South Asia Citizens Web

IN its original form, Karachi’s Empress Market had 280 shops and stalls inside the building. In 1954, the KMC increased this number to 405 and built an additional 1,390 shops and cabins on its periphery. These were leased out to individuals and came to be known as ‘leased markets’. Some of these emerged as lucrative businesses with turnovers of many crores annually.

Human rights groups are condemning the Indian government for carrying out widespread torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and other crimes in Kashmir after the region’s special status was revoked in August. We speak to the acclaimed Indian author Arundhati Roy about the crackdown in Kashmir, rising authoritarianism in India and other issues.

Restore Democracy, Kashmir solidarity March which started from Jammu on 26th Nov [2019] was forcefully stopped from entering the valley at Ramban, Kashmir! But late night on the 29th Nov they managed to reach Srinagar, by road. They are going ahead with meeting people from different walks of life in Kashmir now. Listen to the voice clip below from The Ramon Magsaysay Award winner peace activist, Dr. Sandeep Pandey, who is leading the Kashmir Yatra. Sandeep’s message gives a glimpse of the prevailing situation in Kashmir should make Indians think.

Over the last 35 years, the State Government has failed to address adequately and with sensitivity a host of socio-economic problems that confronts the chronically sick, the elderly, the differently-abled, the widowed, and other vulnerable sections among the gas-victims.

How, then, will the new government consolidate power? It will be a combination of the president’s authoritarian moves, veiled in the promise of technocratic efficiency and seeming aloofness from politics, and the prime minister’s hard-nosed political moves in parliament, with populist manoeuvring. The dual power centre will try to discipline and disable the judiciary, media and people’s movements. They will seek validation from their long-nurtured nationalist social base, may re-activate the security apparatus for surveillance and crackdowns, and lean on the most forthcoming external actors for financial support — be it India, China, the US or the capital markets.