EVEN as the people of India face terrible hardships, suffering and distress during the lockdown and yet continue to observe instructions given by governments, the central government and the ruling party continue to push a sectarian agenda. The highly irresponsible behavior of the Tablighi Jamaat became the pretext for the sangh warriors to unleash a vicious campaign against Muslims in general. This led to several direct attacks on Muslims, including some reprehensible attacks on street vendors even in the capital.
EVEN though the first Covid-19 case in India was detected on January 30, the government of India failed to take proper steps to combat it until March. The nationwide lockdown call given by prime minister Narendra Modi leaving only four hours of preparation time, had become a cause of misery for millions of Indians across the country. The Andhra Pradesh state government didn’t pay attention to the Covid-19 warning till the local body elections were postponed.
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 7
TRUMP’s threat of retaliation for easing restrictions on the export of vital generic drugs including Hydroxychloroquine is a plain attempt at arm twisting. The government’s capitulation to this brazen blackmail undermines the vital concerns in our battle against the viral pandemic. This also signals yet another surrender to US interests.
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.
IN the wake of countrywide lockdown against Covid-19, in order to provide some relief to the poor and the working people of Tripura, the CPI(M) MLAs have decided to donate 25 per cent of their salary for the next three months to the CM's relief fund.
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 growing nationalist sentiment that reached a crescendo around the INA trials developed into violent confrontations with British imperialism in the winter of 1945-46. Indian soldiers and young officers serving in the British armed forces in India were greatly influenced by these mass protests. A section of them were skilled professionals and hence were different from the earlier generation of Indians who had served in the British forces.