South Asia Citizens Web

this campaign stands at the heart of a debate over the future of Britain. It also stands at the heart of global attempts to destroy the most basic rights, to invade liberty and to crush equality and to do this in the name of upholding and promoting human rights. We stand here today facing down forces of racism and fundamentalism as we struggle for secularism.

Systems of religious law are common in many parts of the world and many of them have been reformed. But as the report points out, every single one of these reforms, whether it produced a common legal code or reformed different religious laws, took place because of internal movements for reform. These occurred in moments of greater secularisation.

We, the undersigned, are sending this petition to you on behalf of the divided families of the two countries. Here are some facts about our mutual visa regimes that leave much to be desired:

we would strongly urge you to arrange for wide consultations with all the stakeholders before you finally formulate your views and recommendations.
You would agree that in the wake of huge outpourings of public outrage over the recent court judgement on the Bhopal Gas Disaster case this would be the only prudent and right course of action.

It is almost as if Delhi believes that there is no internal dimension to the problem and that the only trouble with Jammu and Kashmir is the non-existence of regional co-operation and cross-LoC interactions. A major part of the state is reeling under acute human rights crisis. In varying degrees, civil liberties of the people are crushed and denied in almost all parts of the state, all in the name of democracy.