South Asia Citizens Web

The Right to Food Campaign is shocked at the Prime Minister’s statement made to the editors’ conference on 6th September, 2010, stating (with reference to the Supreme Court’s direction of free distribution of grain to the poor) that the Supreme Court “should not go into the realm of policy formulation”. This statement confirms the anti-poor outlook of this Government. We believe that when people use their constitutional rights - the right to life, right to freedom of speech and expression as well as right to approach courts - the Head of the Indian Executive should not interfere with their right to seek justice. This comment is all the more objectionable as it is likely to have a cascading effect down the bureaucratic chain and may lead to questioning of judicial intervention.

The International CHT Commission (CHTC) conducted a mission to Bangladesh from 4 to 10 September 2010, including a visit to the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The purpose of the mission was to assess the overall political developments related to the CHT Accord and follow up on issues raised in the CHTC’s memo to the Prime Minister following its visit to the CHT in June 2010

The appalling psychiatric care in Nepal and other developing countries condemns thousands to a living hell

People’s Union For Democratic Rights is deeply disturbed by the underlying basis for the majority view of the three-judge bench in the Ayodhya case.

(published earlier in The Times of India)
Three days after a Ram idol was placed under the Babri Masjid’s central dome, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru shot off a letter to UP chief minister G B Pant directing that the mischief be undone. His reason: "A dangerous example is being set there, which will have bad consequences."
But Nehru’s concerns were overridden by the local administrator, Faizabad’s deputy commissioner K K Nayar. Even as he acknowledged that the installation of the idols (…)