One Nation, One Dictatorship

THE Modi regime is out to launch a twin assault on parliamentary democracy and federalism by implementing the slogan of `One Nation, One Election’ (ONOE). The government has announced the setting up of an eight-member committee headed by former president, Ram Nath Kovind. The terms of reference make it clear that the committee’s job is to recommend how to proceed to implement simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, the legal and constitutional steps to be taken. The committee can be expected to do what the government wants as it has been hand-pi

Targetting Muslims in Educational System

THE shocking incident of a seven-year old Muslim boy being slapped by fellow classmates on the order of the teacher taking the class must not be seen as an isolated event. That the school is a small private one in a remote village in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh cannot be a reason to treat this bigotry as an aberration.The teacher-cum-owner of the school, Tripta Tyagi, is seen explicitly identifying the boy as Muslim and asking his classmates to come forward one by one to hit him. There is no doubt that the child was singled out for this type of harsh punishment because of his

Chinks in the Anti-Corruption Armour

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi, every other day, rails against the corrupt rule of the Congress and UPA governments in the past and targets the corruption of those ruling regional parties who are arrayed against the BJP. From the outset, Modi has tried to project the BJP government and himself as incorruptible and as those who will not tolerate any form of corruption (Na khaunga na khane dunga). This is supposed to be in stark contrast to the record of the various opposition parties when they were in government. This corruption-free narrative has been sustained by ensuring that no r

Modi Red Fort Speech: Toxic Politics on Display

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi’s Red Fort speech on the occasion of the 77th Independence Day had all the hallmarks which have become typical of his independence day speeches of the past years. There were the boastful claims of how, since 2014, India has made tremendous progress in all fields. The only new addition was Modi’s claim that we can look forward to a thousand years of `Amrit Kaal’ as compared to the thousand years of slavery which began with Muslim rule and ended with British rule.

Two Dangerous Bills Passed by Parliament

CONTINUING with its avowed policy of throwing open the country’s natural resources for exploitation by private capital without regard to either the people or the environment, the Modi government has rushed through parliament two laws that will have dire consequences. One is to amend the Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) and the other to amend the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act. Passed in 1980, the FCA had strict provisions for preventing arbitrary de-reservation of lands designated as forests. The intention was to conserve the forests from reckless depredation.

Next Target is Gyanvapi Mosque

THE Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, has virtually declared that a new front is being opened up in the temple-mosque issue. This time, it is the Gyanvapi mosque and the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi.

An Unaccountable Prime Minister

THE events in Manipur, which dominated the national political situation over the past nearly three months, have brought out a startling feature of governance under Narendra Modi.

NATO Summit: Plans for Global Domination

THE NATO summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, registered a new level of aggressiveness of the western military alliance led by the United States.

West Bengal: Farcical Panchayat Elections

THE three-tier panchayat elections in West Bengal have seen a repetition of an escalating scale of violence and intimidation unleashed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on their political opponents and against people who were perceived to be voting against it. At every stage of the polling process – from filing of nominations, campaigning, the polling day on July 8 and the counting day on July 11 – there were attacks on candidates, supporters of opposition parties, intimidation and prevention of voters going to polling booths, capturing of ballot boxes and polling booths and large-scale manip

Disappearing Space Between Fringe and Centre

ALL the claims made by Prime minister Narendra Modi on the absence of discrimination based on caste, creed, religion, age or geographic location in India, during his rare interaction with the media in the US were immediately proven wrong.

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Peoples Democracy

Editorial