On the night of August 14 and 15 [2010] both Indian and Pakistani participants of the Peace Caravan would attend a joint candle lighting vigil at the Wagah-Attari border.
On the night of August 14 and 15 [2010] both Indian and Pakistani participants of the Peace Caravan would attend a joint candle lighting vigil at the Wagah-Attari border.
What Kind of National Pride depends on the eviction of students and poor people of the city? Do we want a world class city that is built by workers who are not paid the minimum wages even as they toil for 16 hours under inhuman working conditions? The University reflects how democratic a society is. Can we reclaim our university which has been turned into a zone of exploitation in the name of the Games? Why have the rents skyrocketed and the students being forced to pay for the Games? Is the University and the Delhi government not responsible for this? The University Community for Democracy has been challenging a number of decisions taken by both Delhi University and the government with regard to the commonwealth games for over a month now. The Forum is deeply concerned by the gross violations of rights that the city has witnessed in the name of the Games and condemns the irresponsible manner in which Delhi is being prepared for this mega event. UCD grew out of the urgent need to collectively resist these actions.
We, as concerned citizens of India are greatly anguished by the continuing violence that is going on in Kashmir for over two months now. Apart from the deaths of many children and youth, the people of Kashmir are undergoing extreme hardships due to the violence and long spells of curfews that have totally disrupted normal life.
Holding the 10-day, Rs 20,000 crore-jamboree reflects a misplaced sense of pride and distortion of national priorities. If not on development of a chronically poor nation, the money could have been well spent on bringing basic sports to every mohalla and panchayat.
The government’s narrative of ’miscreants’, of anomie and drug-fuelled teenagers working as Rs 200 mercenaries for the Lashkar-e-Toiba, has, meanwhile, started to appear faintly ridiculous. A more reasonable explanation is being proffered to us now: it’s anger, we are told, the people of Kashmir are angry at the recent killings, and that’s why the women are being drawn in. That is true, but only partially. For this is no ordinary anger, but an old, bottled-up rage, gathered over so many years that it has settled, and turned rock hard. That accumulated fury is the stone in her hand. To not understand this, to fail to reach its source — or fathom its depth — is to be doomed to not understand the character of Kashmir’s troubles.
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