THE Covid-19 pandemic has hit the global economy badly and its impact is still unfolding. According to the WHO, as of March 18, the pandemic had spread to 164 countries and territories, with confirmed cases of over 194,000 and resulting in the death of over 7,800 people.With respect to the global economy, it is certain that there will be a recession. Economic activities are crippled in various sectors, particularly travel, tourism, oil sector and services. Supply chains have been disrupted, breaking production chains all over the world.
THE second part of the budget session of parliament started on March 3. On the first day itself, the CPI(M) and other opposition parties unitedly sought resignation of home minister Amit Shah and moved adjournment motion on the Delhi riots, which claimed over 50 lives, in both the houses. Due to uproar over the matter, proceedings were paralysed and both houses were adjourned.On March 11, Lok Sabha held a short duration discussion on recent law and order situation in Delhi.
THE CC of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), at its meeting in Thiruvananthapuram in January, had given a call for a door-to-door campaign to be conducted in the month of March explaining to the people why they should not answer any question in the forthcoming exercise of enumeration for the National Population Register (NPR), between April 1 and September 30. This campaign was to culminate on March 23, the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. Subsequently, the Left parties also gave a similar call. The choice of the martyrdom day was to highlight the struggle of the
THE coronavirus attack has so far been much less deadly than the Spanish flu of a century ago. That had affected 500 million people worldwide, about 27 per cent of the world’s population of the time, and had a death rate of about 10 per cent among those affected. (Estimates of death vary greatly; this is a sort of mean). In India alone 17 million people are estimated by some to have died because of it.
WHILE placing the decisions of the Polit Bureau meeting, which was held at New Delhi on March 14-15, Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of CPI(M) demanded creation of a ‘national contingency fund’ to meet the challenge of COVID-19. He said the spread of COVID-19 is a serious situation and as pointed out by some of the ICMR sources, it has already entered the third stage in the country; the results, if proper procedure is not followed, could be horrendous, he remarked.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on March 19GIVEN the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for taking precautions such as social distancing etc, the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) is of the firm opinion that the NPR enumeration slated to begin from April 1 must be abandoned.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on March 18AS the nation is trying to contain the spread of deadly Covid-19 virus, its adverse economic effects have already started impacting the livelihoods of vast sections of poor and marginal sections.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on March 17THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its firm objection to the nomination of Ranjan Gogoi, former chief justice of India (CJI), to Rajya Sabha by the Modi government.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau now in session in New Delhi has issued the following statement on March 14THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly condemns the hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel.Strangely, when international crude oil prices are falling sharply, the Narendra Modi government, as is its wont, has increased the excise duty on petrol and diesel. This is a criminal assault on people already suffering under economic recession.The special excise duty on petrol has been hiked by Rs 2 to Rs 8 per litre in case of petrol and to Rs 4 in case of diesel.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statements on March 13THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the claim of the union home minister, Amit Shah, made during the debate in parliament on the communal violence in Delhi that the police and the government are using face recognition technology for identifying the miscreants responsible for the violence.There is no way that the technology can precisely link the protestors with violation of law.