Interview with Siddharth Varadarajan, By: Rosa Sundar-Maccagno

Interview with Siddharth Varadarajan, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu

By: Rosa Sundar-Maccagno, 7A     (this almost-twelve year old journalist is my cute and brilliant niece, who had to do an interview for a school assignment)

                                       

1. How did you decide to become a journalist?

I was always interested in what was happening around the world. I used to live in New York City at the time and I was interested in international affairs, in politics, in economics, and writing about what was happening, and particularly writing about what I believed was the truth about what was happening, you know I felt that was something that was very important, something I would love to do for a living. Because I thought that a lot of the newspapers were not giving an accurate account of what was happening in the world. So I felt that if I could become a journalist then with my perspective I could make a difference. 

Reflections on Civil Liberties, Citizenship, Adivasi Agency and Maoism: A Response to Alpa Shah

 

If Alpa Shah had her way (Shah 2013), civil liberties and democratic rights platforms in India, currently speaking in the name of citizenship or ‘the people’ (e.g. Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), Concerned Citizens Committee (CCC); People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Independent People’s Tribunal for Environmental and Human Rights (IPT)) would abandon their  pretensions and instead give themselves names such as “Committee for the Recognition of Maoist Love and Marriage” (CRMLR) or “Union for the Promotion of the Sacral Parha Polity” (UPSPP), and be in a much better position to advance the cause of the adivasis, in conjunction, of course, with suitably re-educated Maoists. 

            In her article (CofA 33:1:2013), Shah covers three broad themes: The first pertains to the civil liberties movement in India; the second concerns villager support for Maoists, and the third bears on the way Maoists create political consciousness and citizenship in their own areas. The first two are not original, though poor citation gives this impression, while her comments on the third border on the incoherent. 

Read on.... 

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/166637586/COA-Reply-to-Alpa-Shah

or 

http://www.academia.edu/4437783/Reflections_on_Civil_Liberties_Citizenship_Adivasi_Agency_and_Maoism_A_Response_to_Alpa_Shah