THE schedule for the assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamilnadu, Kerala and the union territory of Puducherry has been announced. It stretches from March 27 to April 29. These elections have their own importance for each state, given the political background specific to that state. However, taken together, they have a wider national significance. Will the outcome facilitate the ongoing drive of the BJP to establish one-party...
PARTICIPATION in a non-divisive mass movement, i.e., one that is not directed against some other segment of the people, of which the struggle for improving the material conditions of life is a classic example, is the greatest teacher of the values of democracy and unity. This is why political revolutions which are the highest form that such a mass movement can take, are occasions for immense social churning when people’s attitudes towards one another are also revolutionised;...
THE government announced new Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 last week, superseding the 2011 Rules which mainly addressed intermediaries. The new rules provide for regulation of all kinds of online media, including intermediaries like Facebook or Google, over-the-top streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime, messaging services like...
INDIA and China have agreed to begin 'a workable and sequential' disengagement and de-escalation at all the heavily armed “friction points” in eastern Ladakh. More surprisingly, New Delhi and Pakistan have secretly negotiated a ceasefire agreement on the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir, which has witnessed intense military action over the past five-years.
THE unprecedented farmers’ struggle around Delhi, which began on November 26, 2020, completes 100 days on March 6, 2021. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) held a general body meeting of its constituents at Singhu Border on March 2. On behalf of the AIKS, it was attended by general secretary Hannan Mollah, finance secretary P Krishna Prasad, Punjab state general secretary Major Singh Punnewal and Haryana...
YOUTH of the state once again showed their indomitable zeal to fight against all onslaughts on democratic rights, their determination to fight out an authoritarian regime that has been reigning in the state since 2018. Two left youth organisations- DYFI and TYF (Tribal Youth Federation) of Tripura, organised an impressive demonstration and rally of the youth at Agartala on February 27th. The youth marching in a long procession were...
AIDWA ISSUED a statement on the remarks of the CJI on March 2, 2021, and termed it, ‘very disturbing’. The CJI’s remarks came in a case in Supreme Court, titled, Mohit Subhash Chavan versus State of Maharashtra.
ON February 25, 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China has achieved a ‘complete victory’ in its fight against poverty, with the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line lifted out of poverty. With this, all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have been removed from the poverty list. President Jinping made the announcement while addressing a gathering to mark the nation's...
THE CITU has expressed serious concern over the hell-bent bid of fast-tracking the privatisation of CPSUs across the sectors, with their huge asset base, to private hands, both foreign and domestic. States are also being pushed to privatise state-PSUs. The national assets are being sought to be sold out to private corporate entities at throw-away prices, which will also act in destroying indigenous productive capabilities in almost all strategic and...
THE ongoing farmers struggle at the borders of Delhi, under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha(SKM) is not a spontaneous protest. This struggle, the largest in mass participation and striking power since independence, is the continuation of the agitations by the peasantry and the working class during the last three decades against the State policies, especially the neo-liberal policies being imposed on the people by successive...
