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[1] http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/03/stories/2008050359571300.htm National Fatal flaws in Indian death penalty verdicts: Amnesty International J. Venkatesan The only remedy: this punishment should go New Delhi: Amnesty International India has sought the abolition of the death penalty in the country. Its study on India’s legal judgments has revealed that the “system is riddled with fatal flaws.” Releasing the study report here on Friday, AI-India Director Mukul Sharma and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) president V. Suresh said the only remedy to overcome the flaws was to abolish the death penalty completely. “Amnesty International believes that at least 140 people were sentenced to death in India in 2006 and 2007. According to the latest available official figures, there were 273 persons on death row as of December, 31, 2005. But this figure is likely to be considerably higher today. The fate of these death row prisoners is ultimately a lottery.” In the first comprehensive analysis of around 700 Supreme Court judgments over more than 50 years, the AI said the judicial system in India failed to meet international laws on the death penalty. “The administration of the death penalty has not been in the “rarest of rare cases” as claimed in the country; on the contrary, there is ample evidence to show that the death penalty has been an arbitrary, imprecise and abusive means of dealing with defendants.” Dr. Suresh said: “While the death penalty continues to be used in India, there remains a danger that it will be used disproportionately against ethnic minorities, the poor or other disadvantaged groups. There is only one way to ensure such inequalities in the administration of justice do not occur: the complete abolition of the death penalty.” AI, however, welcomed the current hiatus of executions in the country. “The relative lack of executions in the last decade — one in 2004 — illustrates that the people of India are willing to live without the death penalty. India stands at a crossroads. “It can choose to join the global trend towards a moratorium on the death penalty, as adopted by the UN General Assembly last year. It will then join 27 countries in the Asia Pacific region which have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Or it can continue to hang death row inmates, when the judicial system that puts them there has been shown by this extensive research to be unfair.” ------------- [2] Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com Date: Sat May 3, 2008 9:29 am Subject: Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four: Critiques of Stalinism `from the left’? Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four: Critiques of Stalinism `from the left’? Review by Alex Miller This essay is the result of a re-reading of George Orwell’s two most famous novels. Both Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four have acquired the status of textbooks, and are routinely used in schools to demonstrate to children the inherent dangers of social revolution. It is time for a reappraisal. The ``Centenary Edition’’ of George Orwell’s Animal Farm contains a preface written by Orwell for the first edition (Secker and Warburg, 1945) but never published, together with a preface that he wrote specially for a translation for displaced Ukrainians living under British and US administration after World War II. * * * Animal Farm: A Fairy Story By George Orwell Centenary Edition, Penguin Books, 2003 120 pages Nineteen Eighty-Four By George Orwell Penguin Classics, 2000 326 pages * * * If we are to take Orwell at his word in the first of these prefaces, Animal Farm is intended as a critique of the Stalinist Soviet regime ``from the left’’. He explicitly dissociates himself from conservative critiques, which he describes as ``manifestly dishonest, out of date, and actuated by sordid motives’’. http://links.org.au/node/379 ------------ [3] From: "Sukla Sen" <sukla.sen@gmail.com Date: Sat May 3, 2008 9:30 am Subject: 79 Religious Groups Call for Nuclear Disarmament Faithful Security is pleased to share this press release with you - feel free to post it on your blog, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, or write a story for your congregation's newsletter. *79 Religious Groups Oppose Nuclear Bomb Plant; Call for Nuclear Disarmament* *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* *(April 30, 2008, WASHINGTON, DC)* -- Seventy-nine Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim groups have joined together to reject administration plans to reactivate the U. S. nuclear weapons infrastructure and build new nuclear bomb plant facilities, Faithful Security announced today. In a formal letter to the Energy Department, religious organizations from across the country called instead for the United States to end new nuclear weapons production and commit to multilateral disarmament. "We call on our political leaders to show the moral and political courage necessary to bring about a shift in our nation's nuclear weapons posture. Today we have a historic opportunity to begin the journey out from under the shadow of nuclear weapons," stressed the religious groups. The letter was submitted to the Energy Department as part of a public comment period required to assess the environmental impact of Complex Transformation, the proposed plan to rebuild the U. S. nuclear weapons complex. The centerpiece of this proposal is a new nuclear weapons facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, located 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe, NM. The new bomb plant facility would enable the mass production of plutonium pits, the primary detonators in modern nuclear weapons. The statement's signers expressed concern that the new and upgraded facilities would be used in the development of a new generation of nuclear warheads, despite the moral and legal obligations of the United States to reduce its weapons arsenal. "Recently there has been tremendous bipartisan momentum for making the world safer by pursuing the elimination of nuclear weapons once and for all," explained Jessica Wilbanks, Advocacy Director for Faithful Security. "Today's statement from faith groups demonstrates a moral consensus for disarmament--and a firm rejection of efforts to build new plutonium pits." Faithful Security organized the coalition letter in cooperation with The Friends Committee on National Legislation. Read the full text<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp? v=2&c=e%2FuU6pQxzN8no5iS74M\ NFZ8YdQxyCzZa (PDF) of the statement and see a list of signers. *Faithful Security, the National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Weapons Danger, is a multi-faith coalition dedicated to lifting the moral voice of U. S. religious communities toward a world free of nuclear weapons. Learn more at www.faithfulsecurity.org<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp? v=2&c=D\ pUErahyUQkno5iS74MNFZ8YdQxyCzZa .* *PRESS CONTACT: *Jessica Wilbanks, (575) 758-1206 office, (410) 713-0335 cell, jwilbanksfaithfulsecurity.org<http://us.f651.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose? To=j\ wilbanksfaithfulsecurity. org ------------- [ 4] From: kashif-ul-huda <kaaashif@gmail.com Date: Sat May 3, 2008 6:47 pm Subject: Reservation to Muslims on the grounds of their Backwardness is not Unconstitutional: Aariz Mohammed Reservation to Muslims on the grounds of their Backwardness is not Unconstitutional: Aariz Mohammed<http://www.twocircles.net/2008may01/reservation_muslims_grounds_their_b\ ackwardness_not_unconstitutional_aariz_mohammed. html <http://www.twocircles.net/2008may01/reservation_muslims_grounds_their_backwardn\ ess_not_unconstitutional_aariz_mohammed. html *In the backdrop of the Andhra Pradesh High Court order (29th April) staying the implementation of the state law about 4% reservation to Muslims, Mumtaz Alam Falahi catches up with Aariz Mohammed, director, Centre for Minorities' Empowerment to discuss the issue. Senior social activist Aariz Mohammed elaborates on reservation for Muslims, in its social and legal perspectives. * Q: How do you see the 29th April Andhra Pradesh High Court order staying reservation for Muslims? A: It's a setback for the government which has been working to provide reservation to the Muslim community in the state for four years. On Tuesday, the seven-judge bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court passed the interim order on 4% Muslim reservation. In effect, the court order has stayed admissions to professional courses and employment under 4% quota for backward Muslims. The petitioners had argued that the Commission for Backward Classes had identified backward classes among the Muslim community without any scientific data. The final hearing will take place in the first week of July. ----------- [5] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com Date: Sat May 3, 2008 8:44 am Subject: May Day -- The capitalist workday, the socialist workday By Michael A. Lebowitz April 24, 2008 -- As May Day approaches, there are four things that are worth remembering: 1. For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below. 2. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday. 3. The struggle for the shorter workday is not an isolated struggle but is the struggle against capitalist exploitation. 4. The struggle against capitalist exploitation is an essential part but not the only part of the struggle against capitalism. What I want to do today is to set out some ideas about the capitalist workday and the socialist workday which I hope can be useful in the current struggles in Venezuela and, more immediately, in today's discussion. The capitalist workday What is the relation between the work the capitalist workday and exploitation? When workers work for capital, they receive a wage which allows them to purchase a certain amount of commodities. How much is that wage? There is nothing automatic about the wage level. It is determined by the struggles of workers against capital. |
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May05, 2008 - [India Thinkers Net]Designs in Nepal ,new book ,Ind-Pak relations etc >> |
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