Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Pakistan’s Lesbians Live In Silence, Love In Secret - A radio report

    18 January 2011

    In an Islamic country like Pakistan, lesbians can be imprisoned for life. However, Fatima says, it is not the law that gays and lesbians fear — it’s family and neighbors, whom she suspects murder many gays and lesbians in honor killings

  • Aseemananda’s Confession

    by Economic and Political Weekly, 17 January 2011

    It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the confession made by Swami Aseemananda relating to the planning and execution of the bomb blasts in Malegaon (2006 and 2008), on the Samjhauta Express (2006), and in Mecca Masjid (2007) and Ajmer Sharif (2007). What is even more significant is that Aseemananda’s confession was made voluntarily before a magis- trate, after he was kept away from the police, in judicial custody for two days, to ensure that it was not being made under duress. Aseemananda is no ordinary person. He is a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, head of the RSS-affiliated Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Gujarat and he runs a religious centre in the Dangs district of Gujarat. He is powerful enough to have Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi visit him and share the dais with him on frequent occasions.

  • Malik-speak: demonisation and denial

    by Rahnuma Ahmed, 17 January 2011

    Even prime minister Sheikh Hasina had sounded exasperated. Factory owners, she said, give garment workers ’not only insufficient but also inhuman’ wages.

    Coming from someone who heads a government which, as Shahidullah Chowdhury, president, Bangladesh Trade Union Centre, points out, is ’essentially biased’ towards protecting and promoting the interests of the rich (like all previous governments in Bangladesh), her comment is quite revealing.

  • Zia’s spiritual children - From schoolbooks to religious vigilantism: An interview with A H Nayyar

    17 January 2011

    Back in 1984, when Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy and I were examining the history textbooks of Pakistan, it was possible for us to see the impact of the changes in curriculum being brought about by Ziaul Haq on the young minds.

  • When Generals Subvert Democratic Process

    by Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, 16 January 2011

    How can a democratic country allow its army to dictate terms and make political statements on Armed Forces Special Powers Act revocation or troops withdrawal? It is only in a military dictatorship that the army is above all and above the board. India happens to be a constitutional democracy.

elsewhere on the web