Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Afghan cauldron on the boil again | Bharat Bhushan

    10 July 2014

    Instead of stabilising the country, Afghanistan’s presidential election can destabilise it further. While acknowledging electoral fraud, the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, has gone ahead and announced the preliminary results of the presidential runoff.

  • The Mitrokhin archive: KGB defector’s extensive intelligence files open to public

    10 July 2014

    Thousands of KGB files from the Mitrokhin Archive that raised a storm in India in 2005 and offered a rare peek into the erstwhile Soviet Union’s intelligence system will be opened to the public for the first time at the University of Cambridge from Monday. A 2005 book based on the files by intelligence historian Christopher Andrew claimed that India during Indira Gandhi’s tenure as prime minister had been infiltrated at several levels by the KGB, prompting demands for a parliamentary (…)

  • India: Dying kids near in Jharkhand’s Jadugora uranium mines

    9 July 2014

    The Ranchi high court noted in February after filing a petition against Uranium Corp. of India that children living near the mines are born with swollen heads, blood disorders and skeletal distortions.

  • India: Historian D.N. Jha’s Reply to Arun Shourie

    by sacw.net, 9 July 2014

    I was amused to read ‘How History Was Made Up At Nalanda’ (28 June 2014, the Indian Express) by Arun Shourie, who has dished out ignorance masquerading as knowledge – reason enough to have pity on him and sympathy for his readers! Since he has referred to me by name and has charged me with fudging evidence to distort the historical narrative of the destruction of the ancient Nalandamahavihar, I consider it necessary to rebut his allegations and set the record straight instead of ignoring his balderdash.

  • Sri Lanka Defense Ministry orders NGOs to refrain from holding Press conferences, Workshops and issue Press Releases

    7 July 2014

    Sri Lanka Defense Ministry Monday has sent a circular to all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) asking them to refrain from unauthorized activities such as press conferences and workshops and other such unauthorized activities. .. This has drawn a sharp response "The Ministry of Defence does not enjoy any specific legal authority under any statute whatsoever to control freedom of speech and association of citizens, who act collectively through civil society organizations," the Lawyers Collective was quoted as saying.

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