SACW - 14 June 2011 / MF Hussain (1915-2011) / Bangladesh does not have 'indigenous' people / Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan

Mon Jun 13 17:27:41 EDT 2011

     South Asia Citizens Wire - 14 June 2011 - No. 2716
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Contents:

+ India’s speech restrictions didn’t allow M.F. Husain to paint in peace
+ Sri Lanka: Police firing on workers protest at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone - A Statement by the Lawyers for Democracy
+ Bangladesh does not have an 'indigenous' population
+ In India multi-communalisms pass as secularism
+ Scrutiny of Finances And Working of Armed Forces Needed in Pakistan: Statement by Joint Action Committee (JAC)  
+ Ayodhya Verdict: Affirmation of Hindu Majoritarianism
+ India: Corruption, and the Undermining of Democracy and Secularism
+ M F Husain’s death and India’s shameful surrender to violence that cites religion as its pretext
+ Bangladesh: Protest, political terror and personal life in Chittagong Hill Tracts
+ India: Why are secular and civil liberty activists disappointed with the NAC Draft Bill on Communal Violence
+ M. F. Husain (1915 -2011) - a statement by SAHMAT
+ India: Fascist acrobat Ramdev’s anti corruption spectacle busted by cops
+ The Hawks of South Asia
+ Sign of things to come in Afghanistan
+ Bangladesh likely to make U-turn from secularism to Islamic hegemony
+ Sri Lanka Military Conference to Whitewash War Crimes Says Human Rights Watch
+ Jinnah Institute’s Report on the Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan
+ Murder of Saleem Shahzad meant to muzzle media in Pakistan: HRCP
+ Kashmir: Bogey of infiltrations being raised to curb citizens civil liberties
+ Pervez Hoodbhoy on Pakistan after Osama

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+ India’s speech restrictions didn’t allow M.F. Husain to paint in peace
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Maqbool Fida Husain was India’s most celebrated painter, and his death in London last week was front-page news across the subcontinent. However, toward the end of his life, Husain had trouble finding galleries willing to show his work. He lived in Dubai, Doha or London for most of the last two (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2146.html

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+ Sri Lanka: Police firing on workers protest at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone - A Statement by the Lawyers for Democracy
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Lawyers for Democracy (LfD) is shocked at the violence meted out to protesters at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and calls for an immediate halt to such violent practices and an independent investigation as to what transpired.

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2145.html

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+ Bangladesh does not have an ‘indigenous’ population
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What’s going on in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is the story we Bangladeshis, or at least the majority ethnic Bengalis, don’t like to talk about too much. Our long record of suppression of indigenous rights and marginalisation of non-Bengali peoples is too shameful and does not mesh well with (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2144.html

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+ In India multi-communalisms pass as secularism
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India, especially its polity, equates its secularism with multi-communalisms in which the equilibrium keeps altering with the stridency of the assertion of self-assumed representation of one or the other community, even if all it takes is to mobilise some half a dozen to two dozen individuals (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2142.html

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+ Scrutiny of Finances And Working of Armed Forces Needed in Pakistan: Statement by Joint Action Committee (JAC)  
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Military and para-military forces as well as all civil law enforcement agencies must be compelled to respect, without exception, the rule of law and the paramount obligation to protect and respect people’s right to life and liberty. The time to end impunity and enforce accountability for (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2141.html

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+ Ayodhya Verdict: Affirmation of Hindu Majoritarianism
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The Ayodhya Judgment, based on the “Faith and belief of the Hindus”, has forsaken the established principles of law of evidence and cannot therefore be said to be based on a fair - trial.

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2140.html

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+ India: Corruption, and the Undermining of Democracy and Secularism
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The rapid GDP growth rate of the country, its new found "prestige" in the international arena, and the globalisation of its elite had created an impression that the Left position was wrong, a single incident, of four senior central ministers kow-towing most abjectly to a "Baba" who threatened (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2139.html

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+ M F Husain’s death and India’s shameful surrender to violence that cites religion as its pretext
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Husain’s death has left India face-to-face with one of its greatest shames — its cowardly surrender to violence that cites religion as its pretext. When politicians mouth banalities about the “national loss”, they conveniently gloss over the disgraceful fact that the nation did nothing for Husain (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2138.html

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+ Protest, political terror and personal life

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June 12, 1996 — it was the day of the national election in Bangladesh, an occasion marking/celebrating democracy. Yet, the Chittagong Hill Tracts was under occupation. In some ways, it still is. Democracy is not the rule of the game here. People pay terrible price here for speaking up, for (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2137.html

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+ Why are secular and civil liberty activists disappointed with the NAC Draft Bill on Communal Violence

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-> http://www.sacw.net/article2136.html

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+ M. F. Husain (1915 -2011) - a statement by SAHMAT
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Easily the most iconic artist of modern India, Maqbool Fida Husain passed away in London on 9 June 2011. M. F. Husain was born in 1915 in Pandharpur, the famous temple town in Maharashtra. Bereft of his mother’s presence since childhood, Husain grew up in the multi-cultural milieu of Indore (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2135.html

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+ India: Fascist acrobat Ramdev’s anti corruption spectacle busted by cops
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta: "The first act of this tragedy/farce was performed on Jantar Mantar with Anna Hazare as its central character – to the fanfare of television. Then we had an intermission marked by some variety entertainment, fake or not so fake CDs, ego battles and backroom intrigue. Now, (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2133.html

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+ The Hawks of South Asia
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The dream of a lasting peace between Pakistan and India can’t happen unless their militaries get out of the way.

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2131.html

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+ Sign of things to come in Afghanistan
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The white flag of the ‘Islamic Emirate’ of Afghanistan flies again in Nuristan province.

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2130.html

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+ Bangladesh likely to make U-turn from secularism to Islamic hegemony
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-> http://www.sacw.net/article2129.html

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+ Sri Lanka Military Conference to Whitewash War Crimes Says Human Rights Watch
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Sri Lankan government officials have touted the Sri Lankan "model" of counterinsurgency to other countries. However, the expert panel, confirming earlier findings by Human Rights Watch, other national and international organizations, and the US State Department, concluded that government forces (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2127.html

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+ Jinnah Institute’s Report on the Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan
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As part of the Jinnah Institute’s Open Democracy initiative, ‘A Question of Faith’: A Report on the Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan’ is a research-based analysis of the same. It documents the deterioration in the political, economic and social status of members of these communities in (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2126.html

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+ Murder of Saleem Shahzad meant to muzzle media in Pakistan: HRCP
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The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed grief and indignation at the brutal murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, calling it a vile attempt to muzzle the media and demanding that the government make sure that the murderers are apprehended and (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2125.html

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+ Kashmir: Bogey of infiltrations being raised to curb citizens civil liberties
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The excessive curtailment of civil liberties by Jammu and Kashmir government, thankfully so far in not so violent ways, simply by invoking the doctrine of ‘prevention of agitations’ on the pattern of 2010 summer are anything but justified. The government has gone overboard in putting separatist (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2124.html

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+ Pervez Hoodbhoy on Pakistan after Osama
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Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state pushed Islam on its people as a matter of ideology. Prayers were made compulsory in government departments, punishments were meted out to those civil servants who did not fast during Ramadan, selection for academic posts required that the candidate (...)

-> http://www.sacw.net/article2123.html

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South Asia Citizens Wire
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