Vol. XLVIII No. 13 March 31, 2024

Towards the Lok Sabha Election: Annadatas Cheated! Defeat BJP!!

PERHAPS no other section in India has been more thoroughly cheated and short-changed by the Narendra Modi-led BJP-RSS regime than the crores of farmers and agricultural workers, who are truly the ‘annadatas’ of our country. Let us consider these two sections...

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Kejriwal Arrest: Rise Unitedly in Protest

THE arrest and detention of Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi, by the Enforcement Directorate is a turning point in the steady erosion of democracy in India. This brazen assault on the democratic system is a first in many respects. It is the first time a sitting chief minister whose party commands more than four-fifth majority in the assembly has been arrested, for the first time the head of a national political party has been put behind bars...

Once More on Poverty Figures of India

THE other day the chief executive officer of Niti Aayog made a fantastic claim, that the poverty ratio in India had fallen below 5 per cent according to the 2022-23 consumption expenditure survey data. His claim was based on the fact that the per capita consumption expenditures of only 5 per cent of the population in 2022-23 fell below the poverty-lines for that year for rural and urban India, arrived at by updating, on the basis of consumer price indices, the...

Establishing a Digital Surveillance and Censorship Regime

MODI government is systematically working to set up a surveillance and censorship framework for the digital domain, which seeks to undermine our fundamental rights of free speech and privacy. The genesis of many of these initiatives predated the Modi government. However, as with many other examples of policy continuity, the Modi government has put these efforts on steroids and taken them to such extremes that they...

Article 370 Revocation: Separating Rhetoric from Reality in Jammu and Kashmir Situation

THE ongoing situation in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh demands a thorough examination due to the prolonged absence of democratically elected governments for over five years. This has led to a severe crisis across various fronts, including skyrocketing unemployment rates, rampant poverty, crippling debt burdens, and escalating security concerns that have profoundly...

Modi-led NDA Govt Ruins Road Transport Sector: AIRTWF Calls for Defeating BJP

IT is widely recognised that transportation plays a critical role in any economy, making society as we know it impossible without it. According to the ministry of road transport and highways (MORTH), the road transport sector in India is responsible for transporting 80 per cent of passengers and 62 per cent of goods. This sector contributes 4.5 per cent to the GDP and employs...

'Economic Inequality in India Now Sharper Than Under British Raj'

INDIA may boast winding long highways and expressways, glittering airports, malls and skylines dotting its cities, but when it comes to economic inequality, it has become far worse than during British Raj, says a new paper by World Inequality Database. The world’s largest democracy, which is providing free food to 81 crore hungry Indians, also has “Billionaire Raj” with the top 1 per cent holding...

Strongly Condemn Arrest of Arvind Kejriwal

THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly condemns the arrest of Delhi chief minister and national convenor of AAP, Arvind Kejriwal by the ED. Clearly, the Modi government and the BJP are in a panic over the growing disenchantment of the people with the Modi government’s performance, disclosures of its own corrupt practices and exposures of electoral bond details. Hence, they are vindictively targeting opposition leaders...

TN: 'Modi's Guarantee to People was Hunger, Poverty and Bulldozer'

"PRIME Minister Modi had declared (about corruption), 'na khaunga na khane dunga' ( neither would I eat, nor would I allow anybody else to eat), but the electoral bonds reveal that his party is the greatest eater of corporate funding ever heard of, said Brinda Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member. They claimed to wipe out corruption and it is now clear that they lied to the nation and cheated...

A Statement on the Undermining of Elementary Freedoms in India

WE, the signatories to this statement, write with the greatest of concern because we admire the democratic structures that India embraced since gaining independence from colonial rule, including a set of constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights for every citizen. This entire democratic tradition is being fundamentally undermined by some recent developments in that country. We write at this particular moment to...

On the Undermining of Elementary Freedoms in India

Some friends of mine have recently written a cogent statement on the violation of elementary freedoms in contemporary India, and, even though I do not, as a rule, sign joint letters, I would like to add my voice to theirs. So this is written as a general statement addressed to my fellow citizens. Under British rule, Indians were often arrested and imprisoned without trial, and some were kept in prison for a long time. (As many of my family...