South Asia Citizens Web

outlook magazine, 20 July 2009
A Grain of Good Sense
Legislating against hunger is a great idea that needs expansion ......
The budget reiterates the government’s commitment to a National Food Security Act, known as the ‘right to food’ law. In principle, this is welcome. Our undernutrition levels are among the worst in the world and have barely improved in recent years. Such a law could help focus the nation’s energies on this burning issue.
In India, hunger and malnutrition have (…)

The 32-page report, issued jointly by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), notes that "violence, in the public and private spheres, is an everyday occurrence in the lives of a huge proportion of Afghan women."

The political movement that came up from among the people of Lalgarh in November 2008 cried out for help and support from the civil and democratic society - for basic human rights, for a right to all decisions about what belongs to them alone: their water, land and forest. The movement negotiated with the intransigent Left Front administration of West Bengal for months, without much success. Their peaceful movement now lies in tatters, because of the violent intervention by the Maoists who have done incalculable harm to both the objectives as also to the people of Lalgarh and by the armed retaliation from the centre and state governments.

The Asian Age, 9 July 2009
We can’t talk about sex. Mere mention of the word diverts the blood flow from the brain to other, more excitable areas of the body politic. And we jabber on in demented frenzy, especially if we happen to be in government.
Ask our ministers, leaders and decision-makers about cross-border terrorism, nukes or China’s malicious moves and you will get big, bold responses. Ask them about the fiscal deficit, Maoist terror, pandemics, environmental catastrophes, our (…)

Express Buzz, 1 July 2009
As recently as two months ago Lalgarh, now poised on a dangerous cusp of violence, was just a sliver of land, nestling among luminous green fields, hillocks and a gently flowing Kangasabati river. Had I not travelled in April to this tiny corner of rural Bengal, I could have been taken in by reports of protracted Maoist violence wracking the tribal outpost for months. Surprisingly, Lalgarh was not even a fleck on the horizon of the Left government as late as last (…)