South Asia Citizens Web

(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, (…)

An exhibition by photographer-artist Sunil Gupta, which got discontinued at the Alliance Française in New Delhi after an individual complained of being offended by it, Gupta talks to Susmita Saha about creative freedom and the multifarious ways in which it repeatedly get stifled in India and his sheer ’perplexity’ about Alliance Française’s attitude over the incident.

Photographer-artist Sunil Gupta

Full text of the 1969 report of Commission of Inquiry in to Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi. Published in 1970 by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, the report is now not so widely known since its has been out of print. This two part report has been now been digitised and uploaded on the internet in public interest with the intent to permanently keep it in the public domain. - sacw.net

The Afghan government should release the approximately 400 women and girls imprisoned in Afghanistan for “moral crimes,” Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. By maintaining discriminatory laws on the books, and by failing to address due process and fair trial violations in “moral crimes” cases, Afghanistan is in violation of its obligations under international human rights law. United Nations expert bodies and special rapporteurs have called for the repeal of Afghanistan’s “moral crimes” laws. The UN special rapporteur on violence against women has called on Afghanistan to “abolish laws, including those related to zina. ..

We are shocked to read that the exhibition of photographs by Sunil Gupta mounted by the Alliance Francais in Delhi as a part of their Francophone Festival was shut down shortly after its opening. The show opened with a large attendance of Delhi’s artists at which Aruna Roy, the highly regarded social activist, also gave a speech. Apparently the Delhi police arrived at the venue on the complaint of an individual that there were nude images on display. The Alliance Francais needs to publicly clarify if they were ordered to shut down the exhibit by the Delhi police and if so, on what grounds. If major institutions like them cannot stand up against complaints made by a single individual and support the work of an artist they have invited to exhibit, they do not deserve the respect or patronage of the art community.