Daily Archives: June 27, 2017

Chennai: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury alleged on Monday that the "distractions", including the latest "imposition" of Hindi in states where the language was not widely spoken, were the "essence" of the three-year rule of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury. PTI

Flaying the Centre for "not honouring" the promises made to the people, he said here, "Everyday, you will have some sort of a distraction brought in (by the government).

"The latest one is that of language imposition. All the senior ministers are suddenly talking about Hindi being the national language and that it should be promoted. These distractions are the essence of the three-year rule of the Modi government."

The Left leader was speaking at a seminar, jointly organised by the Students' Federation of India and the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers' Association.

Recalling that the people of Tamil Nadu had a "big history" of fighting "caste-based oppression", he said they needed to carry it forward to strengthen the "idea of India" and stop the country from being reduced to the "narrow confines" of the "Hindi, Hindu and Hindutva" slogan.

"That is the larger battle we are facing today," said Yechury.

"The promises made to our farmers are not being honoured. Nothing of what was told to the people of this country is being honoured by this government," he alleged.

Noting that the imposition of a language was an "imposition of a certain ideological condition", the Rajya Sabha member said, "That ideological condition is a prerequisite project for converting the secular, democratic republic of India into their (BJP's) version of a Hindu Rashtra.

"That is why, I think the seminar you have organised against the imposition of Hindi and the excavation project in Keezhadi (near Madurai in Tamil Nadu) must be seen as a path towards the larger battle which is taking place in the country right now."

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'Distractions' like Hindi imposition are 'essence' of Narendra Modi government, says CPM - Firstpost

Darjeeling, June 27 (IANS) In a bid to cut all ties with the West Bengal government and to protest the development board of the North Bengal hills, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) on Tuesday burnt documents of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement.

The GTA activists gathered at Chowk Bazar and publicly set fire to the documents.

They announced more rallies would be held and warned all other parties against taking part in any fresh elections to the GTA in the hills.

The scheduled demonstration drew a huge crowd from all across the North Bengal hill town. The demonstrators carried the Tricolor along with the GJM party flag and raised pro-Gorkhaland slogans, demanding statehood.

The GJM leadership present at the Chowk Bazar said similar demonstrations would be held at 45 other places in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and the Dooars region.

They said the burning of the GTA documents officially marked the end of the developmental board in the hills.

Today (Tuesday) we are burning the GTA memorandum agreement and the GTA Act that was signed in August 2011. From today, GTA would be a non-entity in the hills. We do not want the GTA anymore. The only thing we want now is Gorkhaland, Binay Tamang, GJMs Assistant General Secretary, said.

None of the political parties in the hills would participate in any form of GTA election. But if the state government tries to impose the election here and anyone tries to fight the election even as an independent candidate, they would have to do that at their own risk, Tamang warned.

Similar demonstrations were observed in the plains of North Bengal as the GJM supporters gathered in large numbers at various places in Siliguri.

The local Morcha leadership blamed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to polarise the people in the hills and pledged to continue their fight till their demand for a separate Gorkhaland is fulfilled.

Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly come to the hills and tried to polarise us. We are protesting against that by burning these documents. Our fight for Gorkhaland would continue till it is achieved, GJM leader Vishal Chettri said.

Earlier in the day, in a unique form of protest against the state government and police actions, several activists of Yuba Morcha the youth wing of GJM conducted a tubelight rally and broke the tubelight rods on their back.

This is a protest against Bengals constant oppression of the Nepali community. We have different cultures, different language. We should have a different state, said an activist who participated in the demonstration.

On Monday, Prakash Gurung, President of the Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha (GJYM), vowed to resort to hunger-strike and self-immolation and urged the Centre to start a dialogue on the issue of separate Gorkhaland.

We will intensify our agitation for Gorkhaland by taking the path of self-sacrifice and fasting unto death from now on, he said.

The picturesque Darjeeling district in northern West Bengal is on the boil for more than two weeks now over the demand for a separate Gorkhaland.

The GJM, which is spearheading the movement for Gorkhaland, has repeatedly rejected any possibility of talks with the Mamata Banerjee government, accusing it of oppression and high-handedness.

The Trinamool Congress government in the state maintains that it is ready for a discussion after the situation in the area becomes normal.

This is published unedited from the IANS feed.

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Morcha holds rally in Darjeeling, burns GTA accord papers - India.com

Two protests were stagedoutside Beijings office in Hong Kong on Tuesday in support of Chinese activist and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Around 20 people joined a march led by political parties Demosisto and the League of Social Democrats to demand Lius unconditional release.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Two hours later, around 30 people from the Democratic Party, the Civic Party andthe Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China also held a march from Western Police Station to the China Liaison Office.

Photo: Supplied.

Liuwas sentenced to 11 years in 2008 afterwriting a manifesto called Charter 08 calling for democratic reform in China. Hewas released on medical parole on Mondayafter being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

Chinese authorities said Liu is being treated byeight renowned Chinese oncologists in a hospital inthe northeastern city of Shenyang.

The one-party state kills people without a weapon. Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

On Tuesday, protesters held placards sayingThe one-party state kills people without weapons and Political oppression is unacceptable.

Lawmaker Long Hair Leung Kwok-hung called the Chinese government shameless for putting Liu under surveillance even ashe is receiving medical treatment.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Liu should be freed. He should enjoy the same rights as everyone, including the freedom to getmedical treatment and see hisfamily, Leung said.

He expressed sadness over the news and said he hoped thediagnosis was wrong,as he had hoped to see Liu when he has servedhis time.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Some protesters wore masks of Lius face and carried signs that said: We are all Liu Xiaobo.

See also:How Chinese intellectual Liu Xiaobo spoke up for change, only to be jailed by Beijing

Demosisto activist Joshua Wong said Liu was only transferred from one prison to another. He asked all lawmakers and activists to demand Chinese President Xi Jinping release Liu during the leaders visit to Hong Kong this week.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

It istime for Hong Kong people to ask for democratisation [of] Hong Kong and mainland China, he added.

The group also urged Beijingtofree Lius wife, Liu Xia, who has beenunder house arrestsince 2010.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

The China Liaison Office did not send a representative to take the petition letter from the group.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

In response, protestersposted pictures of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia on the offices wall, with messages calling for their release and criticising Beijing for its political and unjust imprisonment of Liu.

Release Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia unconditionally now. Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Police officers blocked off part of the sidewalk with tape and took personal information of protesters as they turned up to the rally.

See also: 12 reactions from NGOs, China and the intl community as Beijing releases Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo

The Charter 08 is not criminal. Shame on political prosecution. Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

The international community has united in a chorus of condemnation in response to the news. NGO Human Rights Watch called for Lius immediate release, while Amnesty International Hong Kongsaid the diagnosis adds injury to insult to Liu.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee invited Liu to visit Oslo to receive his Nobel Peace Prize. It said it strongly regrets that it took serious illness before Chinese authorities were willing to release him from jail.

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In Pictures: 'Political oppression' Hong Kong activists call for release of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo - Hong Kong Free Press

The Nordic speculative-fiction scene has become increasingly prominent in the past few years, with authors such Leena Krohn and Johanna Sinisalo, both from Finland, garnering fresh attention and translations in the United States. In Sweden, one of the most promising authors of science fiction and fantasy in recent years has been Karin Tidbeck.

Her 2012 short story collection, Jagganath, showcased her knack for sharp yet dreamlike tale-spinning. Tidbeck's debut novel Amatka came out the same year, in Swedish only and it's seeing its first English translation now. Not a moment too soon, either: Despite being originally published five years ago, its surreal vision of deadly conspiracies, political oppression, and curtailed freedom couldn't be more eerily timely.

Amatka takes place in one of the most audacious science-fiction settings since Besel/Ul Qoma from China Miville's The City and The City. In Miville's book, two fictional European city-states are superimposed upon each other, with residents of each forbidden to acknowledge the existence of the other. In Tidbeck's agricultural colony of Amatka, a totalitarian government rules over a deprived and economically depressed population. But this is no run-of-the-mill dystopia. One of Amatka's many repressive rules is the requirement that citizens routinely repeat the names of certain marked objects in the colony. If they don't, those objects will dissolve into what the main character Vanja, calls "gloop" a formless substance that feels uncannily like living tissue.

Despite being originally published five years ago, [Tidbeck's] surreal vision of deadly conspiracies, political oppression, and curtailed freedom couldn't be more eerily timely.

The strangeness does not come anywhere close to ending there. Vanja is from another colony, Essre, and she travels to Amatka for a work assignment to assess the marketing possibilities there for the hygiene-product company she works for. This world's level of technology is woefully backward, and Vanja struggles to acclimate to Amatka's coldness and remoteness. It's a place of underground mushroom farms and impossible lakes that freeze and thaw of their own volition, a nowhere-land with a gray and featureless sky. The more she settles into life in Amatka, though, the more the colony's oddness intensifies. Objects begin to dissolve at an increasing rate, and conspiracies start to appear some of them connected to a fomenting rebellion, and some of them regarding the government's apparent cover-up of the true reason behind its draconian laws. Not to mention the reality-melting secret of the gloop.

Tidbeck's premise is almost comical, but her execution is anything but. Amatka teems with mysteries, and almost every innocuous detail like the fact that the colony's residents are vegan winds up having head-spinning ramifications later on. As exquisitely constructed as her enigmas are, however, they're atmospheric and deeply moving. Vanja is not an easy character to latch onto, but that sense of distance makes her ultimate choices and sacrifices and what they say about loneliness and freedom so much more poignant.

Amatka does not wrap up as conclusively as many readers may like, but then it's nowhere near being a conventional sci-fi novel. Tidbeck triumphs at crafting an ending that's both unsettingly vague and unerringly true to the warped internal logic of her world. Amatka is so disorienting that it makes the otherwise generic elements of her political dystopia including crippling procedures and secret camps for dissidents feel almost comfortingly familiar. It's an unnerving trick, and one Tidbeck pulls off to effect: She paints the moral ambiguities of a repressive society in the same gray tones as the sky above Amatka. Most of all, her meditation on the power of names and how language can be used to control both perception and substance resonates chillingly in our post-truth reality.

Jason Heller is a senior writer at The A.V. Club, a Hugo Award-winning editor and author of the novel Taft 2012.

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In 'Amatka,' A Warped And Chilling Portrait Of Post-Truth Reality - NPR