South Asia Citizens Web

The Citizens for Justice and Peace has served a Legal Notice on The Pioneer edited by BJP parliamentarian, Chandan Mitra for carrying a series of slanderous and defamatory articles, the last one of which appeared today dated April 21, 2014. The notice served by the CJP’s lawyer, Mr Mihir Desai is a notice to publish the content of the Legal Notice in Full with an Apology or face Criminal and or Civil defamation.

As the people of India vote to elect their next government, we are deeply concerned at the implications of a Narendra Modi-led BJP government for democracy, pluralism and human rights in India.

The run-up to the 2014 general elections in India has been an unprecedented demonstration of the massive infusion of money in electoral campaigning. A veritable carpet-bombing of India’s voters with the opposition BJP’s message is everywhere to be seen, from advertisements in newspapers, on TV, Youtube, Radio, Mobile Phones, CDs and the Internet, to billboards in all metropolitan cities and small towns and on transport vehicles, including inside the Delhi Metro trains. In effect, it has blocked out all other political parties as far as public advertising goes. This vast campaign has been on a scale never seen in history, estimated by some to be costing Rs 5000-6000 crores or more (from 800 to over 900 million dollars).

The moderate and liberal Hinduism that (as Gupta reminds us) is the bulwark of Indian secularism, is under attack by precisely those who are mobilising like never before to seize power for a Savarkarite programme. Let us remember who murdered Mahatma Gandhi, and why. We learn from the pages of the Indian Express that its owner prides himself on having been the (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/change-is-inevitable-constant-rss-chief/) invisible publisher of the RSS journal Organiser. (Why was he invisible?) I’d like to know Gupta’s views on the RSS and its activities.

“My opinion is that nobody can make men responsible for the violence against women. Women are responsible for it…” Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa