Signal of Working Class Revolt against BJP Regime

THE two-day general strike called by the Central Trade Unions on January 8 and 9, 2019 will go down as an important landmark in the history of the working class movement in India.The strike saw the participation of around 20 million workers and employees belonging to all sectors – organized, unorganized and government.

Women Rise Up In Kerala

ON new year’s day, January 1, Kerala witnessed a historic and unique event. Over 5.5 million (55 lakh) women came together to make a Vanitha Mathil (Women’s Wall) which covered 620 kilometers from the northern tip in Kasargode to the southern tip at Thiruvananthapuram.The women who assembled in this massive wall took a pledge to uphold renaissance values, gender equality and to not allow Kerala to become a lunatic asylum. Women from all walks of life, from different religious communities and age groups flocked to the national highway which traverses the whole of the state to make

2019: Big Battle Ahead

AS we reach the end of 2018, it will go down as the year in which the all-round failure of the Modi government on the economic front and the consequent burdens on the people became glaringly evident; the year also sharply brought out the cronyism and corruption of the regime; it also exposed the disruptive agenda of the Hindutva forces in seeking to subvert the constitution and the fundamental rights of citizens. The greatest failure of the Modi government was in dealing with the economy. The agrarian crisis deepened causing widespread distress for the farmers and the rural poor.

Rafale Deal: A Controversial Judgement

THE Supreme Court Judgement by a three-member Bench on the Rafale Deal has become controversial even before the ink on the judgement has dried. Indeed, accepting notes in sealed covers, acceptance of governments arguments at face value, puts the court’s reputation at risk.The scope of judicial review was whether a) the defence procedures laid down were violated in the Rafale deal, and b) whether the Indian people have a right to know the price of defence deals.

Katowice Rules: Exacerbating Inequality in Tackling Climate Change

THE recently concluded UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland (COP24) was held to prepare a rulebook for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The decisions adopted marked the further consolidation of the hold of the developed countries. The US is very much in the driver's seat in the negotiations along with the EU and others despite its announced withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and its public differences on climate action in forums such as the G-8. They are clearly designed to reinforce the inequitable and discriminatory aspects of the Agreement.

BJP Setback in Assembly Elections

THE results of the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are a big blow to the BJP. In all these three states, there were BJP governments and in two of them – Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – the BJP had been in government for fifteen years, ie, for three successive terms.

Growing Mobilisation of Working People to Defeat BJP

THE Kisan Mukti March on November 29-30 in Delhi was an impressive mobilisation of farmers from all over the country who are being ground down by the neoliberal policies of the Modi government. Coming after the big worker-peasant rally of September 5, which sharply highlighted the class demands of the workers, peasants and agricultural workers, the Kisan March organised by a wide range of farmers’ organisations pointed to the growing unity and common purpose of the working people to fight for their basic rights. The mobilisation of the working people in these two rallies and the numerous st

Potential of Kartarpur Corridor1

THE decision to open a corridor from the Indian side to the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan is one of the rare instances when the two governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to cooperate after a long period of stalemate and tensions between the two countries.The corridor from the Dera Baba Nanak Gurudwara in Gurdaspur district of Punjab to the Darbar Sahib Gurudwara where Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years of his life, is being opened to mark the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism next year.

Sabarimala: Foiling the BJP-RSS Gameplan

THE agitation launched by the BJP-RSS against the verdict of the Supreme Court on entry of women of all ages to the Sabarimala temple has been exposed for what it is. The plan of the Sangh brigade is to provoke violence and create trouble within the temple premises and to put the blame on the LDF government of Kerala for destroying the sanctity of the temple.

Crisis in Sri Lanka

SRI LANKA has been plunged into a political and constitutional crisis due to the arbitrary steps taken by Maithripala Sirisena in the past three weeks. The president dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and swore in his erstwhile opponent Mahinda Rajapaksa as the prime minister on October 26.It may be recalled that Sirisena, who belongs to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), had broken away from Rajapaksa. He had fought the elections and defeated Rajapaksa in January 2015 in alliance with Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP).

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Peoples Democracy

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