CAPITALIST governments invariably seek to control inflation by enlarging unemployment. This has nothing to do with any belief in a stable “trade-off” between the two, namely in a stable curve that links the two. Even those who attribute inflation to other causes, such as excessive money supply (“too much money chasing too few goods”) and find the solution to it in monetary stringency, are in effect seeking to control it through larger unemployment, since monetary stringency causes larger unemployment.This raises many questions. The first question is: why is this so?
AN online news portal The Wire has recently published a three part investigative report on a sophisticated secret app called TekFog. This is used by BJYM’s (the youth-wing of the BJP) IT Cell to automate its online hate campaigns. According to the investigation, the app can “hijack” WhatsApp accounts of people without their knowledge or consent, and use these accounts in automated campaigns.
ON January 27, 2022, the Hebrew-language news site Walla published part of the text from a telegram sent by Amir Weissbrod – who is part of the Israeli foreign ministry – to Israeli embassies around the world. The telegram warned the Israeli diplomats that in the upcoming 49th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which is expected to begin on February 28, a report will be tabled regarding Israel’s 2021 bombing of Gaza.
THE state is in total chaos, the BJP-IPFT government has brought the state to such a deplorable condition in just 46 months of utter misrule, commented Jitendra Chaudhury, state secretary of CPI(M). Attending a press conference at Agartala on January 27, he told that the chaos resulting from the day-to-day activities of the state government is having a disastrous effect on the public life.The government has been trying hard to hide its failure by spending huge amounts on glittering advertisements, but in vain.
SHAKY GROWTH ESTIMATESTHE pretext of the budget 2022-23 is an economic scenario that seems to be slowly returning back to normalcy from the wounds of the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted business as usual for more than a year causing huge income and job loss for the vast majority of the people. From a contraction of 7.3 per cent in the previous financial year, the economy records a positive growth of 9.2 per cent in the current year (2021-2022) as estimated by the National Statistical Office in its first advance estimates.
THIS was waiting to happen. From disquiet to unrest; the explosion raged across Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in January. The trigger was the huge anomalies that surfaced on the announcement of results by the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) on non-technical popular categories (NTPC). The tests were in the first place, held in 2019 following the relentless pressure of potential candidates.
THE image of the young girls, clad in Hijab standing outside the school gate, demanding and at times even begging to enter inside their own school is a metaphor for how the Indian State under Modi is treating people whom they consider as “other”, an absolute denial of fundamental rights.
THE hijab worn by Muslim girl students has been seized upon by the BJP and Hindutva forces to create another divisive and anti-Muslim polarisation in Karnataka. The insistence of six girls on wearing hijab (head scarf) to class in the government pre-university college in Udupi was utilised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Hindu Jagaran Vedika to get some Hindu students to wear saffron scarves and protest at the gate.
AT the call of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) given in its meeting at the Singhu border on January 15, 2022, tens of thousands of farmers across the nation came on the streets to observe the ‘Day of Betrayal’ condemning the Modi-led BJP central government on January 31.
BUDGET 2022-23 presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not gone down well with major sections of the society including the working class, farmers and women. The unions representing these sections have criticised the budget calling it a reflection of the anti-people and pro-corporate nature of the BJP government.