A Lacklustre Speech

THE eleventh Independence Day Red Fort address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was his longest so far and it was the most disappointing by his own standards. The bulk of the speech was a litany of achievements of his government beginning from Swachh Bharat to Jal Jeevan Mission to renewable energy and reforms which also included the strengthening of the banking sector. All these were encapsulated with a vague talk of a `Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.Some of the claims made about the achievements have no basis in reality. For instance, on renewable energy, he c

SEBI Chief Compromised

THE latest revelations by the US based firm Hindenburg Research have raised serious questions about the role of SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch as chief of the regulatory body investigating the Adani group’s various contraventions of the law and manipulation of stock prices.According to the Hindenburg report, the SEBI chairperson Buch had invested funds in 2015 in an offshore fund, “Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund”. Her investment in the fund was transferred to her husband in 2017 before Buch joined as a whole time member of SEBI. In 2018, the investment was redeemed through an email sent

Upheaval in Bangladesh

THE mass revolt against the authoritarian government of Sheikh Hasina Wazed has had a dramatic outcome with the fall of the government and Sheikh Hasina fleeing the country. On Monday (August 5), the `March to Dhaka’ called by the student protestors saw tens of thousands of people reaching the city and marching to the prime minister’s residence.

Why No Census?

THE decadal census, which was due in 2021, has not been held so far. In the union budget 2024-25, no substantial provision has been made for conducting the census. The centre has also not extended the deadline of June 2024 to freeze administrative boundaries which are necessary to conduct the census as per the administrative boundaries like districts, taluk, block or village levels.So the 2021 census, which should have begun in 2020, is indefinitely delayed.

Pro-Corporate Fraudulent Employment Schemes

THE Indian economy is at a critical cross-road, where the GDP growth is in no way boosting the employment generation capacity. Even within the jobs created, 57.3 per cent are self-employed, 18.3 per cent are unpaid household workers and more than 45 per cent are employed in agriculture. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme launched in March 2020 has utterly failed to generate employment in manufacturing and strikingly India’s year-on-year manufacturing productivity has fallen by 2.38 per cent in 2022-23.

US Won’t Tolerate Strategic Autonomy

PRIME Minister Modi’s two-day visit to Moscow on July 9-10 saw the revival of the annual summit meetings between the leaders of India and Russia. The last summit had been held in 2021 when President Putin visited Delhi. The visit has resulted in further strengthening the strategic partnership between India and Russia.The joint vision statement issued after the talks focuses more on economic cooperation and trade unlike earlier meetings. The decision to increase trade to 100 billion dollars by 2030 was announced.

French Elections – Left Success in Halting the Far Right

PEOPLE of France have voted against the far-right in the parliamentary elections. Contrary to many opinion polls, the National Rally of Le Pen could win only 143 seats and stood third. The newly formed Left coalition, New Popular Front achieved a victory by emerging as the largest bloc with182 seats, while President Macron’s group Ensemble won 163 seats. As a result of this fractured mandate, no single party or Front secured an outright majority. For a majority, one needs to win 289 in the 577-seat National Assembly. The New Popular Front fell short of majority by over 100 seats.

Hold These Criminal Laws in Abeyance

THE BJP has ensured that the three new laws passed by the government at the tail end of the last Lok Sabha in a most cavalier and undemocratic fashion have now been enforced all over the country on July 1. These laws, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam have replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act respectively.It is nothing short of mind-boggling that the entire system of criminal justice has been subjected to major changes without preparation, discussion and deb

Modi Regime: More of the Same

THE formation of a Modi-led NDA coalition government has led to expectations in some circles that this will be a government which will face serious constraints in going ahead with the BJP/RSS’s authoritarian-communal-corporate agenda. Some of these expectations are exaggerated. The fact that the BJP has lost its majority and confined to 240 seats in the Lok Sabha may check or slow down certain aspects of the agenda which Modi and the RSS/BJP were aiming to implement in the third term of Modi’s rule. Constitutional changes, which could further attenuate the democratic system, undermine the

EU Parliament Elections – Ominous Signs

ELECTIONS to the European Parliament held on June 9, saw the emergence of far-right parties as a significant force. Many of these parties are pro-capital, against immigration and also climate skeptics. In a globalised world these results are ominous.The centre-right Conservative group, European People’s Party was barely able to maintain its vote share and seats in these elections. The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (centre-left) saw a marginal drop in their vote share (1 per cent) and seats (minus 4 seats).

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Peoples Democracy

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