South Asia Citizens Web

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has held formal press conferences, and its spokesmen have dominated the TV channels in tailor-made debates attacking the proposed bill against communal violence. Sangh think tanks have called for consultations on the issue, and their most articulate champion, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, advocate Arun Jaitely has gone to town saying, as a newspaper headlines screamed “Draft Bill on communal violence more draconian than TADA”.

dowry is being used as a bait to tempt poor families to surrender their daughters in the belief that they will return with a dowry. Extraordinary as this might sound, this is precisely what has been happening in the readymade garment industry in Tamil Nadu for over a decade.

Excavation
Lila Azam Zanganeh interviews Amitav Ghosh May 2011

The author Amitav Ghosh discusses the link between anthropology and writing, The New Yorker’s edit of his essay on the Iraq war, and John Updike’s worst book.

Mr. Gautam Navlakha, Convener, International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) and Editorial Consultant, Economic and Political Weekly, was stopped at Srinagar airport on his arrival from New Delhi, and asked to go back. Officials invoked Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. By the time the authorities finalized their decision regarding his return, there were no remaining flights out of Srinagar. Mr. Navlakha is being detained and taken to an undisclosed location until May 29, when he will be allowed to return home.

Classifying the Taliban between Pakistani and Afghan or that of moderate, innocent and hardliner will only be followed by confusion and disappointment.