South Asia Citizens Web

Business Standard, May 28, 2009
A dangerous green signal
A secret report aims to make environmental clearance a standardised exercise that bypasses critical requirements.
Environmental safeguards, whittled down as they are, are coming under strain once again as the government attempts to fast-track statutory clearances for industrial and infrastructure projects. The effort this time is to standardise formats and clearances and to arrive at a single-window scheme of approvals that would (…)

ensure that free speech and right to dissent remain a part of our democratic rights. Last few years have seen several incidents of activists in various states being unlawfully detained and denied bail. Denying bail has become a weapon that is being used to silence these voices. It is this growing trend that lead to the arrest of Shamim Modi and the subsequent denial of bail.

It is time for Pakistan to become part of the current global move against nuclear weapons. India — which had thrust nuclearisation upon an initially unwilling Pakistan — is morally obliged to lead. Both must announce that they will not produce more fissile material to make yet more bombs. Both must drop insane plans to expand their nuclear arsenals. Eleven years ago a few Pakistanis and Indians had argued that the bomb would bring no security, no peace. They were condemned as traitors and sellouts by their fellow citizens. But each passing year shows just how right we were.

A credible political solution would need to abolish the Executive Presidency and special place for Buddhism in the Constitution; ensure real parity for Sinhala and Tamil; put in place a Bill of Rights that rules out discrimination on any grounds whatsover in all parts of the island, and guarantees other rights like freedom of expression and association; includes the right to life, which is missing from the existing Constitution; devolves power to the Provincial Councils to a much greater degree than the 13th Amendment; and ensures greater representation of minority communities at the centre through a bicameral legislature.

The minority and Left parties that are currently part of the government must give Mahinda Rajapaksa and the SLFP notice that they will quit unless he implements the measures outlined above, and thus force him to choose between them and the Sinhala Right.

High time to delink religious boards from secular state apparatus and insulate them against political manipulation