THE week-long 10th India-Vietnam People’s Friendship Festival was held in Vietnam from August 12-18, 2019.

INDIA is in the grip of a deep economic crisis, the depth of which is being under-estimated by mainstream media, apologetic economists and, of course, by the ruling government itself. What is officially known and analysed are things like the dip in economic growth (it is down to 5 per cent), declining investment, stagnating bank credit, fall in private consumption expenditure and other such macro-economic indicators.

AFTER a long, text-book Chandrayaan-2 mission since launch on June 22, right up till a mere 2 km or so above the lunar surface, the much awaited soft landing of the Vikram Lander in the south polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019 could not be achieved due to reasons that are yet to be determined. From what little is known at present, it appears that control of the Lander was lost at the very last stage of its descent, and it made a hard landing or, to put it in plain language, crashed, although how badly, is still not known.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was the first politician outside the Valley to visit Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370. He too had to go through the treatment that opposition leaders under detention are getting in Kashmir.Yechury visited the state after the Supreme Court gave a favourable order in a habeas corpus petition seeking the whereabouts of CPI(M) Central Committee member and four-time MLA Mohd Yousuf Tarigami.Yechury reached Srinagar airport at around 12 pm on August 30.

Left parties organised a state convention at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, Hyderabad, on September 10 demanding the Indian government to protect the democratic rights of the people. State secretariat member of CPI(M), D G Narasimha Rao, presided over the meeting.   K Srinivas, editor of Telugu daily Andhra Jyothi attended the meet as the chief guest and said that people all over the country are talking about Kashmir but the situation there is not as most people imagine. Srinivas said that Kashmir is under full siege and the people were not allowed to observe Muharram rituals.