THE adoption of a federal, democratic and secular Constitution in Nepal is a historic occasion. The protracted struggle of the Nepalese people against feudal authoritarianism and for democracy has culminated in the establishment of a federal, democratic and secular State. Eight years after the interim Constitution, after a tortuous political process, the Constituent Assembly voted overwhelmingly (507 out of 601) to approve the Constitution.

THE three-day meeting of the RSS and its affiliated organisations from September 2 to 4 called the “Samanvya Baithak” was widely reported as a coordination meeting between the RSS and the BJP government.  The meeting was attended by all the senior ministers of the Modi government – Rajnath Singh, the home minister, Arun Jaitley, the finance minister, Sushma Swaraj, the external affairs minister, Manohar Parrikar, the defence minister and others.  The BJP president Amit Shah was present.

THE blame for the collapse of prices on the stock markets, commodity markets, and foreign exchange markets (against the US dollar) around the world, which occurred on Monday, August 24 and is continuing, has been laid at China’s door. The US has asked China to carry out “reforms” in its financial sector to stem the collapse, and many Western bourgeois commentators have also urged the Chinese government to intervene for this purpose.

FOXCONN, the world’s largest contract manufacturing company for consumer electronics, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set-up a factory in Maharashtra with an investment of $ 5 billion (Rs 32,000 crores).  The Taiwan based Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, whose trade name is Foxconn, has become a giant manufacturing company which, on contract, supplies all the leading electronic companies like Apple, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Samsung and others.  That such a company is setting up hardware manufacturing facilities in India is noteworthy.  But Foxconn has another reputation that one

THE Gurdaspur attack by an extremist squad crossing over from Pakistan is a first of its kind in Punjab. The three-member group is reported to have crossed the international border a few kilometers from the site of attack in Dinanagar. Two similar attacks by Lashkar –e-taiba squads had taken place in Jammu earlier this year.

The terrorist attack killed seven people altogether, three of whom were civilians. The extremists ended up in the Dinanagar Police Station where they were finally killed by the security forces after a 15 hour gun battle.