Nefarious Moves in Jammu and Kashmir

THE Jammu and Kashmir administration is taking steps which seek to obliterate the historical legacy and identity of the Kashmiri people while promoting measures which will heighten the communal divide between Jammu and the Valley.July 13 has been traditionally observed as Martyrs Day in Kashmir to commemorate the memory of 22 people who were killed in firing by the Maharaja’s police in 1931 while protesting against the feudal monarchy. For the second consecutive year there was no official commemoration of the event.

Mamata Banerjee's Discoveries

MAMTA Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, has been making some new discoveries recently. First, she stated in a press conference that RSS was not that bad." Following this, she has made another discovery - she does not believe prime minster Narendra Modi is behind the misuse of central agencies such as the CBI and the enforcement directorate. Speaking in the legislative assembly, she said "You are possibly not aware that these agencies are no longer under the prime minister's office (PMO). They are now controlled by the union home ministry".

Onwards with the September Campaign

THE Central Committee of the CPI(M) has called for a mass campaign throughout the country on the major issues facing the people like price rise, unemployment, livelihood of farmers and agricultural workers, against privatisation and attacks on the working class and the overall onslaught on democracy and democratic rights by the Modi government.This campaign from September 14-24 will concentrate on taking these issues to the people and the demands and alternative policies required to solve these problems.

Kerala Governor’s Dubious Role

THE governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammad Khan, has been interfering in the affairs of the state universities and taking arbitrary decisions, misusing his position as chancellor of these universities.Recently, the governor appointed a search committee for the post of vice chancellor of Kerala University bypassing the provision in the Act that there has to be a three-member search committee consisting of the university’s nominee, the chancellor’s nominee and the UGC nominee. But the governor has set-up a two-member committee without the university’s nominee. Earlier, the governor had questioned

Hypocrisy about Freebies

ON the last day of his tenure as chief justice on August 26, Justice Ramana referred the pleas on political parties promising freebies to a three-judge bench to be decided by the new chief justice of India. The Supreme Court, getting into the freebies issue, is an example of misplaced priorities and entering into an area which is not the business of the higher judiciary.Prime Minister Narendra Modi stoked the issue of freebies when he derided the ‘revdi’ culture and blamed the opposition for it in a public meeting in July. A public interest litigation petition was filed by a Delhi BJP lea

Scuttling Electoral Democracy in J & K

THREE years after the virtual abrogation of Article 370 and nullification of the special status on August 5, 2019, the Modi government is continuing its efforts to reorder the electoral system in Jammu & Kashmir to suit its interests by disempowering the Muslim majority population.The chief electoral officer of J&K announced on August 16 that anyone ordinarily resident in J&K can enrol as a voter in the union territory. He also added that 20 to 25 lakh voters are expected to be added during the special summary revision of the voter list.

Burgeoning Strategic Ties with the United States

THE Modi government is deepening strategic ties with the United States on all fronts. Three events which took place in the last few weeks highlight this growing proximity to the geopolitical designs of the United States. India has joined a new grouping called the I2U2 in West Asia which consists of four countries – Israel and India (I2), the United States and United Arab Emirates (U2). Why India has done so is unfathomable, except to facilitate president Biden’s desperate attempts to assert US influence in the region. Biden is attempting to create an anti-Iran alliance in West Asia and r

Take the Legacy of Freedom Struggle Forward

SEVEN and a half decades is a sufficiently long time to judge the progress made by an independent nation State in modern times. While we celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, it should also be an occasion to take stock of where the country stands today and where we are headed.The independence of India in 1947 was the first historic milestone in the decolonisation process ushered in after the Second World War. The new ruling classes, which took power in the Indian State, had sought to build a modern capitalist system amongst the most poverty-stricken, disease-ridden, illi

A Government That Controls Everything

PRIME Minister, Narendra Modi, spoke recently about how a strong government should be. Addressing a university convocation in Chennai on July 29, Modi said: “A strong government does not control everything or everyone. It controls the system’s impulse to interfere…A strong government does not move into every domain”. He further said: “A strong government’s strength lies in its humility to accept that it cannot know or do everything”.Fine words, indeed! The only catch is that the government, under Modi, is doing exactly the opposite of what has been pronounced by him.

Supreme Court: Contradictory Trends

TWO judgments delivered by the Supreme Court in the course of a week have brought out starkly the contradictory trends on display in the highest court of the land. In the case of the multiple FIRs against Alt News journalist, Mohammed Zubair, a three-member bench consisting of Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice A S Bopanna, in their judgment asserted that the power to arrest must be used sparingly subject strictly to the law and guidelines laid down by the top court in the Arnesh Kumar case. The judgment stated that “Arrest is not meant to be and must not be u

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