South Asia Citizens Web

Pakistanis must reflect on why so many of us are disposed towards celebrating murder, lawlessness, and intolerance.

Sri Lanka as a nation has not ended its own political exile even after wining the separatist war. Unless Sri Lanka resolves its critical issue of ethnic inclusiveness, she will be in political exile. There will be a day, the masses of this country will drag her out of this and make us a proud nation where all ethnic communities will enjoy democracy and freedom.

Anna Hazare’s “movement against corruption” has monopolized political and media attention now for several months. There has been a tendency for people on the left, with the notably exception of most dalits, to assume its progressive character and feel that they must participate. But there has been a dearth of solid analysis.

We are all witness to and victims of the times characterized by monstrous brutalities of war and deep scars of deprivations, inequities and oppressions. We live under a world order wherein those who brought, for example, untold tragedy and destruction to Iraq will never be brought to justice because they are the global hegemons. [. . .] We on the subcontinent, too, have suffered grievously and felt the heat from far too close. Afghanistan is a continuing saga of tragedy; Pakistan has been made to pay too heavy a price; and India too has not managed to steer clear of the catastrophe. And we know very well that when we count the countries that have suffered, the loss is borne invariably by the people and not by their rulers. But can we – the witness, the victims, the people – escape all responsibility?

Delivering the 2nd S V Narasimhan Memorial Oration, organised by
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Dr Ramakrishnan said that just as good system
of government guarded people from their worst instincts, the process
of science "protects us from our biases and irrationality." "Scientific methods protect us from the danger of false beliefs. No system that does not incorporate proper testing, criticism from peers and other checks of modern science can claim to be ’scientific’ regardless of the scientific jargon used," he said.