South Asia Citizens Web

The Delhi University (DU), with its 70+ constituent colleges, 400,000 students and 8000+ teachers, is in the throes of an unprecedented crisis. The DU Administration, after having adamantly refused meaningful dialogue with teachers and students regarding its unilateral drive to hurriedly and thoughtlessly semesterise undergraduate teaching, has been vandalizing all conventions and clearly laid-down procedures governing democratic and participatory functioning at the DU.

IN RECENT years the default mode for Sri Lankan diplomats has been a posture of affronted national dignity beneath a mask of outraged, sanctimonious innocence.
Though perceived foreign slights may enhance the government’s standing at home, it is there that the concealment of the truth about the war’s end will do most damage. It is not as if there were no witnesses. Some 300,000 people know first-hand parts of what happened. When the LLRC held hearings in the north, scene of the fighting, survivors told harrowing tales of loss and asked where missing loved ones were. Without answers, it is hard to see how they can be “reconciled”.

The ‘final forest clearance’ by the MoEF to the controversial POSCO project in Orissa on 2 May 2011, is a shocking assault on Indian democracy. It makes it clear that all talk of ‘inclusive democracy’ and ‘inclusive development’ by the government is a sham, to be abandoned whenever politically expedient. The central government’s order is based itself on the blatant lies of the government of Odisha, giving short shrift to facts, provisions of law, and democratic processes. The UPA government that misses no opportunity to trumpet loud about a ‘working democracy’ under its leadership has shamelessly sold the laws of the land to the highest bidder—and practically for a loss.

It is really disturbing to read from newspapers reports that the
Delhi High Court has directed the striking pilots of Air India to discontinue
their agitation and resume work. We fail to understand as to under what law
such an order can be passed. Peaceful demonstrations are part of the
fundamental rights of free speech and also of the right of assembly which are guaranteed under article 19 (a) and (b) of the Constitution. The Supreme Court as long back as in 1962 in the matter of Kameshwar Prasad Vs. State of Bihar has held that demonstration is a visible representation of the feelings or sentiments of an individual or group and is part of fundamental right of free speech. (AIR 1962 SC 1166).

‘THAILAND and Cambodia have’, according to BBC News, ‘reached a ceasefire after a week of fighting along a disputed border .... Both countries said the truce was struck following talks between the two militaries.’ The border between the two countries has been contested for years, and ‘nationalist sentiment’ has continued to give rise to intermittent violence. In the past, elections have enkindled the ongoing, if sometimes dormant, dispute, and the latest skirmish comes with elections looming in Thailand.