Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • No More Rhetoric on Social Responsibility: Tata’s legitimise Modi’s communal - authoritarian ways

    by Praful Bidwai, 22 October 2008

    Tata moves Nano Plant to Gujarat Legitimising Moditva?
    Mr Ratan Tata, one of India’s best regarded industrialists, has dismayed many people by deciding to shift the Nano car factory from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand near Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The agitation against land acquisition at Singur, led by Ms Mamata Banerjee, cannot alone explain the choice of Gujarat. For one, the scope to explore alternatives to the existing land acquisition formula wasn’t exhausted. Some interesting (…)

  • Orissa: What’s the point of Commissions of Inquiries headed by pliant persons

    by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath S.V.D, 22 October 2008

    Orissa state government’s appointment of Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission of Inquiry to look into communal violence of December 2007 and the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission of Inquiry into communal violence of august 2008 dont inspire confidence. These commissions are headed by judges not seen as independent and strong willed enough to hold the officers of the state responsible

  • Manufacturing consent for a ’Hinduised’ nation

    by Ram Puniyani, 22 October 2008

    Economic Times
    Noam Chomsky is one of the foremost rights activists. He theorised as to how the US administration creates consent of the broad layers of populati on for its acts of aggression.
    The perceptions which were drilled into popular psyche related to the dangers of communism, while attacking the emergent nation state of Vietnam in yesteryears or weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq in recent times.
    By the time such propaganda starts getting questioned, the mainstream US (…)

  • India State Hunger Index

    by sacw.net, 21 October 2008

    by Purnima Menon, Anil Deolalikar, and Anjor Bhaskar
    19 pages / 2008
    Published by Welthungerhilfe, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and UC Riverside

  • Urgent Measures for Peace in Kandhamal - Letter to the Prime Minister

    by Debiprasanna Pattanayak, Manoranjan Mohanty, Pralay Kanungo, 21 October 2008

    Dear Sir,
    As academics who have studied the socio-economic conditions of modern Orissa and who have been extremely pained by the recent outbreak and persistence of violence in Kandhamal we present the following suggestions which we believe are practical and well within the capacity of the Central Government to undertake. The State Government can be called upon to cooperate in implementing these measures.
    I. Immediate Steps for providing Security for Life and Property
    1. Adequate CRPF (…)

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