South Asia Citizens Web

India has witnessed a strange display of double standards over the past few weeks. The government dismissed the fears of the locals at Koodankulam, Tamil Nadu, that the nuclear reactors there might undergo an accident. However, the fears of international nuclear suppliers — that if a major accident were to occur, the Indian Nuclear Liability Act might force them to pay large sums in compensation — were treated as serious and the government has just come out with rules that almost completely indemnify them. This undermines the bill passed by Parliament in 2010.

On 25 November, the UN Committee against Torture issued its concluding observations on the compliance of Sri Lanka with its international obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Committee considered that, despite the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), it remains seriously concerned about the continued and consistent allegations of widespread use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of suspects in police custody, especially to extract “confessions” or other information to be used in criminal proceedings.

Early in the year of grace 1988 certain (dis)reputable members of the academic community in the University of Delhi organized a public address on an unspeakable subject by a reluctant speaker in an unlikely location. Your chronicler was one of those persons. Our repute - or notoriety, depending on ideological taste - was on account of our strident criticism of the politics of Hinduttva, at the time a popular philosophy within the teaching community.

If the Government of Chattisgarh fails to take proper action to safeguard the legal rights and dignity of an undertrial, it is clear that it has no moral authority to continue in office.

At the roof-top, open air auditorium of the Delhi Union of Journalists, on November 19, 2011, while a gentle breeze blew, an inner circle of friends—writers, publishers, reporters, press workers, peace activists, and leaders from journalist unions—all shared some moments and memories, remembering the late J. Sri Raman who left us on November 8, 2011. The meeting, organised by the Delhi Union Journalists, was less of a condolence meeting. It was an exchange between friends, admirers, colleagues, and some family members of fond memories and moments that had made sixtyeight-year-old Raman, the grassroots journalist that he was. There was poetry, a dash of music inter-sprinkled with some humour, in the backdrop of a picture of a smiling Raman and a few roses in a vase...