THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Several people’s organisations and social movement groups gathered here at the Mannam Memorial National Club on Tuesday for a two-day South Asian Assembly under the banner of People’s Movements Unite South Asia, People’s SAARC India Assembly-2011. The meeting was inaugurated by former (Union) Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who gave a historical overview of the conflict based on the exploitation of natural resources, which had been the basis of the imperialist hegemony that began with the exploitation of coal and iron in Europe. The same agenda, with a greater thrust, is being replicated in South Asia by exploiting resources such as gas and oil. He severely criticised the SAARC bureaucratic processes which had miserably failed to live up to its own ideals and aspirations of the people. As a result, this had given rise to the People’s SAARC process and he found it highly inspirational that it could play a catalytic role in the regional politics of the SAARC countries.K N Panikker, historian and writer, said that our written histories had been a hindrance to the people of the region to come together and stressed the need for South Asian historians to come together to rewrite a comprehensive history of the region.P M Kutty (Human Rights Activist from Pakistan), spoke about how the imperial powers had been the cause of destabilising peace in the region and had created a scenario where various separatist groups and terrorist outfits thrive. This had serious human rights consequences and added to the misery of the people in the region.Babloo Loitongbam, Human Rights Activist from Manipur, spoke about how the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) had been prevalent in the North-Eastern state of Manipur for more than five decades. Even after 11 years of hunger strike by Irom Sharmila for withdrawing AFSPA from the North-East, the Union Government had not taken any action. But a mere 12-day strike by Anna Hazare could threaten to destabilise the government and forced it to take serious policy decisions in Parliament, he said. He also spoke about the economic blockade in Manipur, which had created misery in ordinary people’s lives.Ashim Roy, a trade union leader and one of the key organisers of the PSAARC 2011 India Summit, in his speech said that the meeting is a paradigm shift from the way the PSAARC itself had been functioning and hopes to bring together several social movement groups and people’s struggles into its fold to create an impact on the South Asian Governments to take note of people’s demands.Someetharan, a filmmaker from Sri Lanka, highlighted the war crimes that took place there, as well as the fact that the war is currently being touted as a successful strategy to suppress people’s struggles for autonomy. T Peter, in his welcome speech, stated that unless and until the South Asian Governments seriously consider the concerns of the people and their issues, movements like the PSAARC would continue to pose challenges to the state, whose policies over the last several decades had been destroying the life and livelihood of communities.
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