South Asia Citizens Web

This report concludes that an objective assessment of the overall impact of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement on the developmental goals of Sri Lanka is not possible due to serious problems with the existing data. The macro-level trade statistics that are available do not even permit us to systematically analyse the ISLFTA as a result of issues concerning the accuracy of data; the inadequate attention to statistics on imports; and the narrow focus with which data is collected. These issues disallowed field investigation to document the experiences of communities directly affected by the implementation of the ISLFTA, in the absence of clear connections between macro- level trends and micro-level impacts on producers and consumers.
Given the paucity of information and confusion regarding available data, the strength of claims that are made by protagonists of the ISLFTA and now CEPA are questionable and appear to be founded on ideological supposition rather than scientific evidence.

The National Alliance of People’s Movements is shocked and enraged at the recent judgement on Bhopal that not only comes 26 years too late but also makes a complete mockery of the concept of justice and the value of human lives.

This morning roads within a mile of the court were barricaded, public gatherings were banned, and police with batons were out in force. People who had waited 26 years for justice gathered in the streets to await the verdict pronounced on the Indian accused. Reports that all the defendants had been found guilty produced short-lived joy, but news of the sentences left the crowds shocked, disbelieving, disgusted, angry.

Built into the economic dogma of growth first is the ingrained notion held by large segments of the India’s elite that the fabric of inequality is meant to remain unimpaired.

The causes for Bhopal gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in 1984 can be traced to low product sales that made the company disinvest in safety and environmental systems. Events that panned out after the accident—government apathy, poor health and economic rehabilitation effort, no spill cleanup, Carbide’ s doublespeak and liability dodging—tantamount to denial of care and justice for the accident victims and are a consequence of low value of life in India and the US, and difference in price of life in the two countries. To achieve the same standard of social justice for all humans, we need to fight for a uniform high value of life, as a fundamental human right, throughout the world.