THE people were looking forward to the prime minister’s address to the nation on the last day of the three-week countrywide lockdown.  These three weeks have thrown up many experiences that need to be addressed urgently in order, both, to strengthen our fight against the Covid 19 pandemic and to protect the lives and survival of crores of our fellow citizens.  On none of these issues of vital importance did the prime minister have anything substantial to say.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on  April 6

Below we publish the full text of the letter addressed to the president of India by CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury,  on April 6, urging the president to prevail upon the central government to take  action on the measures suggested in the letter to control Covid-19 pandemic.

I AM writing to you, as you are the custodian of the Indian Constitution under whose sanction and authority, the central government functions.

THE American image has nosedived. President Donald Trump’s shoddy and tardy handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the hollowness of the so-called American dream and the neoliberal capitalist order. The images of America’s rotten privatised healthcare system is clearly pointing to the fact that America is both morally and materially incapable of leading the world out of the current health crisis.

THE Indian grid was tested as no grid in the world has ever been by PM’s 9-minute at 9 pm lights off call, on April 5. An unprecedented load reduction to the tune of 27 per cent or 32 Giga Watts took place and came back again, all within a span of 10-12 minutes. No grid in the world has ever seen a plunge and surge of load of this magnitude, so it was indeed a trial by fire for the Indian grid authorities, both state and national, and the generators.