THE first quarter of the twenty-first century is showing many similarities with its immediately preceding counterpart (the twentieth century), especially regarding science in general, and elementary particle physics, and cosmology in particular; and regarding the latter, the literally earth-shaking discovery made by Edwin Hubble. His observations using earth-based telescope(s), of the “red shift” of light reaching us from the distant stars, showed that the universe is expanding! This has been confirmed and further examined, by probes sent into space as well as ground-based observations.

AGAINST the anti-peasant policies of the Narendra Modi government, farmers in the country, unitedly under the leadership of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), organised the longest, most united, and most historical struggle in 2020 and 2021. They faced unprecedented attacks and oppression by the government. They became victims of widespread false government propaganda and RSS propaganda. 750 of our comrades became martyrs in the struggle; thousands of false cases were registered against the farmers.

THE ever deepening systemic crisis of capitalism, the unprecedented pandemic, imminence of the second global recession in a decade (a phenomena not witnessed in the last eight decades) have all exposed the fact that under the neoliberal paradigm we are seeing a fast paced regression into barbarism.

A FORMER dictator of El Salvador, Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, stated: “Killing an ant is a greater crime than killing a man”. Though stated in a different context and well before the formation of the State of Israel on Palestinian land, it captures the mindset of the rulers of the present Israeli State. As the current PD editorial notes, more than one Palestinian is killed everyday by the Israeli government in these past two months. And this is done with impunity.

THE Supreme Court of India has delivered an important judgment on November 4, 2022 on the Employees’ Pension Scheme-95 (EPS-95). At the outset, it is all the more relevant here to clarify that this judgment has nothing to do with the question of enhancement of minimum pension under EPS-95, on which lakhs of industrial workers have been agitating since long.Over time, the EPS-95, for which huge workers’ money is taken away, became a mockery with lakhs of workers getting less than Rs 100 per month as pension.