South Asia Citizens Web

A morning show broadcast in Pakistan on Jan 17, 2012, on Samaa, a Pakistani television channel, has catalysed what could well be the beginning of a media consumer rights movement. In the show, Subah Saverey Maya kay Sath (Early Morning with Maya), the host Maya Khan, charges through a public park looking for dating couples to interrogate. With her is a battalion of other women, who join her in self-righteously lecturing the couples they come across – does your family know you are here, why don’t you meet at home if you are engaged, and, most outrageously, if you are married, where is your nikahnama (marriage certificate)?

The NTUI condemns the management of Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. (UCIL) for serving termination notice on Sagar Besra, President, Jharkhand Krantikari MazdoorUnion – Turamdih unit for raising his voice as a displaced person from Dohdangavillage and concurring with the gram sabha decision of his village calling upon UCIL to stop unsafe mining in the Banduhurang mines which are located just 150meters from the village, in violation of safe mining norms.

While building solidarity between activists in the U.S. and Iran can be a powerful way of supporting social justice movements in Iran, progressives and leftists who want to express solidarity with Iranians are challenged by a complicated geopolitical terrain. The U.S. government shrilly decries Iran’s nuclear power program and expands a long-standing sanctions regime on the one hand, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes inflammatory proclamations and harshly suppresses Iranian protesters and dissidents on the other. Solidarity activists are often caught between a rock and a hard place, and many choose what they believe are the “lesser evil” politics. In the case of Iran, this has meant aligning with a repressive state leader under the guise of “anti-imperialism” and “populism,” or supporting “targeted” sanctions.

Spiel about and full programme of National Consultation on Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Feb 25-26, 2012, New Delhi

India should not succumb to the EU pressure on the issue [trade]. There is nothing worthy about free trade, certainly not with a bloc of nations that has a per capita income more than 10 times higher than India’s. By contrast, India must enthusiastically pursue trade talks with its neighbours, particularly with Pakistan