South Asia Citizens Web

How does one make sense of a still-nascent democracy that has been rapidly hijacked by majoritarian chauvinists, forcing its minorities into siege-like conditions; a situation where social, economic, and political predicaments continue to feed upon and strengthen each other in a noxious symbiosis, while those who struggle are at a loss on how to find their way out of this imbroglio? It is a crucial challenge of our times to understand how the RSS can be prevented from using problems within the Muslim community to vilify them and use these as means to push its toxic Hindutva agenda, while at the same time, encouraging the urgent need for societal reforms which is thwarted by external threats that minorities in India undeniably face today.

Jolly Mohan Kaul on his memories of Direct Action Day in Calcutta in August 1946 and taking part on that day in a Communist-organised march of port and dock workers - talking to Andrew Whitehead, Calcutta, April 1997

The early morning leak of a deadly gas from L G Polymers plant located west of Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on 7​th​ May, is frighteningly reminiscent of the disastrous gas leak in Bhopal from the Union Carbide/Dow Chemical’s plant on the night of 2-3​rd​ December 1984. Video footage and ground reports reveal thousands have been horribly impacted in their sleep and this resulted in the death of at least a dozen. It is because of the courageous intervention of local youth, local police and personnel of the National Disaster Response Force, who acted with urgency at enormous risk to their lives, that hundreds were saved from the worst consequences.

The global outburst after a series of arrests, detentions, harassments, and intimidation of journalists and whistleblowers in Bangladesh amid lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the myth of transparency and accountability of the Covid-19 healthcare management and food aid to disadvantaged people.

May 11, 2020: WAF (Karachi) rejects the willful and arbitrary process by which the Cabinet has formed the National Commission for Minorities (NCM). Such unilateral decisions undermine parliamentary process and weaken democratic consensus without serving the purpose of protecting minorities. By ignoring and sidelining the recommendations of the Suddle Commission - a body mandated in the landmark and progressive judgement by Justice Tassaduq Jillani (2014) - the government reveals its contempt for court decisions and disinclination towards a fair and inclusive process and indeed, adhering to the Paris Principles (1992) as noted in the Jillani judgement.