South Asia Citizens Web

Guests: Hardeep Puri (Former High Commissioner to Sri Lanka) ; P Sahadevan (Subject Expert) ; G Parthasarathy (Former Diplomat)
Anchor: Bharat Bhushan

Tolerance is a fine thing. However, there are limits that any sane society must prescribe, and the presence of autonomous, unaccountable entities that in all likelihood present a danger to the lives of citizens and the security of the state cannot be tolerated. Recently reports have emerged that in the event that peace talks fail, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) allies at religious seminaries in and around the capital, Islamabad, are ready to support the terrorists and help attacks on the city.

Is this the Bangladesh we wanted? Analyzing the Hindu Population Gap (2001-2011) by Garga Chatterjee and Naeem Mohaiemen for AlalODulal.org In October 2012, Prothom Alo published a frightening report that stated, in plain words, that over the last decade (which spans a BNP, an AL, and a Military “CTG” government), the Hindu population of Bangladesh […]

As we go forward into a long summer of election driven high temperatures, there are warnings that in desperation to make the numbers, desperate players will play the predictable, desperate communal card. Will our institutions be paralysed as in the past or rise to the occasion and deliver?
As for us, you and me, we would do well to remember. It is crucial more than now that we ensure that the forces of majoritarian communalism are decisively and resoundingly defeated. At the polls.

The first phase of elections are over with 111 seats going to polls on 7th and 10th. The BJP, which has a thin presence in these seats, now hope to pick up a substantial number. Its main calculation is that its Modi plank, buoyed up by unprecedented media advertisements including the Internet, a paid social media campaign and splashing Modi all over the country’s billboards has created a Modi “wave”. Nothing is more shameful in this campaign than what Amit Shah has done, which finally the Election Commission has stopped. In his every meeting in the riot-hit areas of western UP, Shah had the same message – this is the time for revenge, vote BJP. His speech – framed as it was by other Jat “leaders” before him, was clear. Riots in western UP are only because Muslims threaten “our” women.