South Asia Citizens Web

The Delhi HM Conference “New Cultures of the Left”, the first South Asian Historical Materialism Conference, will be held at the JNU Convention Centre, JNU Delhi, on 3-5 April 2013. The conference occurs against several backgrounds that make the revival of the left and the reemergence of Marxist and other forms of radical theory and politics imperative. These ‘backgrounds’ include the massive convulsions in the world economy from the financial crash of 2008 onwards; the great uprisings in the Arab world that dominated the whole of 2011 with their remarkable mass-based struggles for democracy; the emergence in the West of spontaneous forms of resistance to Austerity politics and its fierce attacks on the lives of millions of people both in and out of employment.

The Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project along with Tirunelveli district administration has carried out an “offsite emergency exercise.” According to the Collector’s Press Release, the “exercise was observed by the representatives from AERB, NPCIL HQ and other officials of NPCIL.” Why were the local public representatives such as MP, MLA, local civil society members, prominent citizens and the local media not invited? Why was the whole exercise a quick and hush-hush affair that lasted only for an hour?
Do nuclear disasters affect a large area around the plant or just one or two specific villages? How come the exercise is carried out in an isolated village and not throughout the project affected area?

posted below is a report and a public petition from 2011 along with links to relevant material

We the undersigned citizens, belonging to various sections of Pakistan’s civil society, express our serious concern and alarm at the information-leak from a responsible and highly credible source that there is a serious threat to the life of the country’s leading human rights activist and one of the most influential leaders of the bar, Ms Asma Jahangir. What makes the reported conspiracy to liquidate Asma Jahangir especially serious is, firstly, the environment of target-killings, in which dissident persons’ dead bodies are being dumped all over, and, secondly, the fact that the finger of accusation has been pointed at the extraordinarily privileged state actors. We wish to make it clear to all and sundry, especially those who preside over the security apparatus, that they must not under-estimate the consequences of any harm being caused to the life of Asma Jahangir. This is not a conspiracy against one individual alone; it is obviously a plot against Pakistan’s future as a democratic state

When it comes to thrusting nuclear power down the throats of unwilling people, official India sets a record of violations of dignity and rights that is embarrassing. Which other government but India’s maligns all anti-nuclear protesters as foreign-inspired and lacking any agency? Where else would
the police file 107 FIRs against 55,795 peaceful anti-nuclear protesters, but at Koodankulam, charging 6,800 with "sedition" and "waging war against the State"? And which other government has asked a psychiatric institution, in this case, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (Nimhans), to "counsel" people and convince them that the project, despite the hazards, is good for them?