Archive for the ‘IndiaBlogs’ Category
RSF statement… journo and two assistants arrested over book exposing violence against minorities in Orissa State
17 December 2008
INDIA
Journalist and two assistants arrested over book exposing violence against minorities in Orissa State
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of Lenin Kumar Roy, author and editor of the quarterly review Nishan, in Bhubaneswar, Orissa State over a book in which he accuses Hindu extremists of waging a campaign of violence against minorities in the Kandhamal district.
Two assistants, Ravi Jena and Dhananjay Lenka, working for Sovan Press, publishers of Dharma naanre Kandhamalre Raktara Nadi (Bloodbath in Kandhamal in the Name of Religion) Sovan Press, were also arrested.
Kumar Roy has been charged with violating Articles 153-A and 295-A of the Indian criminal code punishing “provocative literature likely to disturb peace and communal harmony”. Some sections of the book condemn certain Hindu groups for inciting violence against minorities, making Christians sing Hindu religious songs and forcing young non-Hindu women into prostitution.
“These arrests are arbitrary and violate the right of free expression which is guaranteed in India. Lenin Kumar Roy was arrested simply for condemning inter-communal violence while the local government has failed to protect the rights of minorities in Kandhamal district”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said, calling for his release and that of his two assistants.
At least 700 copies of the book, which police call “Maoist literature” were seized from the publishers. A bail application made by his lawyer on the day after Kumar Roy’s arrest on 8 December 2008 was rejected.
Activist journalists and writers demonstrated on 10 December outside the residence of the governor of Orissa State to protest against the arrests and brandished placards with slogans such as “Stop communalism”, “Release Lenin and the others” and “Thinking and writing are not crimes”.
Joel D’Souza’s photos on Flickr.com
Joel’s pictures on Flickr.com … got some interesting links via this page: http://www.flickr.com/people/52243088@N00/
Links to some interesting groups here:
Joel’s Goa Pics’ public groups
Mayank Sharma’s blog…
GeekyBodhi.net is my techie colleague Mayank Sharma’s blog. Check it out… found an interesting interview with the founder of distrowatch.com on it…
This is what Mayank writes:
Hello. Welcome to my little 50Meg corner on the web. I am Mayank Sharma, writer, programmer, student, and more
I have been writing on technology, especially free and open software,for the past five years. During this period I helped launch SouthAsia’s leading FLOSS monthly
LINUX For Youas its Assistant Editor. I am currently busy putting together aweb-based publication devoted to Localization, Education and FLOSSmigration. Besides writing, I love to hack also, my most recentcontribution — an installer for the Utkarsh Localization Project. Still struggling for a computer sciene degree, I love Formula one car racing.
Blogged with Flock
The Goan… in cyberspace
Cajetan Rego from Tivim in Goa recently announced: “I would like to share my thoughts with you regarding the upcoming elections in Goa. Please read my blog http://thegoan.blogspot.com. I request you to leave your comments on the blog even if they are against my opinions. Kindly forward this link to your friends if you agree with my opinions.”
Interesting. Looks like a rather unabashed piece of pro-BJP propaganda! Sorry for being so blunt. But the effort here seems to be to say “things were fine under the BJP, rotten under the Congress… and the BJP it is that will restore Goa’s golden era.” Of course, Congress rule is rotten and corrupt. But is the Number Two nationwide party qualitatively different, or does it offer scope for optimism?
technorati tags:goa, blog, politics, pre-poll
Blogged with Flock
Shuchi Grover’s post … and the educatorslog.in site
Hi Frederick,
(Apologies for this somewhat lengthy missive)
I am a teacher educator based in Bangalore (see the link to my personal blog below for a better idea of who I am) and have been involved in an effort educatorslog.in – to create a free online space for people involved in India to CONNECT . SHARE . GROW — connect with other educators and those interested in education in India (pre-K through higher and adult education), share resources that are contextually relevant to educators and teaching in India, and grow through learning about exemplary practices and professional development programs that cater to the needs of Indian educators.
The idea is to serve the cause of education in India – to someday have a comprehensive repository of resources relevant to teaching in India, and a host of ideas from showcasing best practices in education in India, in addition to having a space that a teacher or anyone passionate about education in India can come to raise an issue, discuss, debate, voice, or perhaps even just announce a conference, a new book or product related to education.
This initiative was launched among a small user community in Feb. 07, and since March it has been opened up for general membership. You can catch some of the most engaging discussions (thus far) in the following threads -
* Grey areas of school admission policy, a search for new assessment ideas
* Indian school education: good or bad, why this dichotomy?
* The 100 laptop
* Sex education in our schools, how to deal with the taboo
* Should Indian languages wither away?
* Learning diabilities-1
The site is built on drupal, and uses web 2.0 features such as those for group blogging (comments, forward as email, no. of hits), tagging (each post can be tagged, and there is a tag cloud view available as well as the 20 most popular tags on the landing page), organization by themes and tags for easy searching and access.
In the interest of education in our country, it would be great if you could check out educatorslog.in and profile it on your blog or provide a link to it, or simply pass this email on to those you know who are involved in education and would benefit from being a part of this free community space.
We could certainly use some help to get the word out!
I know it’s too much to ask regular bloggers like yourself to post to other blogs, but it would be great if you could also contribute your thoughts/ideas/resources on educatorslog.in.
I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about this.
Regards,
Shuchi Grover
http://shuchi-edblog.blogspot.com
technorati tags:education, india, bangalore, shuchi-grover
Blogged with Flock
