Rahul Ranadive wins Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2013
Category: India
Playing ball with the Jamaat
The Jamaat?s worldview is antithetical to the kind of nation Bangladeshis have repeatedly wanted to build
By?Salil Tripathi?First Published in Live Mint:?Wed, Mar 13 2013
Bangladeshi police detain a supporter of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party during a protest in Dhaka. Photo: AFP
I write this column with some regret. As a college student, among the bylines I grew up admiring was that of S.N.M. Abdi, who was a young reporter in the late 1970s, and exposed one of the most horrendous examples of police brutality in post-independence India?the blinding of undertrial prisoners in Bhagalpur in Bihar. Some politicians defended that barbarism, saying the practice had ?social sanction?. But Abdi rightly focused on the atrocity, stirring the nation?s conscience, which was at that time still reeling from the effects of the emergency. Continue reading “Playing ball with the Jamaat”
Fire in Sonar Bangla
Khaleda Zia?s snub to Pranab Mukherjee does not matter in the long run. But she is making a strategic blunder by staying aligned with Jamaat
By?Salil Tripathi First Published in Live Mint:?Fri, Mar 08 2013
When President Pranab Mukherjee visited Bangladesh earlier this week, its opposition leader Khaleda Zia (above) of the BNP did not meet him, because of public strikes that her ally, Jamaat-i-Islami, has been calling to protest the verdicts of the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal. Photo: AFP
Earlier this week, when President?Pranab Mukherjee?visited Bangladesh, its opposition leader?Khaleda Zia?of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) did not meet him, because of public strikes that her ally, Jamaat-i-Islami, has been calling to protest the verdicts of the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal. The BNP called another strike this week in sympathy with the Jamaat, whose leaders are, one by one, being convicted of war crimes by the Tribunal. Continue reading “Fire in Sonar Bangla”
Crowds and justice at Shahbag
A dominant Jamaat will make Bangladesh look more like Pakistan, a joyless prospect citizens are rejecting loudly
By?Salil Tripathi?in Live Mint?First Published:?Wed, Feb 27 2013
Bangladesh?s quest for closure threatens to morph into the paralysing dysfunctionality that has characterized its politics. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
One of the truly significant aspects about the emotional upsurge at Shahbag in Dhaka?the hundreds of thousands of candles, the portrait of Jahanara Imam who lost her son in the liberation war in 1971 and fought for the rest of her life seeking justice?is that an overwhelmingly large number of the demonstrators are under the age of 40. Most were not born when Bangladesh emerged from its blood-soaked birth. Their fight is outwardly for an even harsher punishment (meaning death) for Abdul Kader Mullah, the Jamaat-i-Islami leader who foolishly flashed a victory sign when he was sentenced to life in prison for complicity in war crimes, and others against whom verdicts are awaited. But more fundamentally, they are trying to regain history, to assert their identity. Too often has the promise of Bangla nationalism been stolen, its national aspiration challenged, its spirit of unity based on language?irrespective of faith?reviled, its past rewritten, and the generation that fought for independence betrayed. Now it is time to reclaim the past. Continue reading “Crowds and justice at Shahbag”
Submission call for Delhi Photo Festival 2013
GRACE
We are delighted to inform you that submissions for the Delhi Photo Festival 2013 opened on Monday, March 4, 2013 and will close on April 20, 2013. It would be wonderful if you would consider submitting your work and sharing this news with friends and photo-practioners around the world. We will continue relying on your support to spread word of the Festival through emails and posting on your social media sites. Continue reading “Submission call for Delhi Photo Festival 2013”
A 40-Year Quest for Justice
By Shahidul Alam for New York Times
Bangladesh’s Winter of Discontent
Published: February 28, 2013. DHAKA, Bangladesh
Rashin Kheiriyeh
Puppets of the alleged war criminals dangle from nooses in Shahbagh Square in Dhaka.
Credit: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
FOR the past month, tens of thousands of Bangladeshis have filled Shahbagh Square here, demanding justice for crimes committed in 1971, when Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) attained its independence from Pakistan.
Credit: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
Amritsar Massacre. Cameron in India
Better redress is to never forget
If Cameron feels real contrition he should make teaching of the British empire a compulsory part of the GCSE history syllabus
William Dalrymple The Guardian
David Cameron at the Golden temple in Amritsar this week. He declined to apologise for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, but said we must ‘learn lessons’. Photograph: Munish Sharma/Reuters
On 13 April 1919 a large group of Punjabis protesting against British rule gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. They were incensed at the arrest of two of their leaders, and for 24 hours the city had been consumed by riots. At five in the afternoon, General Reginald Dyer marched into Jallianwala Bagh with 140 troops, most of them Gurkhas, but with a few Sikhs and Baluchis as well. Having blocked the exits, they fired into the peaceful and unresisting crowds until they had exhausted all their ammunition. Official estimates put the casualties at 379 killed and 1,200 injured. Popular estimates put the casualties as much as 10 times higher. Continue reading “Amritsar Massacre. Cameron in India”
Shahbagh online response
By Dr. Christian Prokopp on click Ittefaq
Dr. Christian Prokopp
follow him on twitter@prokopp, Google+ and read his blog
The news is fresh and details are only emerging about the murder of Ahmed Rajib Haider Shuvo, a blogger involved in the Shahbag protest. In today?s world we can view immediately online the outcry this provokes. Last week I wrote about the online echo on Twitter the Shahbag protest had. This time I am taking a snapshot of Twitter just after the news of the murder broke to illustrate how quickly such an event spreads. Continue reading “Shahbagh online response”
Rina Di versus Statesman
By Subajit Dasbhaumik
It took ten years for Rina Di (Rina Mukherjee) to get her share of Justice! Ten years ago, we (Suvendu Chatterjee and me) sat in the 10ft by 10ft ground floor room of what was then the only office-space of a one-year-old Drik India, facing Rina Di, listening to her ordeal at The Statesman House, through one of the senior officials of the reputed Daily. Continue reading “Rina Di versus Statesman”
They can file a charge posthumously against Jawaharlal Nehru too
by ARUNDHATI ROY: The Hindu
The Hindu Arundhati Roy
My reaction to today’s court order directing the Delhi Police to file an FIR against me for waging war against the state: Perhaps they should posthumously file a charge against Jawaharlal Nehru too. Here is what he said about Kashmir: Continue reading “They can file a charge posthumously against Jawaharlal Nehru too”