Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Sri Lanka’s Final Offensive and India’s Deafening Silence

    by Tapan Bose, 18 February 2009

    Mail Today, 18 February 2009
    India is a silent bystander in Sri Lankan tragedy
    According to a British newspaper, Sri Lankan "officials have confirmed they will establish several ’welfare villages’ to house the estimated 200,000 Tamils displaced from their homes by the Sri Lankan army’s ’final offensive’ against the LTTE’s stronghold on the north." According to the report, the villages will be based in Vavuniya and Mannar districts and will be compulsory holding centres for all civilians (…)

  • Use and Abuse of Gandhi

    by Salil Misra, 18 February 2009

    The Economic Times
    Appropriating Gandhi
    Perhaps no leader of modern India has been misunderstood as much as Gandhi. The irony is that this misunderstanding is shared by Gandhians and Gandhi-bashers alike. They are both jointly united in creating distortions about Gandhi. There is however a reason for this. Gandhi was not a theoretician. He did not consciously construct a blue print, either of his theory or of an ideal social order. He often said that his life was his message. This (…)

  • Pakistan: Fascists at the doorstep

    by Manzur Ejaz, 18 February 2009

    Daily Times, February 18, 2009
    The advancing enemy
    Rulers averse to an independent judiciary and an equitable socio-economic order; an economic upper class hostile to paying its fair share in taxes; self-obsessed intellectuals and media persons; and a poverty-stricken population — this presents the perfect mix for the forces of destruction
    Our ruling elites kept crying ‘Wolf!’ for decades to scare the West into supporting their tenures. And now, as the NWFP government prepares to (…)

  • India: Stop These Sangh Parivar Outfits, Before Its Too Late

    by Inder Malhotra, 17 February 2009

    The Asian Age
    Ram Sene not fringe, it’s coloured saffron
    What began at a Mangalore pub last month and manifested itself menacingly on Valentine’s Day in a number of states — from Karnataka to Haryana, from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra — cannot be dismissed as a mere aberration by a small lunatic fringe. It is a dangerous trend which, if unchecked immediately, could talibanise a religion that has been most tolerant for millennia and a country whose legitimate pride lies in its secular (…)

  • India: Open Letter on Sexuality Education

    by TARSHI, 17 February 2009

    To: the Government of India, All Political Parties and All Citizens
    WE MUST RECALL that India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which upholds amongst others, the right of every child to the highest attainable standard of health, the right to education, the right to participation and the right to protection from exploitation and abuse, including sexual exploitation and abuse.
    HEALTH COMPRISES SEXUAL HEALTH AS WELL. According to the World Health (…)

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