IT is sixteen months since the ethnic conflict erupted in Manipur. Over 250 people have been killed and many more injured during the violence and 60,000 people remained displaced and living as refugees. The central government and the BJP state government have abjectly failed to address the basic issues, which led to the conflict and allowed the situation to develop where there has been a hardening of the ethnic divide. There are nearly 60,000 central police...
WHEN Boeing’s Starliner CST-100 spacecraft was successfully launched on June 5 earlier this year to the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing and NASA heaved a sigh of great relief. The launch was the first crewed flight test of Starliner, carrying two very experienced test-pilots and, one could say, veteran astronauts, Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore. Starliner was originally scheduled to launch its first crewed mission in...
THE horrifying incident at R G Kar Medical College Hospital on August 9 was a global first. Never before has a doctor been raped and murdered on duty at a top government hospital. This wasn't a random act; it was the inevitable outcome of a crime wave fuelled by the ruling party's corruption in the state's health sector. Rampant corruption, nepotism, and embezzlement have crippled the health...
FELICITATING our Olympic medalists and making India's bid to host the Olympics in 2036 was neither an elected representative of the people nor a veteran of any sport, but Nita Ambani, wife of India's and Asia's richest person, Mukesh Ambani, whose closeness to PM Narendra Modi is no secret. Advancing his strategic capture of the country, from its economic assets such as oil and telecom to the largest bulk of its news and entertainment...
THE newly appointed union power minister in the NDA government has swiftly pushed forward with privatisation initiatives since taking office. A key move is the directive to unbundle the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) into three separate entities for corporatisation—one for generation, one for transmission, and one for distribution. This unbundling plan was announced publicly without prior discussion or agreement with critical stakeholders, including...
A JOINT protest organised by the state committees of the Left parties – CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), RSP Forward Bloc and CGPI – was held at Haryana Bhawan on September 7, against the incidents of murder and mob-lynching in the name of cow protection in Haryana. CPI(M) state secretariat member Asha Sharma, Brajesh, state committee member Anju Jha, Ishwar Tyagi and CPI's Babban along with many comrades were arrested while protesting.
IN the name of cow protection, violent incidents of beating, kidnapping, and murder are increasing continuously in Haryana. On August 23, 19-year-old student Aryan Mishra was brutally murdered by so-called cow protectors in Faridabad, reportedly because he was mistaken for a cattle smuggler. Similarly, on August 27, 26-year-old Bengali migrant worker Sabir Malik, a rag picker living in a jhuggi (...
THE Delhi Union of Journalists, in a statement issued on September 2, has condemned the life threatening attack on Uttarakhand based journalist Yogesh Dhimri, whose small digital channel Aanwala News has been in the forefront of exposes about the drug and liquor mafia operating in the state. Dhimri is also known for his bold reportage of the Ankita Bhandari rape and murder case. The attack left him badly injured and...
IN a meeting held in Lucknow on August 26, 2024, various student and youth organisations, youth and student leaders, and social activists decided to launch an Employment Rights Campaign. The campaign will focus on issues such as imposing appropriate taxes on corporate houses and the super-rich, guaranteeing education, health, and employment, immediately filling vacant government posts in the...
THE National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD), in a statement issued on September 9, congratulated the entire Indian contingent that participated in the Paris Paralympics. The spectacular performance by this team winning an unprecedented 29 medals, ten more than what they won at Tokyo, is praiseworthy. The momentum that began at Rio where India won just one medal and carried forward in Tokyo...
