South Asia Citizens Web

A virtual melee has ensued in print and digital media over the selection of Ms. Sonal Shah, an American of Indian origin to the Obama transition team’s advisory board. Shrill accusations of Ms. Shah being a "racist and Hindu chauvinist" are being reciprocated by equally shrill attempts to portray anyone who raises serious questions about the selection as being anti-India, anti-Hindu, anti-progress, and recently, as against "liberal civility." We condemn such baseless and unfair statements. (…)

Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Oct-Dec 2008(4)
Scientists and doctors are constantly told that they must not involve themselves in politics or international affairs because that may have a diversionary or corrupting influence on their professional work and commitments. The proposition has some validity in respect of politics in the narrow sense of party-related activity. But there are some issues of broad or universal significance, on which all citizens with a conscience are called upon (…)

Mint, 15 July 2008
Three decades on, promises unfulfilled
Today, land is even more of a burning issue as several big-ticket industrial projects face opposition from locals unwilling to give up their land
by Maitreyee Handique New Delhi
Straddling 30km on both sides of the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the region known as Singrauli saw its people scatter as seven power plants and several coal mines arrived on the rim of the Gobind Ballabh Pant reservoir in the mid-1970s. (…)

Deccan Herald, November 15, 2008
The Aryans’ role model is Adolf Hitler who purged Aryan Germany of semitic races by gassing millions of Jews and Gypsies while Germans of today regard Hitler as the devil-incarnate and are ashamed of him.
I was not aware that the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS had set up a large number of schools across the country known as Saraswati Shishu Mandirs and Vidya Bharati Schools. The number of teachers employed by them runs into the thousands; the number of (…)

The Statesman, 11 November 2008
A Mockery of The Very Idea of India
When we swear by the soil, we must, adhere to the natural, geographical division. Our earth has been clearly divided into different kinds of soil regions: alluvial, volcanic, etc…. (S)ons should work only in their respective mother soils ... only those born in the alluvial soil can work in the alluvial region. They may call themselves ‘alluvians’… (and so on). People may be given identity cards with the name of the (…)