South Asia Citizens Web

I G Khan Memorial lecture of 13 March 2010 was delivered by Dr Binayak Sen (human rights activist) at the Kennedy auditorium at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. The event was organised by The IG Khan Memorial Trust.

The historic tension between defence and external relations on the one hand and on the other, the political process to address the problem of minorities – commonly called the ‘national question’ – is one major aspect constituting the current politics of postwar regime consolidation. The other important aspect is that of development, which is currently being articulated by the Rajapaksa regime as the catch-all solution for Sri Lanka’s political problems. In fact, it is the merging of both these issues under the rubric of security and development, a framing not unique to Sri Lanka but conditioned by the notion of stability and the interests of global capitalism, that is also shaping politics in Sri Lanka.

truthout.org, 15 August 2010
I see I hear I know I beat I hit I touch I kill I kill the monks are dead.
That was the chant of Than Shwe, Burma’s military dictator, as he meditated recently at Bodhgaya, the place in India where Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment. Or, so says the satirical verse doing the rounds on the Internet.
Whether the junta leader chanted these words or not, the government of India had indeed seen as well as heard and it knew what the junta led by Shwe had done (…)

The Bangladesh government should immediately stop its serious and sustained harassment of trade union leaders, labor rights activists, and workers in the ready-made garment (RMG) industry, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the prime minister. The harassment is part of a campaign against labor right activists, union leaders, and workers who have been pressing for the right to organize unions and demanding increases in the minimum wage.

There is a sound in Kashmir that resonates longer than the staccato of the gun. There is a sound in Kashmir that wants the violence to stop. There is a sound in Kashmir that doesn’t care about politics. There is a sound in Kashmir echoing: STOP, Enough! It is the sound of mothers crying as they wait for their children to return knowing that they may not. Wailing, as they wonder why their young ones were killed.