South Asia Citizens Web

Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general to the US, was arrested by US police in December for allegedly paying her housekeeper Sangeeta Richard less than one-third the legal minimum wage and lying to US officials about Sangeeta’s real wage and working conditions. While there are understandable concern about Khobragade’s treatment following arrest, the diplomatic row between the US and India triggered by the arrest has obscured the real issue of worker exploitation.

. . . neo-liberalism has failed to eradicate poverty and actually exacerbated inequality and vulnerability, why has the Sri Lankan state not abandoned the perspectives and approaches that it has followed since 1977?

Nothing travels faster, it seems, than a bad and populist idea. By announcing that 90 per cent of the seats in 12 Delhi University colleges directly funded by Delhi will be reserved exclusively for residents, the new education minister, Manish Sisodia, has endorsed a small-minded proposal that was earlier supported by the BJP and Congress. The large-hearted cosmopolitanism of this city of migrants sets it on par with metropolises like Bangalore and Mumbai. Before the AAP goes ahead with its misguided plan, it should look again at the voters, or even its own council of ministers, and ask just who the real "Dilliwallah" is.

The facilities under construction are, in many cases, being built by workers who are virtual slaves. Of Qatar’s two million inhabitants, only 225,000 are nationals; the rest are migrant workers, mostly from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, brought in to do manual labor. There have been widespread reports that thousands of workers are being abused and hundreds have quietly perished. The International Trade Union Confederation has estimated that, without urgent action to remedy conditions, 4,000 migrant workers will have died before a single ball is kicked in Doha.

The way Indians assiduously imitate Pakistan, I get nightmares of Indian pilots blowing the conch shell in a religious ritual for the take-off. I have no idea who hijacked the plane’s loudhailers in Pakistan to offer recitation of religious verses on its commercial flights and why. Has that deterred air pockets and late arrivals?