South Asia Citizens Web

A large private university in Meerut has suspended 67 Kashmiri students for allegedly cheering Pakistan during the India-Pak match at the Asia Cup on Sunday. The students were told to vacate their hostel rooms, and were escorted by police and university officials to nearby Ghaziabad. Some students are now back with their families in the Valley.

Indians must not allow the little men with irrational fears to determine what books they can read, films they can watch, writers they can play host to, or artists and musicians they can patronise.

These are scanned copies of original press statements (in cyclostyled form) issued by the Communist Party of India between late october 1976 and mid January 1977; These pertain to the 1975 emergency in India

We recognize the framework agreed upon in resolutions 21/1 HRC (2012) and 22/1 HRC 2013 supporting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka and efforts made by member states calling on the Sri Lankan government to address grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed before, during and after the war which ended in May 2009. We recognize too the efforts of member states calling on the Sri Lankan government to address continuing violation of human rights and democratic norms in Sri Lanka.

“Half a step forward, two steps backwards” would be an appropriate phrase to describe the measures taken by the UPA I & II towards ensuring justice and equality for the marginalized sections, particularly the religious minorities in India. It takes half a step and then seems to lose courage, perhaps fearing the much hyped “backlash” of the “majority community” and takes two steps backwards in penance for having taken half a step in the first place. The UPA misleads the minorities with the ineffective and often counterproductive half a step taken, while the BJP and the RSS blow whistle and go to the town claiming it to be appeasement of minorities and huge “injustice” to the “majority community”. This leaves minorities more vulnerable, insecure demoralized and discriminated than ever before. The latest decision of the Union Cabinet taken on 20th February to constitute an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) is yet another example of such an approach.