South Asia Citizens Web

statement by former Union Minister, Shri Eduardo Faleiro re. nomination of Shri Narendra Modi as the Chairman of the National Election Campaign Committee of the BJP

Jharkhand activist Bulu Imam is Director of the Sanskriti Research Center in Hazaribagh, and coordinator of the Karanpura Campaign, a nearly 25-year-old campaign against open-cast strip coal mines. Imam also serves as the convener of India’s National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

With great pride we would like to put on record that the work of our colleague and friend Harsh Mander, for the last several years, both inside the Government as a civil servant, as well as outside the Government as a policy maker, researcher and activist has been, that of promoting in the most ethical way, non-violent ways of ensuring justice to survivors of violence due to their gender, class, caste, religious group, ethnicity or nationality. It is shocking that the “aspirant PM” Narendra Modi has been targetting Harsh for the last week calling him a Maoist. Thus trying to belittle his work, raising doubts about him and villifying his name in public. This targetting of individuals and organisations and vilifying them is not new, earlier too he had spewed venom against Syeda Hammed, Teesta Setalvad and Shabnam Hashni amongst the several and now the new whipping boys are Harsh Mander and Dr. Binayak Sen.

Centre for Sustainable Use of Social and Natural Resources (CSNR), Bhubaneswar and Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), Delhi, launched a report: Unjust Compensation: Assessment of Damage and Loss of Private Property during the Anti-Christian Violence in Kandhamal, India using the HLRN ‘Eviction Impact Assessment Tool’ today, 7 June 2013, at Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar.
The report was released by Mr Miloon Kothari, former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing. The panel also consisted of Mr Dhirendra Panda, Secretary, CSNR, Ms Shivani Chaudhry, Associate Director, HLRN, Mr Prafulla Samantaray and Father Nicholas Barla, human rights activists.

Amid an intensifying crackdown on non-governmental groups that receive foreign funding, Indian activists are accusing the government of stifling their right to dissent in the world’s largest democracy.