South Asia Citizens Web

We, the undersigned college teachers from Delhi University, are disturbed at the carelessness and insensitivity with which many second semester examinations for under-graduate students were conducted at the University on May 7, 2012. Our sense of dismay is deep because we are convinced that the current exam trouble at DU is only indicative of a larger crisis that has been thrust upon our university during the past few years.

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) calls off the planned event at Idinthakarai on May 10, 2012 as the District authorities have clamped down prohibitory orders such as 144 in and around Koodankulam area. The citizens’ right to assemble cannot and must not be construed as a siege and this fundamental right must be respected and honored. We would also like to record the fact that we have not inflicted any violence on anybody in any of our protests or agitations for the past nine months. So the authorities have nothing to fear or worry.

It is therefore essential for the political parties in India as well as Sri Lanka not to raise communities against each other. The future of Tamils and Sinhalese lies in a unified and strong Sri Lanka. And Sri Lankan government and political class must understand that they will gain nothing by isolating the Tamils who have contributed enormously for the development of this country. The influence of Tamil culture is visible in Sri Lanka and it would be a travesty of truth if we harp on divisions and make one community villain for the entire issue.

In its new format, Hindu-Muslim communalism has evolved into a byproduct of political economy pursued by the country’s two main predominantly Hindu parties — Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both actively encourage blind faith and religious revivalism not only among vulnerable Hindus but also Muslims. Christians and Sikhs are not exempt from their purview.

Pakistan’s current and aspiring political leaders can rarely give a public speech these days without invoking ghairat (honour) in some shape or form. Rather than present plans for reducing unemployment or providing electricity, they talk about shame and honour. The ultimate insult ‘bayghairat’ (without honour) is sometimes hurled onto an opponent. This time-tested formula has worked wherever a people have been dispirited and dejected. For example, Hitler’s meteoric rise to power, culminating in the most destructive war of history, came from appealing to the collective ghairat of the German nation and to the alleged cowardice and corruption of its rulers.