South Asia Citizens Web

This has no place in a democracy where it is possible to not be a hypernationalist and yet be a good citizen. Educational institutions in any event are not the grounds for what is obviously a politically motivated drive to inculcate nationalism.

Fifteen leading economists, including three Nobel winners, argue that the many billions of dollars spent on aid can do little to alleviate poverty while we fail to tackle its root causes

The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) and members of the civil society have filed a reference before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar for his remarks and actions that are unbecoming of a judge.

The turbulence and turmoil that has haunted Kashmir for the past twenty-three years holds all of us, as a people, accountable for the degeneration of our politics and society. While it is important for us to condemn, question, and seek redress for the human rights violations in Kashmir, it is also important for us to construct a politics that will enable the rebuilding of our pluralistic polity and society.

Punjab assembly recently passed a bill for an addition to IPC clause 295 to give life imprisonment for any ‘injury, damage or sacrilege’ of four religious books, (Guru Granth Sahib, Koran, Bible and Geeta) ‘with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people’. This is the first time in independent India that a punishment usually given for willfully murdering another human being has been recommended for defilement of religious books. ... The bill shifts the constitutional balance between fundamental rights of freedom of expression and religion on the one side and the powers of the sate machinery and organized social bodies to restrain these rights on the other.