South Asia Citizens Web

A talk by Prof. Apoorvanand in Pune on 2nd Oct 2015 - explaining the relevance of Gandhi’s strong anti-majoritarian stand in his final days - made all the more important in the background of the Dadri massacre.

Six independent observers visited Bisada village on 3 Oct 2015. Team members: Bonojit Hussain (New Socialist Initiative), Deepti Sharma (Saheli), Kiran Shaheen (writer and activist), Naveen Chander (New Socialist Initiative), Sanjay Kumar (People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism and New Socialist Initiative) and Sanjeev Kumar (Delhi Solidarity Group). Here are their observations

New Delhi, 4 October.

More than 100 prominent persons from different sections of the society have expressed their anguish on the interference by India in Nepal’s internal affairs. They have welcomed the promulgation of the Constitution on 20 September. Mentioning the displeasure shown by the government of India on the promulgation of the constitution the statement underlines the fact that ’this has further embittered the relation between the two which is already not satisfactory due to the big-brotherly attitude of the consecutive Indian governments which the Nepalese people see as an expansionist policy.’ The statement says that ‘It is the right of the sovereign people of Nepal to elect their representatives, to decide what ruling system they should have, to frame the Constitution and to make any changes in it. The Indian government has violated this principle of peaceful co-existence between neighbouring countries.’

a scanned version of of 1981 leaflet from Committee for Solidarity with Polish Workers (in English and Hindi)

Jharkhand is among the few states in the country to have a specific law against witch hunts. But the mild Prevention of Witch Practices Act, 2001 has not done much to stop the victimisation of women branded as daayan, or witches.