South Asia Citizens Web

On the night of 26th June, Prafulla Samantara, senior activist and National Convener, NAPM and Lingraj Azad, Samajwadi Jan Parishad was attacked at Bolangir station, while returning from a Padyatra organised by the people opposing Lower Suktel Project in the region.

News reports about the recent visit of the minister of environment to Mumbai fill one with despair. Even as the devastation in Uttarakhand was making headlines, our chief minister was asking Jayanthi Natarajan to relax environmental rules for projects which are either unnecessary, or designed to wreak havoc on their surroundings. Did he forget that Uttarakhand’s destruction is a direct outcome of the relaxation of environmental rules in that ecologically sensitive state?
Uttarakhand is far away. Our rulers refuse to learn the lessons of Mumbai.

There is a common message emanating from the centers of power in Washington, D.C. and New Delhi: Whistle blowing, or truth telling as the act may be more accurately described, is not a welcome activity.

That a state govt in India goes out of its way to push for obscurantism is truly shocking.

This week, Brazil has witnessed mobilisations across 15 capital cities and hundreds of other cities. We are in agreement with the statements coming out of these protests, which affirm the importance of these mobilisations for Brazilian democracy, because we are conscious of the fact that the changes we need in this country will come through popular mobilisation.