THIS was about five decades back in the mid-seventies. I was then a student at Jadavpur University. It was a time of internal emergency in the country. We on our campus had quite a few students from Palestine. They were not just progressive, but also active participants in the Palestine liberation struggle. One day some of them informed us that an important leader of the PLO was in Kolkata. The PLO operatives urged that progressive student activists meet him to discuss and exchange views and experiences.Naturally, we were excited. On a specific day, some of us went to the meeting.

THERE is no instance in the world history of any monarchy being transformed into a democratic state without people’s struggles. But, in the observance of 50 years of attainment of statehood of Tripura, the way the prime minister and the union home minister glorified the last monarch of Tripura suggests as if the present statehood of Tripura was a mercy of the royal family.

EVERY year, this is the time that the Modi government and the BJP has a serious problem. Its claims of being the nationalist party founders against the brutal reality of almost having no leader of any stature that stood up to the British in India's freedom struggle. That is why its attempt to appropriate any leader of stature, even if they belong to the other political streams.

THE worst aspects of the Modi government’s privatisation drive are now coming to the fore.  The initial public offering (IPO) prospectus for disinvesting shares in the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the crown jewel of the financial sector, is expected to be issued in early February. The LIC is a unique corporation that has played a pioneering role in spreading the culture of life insurance in the country.  The widespread coverage of life insurance achieved through LIC is especially important in the absence of an effective government-backed social security scheme that extends protective c

FAST-MOVING political changes in UP have forced political commentators and analysts who were predicting an easy win for the BJP in the assembly election to be held in February and March 2022, to rethink their political math.  The exodus of several MLAs and three cabinet ministers from the BJP to the SP has upset the calculations of those occupying high office in Delhi and Lucknow too who are seeing the ground shifting beneath their ministerial chairs. It is incorrect, however, to think that the Yogi government is facing challenges all of a sudden.  As early as 2018, more than 100 BJP MLAs,