PRIME Minister Narendra Modi has an inordinate capacity for doublespeak and hypocritical posturing. Even then, his performance at the outreach meeting of the G7 Summit at Cornwall reached new heights. At the session on “open societies” to which four guest countries were invited – South Africa, South Korea, Australia and India – Modi proclaimed India’s “civilisational commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty”.
THE G-7 meeting that has just concluded has promised to donate one billion doses of anti-Covid vaccine to the rest of the world, consisting primarily of the so-called “developing” countries. The US has promised 500 million doses, Britain 100 million doses; the other G-7 countries, Italy, Japan, France, Germany and Canada are supposed to make up the rest.
THE prime minister in his speech on June 7, partially reversed his widely criticised Covid-19 vaccine policy. What concerns us here is that he also went on to give a false account of India’s vaccine history: that it had not been able to vaccinate its people earlier and could not manufacture vaccines indigenously. It is only now – according to Mr Modi – that India had manufactured two vaccines indigenously.
THE Delhi High Court order granting bail in the UAPA case connected to the north-east Delhi violence, for three detenues, is most welcome. It is a step towards undoing the gross injustice committed by the home ministry in manufacturing cases against activists protesting against the unconstitutional CAA. Significantly the High Court has stated, “it seems, that in its anxiety to suppress dissent, in the mind of the State, the line between the...
A DELEGATION of the CPI(M) and CPI visited village Khera Khalilpur, in Nuh, in Haryana on June 9, to meet the family of a young man Asif who was brutally killed on May 16. They also met the DC, Shakti Singh and gave him a memorandum.
THE All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) has demanded urgent intervention from the government to ensure the safety of anganwadi workers and ASHAs, the frontline workers who have been losing lives in combating Covid-19 in the country.
LAST week on June 14, 2021, the historic farmers’ struggle completed 200 days. It has been the largest and longest peaceful struggle not only in India, but also perhaps across the world. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), in its general body meeting on June 11 held at the Singhu border near Delhi, gave a nationwide call to ‘Save Agriculture, Save Democracy’ on June 26. That day marks the completion of seven months of the...
PEDRO Castillo of the Perú Libre party has already begun to receive congratulations from around the world. It is beyond doubt that he won the June 6 presidential election. The Peruvian Electoral Authority – ONPE – announced the final results: Castillo won 50.137 per cent of the vote (8.83 million votes), while his opponent in the second round Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular won 49.893 per cent (8.78 million...
THE CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee conducted a 21 day online public lecture series called “Maharashtrache Deepastambh” (Lighthouses of Maharashtra) that started on May 5, 2021 to mark the Karl Marx birth anniversary, and also May Day and Maharashtra Day on May 1. It was based on leading social and political thinkers and figures of Maharashtra, who had played a major role in the social reform...
REVOLUTIONARY Kannada writer,Siddalingaiah died on June 11, 2021 at the age of 67, after battling with Covid19 for over a month at Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. He is widely known as a Kannada Dalit poet and a revolutionary writer. He, along with few others, pioneered a literary trend known as ‘Dalitha-Bandaaya” (Rebellion) in 1970-80s. He played a leading role in Left...
