREST

Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims

 

New Delhi, 7 March 2012: Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims (CCIM), after an emergency meeting here at the Jamaat-e Islami Hind headquarters this evening, forcefully condemned the arrest of Journalist Muhammad Ahmad Kazmi by Delhi Special Police. Read more…

OBITUARY: MADELEINE PARENT (1918-2012)

Rima Elkouri

 

I see her, once again, at 82 years of age, taking the microphone so as to encourage thousands of women gathered in front of Place des Arts to continue taking up the struggle. I had imagined a giant. I saw a frail, soft-spoken old lady appear. But one shouldn’t judge by appearances. Activist Madeleine Parent, who left us this week, was a real giant whose courageous voice has marked history. Her legacy is immense. Read more…

MADELEINE PARENT (1918-2012)

Rick Salutin Columnist

 

During the Cold War, rumours were spread that she was Russian. Read more…

OBITUARY: PETER NOVICK (1935-2012)

Dennis Hevesi

 

Peter Novick, a history professor at the University of Chicago who stirred controversy in 1999 with a book contending that the legacy of the Holocaust had come to unduly dominate American Jewish identity, died on Feb. 17 at his home in Chicago. He was 77. Read more…

PETER NOVICK 77: AN APPRECIATION

Michael Berenbaum

 

 

Peter Novick argued that the Holocaust had been overemphasized in American culture and manipulated by prominent Jewish organizations to preclude any criticism of Israel’s  policy toward the Palestinians. He asserted that it was used to strengthen Jewish identity by making a long-defeated enemy central to that identity at precisely the point when Jews have gained full acceptance in American national life. Novick saw this as a fixation that allowed Jews to see themselves as oppressed when they have, in fact, become privileged. Read more…

OBITUARY: Dr. GOPAL MOHAN BHATNAGAR 1937- 2012

Zafar Iqbal

 

Rahe.n naa rahe.n ham, mahka kare.n gey…

[Whether I am around or not I shall be like a fragrance in the air] Read more…

INSAF Bulletin 118-119

February, March 2012

GUJARAT: TEN YEARS OF SHAME, NO END YET IN SIGHT

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

Ten years ago in Gujarat, several thousand Muslims were brutally killed; their properties torched while many more were driven from their homes and forced to live for years in squalid refugee camps.  As has become the hallmark of the Indian justice system, the main perpetrators of this atrocity, amounting almost to genocide, have remained unpunished and continue to enjoy all the perks of power.  Ironically, the principal targets of the perverted legal system in the state were initially the victims themselves.  Over 90 Muslims in Godhra were arrested soon after the fire in the coaches of the Sabarmati express that killed 57 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya. Read more…

AN APPEAL BY CONCERNED CITIZENS ON GUJARAT CARNAGE

We, the undersigned members of civil society, were aghast to learn from newspaper reports that RK Raghavan, the head of the Special Investigative Team (SIT), is planning to file a closure report, and has no intention of filing charges against Narendra Modi and his co-conspirators for being allegedly complicit in the horrific massacre in Gujarat in 2002 which resulted in the death of over a thousand innocent citizens and extensive destruction of private and public property. Read more…

A DECADE OF GUJARAT CARNAGE

Ram Puniyani

 

India has witnessed many acts of communal violence. Starting from the Jabalpur riot of 1961 to the last major one of Kandhmal (August 2008). Many an innocent lives have been lost in the name of religion. Amongst these the Gujarat carnage is a sort of marker. It came in the backdrop of massive Anti Sikh pogrom of 1984, the anti Muslim violence of post Babri demolition and the horrific burning of Pastor Graham Steward Stains in Kandhmal. It was a quantitative and qualitative departure from the other major carnages which have rocked the country. Read more…

GUJARAT AUTHORITIES MUST FACE JUSTICE OVER MASS KILLING

The persistence of Zakia Jafri in her fight for the truth after her husband was murdered is in the interests of all Indians.

 

Savitri Hensman

 

A magistrates court in Gujarat has postponed a decision on whether a dossier on the horrific murder of a former MP and 68 others should be disclosed to his widow and others. Despite mounting evidence, a special investigation team had urged that no charges be brought against the state authorities, including chief minister Narendra Modi, for their alleged role in the killings, and that the report be kept secret. The team was ordered to submit all papers to the court by 15 March. This landmark case is not only about justice for the victims but also about whether the Indian constitution and rule of law apply in Gujarat. Read more…

REMEMBERING GUJARAT

According to information available to us the following programs have been organized concerning Gujarat anti-Muslim carnage. Read more…

THE GREATEST THREAT TO INDIA: CHILD MALNUTRITION

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Aarti Dhar reported in the Hindu (January 11, 2012) the findings of a survey by Naandi Foundation. The survey found that 42 percent of Indian Children are malnourished. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it “a national shame’; that is true but he forgot to add that this is the gravest threat to India’s future as well. Read more…

RESERVATION: A FAIR DEAL FOR MUSLIMS

P.S. Krishnan

 

No one can complain that too much has been given to the minorities, in particular Muslims, through the sub-quota for B.Cs among the minorities. Read more…

STIFLING THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: BEYOND THE OBVIOUS

Ram Puniyani

 

The state refusal to let Salman Rushdie attend the Jaipur Literary Festival is being used to spread anti-Muslim climate. Read more…

WHY ARE PAKISTANI STUDENTS SCIENCE-PHOBIC?

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

School syllabi demand it, but even then few young Pakistanis want to study science subjects and still fewer want to become scientists. Many generations have found science so odiously dull that they are now indifferent – even hostile – to a subject that stands at the very pinnacle of human understanding and progress. While some of our better students will be reasonably successful in science-related professions such as engineering, medicine, and information technology, their poor science backgrounds will leave them ill-equipped for pushing the frontiers of these rapidly evolving fields. Read more…

AFGHANISTAN: WEST’S ROMANCING OF THE TALIBAN

Praveen Swami

 

People of Afghanistan will pay the price for the West’s looming deal with the Islamic Emirate it destroyed after 9/11. Read more…

INDIA SEEKS BOOST IN SAUDI ARABIA CRUDE OIL SUPPLY

Rakesh Sharma and Santanu Choudhury

 

India has asked Saudi Arabia, its largest crude oil supplier, to augment daily shipments by up to 100,000 bbl each year over the next few years to meet expanding refining capacities at home, Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy said Thursday. Saudi Arabia exported 547,236 bpd to India last fiscal year. Read more…

INDIA, PRAISING U.S. TIES, DEFENDS BUYING IRAN’S OIL

Jim Yardley

 

New Delhi – Ranjan Mathai, the Indian foreign secretary, made the rounds in Washington last week, describing India’s relationship with the United States as one of growing comfort, depth and candor, if not perfect harmony. Read more…

THE MASK IS OFF: TEAM ANNA AND HIS LIEUTENANTS ARE BATTING FOR THE BJP

Dhirendra K Jha

 

On 30 October last year, when Mohan Bhagwat claimed that Anna Hazare’s  anti-corruption movement was actually supported by the RSS, the remark  conveyed palpable nervousness and attracted criticism from Team Anna. Read more…

STRONG WATCHDOG INSTITUTIONS IN A WEAK DEMOCRACY MAKE FOR A TALL ORDER

Arun Kumar

 

The Lokpal Bill failed to become law in 2011. The Lok Sabha passed it after some acrimony, but the Rajya Sabha did not even vote on it. Three views emerged during the debate inside and outside Parliament. First, it is a weak Bill not worth passing in its present form. Secondly, it is better to have some sort of Lokpal even if it is not what it ought to be. Lastly, the Bill would create a monstrous institution that will undermine Indian democracy, especially as it would affect the functioning of legislators and the Prime Minister. Read more…

PATHWAY TO HINDU RASHTRA

Ram Puniyani

 

Recently (December 2011) M.P. Government’s Gau-Vansh Vadh Pratishedh (Sanshodhan) Act (Bill for Protection of Cow Progeny) got the Presidential clearance. As per this act punishment for slaughtering the cow or its progeny, transporting them to slaughter house, eating and storing beef, is punishable with a fine of R 5000 and prison term up to seven years.  States like Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh already have laws against cow slaughter, while Orissa and Andhra Pradesh permit the killing of cattle other than cows if the animals are not fit for any other purpose. Read more…

MALEVOLENT MAMATA AND THE DANCE OF DEATH IN WEST BENGAL

The tragic stories of Safar, Vikram and others like them typify the plight of peasants and workers in post-“change” Bengal. In the case of starving transport workers, the blatantly irresponsible policy of the state government is directly to blame. As for the distressed peasants who are helpless victims of a deep agrarian crisis generated by successive governments at state and central levels, the TMC-led  government has betrayed a total lack of political will to help them out. Read more…

BANGLADESH: COUP BID REVEALS EXTREMISM WITHIN ARMY

Analysis by Naimul Haq

 

Dhaka, Feb 2, 2012 (IPS) – Bangladesh’s army has won paludits as leading United Nations peacekeepers, but the January coup attempt against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has exposed lurking religious extremism within its ranks. Read more…

SRI LANKA: PRACTICAL STEPS TO MEANINGFUL RECONCILIATION – JOINT STATEMENT BY CONCERNED CITIZENS

17th February 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

Several valuable recommendations are contained in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s (LLRC) Report and they are all the more compelling because they have issued from a Presidential Commission. In pursuance of this, we the undersigned call upon the government of Sri Lanka, in consultation with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the leadership of the Muslims, to take steps to implement the recommendations. In this statement we have highlighted certain important recommendations. The government is morally bound to implement the proposals of its own commission or otherwise stand indicted of a lack of sincerity. Read more…

SOUTH ASIA: ONWARD TO A BETTER TOMORROW

Pritam K. Rohila

 

 

Most South Asian nations are currently struggling with internal tensions, some more serious than others. But at the same time they are reaching out to their neighbors to find solutions to their problems. Read more…

NEWS BRIEFS

Some news in brief from South Asia. Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: THE MARKET FOR HUMAN ORGANS

Amal Joseph

 

Book: The Red Market by Scott Carney; Hachette Book Publishing India, 2011; pp xvi + 254, Rs 550.

 

Scott Carney chooses an unusual trade to write about – that of human body parts. From a single cell the human egg to a fully grown child, everything is up for sale in the global red market and Carney documents each one of them in great detail. The usual laws of trade apply to human organs too, except that the seller is always poor and the buyer is always rich and both of them are desperate for different reasons and the middleman slices off a huge amount of money while the soft bureaucracy and the law enforcers look the other way. Read more…

ANNOUNCEMENT

South Asia: Beyond Boundaries, Building Solidarities (South Asia Solidarity Initiative Six-Week Course). Read more…

OBITUARY: HAR GOBIND KHORANA (1922–2011)

Uttam L. Raj Bhandary

 

Har Gobind Khorana, who died on 9 November 2011 at the age of 89, was a pioneer and a visionary. That someone with such a humble background could rise to become an icon of molecular biology is a testament to his extraordinary drive, discipline and striving for excellence. Read more…

WE HOPE 2012 BRING SOME RELIEF TO THE OPPRESSED AND MARGINALIZED OF SOUTH ASIA!

SLOW MARCH TOWARDS A HINDU INDIA

Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma

 

Independent India’s leaders declared that the country belonged equally to all its citizens; Jinnah said the same thing for Pakistan on the eve of its independence. Unlike Pakistan, which declared itself an Islamic republic, India did not change its stated objective of secularism but neither did it take firm steps to ensure that this objective was realized in practice.. There are many victims of this failure but Muslims, the largest single religious community after Hindus  are its worst victims as is clear from  the article” Persistent Exclusion of Muslims in India” by Ayesha Pervez in this issue of the Bulletin. Read more…

PERSISTENT EXCLUSION OF MUSLIMS IN INDIA

(www.infochangeindia.org: December 13, 2011)

 

India’s Human Development Report 2011 cites only a minuscule improvement in the socio-economic status of Muslims in India compared with other excluded groups. Read more…

MEDIEVAL ARABIC WRITING IN INDIA

Vinod Mubayi

 

In contemporary understanding in India, which is derived mostly from what is taught as history in schools, the interaction of India with Arab-Muslim countries after the advent of Islam is depicted purely in a one-sided way, as one of conquest, loot, and plunder.  No one denies the presence of conquest and loot in history but it is hardly unique to India or the Arab countries. Read more…

BEHENJI: THE PRAGMATIST POLITICIAN

Ram Puniyani

 

With elections looming over Uttar Pradesh horizon, recently (Nov 2011) UP Chief Minister Mayawati declared that her cabinet has approved the proposal to divide the UP state into four smaller states. She declared that only a dalit-OBC Chief Minister should be able to solve the problems of dalit-OBCs. Read more…

INDIA’S INCOME INEQUALITY HAS DOUBLED IN 20 YEARS

(7 Dec, 2011, 09.40AM IST, TNN: Supplied by Sukla Sen)

 

 

New Delhi: Inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the last two decades, making it the worst performer on this count of all emerging economies. The top 10% of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, up from a ratio of six in the 1990s. Read more…

ALTERNATIVE SPACES

Shumita Didi Sandhu

 

 

“Our home had always been a space open for all our parent’s friends, our friends and everyone in between! It was peopled at all times with very old relatives, some comrades who were passing through, writers, poets, musicians, singers, painters, .theatre people,  even dancers who may be using the space for a rehearsal, mehfil, informal exhibition. Read more…

SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY’S HARVARD UNIVERSITY SUMMER SCHOOL CANCELLED

Radhika Jain and Kevin J. Wu (CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS,  December 07, 2011, Supplied by Sukla Sen)

 

 

A  vote for the approval of the 2012 Summer School course catalog, which faculty acknowledged would normally take no more than one minute, generated a heated debate when Comparative Religion Professor Diana L. Eck proposed an amendment to exclude Swamy’s Economics S-110 and Economics S-1316 from the catalog. Read more…

CRPP LED BY SAR GEELANI A MAOIST FRONT ORGANISATION, SAYS THE GOVERNMENT

(PTI December 7, 2011)

 

Government Wednesday named Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) led by Delhi University teacher SAR Geelani, who was acquitted in Parliament attack case, as a CPI(Maoist) front organisation. The reference to CRPP as a Maoist front organisation came in a written reply in Rajya Sabha by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs. Read more…

PERSECUTION OF MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN, NEVER ENDS EVEN AFTER DEATH

(European Organization for Pakistani Minorities: www.eopm.org;  December  7, 2011)

 

Even in death, the Ahmadiyya community faces persecution. In a gruesome incident late Saturday night, 29 graves in an Ahmadi graveyard were desecrated in Dunyapur; district Lodhran, around 100 kilometres away from Multan. Read more…

INDIAN ‘REPUBLIC KILLING ITS OWN CHILDREN’

Bernard D’Mello

 

Kishenji Fought for a Better World. Read more…

OBITUARY: David Montgomery

The Guardian  Sunday 11 December 2011

 

David Montgomery’s practical experience of industrial relations – rare among American academics – came from the time he spent in the 1950s as an industrial organiser for the Communist party. Read more…

HINDUTVA’S NEW OUTREACH

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) was born in 1925 on the principle that ‘Hinduism is nationalism’.  In the eighty-six years since its founding it has traversed numerous paths – all leading to the fulfillment of this formulation. Read more…

SHRI SRI RAVISHANKAR AND ART OF POLITICS

Ram Puniyani

 

AS ELECTIONS in Uttar Pradesh are nearing, so is the number of travels by spiritual gurus. These gurus are giving their discourses against corruption. (November 2011). The major ones amongst them are Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Sri Sri). Sri Sri has shared space with Anna and played a considerable role when the government had arrested Anna. Sri Sri came to play the role of an interlocutor between Anna and his followers, during his prison stint. As if by a divine design, yoga guru Ramdev and Sri Sri have suddenly realized this menace of corruption and have plunged themselves head long into the anti-corruption movement. Read more…

MAMATA B’S NAPOLEON COMPLEX–TIME TO BE CONCERNED

Trevor Selvam, Chennai

 

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress replaced the Left Front government, which had been in power for the last  three decades. Her victory was made possible by shortcomings of the Left Front government but more importantly because of large scale opposition of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the leading force behind the Left Front Government  by left intellectuals as well as the Communist Party of India (Maoist) who are engaged in armed struggle in many Adivasi areas and whose leader Kishenji was recently killed in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee’s government has now, as was to be expected, unleashed a rule of terror. Read more…

RUINING INNOCENT LIVES: GUILT OF INVESTIGATION AGENCIES

Ram Puniyani

 

 

Nine youth accused in Malegaon blast case of 2006 have been granted bail by the MCOCA court. (Nov 6 2011). These Muslim youth were arrested after the bomb exploded on the Shab-e-Barat, killing several people. Immediately after that the Anti Terrorist Squad  arrested nine Muslim youth, there was really no evidence worth its name against them. Still police which is, motivated more by biases than by professionalism, arrested these Muslims youth. Read more…

FREEDOM OF PRESS AND JUSTICE KATJU

(socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com)

 

Justice Markandey Katju is making a very relevant point about the behaviour of media. The media has been taking more interest in trivial issues that entertain the elite like the Formula 1 race or trivia about Bollywood personalities. It has by and large ignored serious issues like conflicts, adverse impact of globalization on the large sections of Indian people, corporate greed and corruption, etc. If Media is non-entertaining, it is covering issues that catch the fancy of Middle-class like the disproportionate coverage given to Anna Hazare Movement for days without end as if there were no other issues concerning the people of India. Read more…

ISHRAT JAHAN: MURDER IN COLD BLOOD

Ram Puniyani

 

Ishrat Jahan’s murder in Gujarat is yet another instance of death during fake encounters of Muslim youth by Narendra Modi’s government. Read more…

NEPAL: PARTIES CRACK ENDLESS DEADLOCK

In a much awaited breakthrough in the peace process, the political parties in Nepal arrived at a consensus following hectic talks held in Baluwatar Tuesday evening. Read more…

THE RICHNESS OF THE RAMAYANA, THE POVERTY OF A UNIVERSITY

(The Hindu: Opinion October 8, 2011)

 

‘What people don’t recognize is that the story of Ram, what we call the Ram Katha, extends over a huge historical period.’  – Diana De Selliers Read more…

UNRAVELLING THE TRUTH: BOOK REVIEW

Ram Puniyani

 

(Book Reviewed: Godse’s Children- Hindutva Terror in India, Pharos Media, Delhi, Pages 400, Rs 360, Pb)

 

Terrorist violence has been one of the major problems of recent times. This phenomenon came to popular notice more so after the 9/11 attack on WTC, which was followed by, apart from other things, popularization of the terms ‘Islamic Terror’, ‘Jehdi terror’. Read more…

LIBYA RECOLONISED

Aijaz Ahmad

 

Libya is the first country that the Euro-American consortium has invaded exclusively on the pretext of human rights violations. Read more…

MARCH IN NEW YORK AGAINST MILITARY REPRESSION IN EGYPT

Friday Nov. 25 witnessed a spirited march by some 500 people against military repression in Egypt that has led to at least 40 deaths and 2000 serious injuries in the last week especially in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Read more…

OBITUARY: John McCarthy (1927-2011)

John Markoff (NY Times October 25, 2011)

 

[We are reproducing this obit not only because John McCarthy was a great scientist but also because of two other reasons: 1. In late 1970’s some of us used to produce a monthly magazine New India Bulletin and one of us (Daya Varma) used to go to Boston to have the material type set by Deepak Kapur using MIT computer with which McCarthy’s name is associated. 2. McCarthy comes from a communist family. Ed.) Read more…

THIS ISSUE OF INSAF BULLETIN IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF COMRADE GURSHARAN SINGH, THE ICON OF REVOLUTIONARY THEATRE IN INDIA

WALL STREET IS OCCUPIED, WHY NOT DALAL STREET?

Vinod Mubayi

 

As a potent symbol of global capitalism, the one surprising fact about the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is that it was so long in coming, a full three years after the excesses of the major investment houses and their high flying tycoons, the so-called Masters of the Universe, caused a severe downturn of the U.S. economy and threw it into a recession from which it is yet to recover. Read more…

GURSHARAN SINGH: THE BERTOLT BRECHT OF INDIA

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The Communist Party of India (CPI) was at the heart of initiating a revolutionary cultural movement in pre-independence  India through IPTA (Indian People’s Theatrical Association) and PWA (Progressive Writers’ Association), which produced such great writers, poets, and artists as Munshi Premchand, Ismat Chugtai, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Balraj Sahani and numerous others. The decline in the communist movement naturally resulted in a dissipation of the revolutionary cultural movement but it never quite ended. Of the ones who carried this torch, the name of Gursharan Singh will always be remembered. Read more…

PAKISTAN: AN INCURABLE DISEASE?

Murtaza Haider

 

Given the brutal violence against the Shias in Pakistan over the past three decades, Shias have started to wonder if there is a future for them in Pakistan. Read more…

A VISION FOR NEPAL-INDIA RELATIONS

The Hindu (Opinion, October 19, 2011)

 

From Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Prime Minister of Nepal

 

The major thing is to build trust between our two countries, two governments, and two peoples. Read more…

NEPAL DEMANDS COMPLETE DISARMAMENT OF ALL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

 

 

(http://nepalnews.com/archive/2011/oct/oct07/news07.php) Supplied by Sukla Sen

 

Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations, Gyan Chandra Acharya has said that Nepal consistently advocates for general and complete disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction including biological, chemical, nuclear, radiological weapons in a time bound manner. Read more…

NEPAL: PARTING YOUR WAYS, COMRADES?

[In these comments on the commonly-recognized factional schism within the Nepali Maoist party, UCPN(M), this writer for the Nepali bourgeois newspaper Republica traces the path toward a split–and raises tactics which may prevent or postpone it further. — Frontlines ed.] Read more…

ANNA [HAZARE] IS THE ICON OF BANAL HINDUTVA

Jyotirmaya Sharma (Mail Today, Oct 17, 2011)

 

The ethical compass of his followers is skewed.

 

Does Anna Hazare have an ideology? Despite the surfeit of emotion that Hazare generates, this is a legitimate question that ought to be asked, understood and answered. That he is no democrat in the sense the word ‘ democracy’ is normally understood is a foregone conclusion, something that even his most vocal admirers would admit. He brings to debate and discussion the rigour and predictability of a military drill. His model of rule, governance and statecraft is that of undiluted paternalism, something even his secret admirers would admit. Read more…

CASH-FOR-COVERAGE TAKES THE FIZZ OUT OF ADVANI’S YATRA

Mahim Pratap Singh (The Hindu, Bhopal October 14, 2011)

 

A cash-for-coverage scandal has taken the fizz out of BJP leader L.K.Advani’s ambitious Jan Chetna Yatra (peoples awakening march) against corruption and black money with BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh attempting to bribe journalists for favourable coverage of the yatra. Read more…

HINDU WOMAN ENTITLED TO EQUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: SUPREME COURT

(The Hindu New Delhi, October 13, 2011)

 

Traditionally girls and women are not entitled to family property, especially non-movable property; it goes to their brothers. The recent judgment by Supreme Court rules against this; if implemented, as it should be, it will have profound impact  in the organization of agricultural land since girls move to their husband’s home after marriage. Read more…

MASS OUTRAGE AGAINST SCHOOL FEE HIKE IN INDIA

(Press release by All India Parents Association)

 

 

Successive governments have failed to establish sufficient schools across the country to serve the population.  As a consequence Private schools have mushroomed all over India; they are money-making factories wanting to make more money and hence the protest. Read more…

PUCL CONDEMNS RAID AT THE HOUSE OF KAVITA SRIVASTAVA AT JAIPUR

(Supplied by Sukla Sen)

 

 

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) strongly condemns the outrageous and uncalled for act of raid at the residence of Kavita Srivastava, PUCL national secretary in Jaipur early morning today (3 October  2011). Read more…

THE VINDICTIVE ARREST OF SENIOR POLCE OFFICER SANJEEV BHATT IN GUJARAT

(Citizens for Justice and Peace release, September 30, 2011; supplied by Arun Khote, PMARC)

 

The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) strongly condemns the vindictive action of the Gujarat government in arresting Sanjeev Bhatt, senior IPS  (Indian Police Service) office in an action that is nothing short of an attempt to intimidate an important witness in the Zakia Ahsan Jafri and CJP criminal complaint against chief minister Narendra Modi and 61 others. Read more…

‘NO COMPROMISE WITH GOONS’: GUJARAT’’S BHATT REJECTS TERMS SET FOR BAIL

(Press Trust Of India Ahmedabad, October 04, 2011)

 

 

Suspended Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt refused to make any compromise with the Gujarat government after a local court proposed that if he went on police remand for about three hours his bail plea could be heard on Tuesday itself. Read more…

EXCERPT FROM A LETTER BY SANJIV BHATT TO NARENDRA MODI

 

 

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. – Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The spirit of the hapless victims who have been struggling for justice in Gujarat may occasionally flag but it will not be suppressed by any amount of false Goebbelsian propaganda. The struggle for justice is never easy anywhere in the world…it calls for everlasting patience and unfailing perseverance at all times. The spirit of the crusaders for truth and justice in Gujarat is epitomized in this poem by Bhuchung Sonam, an alumnus of M.S. University, Baroda. Read more…

DEBATE ON COMMUNAL VIOLENCE BILL AND RECENT RIOTS

Asghar Ali Engineer ((Secular Perspective October 16-31, 2011)

 

The Communal Violence Bill was the first item on the agenda of National Integration Council meeting held in Delhi on 10th September 2011 and almost all speakers expressed their views on the Bill. As expected the opposition leader Mrs. Sushma Swaraj of BJP led the attack followed by Mr. Arun Jaitly, Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha. Both of them maintained that this bill divides Indian people into majority and minority and this polarization is extremely harmful, in fact disastrous for the country. Read more…

HOW TO PAY MORE TAXES

Arun Kumar

 

The European rich now wish to pay more taxes. What about the Indian rich?

 

Startling news: the rich in many European nations have asked their governments to tax them more. This follows the call made by Warren Buffet in the United States that the rich should pay more taxes. The motive is self-interest: to save their economies from sliding further and going into a double-dip recession, and preventing the kind of youth violence that has been witnessed in many countries in Europe. The recession looming on the horizon (if the world is not already in it) will be more difficult to deal with than in the earlier rounds since this time the cause is political rather than financial, as the case was with the global recession that started in late-2007. Read more…

DENIAL OF CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS AND MARGINALIZATION: LINGUISTIC BENGALIS AND MUSLIM MINORITIES IN ASSAM

Shahiuz Zaman Ahmed

 

This book explores the citizenship issue in Assam where the Muslims and Bengali speaking Hindus are discriminated against by the state by way of the ‘D’ voters list. ‘D’ stands for doubtful voters and this is an insidious way of religious profiling resorted to by the state to marginalize minorities. Read more…

CESAR CHAVEZ AWARD FOR RAJ CHOUHAN

(Supplied by Chin Banerjee, President SANSAD)

 

Raj Chouhan, a New Democratic Party (NDP) member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly and a former member of the Indian People’s Association in North America (IPANA) is the recipient of the 2011 Cesar Chavez Black Eagle Award for his selfless service to the farm workers struggle. Read more…

WALL STREET PROTESTS GO GLOBAL

Oct 15th, 2011 7:19 pm BdST (liberation News Service)

 

Demonstrators worldwide shouted their rage on Saturday against bankers and politicians they accuse of ruining economies and condemning millions to hardship through greed and bad government. Read more…

THE GADDAFI PARADOX

Surendra Kumar

 

The murder of Gaddafi on October 20  by NATO-supported mobs has been hailed by Western leaders and press  while a substantial section of people have condemned the illegality of this murder and  denounced the logic of the invasion of Libya. Gaddafi was a despot but so is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and so are the  heads of numerous other countries. It is not the legal right of NATO  to go around killing government heads just because they are despots. Undoubtedly there are two sides to Gaddafi and he was killed because of his positive role in the Arab World. In the process, France and UK seem to be replacing US in international lawlessness (Editors). Read more…

MOURNING REVOLUTIONARY WRITER GURSHARAN SINGH

Revolutionary playwright, director, and activist, Gursharan Singh passed away in his home in Chandigarh on September 27, 2011. Read more…

MEMORIAL MEETING FOR BHAJI GURSHARAN SINGH (1929-2011)

A memorial meeting to celebrate the life and work of Gursharan Singh, the legendary Punjabi dramatist, director, and political activist popularly known as “Gursharan Bhaji,” was held in Surrey, BC, on October 10, 2011 at the Bombay Banquet Hall. Read more…

TEARFUL ADIEU TO PLAYWRIGHT GURSHARAN SINGH

SD Sharma

 

Chandigarh, September 28

 

Hundreds of litterateurs, farmers, social and political activists paid tributes to Bhisham Pitamah of Punjabi theatre Gursharan Singh at the Sector 25 electric crematorium here today. Read more…

MY THOUGHTS AND SYMPATHIES TO NAVSHARAN AND ATUL AND TO THE FAMILY!

Rahul Varma

 

Shri Gursharan Singh was a great person who possessed the best qualities humanity had to offer. He was an artist, who inspired other artists and the public alike. Read more…

SOUTH ASIA AND UNLAWFUL GOVERNANCE

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention without trial, torture in custody, murder in fake encounters and indiscriminate firing on legitimate protests are such a common feature in South Asia that often enough reportage of any of these is hardly noticed by the citizenry with any degree of concern. The official responses, especially  to some secessionist movements, such as the ones in Sri Lanka, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir or the containment and repression of movements of the minority communities like the Chakmas of Bangladesh or the Adivasis of India were achieved and are being achieved by use of force which is illegal according to the laws of the land. Read more…

IN INDIA, 11-YEAR HUNGER STRIKE OVER MILITARY VIOLENCE IS WAGED IN SHADOWS

Lydia Polgreen

 

Irom Chanu Sharmila has been on hunger strike for 11 years. Her demands are  simple –  to get the central government to revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives immunity to soldiers no matter what they do. Read more…

LESSONS FROM MALEGAON: Punish those guilty of misleading probes; Compensate the victims!

(Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association, September 13, 2011, Supplied by Manisha  Sethi)

 

The NIA has finally put the official seal on what many activists, the families of the accused and the people of Malegaon had been saying for long: that the arrest of nine Muslim men for the 2008 Malegaon blast was a result of a communal witch-hunt, which passes for investigations into terror charges. As a consequence of the investigating agencies’ hubris and prejudice, nine innocent men had to spend five long years in jail, while their families suffered and they were stigmatized. Read more…

ALL INDIA MUSLIM MAJLIS-E-MUSHAWARAT ON DELHI BLAST

New Delhi, 8 September 2011: Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, Working President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organizations, forcefully condemned the terrorist and criminal attack outside the Delhi High Court on 7 September which resulted in so many innocent casualties. Read more…

JAN LOKPAL: AN ALTERNATE VIEW

K.N.Panikkar

 

After forty two years of hesitation and uncertainty an institutional mechanism for dealing with the all pervasive incidence of corruption is now within sight.  What apparently moved the state machinery was the agitation spearheaded by Anna Hazare, which drew spontaneous support primarily in metropolitan cities. Read more…

THE COMMUNAL CHARACTER OF ANNA HAZARE’S MOVEMENT

Bhanwar Meghwanshi

 

It has now been confirmed that the Anna Hazare-led so-called ‘second freedom struggle’—as some sections of the media have mistakenly chosen to call it—has close links with the RSS. Read more…

ANNA HAZARE MOVEMENT – A SKEPTIC’S VIEW

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

Lot has already been written on Anna Hazare’s fast both for and against but more for than against. Why then need for another article? Every article has a perspective and I have mine on and also each article for or against throws light on some new facts not covered by earlier ones. I had written earlier also from Gandhian perspective but more needs to be written. This was, whether one agrees with or not, is a very major movement having lot of implications for our democracy. Read more…

ANNATIONALISM

Shekhar Gupta

 

“Mahatma Gandhi never used portraits of a tiger-riding Bharat Mata, and Bhagat Singh’s battle-cry was not Vande Mataram.” Read more…

UNRESTRAINED MEDIA, A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

V.K.Tripathi

 

 

In the just concluded fast by Anna Hazare, the Indian media went berserk projecting Hazare’s Lokpal Bill  as a major tussle between the civil society and the government. Read more…

HAREN PANDYA MURDER JUDGMENT

Yogi Sikand

 

As you might have heard the Gujarat High Court yesterday acquitted all the 12 accused, including main accused Ashgar Ali, in the Haren Pandya murder case. The high court lambasted the investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) saying the agency had botched up the investigations leading to enormous waste of time. Some years ago, I did a detailed interview with Haren Pandya’s father, Vithalbhai Pandya, on Haren Pandya’s murder. I am sending it to you below as it provides important points about this case. Read more…

WEST BENGAL: THE CLASS STRUGGLE IS NOT OVER

Radical Socialist September 10, 2011

 

For a long time, the CPI(M) had been mistakenly identified with class struggle. As a result, there was much elation on the Right after 13 May 2011, when it was evident that Mamata Banerjee would head a rightwing government in the province of West Bengal, earlier ruled for 34 years by the CPI(M). A totally stunned CPI(M) has been in no position to wage any kind of struggle, since this party and its cadres all the way to the village panchayat level had become accustomed to police protection and government support whenever it wanted to wage a “struggle”.  But the working class found new channels to express itself. Read more…

MANMOHAN, MUSHARRAF HAD STRUCK KASHMIR DEAL

New Delhi, Sep 3: A US diplomatic cable, leaked by WikiLeaks, has revealed that India and Pakistan had in 2007 reached a deal on the Kashmir issue when Parvez Musharraf was the President. Read more…

DALIT RIGHTS GROUP SLAMS MODI GOVERNMENT’S STAND ON CHILD RIGHTS

Yoginder Sikand

 

Gujarat under Narendra Modi is touted about as Hindutva’s most successful laboratory. The corporate world and influential sections of the ‘mainstream’ Indian media never tire of singing paeans to Modi’s ‘developmental model’, which they uphold as eminently worthy of emulation by the rest of the country.  Scores of middle-class Hindus passionately advocate Modi as India’s next Prime Minister, who, they fondly hope, will propel the country into the league of the economic and military ‘super-powers’. Read more…

URDU AND I

Noted filmmaker MAHESH BHATT makes an impassioned plea to save Urdu from extinction. Man is memory, and memory is sound. The first sound that resonates in my heart is the Urdu word “Shireen”, meaning sweet; the name of my mother, who was by birth a Shia Muslim and remained one till the end of her days. Read more…

FILM REVIEW: THE LEGEND OF FAT MAMA

“The Legend of Fat Mama” is a bittersweet story of the Chinese community in Kolkata, India, intertwined with the nostalgic journey in search of a woman who once made the most delicious noodles in the city’s Chinatown district. Kolkata once had a thriving community in its Chinatown, engaged in different trades, like medicine shops, food and shoemaking. Read more…

CORRUPTING POLITICS OF THE ANTI-CORRUPTION JAMBOREE

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

Update added on  August 27, 2011: As this issue of INSAF Bulletin was about to be circulated, news came that Parliament had caved in to the three main demands made by Anna Hazare’s team and he has now decided to give up his fast putting an end to the tamasha that had gripped urban India for the last month.. These three demands were: 1) Citizens Charter, 2) Lower bureaucracy to be brought under the ambit of the Lokpal, and 3) Establishment of a Lokayukta in the States.  Only a few legislators, notably the irrepressible Lalu Yadav, protested this parliamentary maneuver of acceding to demands made by a self-styled “conscience” of the country and his team, who represent, at best, a section of the Indian middle-class.  But the majority of the MPs, both in the government and the opposition, had already abdicated their constitutional responsibilities and prerogatives and were looking for any kind of exit from the situation of crisis created by Team Anna and magnified by the media that feeds off the same class that yesterday was proclaiming “mera bharat mahan” and is now clamoring to end corruption. It now remains to be seen how another giant bureaucracy constituting a parallel government armed with powers of investigation, trial, and punishment will somehow be able to curb corruption. Meanwhile, we believe that what we wrote on this issue just a day ago is still relevant to Team Anna’s crusade and the broader issue of corruption.  Read more…

THE CHALLENGE OF ANNA HAZARE’S FAST

Vipin Tripathi

 

Corruption, black money, nepotism, police atrocities – all are bad for any society. They are rampant in India. But Hazare and Baba Ramdev, the self-declared saviors of India, have another agenda. The article  by Tripathi suggests that their agenda might as well be to replace Manmohan Singh with Advani or Sushma Swaraj. Read more…

ANNA UPSURGE AND THE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Ram Puniyani

 

Anna Hazare’s second fast (August 2011) in Delhi, demanding the acceptance of his teams’ draft for Janlokpal bill has raised many different debates about the nature of this upsurge and how the social action groups, engaged in the process of struggle for Human rights of different sections of society, should relate to such movements. Read more…

TIRED OF DEMOCRACY?

Gail Omvedt

 

Why are such masses of people (apparently: in our village some came out for a morcha organized by the Maharashtra Navnirman Samiti) following Anna Hazare, when it is now clear that his Lokpal is an authoritarian, centralized and undemocratically pushed proposal? Read more…

ANNAJI, PLEASE ASK YOUR SUPPORTERS TO NOT INTIMIDATE US

New Delhi: An Open Letter from law student Shehzad Poonawalla to anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare. The 24-year-old law student has urged Hazare to appeal to his supporters to not intimidate those whose views are different from him on Lokpal bill. He also urged him to break his fast as his supporters are fast turning into violent mobs. Read more…

DR. SWAMY, FRIENDS AND LIMITS OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Ram Puniyani

 

It is not a very easy task to decide as to where the freedom of expression ends and Hate speech begins. A lot of perception about this depends on one’s convictions about the underlying ideologies which are being talked about. At another level how democratic space is subverted for anti democratic agenda is a serious issue. The challenge is to combat Hate ideologies and Hate Speech within the democratic system, to protect it from being subverted by sectarian ideologies in the name of democratic freedom. Read more…

LONDON RIOTS – IS MULTI-CULTURALISM DOOMED?

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

The riots in London and other cities of U.K. like Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester, Liverpool indicate end of multi-culturalism in the West. The horrible massacre in Norway last month also a pointer in that direction? We need to seriously analyze these events. When Asians and Africans from former colonies began to migrate to western countries the Europe began to be multi-racial and multi-cultural which was a new experience for people of the West. In other words they were now paying the price for their colonial policies the brunt of which so far was borne by colonized countries only. Read more…

UK IN DENIAL ON WHAT LED TO RIOTS, BUT IS INDIA LEARNING A LESSON?

John Dayal

 

Has India learnt any lessons from the recent riots that savaged the United Kingdom early in August? The British Government and its police seem to be in a state of denial of the root causes that led to the violence, but there are lessons in it for India, and for that matter, for its neighbours in south Asia which are, or will soon be, forced to think about the after-affects of an entirely unregulated march of global capital under the guise of liberal economic policies, and the refusal of the government to play its role as a nurturer and protector in a welfare state. With six thousand communal riots, and hundreds of other incidents of mass violence, India must do some thinking. It is important to look at the British riots. Read more…

SLAVERY IN THE ‘LAND OF THE PURE’: PAKISTAN’S TWO MILLION DALITS (Part Two)

Yoginder Sikand

 

In the previous part of this article I had summarized some of the findings of probably the first-ever in-depth study about Pakistan’s Dalits, the country’s most dispossessed and vulnerable religious minority. Zulfiqar Shah’s alarming report, titled ‘Long Behind Schedule: A Study on the Plight of Scheduled Caste Hindus in Pakistan’, strikingly summarizes the harrowing conditions of Hindu Dalits in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. If caste and religious prejudice account in large measure for their harrowing plight, Shah argues that the attitude of the Pakistani state towards the Dalits is no less responsible. Read more…

BHATTARAI ELECTED NEW NEPAL PM

(The Hindu, August 28, 2011)

 

Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai was on Sunday (August 28, 2011) elected Nepal’s new Prime Minister defeating his Nepali Congress rival R.C. Poudyal, with the Terai-based Madhesi alliance extending crucial support to the former rebel leader. Read more…

INDO-BANGLA JOINT RIVERS PANEL SET TO FIRM UP WATER-SHARING DEAL

(ACHA August 20, 2011)

 

The ministerial level Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission is to meet in Dhaka on September 5 a day ahead of Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s trip to accord ‘political nod’ for signing agreements for sharing the waters of two rivers. Read more…

COVER- UP RENEWS CALL FOR CBI PROBE IN RIOTS CASES

Poornima Joshi (New Delhi)

 

The clandestine operation to use evidence in the Gujarat riot cases not to book the guilty but to help them frame their defence once again highlights the need for the appointment of an independent prosecuting agency such as the CBI. As IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavit the Supreme court shows, the advocate general of Gujarat — Tushar Mehta — sent reports of the Special Investigation Team ( SIT) in the nine Gujarat riot cases to RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy. Gurumurthy was, in turn, framing the BJP’s political strategy to counter public opinion against chief minister Narendra Modi and the state government. He was also helping the accused frame their defence. Read more…

PEOPLES’ HEALTH MOVEMENT IN INDIA: Looking Back at Dalli Rajahara – Achievements and Problems

Dr. Punyabrata Gun

 

Dr. Gun runs an exemplary clinic on the outskirts of Kolkata, accessible, modern and cheap. He represents one of the thousand of dedicated Indians who give hope for a bright future for the country. Here is a report of what happened to efforts of another dedicated Indian, Shankar  Guha Niyogi, who was murdered in 1991. Read more…

INDIA’S POPULATION TO OVERTAKE CHINA BY 2020

Daya Varma

 

The July 29 issue of the journal Science produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science features various aspects of the world population. It contains a chapter “India’s demographic change: opportunities and challenges” by K.S. James of the Population Research Centre, Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. This article is primarily based on  the five-page article (576-580) by James although it also contains some information from other articles in the same issue of Science. Read more…

INDIAN ARTISTS BOYCOTT SHOW AT TEL AVIV ART MUSEUM

Submitted by Nora  (August 1,2011)

 

Indian artists, invited by the curators of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art to participate in an exhibition of work from India next Spring, have signed a public statement refusing the invitation in solidarity with the Palestinian-led call for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: CAPITALISM, DEMOCRACY AND MEDICINE

Mridula Ramanna

 

(Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XLVI No.31 July 30, 2011)

The Art and Science of Healing since Antiquity by Daya Ram Varma (USA: Xlibris Corporation), 2011; pp 413 (price not stated). [inserted: $23 paper back; $33 hard cover) Read more…

OBITUARY: THE HONOURABLE JOHN GILBERT “JACK” LAYTON (1950-2011)

Daya Varma

 

Jack  Layton  was  the Leader of the Official Opposition in the current Canadian Parliament comprising of 308 members. He represented a Toronto constituency.  In the May 2, 2011 parliamentary elections, Layton lead the New Democratic Party (NDP) to all time high 103 seats pushing the Canadian Liberal Party to third place and decimating Bloc  Québécois, which won only four seats instead of the majority of seats in Quebec, as was the case in the past. Read more…

OBITUARY: R.S. RAO (1937-2011)

Gilbert Sebastian

 

Prof. R S Rao (74), retired professor from Sambalpur University, a long time intellectual of radical politics in India passed away on 17 June 2011 in New Delhi. He had suffered a stroke and was in the ventilator for around twenty days. The inevitability of death takes away from us his lively and jovial company and the sharp intellect combined with unswerving commitment to the cause of the common people. Read more…

OBITUARY: Dr. SHAKUNTALA NOWRY

Dolores Chew

 

We learned with sadness of the passing away of DR. Shakuntala Nowry on Thursday 29 July, 2011.  Dr. Nowry was a founding member of the South Asian Women’s Community Centre (SAWCC) and our first president. Read more…

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA – DRIFTING, LISTLESS

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The UPA government is drifting, unable to exert power or carry out the program it was elected to accomplish. The only thing keeping it going is that the alternatives are far worse. Read more…

TERRORISM, COUNTER TERRORISM AND RIGHT-WING IDEOLOGY

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The terror attacks in Mumbai and Oslo have provoked different responses but have brought out the urgency of combating hate speech and right-wing ideology. Read more…

NORWEGIAN MASS KILLER’S MANIFESTO HAILS HINDUTVA

Praveen Swami

 

 

Those killed in Norway by the sole assassin Anders Breivik were not only innocent but also symbol of a progressive Norway.  The killer, though alone, must represent a social base for ultra reactionary politics. What relevance does it have for South AsiaÉ  Praveen Swami’s article gives a glimpse of the possible dark future. Read more…

TERROR VISITS MUMBAI YET AGAIN

Ram Puniyani

 

The three blasts in Mumbai on 13th July 2011 not only killed nearly 20 innocent people but shook the city yet again. The previous attack on Mumbai 26/11 2008 was horrific enough to have killed over 200 people.  The tragedy was followed by the great resilience of Mumbai citizens to rehabilitate the victims to line up for blood donations and help in many more ways, the efforts which make us salute Mumbai citizens yet again. Read more…

SLAVERY IN THE ‘LAND OF THE PURE’: PAKISTAN’S TWO MILLION DALITS

Yoginder Sikand

 

Although we hear and read a lot about US-Pakistan relations, Pakistan’s Jihadi groups,  and victims of Blasphemy laws, this report by Yogi Sikand exposes a less well recognized but an important problem affecting  Pakistan’s population, the Dalits, mostly Hindus. Too poor and with too little resources to migrate to India in the post-partition days, the condition of Dalits seems the worst of all in Pakistan. Read more…

TREASURE OF FAITH: HOARDS OF WEALTH IN PADMNABH TEMPLE

Ram Puniyani

 

 

In the book “The Art and Science of Healing Since Antiquity”, Daya Varma wrote: “Fueling the popular and erroneous perception that the West in materialistic and the East, particularly India, is spiritualistic, most god men and women happen to be of Indian origin. But for whatever reason these spiritualists prefer to operate in the United States of America. In this article Ram Puniyani shows how the wealth of these god men is far beyond what one could imagine. Read more…

ARMING TRIBALS AGAINST NAXALS UNCONSTITUTIONAL: SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Text of the Supreme Court Order of 5 July 2011 in the Salwa Judum (in Chhattisgarh) Case Writ Petition (Civil) No(S). 250 Of 2007 | Nandini Sundar & Ors. Versus State Of Chhattisgarh. Read more…

BANGLADESH: AWAMI LEAGUE CHOOSES TO BE A SLAVE, NOT MASTER, OF HISTORY

(Editorial: New Age, 30 June 2011: source South Asia Citizens Wire – 4 July 2011 – No. 2719)

 

The passage of the 15th amendment to the constitution in parliament on Thursday marks a sad episode in the political history of Bangladesh. By pushing the amendment through, the ruling Awami League officially completed its deviation from the spirit of the liberation war and bracketed itself with all those that it has consistently castigated as forces opposed to the spirit of liberation. Read more…

MAKE HEALTHCARE A LEGAL ENTITLEMENT, SAYS BINAYAK SEN

(The Hindu, June 23, 2011)

 

New Delhi: Human rights activist Binayak Sen called for making healthcare a legal entitlement for all. Read more…

ALMOST 70 % INDIANS LIVE IN RURAL AREAS

PTI

 

Nearly 70 per cent of the country’s population lives in rural areas where, for the first time since independence, the overall growth rate of population has sharply declined, according to the latest Census. Read more…

SANSAD NEWS RELEASE JULY 25, 2011

South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) held its Annual General Meeting in Vancouver, BC, on July 17,  2011, elected a board with representation from the entire South Asian region and adopted resolutions pertaining to people’s struggles and human rights on the subcontinent and Canada. Read more…

FIRST BILINGUAL LITERARY (URDU-HINDI) POETRY RECITATION AT EMBASSY OF INDIA IN WASHINGTON

Zafar Iqbal (Washington, DC)

 

Zafar Iqbal and his associates have been organizing programs symbolizing the historic cultural links between Hindus and Muslims in India for quite some time. Here he provides some details of a successful Urdu-Hindi poetry recital in America’s capital city, Washington. Read more…

CHINA IS BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE FOR ALL

Wen Jiabao (Speech of China’s Prime Minister in London;  27 Jun 2011)

 

Wen Jiabao: “Since the process of reform and opening-up began in China, people outside the country have seen the development and changes there in different ways. There is also an intense interest in our future path. On my visit to London, I wish to take the opportunity to address this subject.“ Read more…

60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF TIBET

William Dere

 

Tibet is the stick with which China is hammered again and again not only by allies of Dalai Lama but by all human rights activists why are dying to see Tibetans revive their feudal culture as they wish. India facilitated the exodus of Tibetans as can be seen in Dharamsala. But there is another reality to Tibet and in the life of Tibetans in the words of the Chinese Vice-President. What is it? Read more…

KARNATAKA FARCE: BJP’S COMPLICITY IN CORRUPTION AND CORPORATE PLUNDER

ML Update

 

Even as the BJP’s Karnataka Government completed three years, and the Centre once again rejected the Karnataka Governor’s recommendation for imposition of Central rule in the state, a new act in BJP’s Karnataka drama is unfolding once more. The BJP’s topmost leadership is in the middle of a public spat over which of them is responsible for patronizing the powerful Karnataka Ministers and notorious mining mafia: the ‘Bellary brothers’. Read more…

CANADA MUST STOP PROTECTING ASBESTOS INDUSTRY

Kathleen Ruff

 

Canada is planning to export  asbestos to India despite overwhelming evidence about its debilitating effects on health. As to be expected the buyers (India) and sellers (Canada) can always find some experts who would vouch for the safety of this dangerous chemical. Read more…

TOWARDS A RIOT FREE INDIA

Ram Puniyani

 

India is planning to introduce a bill to end communal violence. It is a good development. However  the proposed draft is weak in some aspects. Here is an outline of the nature of the debate. Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: THE FAKIR

Author  Sunil Gangopadhyay (Translated from Bengali by Monabi Mitra) [New Delhi: Harper Perennial,  2010]

 

Reviewed by Yoginder Sikand

 

Indian history is replete with stories of fiercely iconoclastic rebels who, refusing to be bound by the strictures and prejudices of religious orthodoxy, bravely denounced social convention in their quest for spiritual transcendence and social equality. One such figure was the late nineteenth century Bengali poet-rebel Lalan Fakir. Defying the logic of the conservative society in which he was born by insisting that he was neither Hindu nor Muslim and announcing that he cared nothing whatsoever for hierarchies of caste and class, Lalan Fakir was, by all counts, an amazingly charismatic revolutionary who sought to preach a human-centric understanding of the transcendent, one that was rooted in the struggles of the poor and oppressed for their true humanization. Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: THE RED MARKET

Michiko Kakutani

 

Whereas black markets trade in illegal goods like guns and drugs, the “red market,” the journalist Scott Carney says in his revealing if somewhat scattershot new book, trades in human flesh — in kidneys and other organs, in human corneas, blood, bones and eggs. Many of the real-life examples he cites in this chilling volume cannot help but remind the reader of a horror movie, or of Kazuo Ishiguro’s devastating dystopian novel “Never Let Me Go” (2005), in which we learn that a group of children are clones who have been raised to “donate” replacement body parts. Read more…

MEXICO-US BORDER- BUILDING A CULTURE OF CROSS-BORDER SOLIDARITY

David Bacon

 

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a series on border solidarity by journalist and immigration activist David Bacon. This article and subsequent installments were originally published in the Institute for  Transnational Social Change’s report Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity. Read more…

UPA’S MISPLACED PRIORITIES

Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

 

The performance of the UPA in its second term of government seems to be far worse than in the first term. Although the leadership has not talked much lately about the Maoist “threat”, which is any case more a symptom than a cause, the government has not taken any steps to address the plight of Adivasis, tribals and forest dwellers, whose only friends seem to be the Maoists. BJP-led governments in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and their allied regimes in Orissa and even Bihar are doing whatever they want to, while the Congress leaders are indulging in paying homage to obscurantist, fundamentalist and religious bigots. Read more…

BABA RAMDEV’S ANTI CORRUPTION FAST: NEW FACE OF COMMUNAL POLITICS

Ram Puniyani

 

Since this article was written, Baba Ramdev has given up his fast. He promised to fast until death if his demands are not met, but being too coward to die, found some alibi. From time to time India produces great men and women  but also from time to time it produces great crooks. Baba Ramdev is the latest fraud who combines everything despicable into one person.  People who assembled around Ramdev in the anticorruption fast are like people who assembled in Ayodhya to demolish the Babri Masjid. In both cases the bone-less government allowed the assembly but  used its baton in the wrong one. Read more…

PAKISTAN AFTER OSAMA

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

The killing of Osama bin Laden could provide Pakistan an opportunity to reverse its downward slide, though changing course will not be easy. The country must decide whether to decisively confront Islamist violence, or continue with the military’s current policy of supporting jihadi militants with one hand even as it slaps them with the other. Read more…

NEPAL’S BALANCE OF FORCES AND THE FUTURE OF PEOPLES LIBERATION ARMY

Peter Tobin

 

Democracy and Class Struggle published this report from Peter Tobin, a correspondent who is currently in Nepal. It offers background and analysis of extremely important controversies that have sharpened within Nepal, and within that country’s revolutionary Maoist forces, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The original piece assumes a great deal of knowledge about Nepal (and its political acronyms), so we have inserted brief explanations [in brackets] at appropriate places. Read more…

RAMDEV’S NON-PROFIT OUTFITS FACE PROBE IN THE US

Iftikhar Gilani

 

From the view point of medical ethics, every single concoction that  Ramdev’s pharmacy makes and sells  is a fraud and in many countries would be treated as an unethical, if not a criminal act. Because  many others  do things like what Baba Ramdev does,  it is  ignored on technical grounds. But for a person who makes false threats of fast unto death against some kind of corruption, his shady charity but otherwise a business has come to light as this article in Tehelka   shows. Read more…

FORBESGANJ FIRING: POLICE KILLED WOMEN, INFANT FROM POINTBLANK

Mumtaz Alam Falahi

 

In December 2010 Samata Party,  a traditional ally of Bhartiya Janata Party, came to power in Bihar with overwhelming majority. Installing its leader Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister and ending the  long  rule of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Yadav. Whatever other mistakes Lalu Yadav might have committed, he ensured the safety of Muslims. This is not so under Nitish Kumar as apparent from the brutality against a group of Muslims. Read more…

2002 RIOTS IN GUAJARAT: ANOTHER POLICE OFFICER BLAMES MODI

Meghdoot Sharon, Gaurav Shah, CNN-IBN

 

Yet another top police officer in Gujarat has gone public, raising questions over the conduct of the Gujarat police force in controlling the communal riots in 2002. Retired Gujarat Director General of Police RN Bhattacharya has said that there was a feeling among officers that the lower rank officials had failed to safeguard the rights of the citizens. Read more…

OBITUARY: M.F. HUSAIN: VICTIM OF INTOLERANCE

Ram Puniyani

 

On 9th June 2011, M.F. Husain breathed his last in a London Hospital, and was later buried in the cemetery in London as per his wish that he should be buried at a place of his death. The most celebrated painter of India, more Indian than any of his detractors died, away from his home, due to self imposed exile. This self imposed exile was due to the threats of Hindu fundamentalists. The renowned painter called by many as Picasso of India, had the fate similar to that of Picasso, who also went into self exile in the regime of Fascist Franco of Spain. Read more…

M F HUSAIN: WHEN THE NATION LOSES ITS OWN NARRATIVE

Sadanand Menon

 

The moment of M F Husain’s death is sombre and we could do with a serious self-evaluation of where we stand with respect to our arts. The hounding out of a 90-year-old painter who was constantly striving to make us look at ourselves from a multi-cultural, secular, syncretic perspective, and our failure to ensure his return before he passed away five years later, should worry us about where we are heading as a nation. The fact that India could not see itself through the eyes of Husain and, instead, interpreted his epiphanic invocation and celebration of our civilisational diversity as something narrow and divisive, points to the rapid thickening and blocking of our national arteries, constricting the openness we so hypocritically assume as our cultural credo and hastening the spread of iron in the soul. Read more…

M.F. HUSAIN 95 ARTIST: India’s Most Prominent Painter Was Hounded by Hindu Fundamentalist

Muneeza Naqvi

 

Excerpts

 

“Husain had lived in Dubai since 2006 after receiving death threats from  Hindu hard-liners in India for a nude painting of a woman shaped like India’s map, often described as Mother India in popular arts…” Read more…

CPI(ML) MOURNS THE PASSING OF M F HUSAIN

(Liberation News Service June 10, 2011)

 

MF Husain’s death at the age of 96 has robbed the world and India of a towering artist. All his life, he never stopped painting, and he acquired international renown as a modern painter with a distinctive style. Read more…

OBITUARY: ROSALYN S. YALOW (Nobel Medical Physicist, Dies at 89)

Denise Gellene

 

Rosalyn S. Yalow, a medical physicist who persisted in entering a field largely reserved for men to become only the second woman to earn a Nobel Prize in Medicine, died on Monday in the Bronx, where she had lived most of her life. She was 89. Read more…

WEST BENGAL ELECTIONS: ANOTHER SETBACK FOR INDIAN COMMUNIST MOVEMENT

Daya Varma

 

After over 30 years of continuous rule in West Bengal, the Left Front (LF) led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM was  defeated in the May 2011 Assembly elections; it  had  235 seats in 2006 and won only 62 in 2011. As expected, the victor Mamata Banerjee is jubilant. But others, especially independent leftists and Naxalite parties  are jubilant too and that  reveals the state of the left in India more than the jubilation in the ranks of Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee.  This is because a setback in any communist formation can never be a harbinger of the blossoming of another.

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ANNIVERSARY: WHAT IF PAKISTAN DID NOT HAVE THE BOMB?

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

Could the Bomb really have saved Pakistan in 1971? Can it do so now? Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has spent the last few years confined by the Pakistan Army to one of his palatial Islamabad residences where he whiles away his days writing weekly columns in newspapers. This venerable metallurgist, who claims paternity rights over Pakistan’s bomb, says it alone saves Pakistan. In a recent article, he wistfully wrote: “If we had had nuclear capability before 1971, we would not have lost half of our country – present-day Bangladesh – after disgraceful defeat.”

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BHAGWAN SATYA SAI: FAITH MARGINALIZES REASON

Ram Puniyani

 

India is the richest source of god men and women. Although most of them bless America,  Satya Sai Baba controlled the world from his Indian base. His following was so huge that Indian Prime Minister and the Congress leader Sonia Gandhi made a trip to pay their last respects. Here Ram Puniyani examines this phenomenon.

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MADHYA PRADESH: SHADOWS OF HINDU RASHTRA

Ram Puniyani

 

Madhya Pradesh is being ruled by the BJP Government from last several years. This is one state where BJP and its erstwhile avatar, Bharatiya Jansangh had a good deal of following in the past also. During last few years one has seen with the BJP Government in the saddle, the state is imposing the norms which are intimidating to minorities, the BJP associates have become more assertive, state is promoting the outright Hindu culture, and it is also the place where the terror component of RSS affiliates has been having its dens at various places in the state.

Read more…

NEPAL: NEED FOR WORKABLE COMPROMISE

Prashant Jha

 

The next few days will offer an opportunity to Nepal’s political class to re-engineer the political consensus that has been missing since the 2008 elections. The latest news is that a compromise has been reached that will allow the current Constituent Assembly to complete the task of writing the Constitution.

Read more…

THE CURIOUS CASE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN

Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

Osama bin Laden, the figurehead king of al Qaeda, is gone. His hosts are still rubbing their eyes and wondering how it all happened. Although scooped up from Pakistani soil, shot in the head and then buried at sea, the event was not announced by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani or by President Asif Ali Zardari. Instead, it was the president of the United States of America who told the world that bin Laden’s body was in the custody of US forces.

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OSMA bin LADEN

Javed Anand

 

Behind the ugly reality there’s poetic justice. Osama bin Laden was finally bearded in the world’s most happening terror den: Pakistan. Osama is no more but who does not know that the cult of violence that he practiced and preached in Islam’s name is alive and kicking in Pakistan like nowhere else. This column, however, is about Osama’s unintended gift to post-9/11 Islam.

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TROUBLE BREWS AT EFLU OVER BEEF IN MENU

(TNN | May 3, 2011)

 

 

Hyderabad: The beef row on English and Foreign Languages University (Eflu) campus intensified on Monday. While Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists maintained that they would attack anyone who cooks beef on campus, a large group of students lead by Dalit Adivasi Bahujan Minority Students’ Association (DABMSA) and Telangana Students’ Association, said that they will continue the agitation till beef gets accepted in the hostel food guide.

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A CASE FOR BEEF EATING

Sadanand

 

Beef was on the menu of Vedic Savarnas (Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya). They even ate venison, horse (Ashwamedh Yagna), fowls, and other animals, which were first offered as sacrifice (Naivedya) to Vedic deities.

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A LIST OF DALIT STUDENTS COMMITTING SUICIDE IN LAST FOUR YEARS IN INDIA’S PREMIER INSTITUTIONS

Anoop Kumar

 

Here is the list of the Dalit students who have committed suicide in last four years.

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VETERAN INDO-CANADIAN MPS DEFEATED IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Daya Varma

 

The parliamentary elections in Canada were held on May 2, 2011. The incumbent conservative Prime Minister who had been leading a minority government for seven years finally won a majority. More South Asian candidates contested this election than ever before. In general candidates of the New Democratic Party (NDP) have left orientation; candidates of the other two parties, Conservatives and Liberal, have no defined politics.

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WE DEMAND A PERMANENT BAN ON ENDOSULFAN IN INDIA

(Press release: 27 April 2011)

 

Many pesticides are dangerous and Endosulfan tops the list. Why is it allowed in India when it has been banned in many countries?

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IS THE REPORT OF THE UNSG’S PANEL OF EXPERTS A CONSPIRACY AND OBSTACLE TO RECONCILIATION?

Statement by concerned Christians on UN panel on accountability in Sri Lanka

 

Monday 25 April 2011 (South Asia Citizens Web)

 

In the past weeks, we as Christians have been reflecting on the torture, killing of Jesus by the rulers of that time, with complicity of high priests of the time, due to Jesus’s efforts to stand by the poor and oppressed and bring them good news of liberation. Our reflections had been taking into account the situation in our country today and we had noted the controversy surrounding the report of the panel of experts of the UN Secretary General related to the war in Sri Lanka.

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INDIAN JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI FINALLY DISCARDS ITS LONGSTANDING PRETENCE OF BEING A BENIGN RELIGIO-CULTURAL ORGANISATION

Sahil Khan

 

Late last week, amidst much fanfare, a new political party, styling itself the ‘Welfare Party of India’, was launched in New Delhi. It is the brainchild of India’s foremost Islamist outfit, the Jamaat-e Islami Hind, and most of its top office-bearers are senior Jamaat leaders. Politics is, however, not new to the Jamaat at all, for the Jamaat’s ideology is itself based on a distinctly political interpretation of Islam. It is premised on the centrality of the notion of the ‘Islamic state’, without which, it insists, Islam is ‘incomplete’. Bringing the whole world under the rule of such a state or states, styled as the Caliphate, is central to the Jamaat’s vision of Islam.

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INVITATION TO A CONSULTATION ON THE PREVENTION OF COMMUNAL AND TARGETTED VIOLENCE BILL

(30 May, Monday, J.P.Naik Bhavan, Kalina Campus, 3-6.30 p.m.)

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BOOK REVIEW: PEOPLE WITHOUT HISTORY: INDIA’S MUSLIM GHETTOS

Authors: Jeremy Seabrook & Imran Ahmed Siddiqui

 

Published by: Navayana Publishing, New Delhi, 2011 (Pages: 257; Price: Rs. 295

 

Reviewed by: Yoginder Sikand, NewAgeIslam.com

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BOOK REVIEW: GOLDHAGEN’S INSINCERE ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN ELIMINATIONIST POLICY

Dr. Habib Siddiqui (26 April, 2011; Countercurrents.org)

 

Book Review: Worse Than War by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Public Affairs, New York (2009), First edition, 658 pages.

Read more…

HISTORY AND HEARTBREAK: THE LETTERS OF ROSA LUXEMBURG

Vivian Gornick

 

Rosa Luxemburg was an exemplary revolutionary. Many feel if her ways were followed  the atrocities committed by Stalin would not have happened. Lenin disagreed with almost everything Rosa Luxemburg said and yet in defending her he invoked the Russian Fable “Eagles may at times fly lower than hens, but hens can never rise to the height of eagles.” This note  by Gornick on Luxemburg is not only historically important,  but  relevant now in the present political context.

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PUBLIC MEETING ON KASHMIR

June 3, 2011 (15.00-19.00 h) at Dy Speaker Hall (Constitution Club) Rafi Marg, New Delhi.

 

An attempt to understand and share the grief

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INSAF BULLETIN SALUTES  MAY DAY 20011!

It is125th Anniversary of the International Workers’ Day.

Into the streets May First!

Alfred Hayes

 

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IS LOKPAL THE ANSWER TO CORRUPTION?

Vinod Mubayi

 

The issue of corruption has caused an unprecedented upheaval among the middle classes in India.  Is an unelected all-powerful Lokpal the answer?

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AT THE RISK OF HERESY: WHY I AM NOT CELEBRATING WITH ANNA HAZARE

Sidhabrata Sengupta

 

The Jan Lokpal Bill engineered by Anna Hazare, a former army man turned Gandhian, ostensibly to put an end to corruption in India has  generated enough euphoria in India to draw such comments as second struggle for independence. The author of this article is sceptical about this bill and its impact.

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GANDHI, HAZARE AND FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

Anna Hazare is emerging as another Gandhi and he is not only in every newspaper but also on almost every page of every newspaper for making UPA Government to accept his demand to draft Lok Pal Bill with real teeth eighth members of civil society on the drafting panel. The UPA Government had no other course but to accept Hazare’s demand after having been exposed in several matters of corruption.

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ASSAM: ALIENATING THE NATIVES

Ram Puniyani

 

In the recently concluded assembly elections in Assam (March-April 2011), one of the issues which was whipped up by BJP was about the Bengali speaking people especially the Muslims of Assam. Most of the Bengali speaking Muslims are projected to be from Bangladesh, and the communal parties and groups are using this myth to enhance their political capital, which is mostly based on spreading hate against minorities and bringing to fore the issues related to identity. In different parts of India also, the issue of Bengali Muslims has been raised too often. The Bengali speaking Muslims, Bangladeshis and also those from West Bengal, are projected to be Bangladeshis, and are presented to be threat to security. This point was raised time and over again in the acts of terror committed in recent years by the gang of Sadhvi Prgaya Singh Thakur to Aseemanand types belonging to Abhinav Bharat, Sanatan Sansthan etc. Many a time Bangladeshi groups were named in these acts of terror done by Hindutva groups and their connection with local Bangladeshis was propagated to the hilt. In Assam the issue of Bengali speaking Muslims has been brought up time and over again and this point has also been used at the time of elections to polarize the communities along religious lines.

Read more…

MADHYA PRADESH: SHADOWS OF HINDU RASHTRA

Ram Puniyani

 

Madhya Pradesh is being ruled by the BJP Government from last several years. This is one state where BJP and its erstwhile avatar, Bhartiya Jansangh had a good deal of following in the past also. During last few years one has seen with the BJP Government in the saddle, the state is imposing the norms which are intimidating to minorities, the BJP associates have become more assertive, state is promoting the outright Hindu culture, and it is also the place where the terror component of RSS affiliates has been having its dens at various places in the state.

Read more…

MOHALI MAGIC SHOULD BE SUSTAINED TILL ALL ISSUES [BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN] ARE RESOLVED

 (Press release)

 

We, the peace activists and citizens of Pakistan and India welcome the very positive statements of the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan issued from Mohali on the side lines of the Cricket World Cup Semi Final played on 30th March 2011.

Read more…

NEPAL MAOIST AND INDIA BHAI-BHAI, SAYS SHARMA

http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2011/apr/apr19/news16.php

 

 

United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPN-M] spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma has said his party is in favor of further improving the already ‘cordial ties’ with India.

Read more…

NEPAL MAOIST LEADER DAHAL SWINGS BACK TO PEACE, CONSTITUTION

Supplied Professor Sam Noumoff and Sam Boskey

 

Kathmandu, April 20:  Ditching the official party line of revolt, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has swung back to the line of peace and constitution floated by Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

Read more…

THE CONTINUED SHOCKING SAGA OF INDIA’S MISSING GIRLS

Shree Mulay

 

The census data from India released on March 31, 2011 show that the sex ratio amongst 0-6 year-olds  has steadily declined to the lowest level since independence,  standing at an average of 917 females per 1000 males, a shameful record for a country that claims to be the new emerging powerhouse amongst nations.

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ON THE CONCATENATION IN THE ARAB WORLD

Perry Anderson

 

The Arab revolt of 2011 belongs to a rare class of historical events: a concatenation of political upheavals, one detonating the other, across an entire region of the world. There have been only three prior instances—the Hispanic American Wars of Liberation that began in 1810 and ended in 1825; the European revolutions of 1848–49; and the fall of the regimes in the Soviet bloc, 1989–91. Each of these was historically specific to its time and place, as the chain of explosions in the Arab world will be. None lasted less than two years. Since the match was first lit in Tunisia this December, with the flames spreading to Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Oman, Jordan, Syria, no more than three months have passed; any prediction of its outcomes would be premature. The most radical of the trio of earlier upheavals ended in complete defeat by 1852. The other two triumphed, though the fruits of victory were often bitter: certainly, far from the hopes of a Bolívar or a Bohley. The ultimate fate of the Arab revolt could resemble either pattern. But it is just as likely to be sui generis.

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WHO OWNS THE WORLD?

Noam Chomsky

 

The democracy uprising in the Arab world has been a spectacular display of courage, dedication, and commitment by popular forces – coinciding, fortuitously, with a remarkable uprising of tens of thousands in support of working people and democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and other US cities. If the trajectories of revolt in Cairo and Madison intersected, however, they were headed in opposite directions: in Cairo toward gaining elementary rights denied by the dictatorship, in Madison towards defending rights that had been won in long and hard struggles and are now under severe attack.

Read more…

BINAYAK SEN RELEASED ON BAIL

Aman Sethi

 

“I know in my heart that I never betrayed the people of this country”

Read more…

EX-GUJARAT POLICE CHIEF COMMENDS BHATT’S AFFIDAVIT AGAINST MODI

Indian Express.com: Posted online: Fri Apr 22 2011, 17:33 hrs

 

Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar on Thursday commended fellow police officer Sanjiv Bhatt for implicating Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Godhra riots.

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DISMAYED AT HAZARE’S PRAISE FOR NARENDRA MODI

Dear Annaji

 

We are deeply shocked by your endorsement of Narendra Modi’s rural development. There has been little or no rural development in ths state.

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DALIT LEADER UDIT RAJ FORMS ANTI-MAYAWATI PLATFORM IN UP

Vikas Pathak

 

With Uttar Pradesh (UP) elections approaching, there are distinct signs of an attempt from within Dalits to break Mayawati’s vote bank. Earlier this week, Dalit activist Udit Raj floated a platform, Upekshit Dalit Mahapanchayat, in the state to mobilise support from Scheduled Castes other than Mayawati’s caste of Jatavs, adding he was open to the idea of the platform developing into a political party.

Read more…

SUPREME COURT ASKS TAMIL NADU TO GET RID OF TWO-TUMBLER SYSTEM

Rakesh Bhatnagar 

 

An archaic social malpractice by adhering to the two tumblers system to discriminate between people from the “upper” and “lower caste” may be on its way out if Tamil Nadu government abide by the Supreme Court’s latest verdict.

Read more…

CITIZEN’S INITIATIVE FOR PEACE (CIP) PROTESTS BANNING OF GANDHI BOOK

(Press Release: Supplied by Sukla Sen)

 

The Citizens’ Initiative for Peace (CIP), Mumbai is quite dismayed at the reported moves of the Maharashtra government to ban the book ‘Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India’ authored by Joseph Lelyveld, apparently based on secondhand sources viz. reviews of the same carried by some newspapers.

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KANNADA VERSION OF THE BOOK ‘WOMEN’S MOVEMENT AND COMMUNIST PARTY’

The Kanaada version   of the English booklet ‘Women’s Movement and Communist Party’ titled as ‘Mahila Chaluvali Mattu Communist Paksha’ was released  at a study camp organized by the Communist Party of India (ML)-Liberation on April 9 and 10. The booklet was translated by N Divakar, PUCL, with a remarks from  Professor Laxminarayana and  was released on 10  by E Rati Rao, Vice-President of AIPWA (All India Progressive Women’s Association).

 

(ML Update, 19-25  April, 2011).

IRAN IS TOP OF THE WORLD IN SCIENCE GROWTH

Andy Coghlan

 

Which country’s scientific output rose 18-fold between 1996 and 2008, from 736 published papers to 13,238? The answer – Iran – might surprise many people, especially in the western nations used to leading science. Iran has the fastest rate of increase in scientific publication in the world.

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“BULLAH”

Written by: ‘Shahid Nadeem’

Directed by: ‘Madeeha Gauhar’

Presented by:  Ajoka Theatre in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism – Khyber Pakhtonkhawa presents

On 1st May 2011 at 5:30pm at Nishtar Hall, Peshawar:

Read more…

OBITUARY: MANNING MARABLE (1950-2011)

Sekhar Ramakrishnan

 

Manning Marable, a Marxist scholar, who recently completed a new biography  of Malcolm X that is said to challenge popular images of Malcolm, died  yesterday, apparently from complications related to his longstanding  battle with sarcoidosis and perhaps with the lung transplant he got last year. As an aside, something for Amal and Karunakaran to think about as  they evolve guidelines for organ transplantation in Tamil Nadu – even though Marable lived for less than a year after receiving his double-lung transplant, the world is a much better place for his having had the few months to complete his book, which is likely to be very influential.

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MALCOLM X SCHOLAR MANNING MARABLE DIES AT 60

Cristian Salazar (Guardian April 2, 2011)

 

New York (AP) – Manning Marable, an influential historian whose forthcoming Malcolm X biography could revise perceptions of the slain civil rights leader, died Friday, just days before the book described as his life’s work was to be released. He was 60.

Read more…

JAPAN UPDATE MARCH 30, 2011

Editors

 

As INSAF Bulletin goes to distribution, the nuclear plant crisis at Fukushima in Japan, precipitated by the massive earthquake followed by a huge tsunami, is still unfolding; reactor cores at two units in the six-unit facility and some of the pools in which the spent fuel rods are held, have not completely stabilized to a point where the emergency can be declared at an end.

Read more…

WHAT CAN SOUTH ASIA LEARN FROM JAPAN’S BEST-CASE RESPONSE TO A WORST-CASE DISASTER?

Sekhar Ramakrishnan

 

The uncertain situation with Fukushima nuclear plant precipitated by a big earthquake and Tsunami is of concern to humanity. What happened, what has been done and what are the lessons of this disaster? Here is one view on the subject.

Read more…

INDIAN UNION BUDGET 2011-12: MISSING BIG OPPORTUNITIES WHILE FAVOURING BUSINESS

Arun Kumar 

 

 

The Indian Union budget presented by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 27, 2011 has not received as much attention as it deserves. Does the budget address the question of poverty?  Economist Arun Kumar provides a detailed analysis.

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ADVANI AND MODI – THE REAL CULPRITS ESCAPING THE LAW

Asghar Ali Engineer

 

 

More than 100 innocent persons were arrested after burning of S-6 in Godhra on 27^th February 2002 which in turn followed demolition of Babri Masjid on 6^th December 1992. The man mainly responsible for the former was Mr. L.K.Advani who, to fulfill his ambition for power raised the slogan ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ and played with the religious sentiments of common Hindus and our secular state looked the other way. The man responsible for the later was Narendra Modi, who exploited burning of S-6 in Godhra to retain his power which otherwise he was sure to loose. And both these worthies of BJP brought utter shame to our secular tradition and secular philosophy.

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GODHRA VERDICT: WHITHER JUSTICE? Need for a CBI Investigation

Ram Puniyani

 

Contrary to the overwhelming evidence against a Muslim conspiracy to set afire the S-6 railway Coach at Godra,  the Session’s  court accepts the theory advocated by the Gujarat government. Naturally there is a demand for enquiry into the episode. On the other hand,  regardless of who set the coach afire, the government of Narendra Modi must be treated as guilty in the indiscriminate massacre of innocent Muslims.

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MYTH OF VIBRANT GUJARAT

Ram Puniyani

 

Nearly nine years after the carnage of Gujarat (Feb 2011), a perception has been created that Gujarat is developing with rapid strides, there is all peace and harmony and minorities are happy. Like ‘Shining India’ a word has been coined, ‘Vibrant Gujarat’.

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SANGH PARIVAR AND NEW CONTRADICTIONS

Vikhar Ahmed Syeed

 

Interview with French social scientist Christophe Jafferlot (Frontline March 12-25, 2011)

Read more…

BABA RAMDEV: YOGI OR COMMISSAR?

Ram Puniyani

 

God men like Baba Ramdev reflect the degeneration of Indian society and perhaps other societies. In his book “The Art and Science of Healing Since Antiquity (Xilbris: Bloomington, IN, USA), the author Daya Varma deals with the booming industry of providing health and wealth by men like  Baba Ramdev and others. Here Ram Puniyani presents a timely exposure of nefarious and yet popular characters like Baba Ram Dev.

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MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN DALITS: Victims of Religious Apartheid Sanctioned by the State

Yoginder Sikand

 

While many traditionally deprived sections of Indian people have been given certain privileges in independent India, Christian and Muslim Dalits have been denied the provision of reservations. Who is behind this injustice to a select section of the population?  Yoginder Sikand, an authority on the problems faced by Muslims in India and elsewhere analyzes the background to discrimination against this section.

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SUCCESSFUL VISIT OF INDIAN PEACE DELEGATION TO PAKISTAN

A report on the visit of an Indian peace delegation to Pakistan and the warm welcome it received.

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CONSENSUS AMONG THE THREE MAIN PARTIES IN NEPAL

Nepal news: March 10, 2011

 

 

The three major parties – UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) – have agreed to prepare the modality of the integration of Maoist combatants within five days and complete the integration process before the promulgation of the new constitution.

Read more…

VIEW FROM THE UK (GOING CRITICAL): how the Fukushima disaster taught me to stop worrying and embrace nuclear power

George Monbiot

 

You will not be surprised to hear that the events in Japan have changed my view of nuclear power. You will be surprised to hear how they have changed it. As a result of the disaster at Fukushima, I am no longer nuclear-neutral. I now support the technology.

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FROM THE ARAB WORLD TO LATIN AMERICA

Santiago Alba Rico  Alma Allende

 

We have the impression that a great worldwide liberation process may be aborted by the unappeasable ferocity of Gaddafi, U.S. interventionism, and a lack of foresight in Latin America.

Read more…

WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP: The plan to steal everything and sell the people into slavery

Michael Hudson and Jeffrey Sommers

 

The Wisconsin Republican  Governor Scott Walker is at war against the workers and ordinary citizens aside being outrageously anti-democratic. Here two eminent political economists analyze the latest development.

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TRIBUTE TO KARL MARX

Daya Varma

 

Faced with recurrent economic crises, characteristic of capitalist economy but certainly not the crisis of capitalism as Sami Amin puts it, eminent economists and the so-called bourgeois press has discovered the relevance of Marxism in understanding why things are as they are. Paradoxically they are more truthful in their analysis of Marx than many Marxist political parties.

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Obituary:Alberto Granado Jiménez (1923-2011)

Javier Galeano (Associated Press)

 

HAVANA — Alberto Granado Jiménez, the Argentine biochemist who accompanied the young Che Guevara on his formative odyssey across South America, died here on Saturday. He was 88. This journey is portrayed in the beautiful movie “Motorcycle Diary”.

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THE ARAB UPRISINGS: A SINGLE SPARK CAN LIGHT A PRAIRIE FIRE

Vinod Mubayi

 

When Mao Zedong invoked the ancient Chinese saying to describe the situation prevailing in rural China in 1930, no one would or could have predicted then how aptly it would apply to the events unfolding across the Arab world over 80 years later. Today, February 25, 2011, as these lines are being written, the Libyan dictator Qaddafi appears to be about to become the third “Supreme Leader” to be ousted, following the fall of dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt.

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THE PERPLEXING CASE OF RAYMOND DAVIS – THE GREAT GAME REVISITED?

Kiran Omar

 

A perplexing and puzzling drama is being played out in the Pakistani and international media, the stakes of which are high – US/Pakistan bilateral relationship. At the heart of this puzzle is one Raymond Davis, a “consultant/contractor” attached or contracted to  the US diplomatic mission in Pakistan. To date his exact official designation at said mission is unclear and his job description and area of operation/expertise ambiguous.

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HONESTY IS INDIVISIBLE

Arun Kumar

 

Illegality in India touches every economic activity. It is both systemic and systematic. The Indian ruling class faced its severest crisis of credibility in 2010. Its past caught up with it and skeletons and scams were spilling out of its closets. The scams have a symbiotic relationship with the black economy. The number of scams is growing and so is the size of the black economy, which has reached a mind-boggling level of 50 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, that is, it annually generates Rs.33 lakh crore [1 lakh=100,000; 1 crore= 10 million; US$1= approx 50 IRs] in black income. While the 1980s saw eight major scams, in the period between 1991 and 1996 there were 26 and during 2005-08, there were around 150.

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NEW DEAL, NEW PRIME MINISTER AND OLD PROBLEMS IN NEPAL

Daya Varma

 

 

Jhalanath Khanal, the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) [CPN-UML] became the new Prime Minister of Nepal after receiving support from the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPNM]. The deal between the leaders of the two communist parties was okayed by Deuba, the leader of the Nepal Congress. Indeed Deuba urged the two parties to settle their disputes and provide formal shape to the government and start drafting the constitution drafting and expediting peace processes.

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GUJARAT CARNAGE; MODI AND SPECIAL INVESTIGATION TEAM (SIT)

Ram Puniyani

 

There was a massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time. Yet there are agencies in India which find that Modi is not responsible for open brutality against the citizens of a minority community in his state.

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BACK HOME IN GODHRA AFTER NINE YEARS OF TORMENT

Basant Rawat

 

Over time many accused of setting the railway coach afire in Gujarat have been found innocent; this shows the arbitrariness of Gujarat authorities against Muslims.

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THE SUPREME COURT ON CONFESSION DURING POLICE CUSTODY: The case of ARUPBHUYAN and the State of Assam

(Courtesy, Kavita Srivatava of PUCL, supplied by Sandeep)

 

According to the judgment by the Supreme Court of India, all confessions during police custody are obtained through torture and hence invalid.

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THE BULLET AND THE ELEPHANT EXPRESS

Raja Murthy

 

While China has begun to earn billions of dollars exporting high-speed bullet train technology to the United States and Europe, the struggle of Indian Railways to manage its financial woes and modernization delays serves as a stark contrast between the operators of the world’s two largest railway networks.

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THE FIRST LESSON FROM THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION

Salwa Ismail

 

 

It remains too early to draw out all of the lessons of the Egyptian revolution. However, given what has been achieved so far, Egyptians can offer the world a first lesson from their revolution. Undoubtedly, there will be other lessons to be learned especially as the process of revolutionary change continues.

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NEW CHALLENGES FOR CHINA

(China Daily 15 February 2011)

 

The article reflects on scenario when China’s development plants are unable to have  cheap labor, as will also happen in India if addresses the question of rural development and mass poverty.

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BOOK REVIEW: JIMMY THE TERRORIST

Sensitively crafted and deeply evocative, Jimmy the Terrorist is about the best novel I have read on the unenviable predicament of Muslims in current times. It describes remarkably realistically, and without being preachy, sensationalist or apologetic, the painful dilemmas that vast numbers of Muslims are today faced with in the wake of mounting Islamophobia and increasing anti-Muslim prejudice, on the one hand, and radicalism and hatred in the name of Islam, on the other.

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FORTY NOBEL LAUREATES APPEAL FOR THE RELEASE OF DR. BINAYAK SEN

It must be a great solace to Dr. Sen that forty of world’s top scientists are on his side while uneducated government and judges are bent upon keeping him in jail.

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FAIZ ON GANDHI

(Faiz A. Faiz’ editorial of the Pakistan Times dated Feb 2, 1948. Original title was: Long Live Gandhiji. Faiz’z birth centenary is being observed this year in both Pakistan and India; supplied by Anand Patwardhan.)

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MD. SALMAN DISCHARGED FROM THE 2008 DELHI BLASTS CASE!

Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association (5th February 2011)

 

Show me the evidence, says Judge: The Prosecution is able to produce none!

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