J&K: Disillusionment, Hopelessness Created by BJP’s Divisive Policies Bound to Provide Ground for Extremism to Grow

THE recently concluded visit of union home minister Amit Shah, his first since the special status of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 was arbitrarily and unconstitutionally revoked in August 2019, has been one more addition to the long list of disillusionments as except rhetoric nothing came out of it.

Push for Ethanol-blended Petrol (EBP): Wrong in So Many Ways

THE Government’s Roadmap for Ethanol Blending India 2020-25, a programme of the Niti Aayog and the ministry of petroleum & natural gas, was launched without irony on World Environment Day, June 5, 2021. This is the new avatar of several past policies which have been repeatedly re-launched only to crash again.

Catastrophe in Offing; Strengthen DRR Principles

RECORD-breaking snowfall in Madrid(loss of 1.4 billion euros), Storm Cristoph in UK, Cyclone Ana in Fiji, Winter storms in Texas, Dust storm in China, Flooding in New South Wales, Cyclone Seroja in Indonesia, Record temperatures in Moscow, Heat Dome in US & Bootleg fire in Oregon are 10 of the many extreme weather events witnessed in the year 2021.Between 1970-2019 more than 91 per cent of the deaths attributed to climate change/ weather-related disasters were reported in developing countries.

Rising Hunger in India: Statistics and Lies

THE 2021 Global Hunger Report released recently has once again highlighted the deplorable conditions of food insecurity and nutrition in India. The paradox is that India is simultaneously the country with the largest number of hungry people in the world and the country with the largest public stocks of foodgrains.As per the latest Global Hunger Index, India has been ranked at 101 -- the lowest among all South-Asian countries except Afghanistan -- among 116 countries.

Gandhi and Savarkar: Falsifying History

THE Indian Express, October 13, 2021, tells us that Rajnath Singh, the Indian defence minister, has claimed that “A lot of falsehood was spread against Savarkar. It was repeatedly said that he filed multiple mercy petitions before the British government. The truth is he did not file these petitions for his release. Generally a prisoner has right to file a mercy petition. Mahatma Gandhi had asked that you file a mercy petition. It was on Gandhi’s suggestion that he filed a mercy petition. And Mahatma Gandhi had appealed that Savarkar ji should be released.

Restore Inter-State Migrant Workers Act

DURING the pandemic when the plight and sufferings of migrant workers had turned into the greatest human disaster, the Modi regime has, without any remorse, repealed the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 (ISMW Act, 1979) by “amalgamating” it with the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSHWC Code).

Petrol/Diesel & Cooking Gas: Modi’s Weapons of Mass Loot

COOKING gas (LPG) cylinder prices were jacked up again a week back. Average price across four metros of the usual 14.2 kg cylinder is now an astonishing Rs906.38. One year ago, in October 2020, the cylinder’s average price was Rs604.63. This is data for Indane gas, as recorded in the website of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), a government undertaking.So, in just one year, its price has zoomed up by Rs301.75.

Federalism and Economic Justice

THE Goods and Services Taxation regime is antithetical to the very idea of cooperative federalism. The rightwing is conducting an all-out campaign to impose one tax across the country ignoring the need for diversity and local autonomy.The report submitted by the Fifteenth Finance Commission points out that in the year 2018-19, 62.7 per cent of the total tax revenue is collected by the union government.

SBM 2.0, Sequel of Failure of 1.0

ON October 1st – a day before the Gandhi Jayanti – the prime minister made a big announcement. The flagship and the equally lauded - critiqued central government programme: Swachh Bharat Mission will now have a sequel. The prime minister said that with the Swachh Bharat 2.0 Mission, his government aims to make the “urban areas garbage-free”.

Patents and Price of Covid Vaccines

THE corporate media also had to note the beating that PM Modi’s and BJP’s image got due to failure in management/mismanagement of Covid-19 pandemic; bringing in stark reality the absence of public healthcare infrastructure both in urban and rural India; lack of equipment, oxygen and medicines and healthcare personnel; and lakhs of counted and uncounted deaths as aptly penned by ParulKhakkar in Shab-Bahini Ganga and the king becoming ‘Nanga’.Realising this opposite under-current prior to four states assembly elections coming within few months, BJP launched a high profile ca

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