South Asia Citizens Web

Prof. Irfan Habib, eminent historian, speaks on "Gandhi’s Finest Hour" at ’Aman Ka Ailaan: A Festival in Defence of Secularism’, organised by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) in association with the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in JNU on 30 January 2015, the 67th anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination. The festival was supported by the All India Forum for Right to Education, Tulika Books and Social Scientist.

The threats and intimidation directed at this lady reporter are a violation both of the spirit of democracy and the letter of the law. Journalists associations, TU’s, democratic and anti-communal groups must defend her, if they wish to retain political legitimacy. Those threatening this reporter must be resisted. The hooliganism she is facing is no different from the treatment meted out to Perumal Murugan in Tamilnadu recently. Violent activism in the name of moral policing and hurt religious sentiment is same old fascist thuggery no matter which flag it flies.

The words Secular and socialist were added to reassure the nation that minorities would be safe and the moneyed class would not dominate the economy

Two disasters were recently averted in Sri Lanka. The first would have been the re-election of the corrupt and brutal Rajapaksa regime in the presidential election of 8 January 2015. For this we must be grateful, first and foremost, to democracy acitivists across the spectrum – Sobitha Thera, trade unionists, students, teachers, women’s groups, political parties, social activists, artists, lawyers, civil society organisations (CSOs) and people’s movements (especially the Movement for Social Justice), social media activists, and so on – who organised the campaign for a common opposition candidate with such skill and courage that it succeeded despite the huge amount of money and muscle-power employed on the other side, and also to the Election Commissioner, who managed to carry out a tolerably free and fair election against heavy odds. Secondly, to Tamil voters, who overwhelmingly rejected the Tamil nationalist plea to boycott the election on the grounds that restoring democracy in Sri Lanka would offer nothing to Tamils.

Draft Placed in Public Domain for Comments, Suggestions, Feedback