05  August,  2004 | Washington Post
By Rama Lakshmi, Special Correspondent to The Washington Post
MEERUT, India — Rajeev Sharma, a young electrician, was sleeping when police barged into his house a month ago and dragged him out of bed on suspicion of a burglary in the neighborhood, his family recalled.

When his young wife and brother protested, the police, who did not show them an arrest warrant, said they were taking Sharma to the police station for “routine questioning.”

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In India, Torture by Police Is Frequent and Often DeadlyRead More »

27 July, 2004
Times of India
By Ravi Nair, Human Rights Activist
Ravi Nair , Human Rights activist: Yes. It rarely acts as a deterrent. And what if the person is innocent?

The debate has been an ongoing one. The last time the Lok Sabha specifically discussed the question was in 1983. Then prime minister Indira Gandhi had stated that she favoured abolition of death penalty.

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Should Capital punishment be abolished?Read More »

4 -5 March 2004
Gulf Times
By Bonnie James in Qatar
THE UN has been urged to do a drastic evaluation of the practice of holding regional workshops on the promotion and protection of human rights as the ‘process has become very old’.

“This meeting is a fossil from the 50s and 60s of the UN,” Ravi Nair executive director, South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) told Gulf Times yesterday.

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Expert’s : Revamp rights meets’ format, QatarRead More »

11 December  2003
The Hindu,

11 December  2003
The Hindu
By Special Correspondent

21 February 2003
Financial Times – London Edition
By Edward Luce and Demetri Sevastopulo
India’s leading Hindu nationalist group – the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or Organisation of National Volunteers – told the country’s Muslims last year that their future safety lay “in the goodwill of the majority”.

The warning, made towards the end of one of the country’s worst episodes of sectarian violence, in which up to 2,000 Muslims died, fuelled allegations that the RSS and its affiliates were implicated in the pogroms. Yet far from deterring the Hindu nationalists, the controversy has encouraged greater militancy – including, in December, the landslide election victory of the BJP, the political arm of the RSS, in Gujarat.

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Blood and moneyRead More »