Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Unending fear and violence in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh

    7 May 2011

    Caught between the Maoists, the security forces and the civilian vigilante groups, the communities of Dantewada have for all purposes been abandoned by the State developmental machinery…

  • India: The Hindu right is spreading its poison via its schools network

    7 May 2011

    It is well known that the Sangh parivar has been trying to establish itself in the tribal areas for a long while. But, the pace at which it is growing has become phenomenal. Sangh’s main propaganda and ‘service’ vehicle – the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) – offers some startling figures in terms of its reach in the field of education and what it calls cultural engagement.

    For instance, Chattisgarh has 2,490 ekal vidyalayas, while Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the Northeast have 1,590, 2,160, 1,534 and 2,681 such schools.

  • Gujarat: CJP welcomes supreme court order handing over the investigation and appraisal of the evidence to the amicus curaie

    by Citizens for Justice and Peace, 6 May 2011

    The Citizens Justice and Peace (CJP), co-petitioner in SLP 1088/2008—Zakia Ahsan Jafri and CJP v/s state of Gujarat—welcomes the order of the Supreme Court handing over the investigation and appraisal of the evidence in this crucial criminal investigation to the amicus curaie, Shri Raju Ramachandran. We believe that the wealth of evidence available, the witnesses, including police officers and administration officials willing to depose will do so now without fear or favour .

  • Pakistan state must provide education for all demand’s citizen’s lawsuit

    6 May 2011

    Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and others file lawsuit demanding that the state fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide education for all. See news reports

  • Caging hawks post-Osama

    by Dipankar Gupta, 6 May 2011

    Who let the Hawks out in India? The American SEALS, of course. They took wing after the Hollywood-like finish with which the American Sea-Air-Land (SEAL) forces rubbed out Osama bin Laden. This spectacular event also converted some of our defence experts into scriptwriters. What Indian hawks miss out in their posturing is that the Kashmir problem will not be resolved by capturing or killing some unbelievably evil people in Pakistan. Terrorists have a way of breeding rapidly if they receive political patronage. Ergo, to resolve Kashmir, or terrorism in the subcontinent, there is no alternative but a state-to-state dialogue.

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