THE union budget for 2023-24 is to be presented before parliament on February 1, 2023 at a time when both the Indian as well as world economies face a grim situation. Notwithstanding the tall claims of the Modi government, India’s economy is yet to recover from the crippling effects of the Covid pandemic and the disastrous way in which it was handled by the government of India.Since the time the last budget was presented, the global economic context has also worsened with the outbreak of the military conflict in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by western powers.

BESIDES gloomy global macroeconomic environment infested by high food and energy inflation leading to cost of living crisis together with rising costs of input and corporate credit because of higher interest rate triggered by inflation targeting monetary stance across countries, the crisis of capitalism is also manifested in a deeper manner by slowing down of aggregate productivity growth.Productivity in its different measures is a ratio of economic output to economic inputs.

THE All India Sugarcane Farmers Federation affiliated to the All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on January 20, has strongly supported the struggle of Haryana sugarcane farmers who have stopped supplying sugarcane to sugar mills from January 20 demanding increase of sugarcane price from the present Rs 362 per quintal to Rs 450 per quintal. This increase is required because of a sharp rise in the cost of production and based on the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.

“WE sent out a call to the people: ‘Wake up the village and drive away the thieves.' People have started waking up to the truth about how they've been deceived and manipulated. Now no kavach (amour) will work. The thieves have to face the consequences.  We and our people face the challenge of rebuilding the society and economy of a shattered state. We will strive to build a New Bengal. And for this purpose, the unity of the people should be kept strong.

ALL regimes based on class antagonism require a discourse to legitimise class oppression and this discourse in turn requires a vocabulary of its own. The neoliberal regime too has developed its own discourse and vocabulary and a key concept in this vocabulary is “populism”. This concept is given great currency by the media, which is peopled by members drawn from the upper middle class who have been major beneficiaries of the neo-liberal regime and have therefore developed a vested interest in its continuation.