South Asia Citizens Web

The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India strongly condemns the arrests and repression in and around Koodankulam of the activists involved in the entirely peaceful and non-violent mass agitation against the installation of two Russian built nuclear reactors. That the Tamil Nadu government has decided to collude with the Central government is deeply disappointing and will destroy the hopes that were held by the people of southern Tamil Nadu that the state government would respect their democratic rights and their concerns.

As the TN Govt has shown green signal today for the commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear plant, thousands of policemen have been deployed at Kudankulm and they have arrested about 150 activists, it has become clear that the government is using highhanded methods to suppress the struggle. Struggle leaders including Adv. Sivasubrahmaniam, have been arrested today. Dr SP Udayakumar and Pushparayan have started an indefinite hunger strike in protest against repression and demanding withdrawal of Police force and immediate release of the arrested. People are gathering at Kudankulam in thousands in spite of police blockade of all highways and helicopter patrolling in the sky

The social and political journey of my life was similar to that of the ant. Com. Damodaran left large foot prints when he walked - as a Marxian intellectual, as one of the founders of the communist party in Kerala, as powerful orator, as a writer and last but not the least, as a human being. His youngest son, that is me, walked with tiny footprints. Well, it is not my fault that my feet are small.

Chairman of the CPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal wants to utilise the announced trip by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in late April 2012 to ‘cleanse’ himself of the blood of thousands, without having to express remorse. He took our society into a physically cruel and economically devastating ‘people’s war’ that has pauperised our society for 15 years running. Since coming above ground in 2006, he has prevaricated and cheated on the peace process, going against the promises made to the Nepali people and the international community. On BBC Radio Nepali Service, he openly stated that the directive of his party during the war years had been “to eliminate, but without torture”. He enthusiastically employed child soldiers during the conflict.

the non-recurrence of 2002-style killings in India provides little reason to credit its elites with heightened tolerance and compassion. Left behind by economic growth, Muslims are more demoralised and depressed than ever; and the country’s extreme inequalities, often enforced with violence, express themselves in new forms, ranging from suicides by tens of thousands of farmers, to militant insurgencies. Old-style rioting has been replaced by state terrorism, often cheer-led by the elites. (In 2007 India ranked just behind Iraq in annual incidents of "terrorist" violence.) Under Modi’s rule, Gujarat has seen a steep rise in extrajudicial killings. Economic globalisation, far from spurring moral and spiritual growth among its beneficiaries, has helped to create new constituencies - among haves as well as have-nots - for xenophobia and Modi-style authoritarian populism