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134th Birth Anniversary of Kakababu: New Present Has to Be Built in the Light of Past Traditions

SINCE 1963, we have been observing the birth anniversary of Comrade Muzaffar Ahmad, popularly known to one and all as ‘Kakababu’. We observe his birthday not merely for the sake of remembrance. Our aim is to learn from his efforts in building a movement and forging a struggle, from his giant endeavour to build an organisation from scratch under adverse circumstances with the goals and objectives to build the Communist Party in this country.

70th Anniversary of India’s Independence: Powerful Struggles Alone Can Build Alternative Narrative

AS India marks its 70th anniversary of independence, it is necessary to recollect that the current political and social battles that are going on in our country emerge from a continuous ideological battle between three distinct visions of what should be the character of the political and social structure of post-independent India that arose during the course of our epic freedom struggle, particularly in the decade of the 1920s. 

BSNL’s Revival Package: Tall Claims and Bitter Truths

THE government has once again tom-tommed that it would be spending Rs 1.64 lakh crore to revive BSNL. This second revival package was announced on July 27, 2022. The government had already announced a similar revival package for BSNL and MTNL on October 23, 2019, in which the government had promised to spend Rs 70,000 crore for the revival of both the public sector telecom companies. A loud message is being sent to the general public of this country that the government is squandering a huge amount of tax payers’ money, for the so called revival of BSNL.

GST Rate Hikes and the Tweets Of Union Finance Minister

REFERRING to a list of 12 grains and their flours, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that “GST on these goods shall apply when supplied in ‘pre-packaged and labelled’ commodities attracting the provisions of Legal Metrology Act. For example, items like pulses, cereals like rice, wheat, and flour, etc, earlier attracted GST at the rate of 5 per cent when branded and packed in unit container. From July 18, 2022, these items would attract GST when “pre-packaged and labelled”.

BRANDED AND UNBRANDED

The Invisibilisation of Dalits in UP

REPORTS of attacks on minorities, especially Muslims, in Uttar Pradesh have become commonplace.  Justifications of these attacks are a regular feature on high-decibel, provocative tv ‘debates’.  Hindi newspapers are also full of these reports and justifications.  This has become a tested way of deepening religious polarization which has paid rich political dividends for the ruling party.  Attacks on dalit men, women and children occurring with greater frequency and intensity after 2017 are, however, absent from the mainstream electronic media and hard to f

Puducherry: Cholera Outbreak in Karaikal Signs of Malaise in the Public Health System

WITHIN three months of having been declared “best state”, (during a much publicised visit by the home minister) the union territory of Puducherry found itself battling a sudden, serious outbreak of cholera, in its small enclave of Karaikal. It took the administration almost two months to wake up to the fact that this notifiable disease,  one that has been largely eliminated, was actually spreading fast in the Karaikal region.

On the Supreme Court Comments in the Nupur Sharma Case

IT is a sign of the times, that a justice of the Supreme Court finds it necessary to defend the court against what he termed personal comments against judges attributing motives to them. This is in the context of the comments made by a two-member bench in the open court. The kind of pressure on judges if they make comments not liked by those in power has been clearly seen in the Nupur Sharma case.

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