South Asia Citizens Web

[In Pakistan] the “Qaumi English Urdu Dictionary” published by “The National Language Authority” a state-run institution, the term “secularism” has been translated as “Ladeeniat.” On the basis of such distortions, rampant in our texts, the Urdu press has associated the term “Secularism” with being anti-religious and atheistic.

The Committee appointed by the Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy studied various reports, documents and papers on KKNPP in particular and nuclear energy and ionizing radiation in general. A 38 page report by the Central Expert Group (CEG) was made available to us. Besides responding to the assertions of the CEG report, we are also bringing forward our own studies that are relevant to the reactor safety.. Most of the documents that were asked by PMANE were not shared to the technical committee including the site evaluation study and other documents. Despite this handicap the committee has gone in depth and analysed various issues.

The Alliance of Media Organizations is disturbed by the recent wave of hate speeches and slanderous personal attacks directed against media personnel and human rights activists in the country, in the aftermath of the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka.

Recent votes by India in the UN, censuring first Syria and then Sri Lanka for human rights violations, seem to indicate a new willingness to join initiatives by the international community supporting democracy in other countries. This is a welcome move. While it is entirely justifiable to oppose military aggression against another country, or to oppose sanctions except in cases where the oppressed population calls for them, condemning a regime that is repressing its people is the least the international community can do to defend the human rights of citizens of the world when those rights are being violated. However, to avoid the charge of double standards, governments involved in such votes should be able to show that they respect the same rights in their own countries. Scrutiny of India’s domestic record does not support such a conclusion.

(Hindustan Times, March 17, 2012)
In scarred country
by Chetan Chauhan
Illegal mining in India could be a much bigger game than the headline-grabbing 2G scam. In just two states — Goa and Karnataka, the government lost about Rs 36,000 crore — money that could feed half the country’s 400 million poor for a year — because of illegally extracted iron ore. "Annual illegal mining should be worth over Rs 1 lakh crore," says a former mining secretary, on the condition of anonymity.
In 2010, (…)