Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • India’s inability to make the Kashmiris feel at home

    by Economic and Political Weekly, 20 September 2008

    (Economic and Political Weekly, September 13, 2008)
    India and Kashmir India has been unable to make the Kashmiris feel they are part of the Indian Union.
    A fortnight ago the Jammu and Kashmir government signed an agreement with the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti (SAYSS) on the use of forest land for the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine. The protesters are now off the streets in Jammu, the criminal road blockade the Jammu protes- tors had imposed on Kashmir has ended, a (…)

  • Indo-US Nuclear Deal: The Continuing Drift in India’s Foreign Policy

    by Sukla Sen, 20 September 2008

    28 February 2008
    The following is the (slightly updated) text of the paper presented at the event by Sukla Sen, an editor of the journal Peace Now, the organ of the Coalition for Nuclear disarmamnet and peace, India at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidairity Organisatio in Cairo from 26-28 feb. 2008.
    “We have an ambitious agenda with India. Our agenda is practical. It builds on a relationship that has never been better. India is a global leader, as well as (…)

  • Jammu and Kashmir: labour under conflict

    19 September 2008

    The region of Jammu and Kashmir (commonly called Kashmir) is composed of three geographical divisions: Jammu, Kashmir, and Laddakh. Both India and Pakistan govern parts of the area; Pakistan-controlled Kashmir is known as ‘Azad’ or independent Kashmir and the area India controls is known as the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This essay highlights labour conditions in Indian Kashmir only

  • Where The Far Right Crucifies the Poor

    by J. Sri Raman, 18 September 2008

    (Published in: thruthout.org, 4 September 2008)
    India’s far right needs no fresh publicity for its crusade against Muslims, the country’s largest religious minority. No one has questioned its credentials on this count ever since the pogrom of 2002 in Gujarat on the western coast, over which Narendra Modi of worldwide notoriety presided.
    Far less widely known is the holy war the "parivar" (the far-right "family") has been waging against a minuscule Christian minority (totaling 2.4 (…)

  • Bomb-hunters of Surat

    by Saeed Naqvi, 18 September 2008

    (Published in: The Daily Times, September 19, 2008)
    In this mysterious discovery of bombs, the second name is that of BJP Corporator Bhimji Budhna. He turned out to be an even greater “bomb” hunter than Bhalla. With his team of followers he spotted no fewer than eleven bombs
    We now have it on good authority that tougher laws to fight terrorism are in the works. In fact, the election season could well be decorated by further, tougher steps like Guantanamo Bay in the Andamans or even (…)

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