THE electoral bonds scheme which came into effect in March 2018 is a brazen and opaque method to funnel corporate funds, kickbacks and black money into the ruling party’s coffers.
CPI(M) had organised a protest dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on April 16 against the failure of Election Commission of India (ECI) in ensuring free and fair elections in Tripura. The polling for the West Tripura Lok Sabha seat saw large scale violence and rigging by the BJP. Election officials and observers and central forces were not seen in the booths that were “captured”. Further, polling agents of the...
UNABLE to sustain its narrative around Pulwama and Balakot and more importantly no tangible achievements to trumpet about, the BJP is back to its time-tested stratagems. BJP president Amit Shah, candidate from Gandhinagar constituency, in a road show at the start of his campaign thundered “Kashmir hamara hai” (Kashmir is ours). This, in a constituency, which, ever since its creation in 1967, has returned the BJP nine out of fourteen times, is a giveaway. Those elected from here...
A DELEGATION of the CPI(M) led by Sitaram Yechury, general secretary, consisting of Nilotpal Basu, Polit Bureau member and Shankar Prasad Datta, CPI(M) candidate for the West Tripura parliamentary constituency met chief election commissioner on April 15. The delegation submitted two memorandums – one demanding re-poll in 464 booths in West Tripura constituency and conducting of free and fair election in East Tripura parliamentary constituency and the other pertaining to the...
NUMEROUS agencies from the Labour Bureau of Shimla to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy to Oxfam have been drawing attention to the grim unemployment situation in India at present. The government however not only continues to be in a denial mode, but has actually suppressed all official statistics that go against its claims. But like the proverbial thief hiding behind curtains whose shoes nonetheless are visible from outside, the government’s...
JULIAN Assange’s arrest by the UK police from the Ecuadorian Embassy after the Moreno administration withdrew his asylum, has drawn worldwide condemnation. Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire are among the leading figures who have condemned Assange’s arrest. In India, N Ram, Arundhati Roy, Gopal Gandhi, Indira Jainsing, P Sainath and Romila Thapar, condemning the arrest,...
THE ruling BJP released its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections recently. Expectedly, it is full of praise for the Prime Minister Modi and his government. Also, it is bristling with wild promises, some repetitions of their 2014 pledges, some new ones. But there are two notable aspects of this document. One is the wholesale inclusion of the...
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Nilotpal Basu, has written to the chief election commissioner, Election Commission of India on April 16, regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on Sabarimala temple, in his election rallies, aiming at communal polarisation.
RICH tributes were offered to Comrade Makineni Basavapunnaiah, a great Marxist theoretician and one of the pioneers of CPI(M), on the occasion of his 27th death anniversary. A meeting was conducted at MB Vignana Kendram (MBVK) at Vijayawada on April 12. P Madhu, chairman of MBVK Trust and CPI(M) state secretary explained the life of Comrade MB and his contribution to the Indian communist movement.
