Author page: sahr

New Delhi: Amid growing instances of honour killings and demands by khap panchayats to amend the Hindu Marriage Act for banning same sub-caste marriage, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chief KG Balakrishnan today said none should be allowed to enforce “self-created” laws.

“Contrary to the general moral view of the society, nobody shall be allowed to enforce their own self-created law to achieve their narrow-minded societal values,” he said.

Justice Balakrishnan was addressing a training programme on the ‘Rule of Law’ organised by Vishwa Yuvak Kendra here.

The former chief justice of India, however, did not mention the khap or caste panchayats or the controversy surrounding their demand.

“Who am I to interfere with what goes on between the United States and Pakistan? That’s a matter for these two countries to consider,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responded in April 2010. He had been asked, in a Washington press conference, whether India objected to Pakistan and the U.S. reaching a deal on civil nuclear cooperation. The same logic should now apply to reports that China is planning to supply two additional safeguarded nuclear reactors to Pakistan. For those who still look at the region through ‘hyphenated’ lenses, what is good for Pakistan must necessarily be bad for India. But the reality is not so Manichean.

NARAYAN LAKSHMAN

India is among the least peaceful of major countries in the world and is getting even less peaceful year on year.

This was the major finding of the Global Peace Index (GPI) Report an annual publication by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a global think tank focused on researching the relationship between economics, business and peace.

According to the 2010 report, which considered a range of peace-related variables among 149 countries, India’s rank was 128, six ranks lower than its 2009 position.

SRINAGAR: In a move to soothe tempers over Army methods that bedevilled his visit to Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said security forces have been “strictly instructed” to respect human rights and pledged to remove deficiencies in implementation of the instructions.

“Sometimes innocent civilians suffer, but whenever such incidents happen it becomes necessary to act against those responsible. I’m aware of some complaints related to human rights,” said the PM, who arrived in Srinagar to review the security situation and inspect development projects. He was addressing a convocation at Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.

The PM’s pledge comes in the backdrop of recent alleged fake encounter killings in North Kashmir and growing concerns that such incidents could fritter away gains in counter-insurgency operations that have seen militant violence drop to an all-time low since 1989.

Bhopal: Had Azhar Ali fallen into the hands of some Hindi filmmaker in his pursuit of betrayed love, his ordeal might have spawned an international film themed around cross-border romance involving India, Pakistan, Nepal and Malaysia.

Unfortunately for him, he fell into the hands of Chhindwara district police officials. For six months now, Ali has been languishing in the Chhindwara district jail.

Azhar Ali (27), a Pakistani citizen, had come to India in September last year to find the woman he claimed to have loved and married — Ratna Soni, a resident of Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. According to Ali, who is a resident of Cheena village near Lahore in Pakistan, he met Ratna in Malaysia where she had come with her troupe to perform.

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said India would be unable to realise its full development potential unless it had the “best possible” relations with its neighbours, especially Pakistan.

Addressing his first national conference marking the first anniversary of the United Progressive Alliance government’s second term in office, the Prime Minister dwelt at length on the rationale for opening talks with Pakistan. In the seven questions on India-Pakistan ties posed to him, Dr. Singh explained the recent background, the inevitability of dialogue and the road ahead.

“The composite dialogue had been suspended soon after the attacks in Mumbai. Subsequently, the process has not moved forward. I am hopeful that this process can move forward. That was, at least, the message I got from talking to the Prime Minister of Pakistan [during their April 29 meeting on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Thimphu],” he said.

Tens of millions of dollars have been diverted in India from schemes to fight poverty and used to fund Delhi’s Commonwealth Games, a report says.

The Housing and Land Rights Network pressure group says its report is based on official documents obtained under India’s right to information act.

The group says there should be an independent inquiry into how this was allowed to happen.

Government officials in Delhi say they are looking into the allegations.