Editorial

Aggressively Furthering Neo-Liberal Reforms

BY now it is clear, despite all the high pitched rhetoric, that PM Modi is more aggressively pursuing the very same neo-liberal economic reform trajectory that this government has inherited from the earlier UPA government. This is happening like it did initially with Dr Manmohan Singh invoking illusions of an `era of prosperity’ which will convert India into a land of `milk and honey’.

CABINET RESHUFFLE: Wither `Minimum Government – Maximum Governance’

WITHIN six months of assuming office, the Modi government has been expanded with the induction of 21 new ministers in the council of ministers. This takes the total strength of the cabinet to 66. Of these, two are not members of either house of the parliament at the moment. Our constitution provides that such persons can hold office for a maximum period of six months before which they will have to be elected to either house.

Once Again ‘Forked Tongue’ Politics

FINALLY, elections to the Delhi assembly appear set to take place early next year. The union cabinet, at a special cabinet meeting presided over by the prime minister on November 4, ratified Delhi Lt. Governor’s recommendation to dissolve the Delhi assembly, with immediate effect, and, thus, begin the process of fresh election in the nation’s capital. With this, the process for November 25 by-elections to three seats vacated by BJP members elected to the Lok Sabha should automatically stand cancelled.

PM’s Hollow Claims on Bringing Back Black Money

ONE after another, all the election promises made by Prime Minister Modi during his whirlwind nationwide campaign, in a corporate jet, are turning out to be completely hollow – full of bluster and no substance.  On earlier occasions, we had exposed the feature of this Modi government with regard to its so-called `economic miracles’, achhe din aanewale hain etc etc.  Now it is the turn of the prime minister’s bluster concerning the claim that `his government’ will ensure that all the illegal black money stashed away in foreign banks in financial `havens’ will be brought back to the

PM’s Hollow Claims on Bringing Back Black Money

ONE after another, all the election promises made by Prime Minister Modi during his whirlwind nationwide campaign, in a corporate jet, are turning out to be completely hollow – full of bluster and no substance. On earlier occasions, we had exposed the feature of this Modi government with regard to its so-called `economic miracles’, achhe din aanewale hain etc etc.

Election Results Show Need for Radical Electoral reforms

FOLLOWING the recent elections to the state assemblies, the BJP is all set to form a government on the basis of its own strength in Haryana and a government led by it in Maharashtra. These results have come after the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were in government for a long fifteen years and a Congress government in Haryana for two successive times lasting ten years. This has been the people’s verdict in these assembly elections which was, by far, fair and free given that there were no major complaints by any of the contesting parties.

Modi Govt’s Deadly Cocktail

THE deadly cocktail of imposing greater economic burdens on the people, on the one hand, and sharpening communal polarisation, on the other, continues to be intensified under this Modi-led NDA government.

Much is being made about a fleeting decline in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), according to the data released by the union commerce ministry, which shows that the annual rate of inflation, based on the monthly WPI stood at 2.38 percent in September 2014 compared to 3.74 percent in the previous month and 7.05 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year.

Vicious Cycle of US Military Intervention

THE United States’ military intervention in Iraq and Syria is inexorably leading to a wider conflict in the region. President Obama announced bombing strikes in Iraq in August against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, now Islamic State). The air strikes were said to be a humanitarian intervention to save the Yazidis who were threatened by the IS. Obama, however, declared that there was no time limit in the fight against the IS and it could go on for years. Obama also ordered more US army advisors into Iraq.

PM’s Visit to New York & Washington Lack of Substance: A Dangerous Portend

PRIME Minister Modi’s visit to New York and Washington on the occasion of addressing the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) turned out to be, as the PTI reported, of the nature of a “rock star celebrity”. His speeches at the Madison Square Garden and the annual rock star ritual that takes place every year on the occasion of the UNGA at New York’s Central Park confirmed once again that the mindset of a continuing Indian election campaign has not yet been discarded by Prime Minister Modi.

On Chinese President’s Visit to India

THE Chinese president and general secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan paid their maiden three day State visit to India. This is the first visit of the Chinese president after his election to these positions in 2012. Sixteen agreements and memoranda of understanding have been signed, eleven of them with the central government and another five with the state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

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