THE Central Trade Unions (CTUs), in its meeting held at New Delhi on August 2, expressed deep concern at the decision of the central government to divest further 10 per cent equity in the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) through Offer for Sale (OFS) route. The present shareholding pattern of NTPC is 56.41 per cent with the company and 43.59 per cent with market players.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on August 3
A SERIOUS situation has developed in Jammu & Kashmir as a consequence of the recent steps taken by the central government. The deployment of an additional contingent of paramilitary forces – amounting to 35,000 troops – has raised questions about their intended purpose.
THE official organ of the RSS, Organiser (August 4, 2019, Vol 71, No 6), has come out with a cover story, ‘Exploring RSS’. It was in support of the Nagpur University’s decision to introduce a BA course ‘RSS and Nation Building’ in its history syllabus. The cover story extols the role of RSS in ‘nation building’ and argues that, since it is the ‘biggest voluntary organisation’ in the world, it is necessary for everyone to study and learn from its history. A student should be free to study any aspect of history and that may include RSS.
THE CPI(M) vehemently opposed the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Parliament. The party said that the government, under the garb of enhanced road safety, is handing over the entire road transport sector to corporates and directly encroaching upon the powers of state governments.
Left Parties – CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, AIFB, RSP jointly issued the following Statement on August 5
THE Modi government has dealt a severe blow to our constitutional order by unilaterally scrapping Article 370 and other provisions of the constitution and dividing the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
THOUSANDS of Left activists and supporters came out on the streets in West Bengal to protest authoritarian attack on the constitution by abrogating special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the constitution and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir. Braving hate campaign, the CPI(M) organised a protest rally on August 5 itself, hours after the announcement in the parliament. The rally in Kolkata was attended by CPI(M) leaders including Biman Basu, Surjya Kanta Misra and Mohammad Salim. Similar rallies were held in different parts of the state including Siliguri.
THE conflict in the mountains of Kargil sector in 1999, resulting from Pakistani infiltration, lasted around three months. India won. But the victory cost us 527 lives of young officers and men who fought gallantly to defend our territorial integrity.
After 20 years, the government is celebrating the victory in 'Operation Vijay', but it is hardly deliberating on the lessons that we need to draw from the conflict, which represented our failure on three fronts, intelligence and generalship.
THE Draft of National Education Policy 2019 (DNEP) is a proof that the Modi -led government is trying all the tricks in the trade to make a unitary form of governance in the country and that it has taken up the work of saffronisation of education across the country.
THE ninth Asia-Pacific Regional Conference in Solidarity with Cuba, was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 26-28, 2019. 154 delegates, including the 35 delegates from India, from 15 countries representing different progressive forces in the region gathered together in solidarity with Cuba while the world is preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the heroic Cuban revolution. The ideas and the socialist, humanitarian initiatives of Cuban revolution and the world order it fought to achieve, both inside Cuba and at the international level, were emphasised throughout the conference.
A WIDE swathe of rocky hills and forests stretches from Mirzapur to Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh, home to various tribal groups – Gonds, Kols and Bhils. The area is rich in minerals and water-resources and has seen the establishment of cement factories, Hindalco, large power plants, the Rihand and Kemur dams at the cost of the poor and their land. Promises of compensation and jobs never materialised.