South Asia Citizens Web

’Abki Bar Atyachar’ a set of four posters in Hindi released in India by un-named artists on 4 April 2014

An independent Fact Finding team led by Justice PC Jain (Retd Judge, Jaipur High Court) which investigated in the matter strongly protests against the Inquiry led by Mr. R S Tripathi (Retd District and Sessions Judge) into the matter of custodial torture and death of Akhilesh Sahu, and death of Naqeeb Ahmad Siddiqui in Singrauli during 5th to 13th Dec 2013.

The Sindh Assembly has passed a resolution to do away with the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). The recent recommendations given by the CII, all related to women, have caused hackles to rise in many people concerned with the protection of women in a society that still holds primitive views about them. A country where women are treated like dumb driven cattle, and their presence deliberately kept subdued, any law that reinforces their status as second-class citizens is adding more agony to their existence.

We seem to have been bombarded of late by the stunted intellect of the mullah variety in Pakistan. As if the Council of Islamic Ideology’s edicts on underage marriage and polygamy were not enough, the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan’s mainstream hardliner religious political party, has moved a motion in the National Assembly that the talent show ‘Pakistan Idol’ is “obscene” and ruining the values of society. One wonders where these maulvis (clerics) come up with such logic from. How can a music and singing talent contest that allows youngsters to showcase their vocal abilities and add some fun and colour to their lives and the lives of the viewers be a vulgarity-promoting activity?

The 2014 parliamentary elections are more critical for the future of India than any other in the past. A victory of Bhartiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi would not only end Congress domination of Indian politics, it would set in motion a new culture and reverse the secular foundations of India. There are many factors for the decline of the influence of Congress but none has played as big a role as its denunciation by the block of Communist Parties, mainly the Communist Party of India. At the present critical juncture this denunciation by CPI has not only crossed the limits of decency but also of callousness towards the future of India.