அரசியல்

முகநூலில் சண்முகலிங்கம் அவர்கள் ஆஸ்பத்திரியில் இருப்பதாக அறிந்தேன். அவரின் மறைவு பற்றிய விடயத்தையும் பின்னர் முகநூல் மூலம் அறிந்தேன். உண்மையிலேயே துயரமாகவிருந்தது. நல்லதொரு மனிதர். தன்னைப்பற்றி தம்பட்டம் அடிக்காத,அமைதியாகத் தன் பங்களிப்பினை வழங்கியவர்.  தோழர் பொன்னம்பலம் சண்முகலிங்கம் அவர்களைச் சந்தித்து நீண்ட நாட்களாகி விட்டன. நான் நினைத்தேன் அவர் இன்னுமொரு நகருக்குச் சென்று விட்டதாக. 'காந்தியம்' அமைப்புடன் பணியாற்றியவர். அதன் காரணமாகச் சிறைவாசமும் அனுபவித்தவர். அவரைச் சந்திக்கும் நேரங்களிலெல்லாம் அவரது அனுபவங்களை எழுத்தில் கொண்டுவரும்படி கூறுவதுண்டு. அதற்கவர் சிரித்துக்கொண்டு 'ஓம்! ஓம்' என்று தலையாட்டுவார். அவரைச் சந்திக்காமலிருந்தாலும் அவர் பற்றி அவ்வப்போது நினைப்பதுண்டு. ஒரு நாளாவது அவரைப் புன்னகை தவழாத முகத்துடன் பார்த்தது கிடையாது. அவரது மறைவால் துயருறும் நண்பர்கள், உறவினர்களுடன் நானும் தனிப்பட்டரீதியிலும், 'பதிவுகள்' இணைய இதழ் சார்பிலும் கலந்துகொள்கின்றேன். அவரது இறுதிச் சடங்குகள் பற்றிய மேலதிக விபரங்கள் கீழே:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered the following remarks announcing the establishment of the Office of Religious Freedom:

Thank you very much. Thank you, first of all, Jason, for that kind introduction, and also for the work you’ve been doing, I know Jason has been a very passionate advocate for the initiative that we’re announcing today. Thank you as well to our master of ceremonies today, our host because he’s the Member of Parliament for this area, the Honourable Julian Fantino who has been a great addition to our team in Ottawa. I also want to thank all of my colleagues from both Houses of Parliament who have come to be here with us today for this very important announcement. Special greetings to Member of Parliament Bev Shipley who moved the motion in the House of Commons to get a vote to establish the Office of Religious Freedom. And thank you as well to our host here today, National General Secretary Dr. Aslam Daud and National President Lal Khan Malik of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada, thank you. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to start today by expressing my gratitude, to join with Jason to express my gratitude, to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community here in Vaughan. I’m grateful for your generous hospitality but even more I’m grateful for the outstanding example that you set. This community has experienced, as Jason mentioned, the terrible cruelty of persecution, persecution on the basis of religion. In spite of that, your belief in tolerance and harmony endures. In this you make an inspiring contribution to our values. You strengthen Canada’s commitment to diversity and pluralism. And you remind your fellow Canadians that the freedoms we enjoy are precious, and must never be taken for granted. So as your Prime Minister, I thank you on behalf of all Canadians for strengthening and enriching the fabric of our country.

New photographs of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran’s son just before he was shot dead, obtained by Channel 4 TV, leave more questions for Sri Lanka to answer about war crimes.

It is a war that has produced some truly terrible images, but this one is particularly disturbing. A young boy sits looking distressed, like a child who has been lost in a supermarket. He has been given a biscuit or some kind of snack. In the second photograph, he is looking anxiously up, as though hoping to see someone he recognises. The boy is Balachandran Prabakaran, the 12-year-old son of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabakaran. These photographs, which we are releasing today, form part of the new evidence in the forthcoming feature documentary “No War Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka,” the culmination of three years of research which will be shown for the first time next month in Geneva, to coincide with the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting. The new evidence in the film is certain to increase pressure on the Indian government not only to support a resolution on Sri Lanka and accountability, but also to ensure that it is robustly worded, and that it outlines an effective plan for international action to end impunity in Sri Lanka.

- January 31, 2013 -All disruptive technologies upset traditional power balances, and the Internet is no exception. The standard story is that it empowers the powerless, but that's only half the story. The Internet empowers everyone. Powerful institutions might be slow to make use of that new power, but since they are powerful, they can use it more effectively. Governments and corporations have woken up to the fact that not only can they use the Internet, they can control it for their interests. Unless we start deliberately debating the future we want to live in, and the role of information technology in enabling that world, we will end up with an Internet that benefits existing power structures and not society in general. We've all lived through the Internet's disruptive history. Entire industries, like travel agencies and video rental stores, disappeared. Traditional publishing -- books, newspapers, encyclopedias, music -- lost power, while Amazon and others gained. Advertising-based companies like Google and Facebook gained a lot of power. Microsoft lost power (as hard as that is to believe). The Internet changed political power as well. Some governments lost power as citizens organized online. Political movements became easier, helping to topple governments. The Obama campaign made revolutionary use of the Internet, both in 2008 and 2012.

February 10, 2013 - Wasn’t it? Yesterday I mean. Spring announced itself in Delhi. The sun was out, and the Law took its Course. Just before breakfast, Afzal Guru, prime accused in the 2001 Parliament Attack was secretly hanged, and his body was interred in Tihar Jail. Was he buried next to Maqbool Butt? (The other Kashmiri who was hanged in Tihar in 1984. Kashmiris will mark that anniversary tomorrow.) Afzal’s wife and son were not informed. “The Authorities intimated the family through Speed Post and Registered Post,” the Home Secretary told the press, “the Director General of J&K Police has been told to check whether they got it or not.” No big deal, they’re only the family of a Kashmiri terrorist.

In a moment of rare unity the Nation, or at least its major political parties, the Congress, the BJP and the CPM came together as one (barring a few squabbles about ‘delay’ and ‘timing’) to celebrate the triumph of the Rule of Law. The Conscience of the Nation, which broadcasts live from TV studios these days, unleashed its collective intellect on us — the usual cocktail of papal passion and a delicate grip on facts. Even though the man was dead and gone, like cowards that hunt in packs, they seemed to need each other to keep their courage up. Perhaps because deep inside themselves they know that they all colluded to do something terribly wrong.