FS: What do you think is the way to stem the rising tide of religious extremism in Pakistan?
PH: If you want the truth: the answer is, nothing. Our goose is cooked. But well before the last liberal is shot or silenced, the mullahs will be gunning for each other in a big way.....To save Pakistan, what miracles shall we ask of Allah? My list has at least three.
The RSS needs to dissolve itself. India needs no protection from self- styled militias. It has a state structure and judiciary capable of handling criminals and terrorists of various hues. It does not need religious vigilante groups to take revenge for jihadi terror or to save Hinduism, which has thrived for centuries without knobbly- kneed men in khaki shorts and black caps, bamboo staff in hand, taking part in an elaborate costume drama.
With the end of the conflict between Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE or ‘Tamil Tigers’) in 2009, normality has returned for much of the population of Sri Lanka. But for members of the country’s two main minority groups – Tamils and Muslims – living in the north and east of the country, harsh material conditions, economic marginalisation, and militarism remain prevalent. Drawing on interviews with activists, religious and political leaders, and ordinary people living in these areas of the country, MRG found a picture very much at odds with the official image of peace and prosperity following the end of armed conflict.
We the undersigned are deeply distressed at the recent decision by the Prime Minister (in a letter dated 31st December 2010) to delink MGNREGA wages from the Minimum Wages Act even while indexing the wage rate under NREGA to Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour. The Government of India had already undermined the wages under NREGA through a January 2009 notification, when it imposed an unjust freeze at an arbitrary rate of Rs 100 per day on its wages.
The case of the two diplomats, straddling 11 years, brought to the forefront the issue of violence against women compounded with diplomatic immunity, which needs to be placed and debated in the public domain. To throw the blanket of immunity over the perpetrator is to make a mockery of the law.
