South Asia Citizens Web

What is happening in Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant? How do workers present their case against the noise of modern India? The devil is in the details, find Nisha Susan & Gaurav Jain

Over the weekend, a press release issued by the Director General of the Department of Government Information noted that all ‘websites carrying any content relating to Sri Lanka or the people of Sri Lanka… uploaded from Sri Lanka or elsewhere’ to ‘register’ for ‘accreditation’. Several websites Websites including www.lankanewsweb.com, www.srilankamirror.com, www.srilankaguardian.com and www.lankawaynews.com were blocked on the day the press release was issued.

Narendra Modi’s fast is getting major response and the continuing indefinite fast of 100 odd people for 7 days in Idinthakarai in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu for life and livelihood which is supported by a gathering of more than 15000 is being ignored. Today Justice V.R Krishna Iyer the most respected judge in the country has sent a request to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J.Jayalitha to initiate a genuine dialogue with the fasting people and also requested the fasting people to continue their struggle in a non-violent manner without putting the lives of the fasters in danger. The fast has reached the 8th day and the protest is spreading to many parts in Tamil Nadu and other states as well with solidarity events happening all over. Medha Patker is expected to join the fasting team tomorrow on September 19th. On the 7th day of the fast no effort from the state or central government has happened with the fasters.
With the hunger strike crossing 7 days the situation of many of the 127 people on hunger strike in Indinthakarai has become critical.

Nandan Nilekani maintains UIDAI is not mandatory, but various institutions of the state are slowly converted to work with a UIDAI based system. Why this double speak? There might be an explanation: In the early days of UIDAI, during press conferences whenever some reporter would raise a question about privacy issues Nandan Nilekani would reply with a smile; ‘But the scheme is not mandatory’, thereby preempting or limiting speculation anchored around privacy. Perhaps not projecting the scheme as mandatory was part of a well thought out strategy to blunt set attacks which could come from the privacy advocacy sector. Such a smart approach may work very well with the corporate sector, but should the state not communicate a new policy with a bit of earnestness? If the scheme is called Aadhar (foundation) how the hell can it not be mandatory? If it is mandatory, who mandates it? The Parliament of India has certainly not mandated UIDAI, so who has?

With the hunger strike crossing 6 days the situation of many of the 127 people on hunger strike in Indinthakarai is becoming more and more critical. More than 15000 people have been gathering every day for the past 6 days from 30 odd villages around Koodankulam from 3 districts Kanaykumari, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli. Protest is spreading to outside of Idnthakarai also. In neighboring Kanyakumari district some colleges had gone on strike. The local MP Helen Davidson’s house was picketed. The collector office in Kanaykumari was also picketed. Small protests happened in Chennai and Thoothukudi. From the neighboring villages of Koodankulam nuclear plant town ship where the staff of the plant including Russians stay the people mostly women have refused to go for work. The non violent protests that are happening is not being paid enough attention by the governments and they are playing with peoples emotions and patience.