TWENTY-two opposition parties met on May 22, to exchange views on the extraordinary situation in the country arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The economy has collapsed. All sections of society face acute distress. Livelihoods have been destroyed. Lives have been lost.The parties applaud the heroic efforts of all public health personnel, particularly doctors, nurses, paramedics as also police and security forces personnel, safai karamacharis and those maintaining essential services like water, power etc. in these challenging times, across the country.

WITH the US walking out of the Open Skies Agreement, the US is signalling to the world that it intends to return to days of Pax Americana that existed post Second World War, when it was the sole possessor of nuclear weapons. It has already walked out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002 under George Bush Junior, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) under Trump. The only nuclear arms control treaty that still remains in place, is New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which provides a rough limit and parity on the US and Russia’s nuclear arsenals.

THE Students’ Federation of India, Delhi state committee in a press release issued on May 25, has demanded the immediate release of Pinjra Tod activists Devangana and Natasha as well as other political prisoners who are being persecuted for their opposition towards CAA and all India NRC.

THE Financial Times of London is one of the most “respectable” bourgeois newspapers in the world. Even this newspaper has now come to recognise something which the Left has been saying for quite some time. In an editorial on April 3, 2020, it wrote: “Radical reforms in reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades will need to be put on the table. Governments will have to accept a more active role in the economy. They must see public services as investment rather than as liabilities and look for ways to make the labour market less insecure.

THE Electricity Amendment Bill introduced by the central government should be withdrawn forthwith, the CPI(M) demanded. Statewide protests with placards were held. On May 24, decrying the Modi government’s actions, a protest was held at the RTC cross roads with placards. CPI(M) state secretary, Tammineni Veerabhadram expressed anxiety  that this bill violates the rights of the states and is against the interests of the states. Encroaching into the subjects within the state jurisdiction seems to be the main objective of the centre, he warned.