THE Modi government’s second stint in office has completed a hundred days. Though it is a short span of time, the genes of this government have been made starkly clear – an authoritarian regime marked by the fusion of corporate capital and Hindutva. The past 100 days have seen an unprecedented assault on democracy in Jammu & Kashmir; the denigration of parliament, the subversion of constitutional bodies including the judiciary and the authoritarian onslaught...
REITERATING the trust upon the LDF government and the CPI(M), people of Kerala have generously contributed to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund with a sum of Rs 22,90,67,326. In the backdrop of heavy floods, CPI(M) branches across the state had organised a massive collection from August 13 to 18. Respective Party district committees deposited their amount to the CMDRF. Details from the districts are as follows...
WITH Dr Manmohan Singh resurfacing on the political landscape and articulating once more the orthodox neoliberal position, one can now clearly discern three distinct perspectives on the current economic slowdown. The first is the orthodox neoliberal position that Dr Singh has now articulated. This states that the crisis is a consequence not of the neoliberal policies which the country has been following since 1991, but of completely...
AFTER a long, text-book Chandrayaan-2 mission since launch on June 22, right up till a mere 2 km or so above the lunar surface, the much awaited soft landing of the Vikram Lander in the south polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019 could not be achieved due to reasons that are yet to be determined. From what little is known at present, it appears that control of the Lander was lost at the very last stage of its descent, and it made a hard...
IN his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the government’s decision to establish the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a single head for the three services - army, navy and air force. The CDS, a four star officer is expected to be senior to the three other service chiefs. The lack of strategic culture in India is often blamed on the prevailing higher defence management structure in the...
The following is the press statement issued by the All India Democratic Women’s Association on September 11, 2019 THE recent transfer of Chief Justice Vijaya Tahilramani from the Madras High Court to the Meghalaya High Court by the Supreme Court collegium has created justified consternation among sections of people who hold the judiciary and the Indian Constitution in high esteem. It is unfortunate that the collegium has stuck...
Five tribal organizations – Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch, Campaign for Survival and Dignity, Bharat Ekta Andolan, Jindagi Bachao Abhiyan and the All India Forum of Forest Movements have jointly submitted the following memorandum to Arjun Munda, minister for tribal affairs on September 11, regarding the new attempt to attack the Forest Rights Act in the Supreme Court. ON September 12, the Supreme Court is scheduled to once again hear the ongoing...
HALIMA Khatun is a middle aged woman, who has been detained at the Kokrajhar Detention Centre in Assam for over 10 years. She has four children who live with her husband in Nagaon district. Except for her, the entire family has been declared as an “Indian” in the NRC process. Similar is the story of Arti Das who is also from Nagaon; she has been lodged in Kokrajhar Detention Centre for the last three years...
IN the first phase of the Pondicherry University Students’ Council elections held on August 28, SFI secured a majority of seats contesting alone for the third consecutive year. SFI, along with the SFI supported independent candidates, obtained 27 seats, thus becoming the single largest organisation in the process. The central government has been extensively pushing their interests of privatisation of education through the fund cuts...
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was the first politician outside the Valley to visit Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370. He too had to go through the treatment that opposition leaders under detention are getting in Kashmir. Yechury visited the state after the Supreme Court gave a favourable order in a habeas corpus petition seeking the whereabouts of CPI(M) Central Committee member and four-time MLA Mohd Yousuf...
