South Asia Citizens Web

I don’t support Anna’s movement at all, neither does he represent me any way. He has adopted an authoritarian attitude in his fight against corruption and is affiliated to right-wing Hindu groups.

The arrest of Anna Hazare and other other anti corruption activists before their proposed fast in New Delhi starting on the 16th August 2011 has been unanimously criticised by leading human rights groups in India. Posted below are text of statements by PUCL and PUDR

A popular perception in Pakistan is that extremism, radicalism and militancy are primarily driven by poverty and lack of education. Give the boys jobs and you will detract them from going the jihadi route. This may be true for foot soldiers but militancy itself grows due to radicalism which has rapidly spread amongst the middle and upper-middle classes as well. Today, radicalism is part of an emerging pop culture. Under the circumstances, it would in any case become difficult to stop the poor from turning into foot soldiers not just because of financial reasons but also due to their desire to ape those socially above them.

Even as the strike by the workers of Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant has been successful in meeting some of their demands, the government has backtracked on its promise of having the union registered. Nevertheless, the strike has highlighted the pathetic work conditions in the factories and set an important precedent for workers in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt of Haryana.

A year on from the International Crimes Tribunal’s first hearing in July 2010, there remains much to be concerned about in both the legal regime and the day-to-day operation of the tribunal. These inadequacies provide much of the ammunition for what the government terms a Jamaat ’propaganda’ war to undermine the tribunal, David Bergman argues in the first of a two-part essay