Below we publish the letter addressed to Sunil Arora, chief election commissioner, Election Commission of India by CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, on August 17, on the proposal of digital election campaign and the election funding.AT the outset, we would like to acknowledge the fact that the ECI has put aside its earlier decision to the exercise of franchise through postal ballots to all voters above the age of 64 to abeyance in course of the Bihar assembly election.

ANY worthwhile policy making has to start with an objective assessment of the existing ground reality. Proceeding from this, discerning the challenges, the policy ought to set out a roadmap for overcoming them. However, despite the PM’s loud claims that NEP 2020 was preceded by intense study and research for last 3-4 years, no data or reference to these appear in the policy document! Therefore, the inescapable conclusion is, more than anything else, this is a vision statement.The PM is uncharacteristically pitching for NEP asserting that it faces no opposition.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on August 17THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the role of global social media behemoth, Facebook, as exposed by the Wall Street Journal, particularly the functioning of its India policy chapter. Facebook is not following its own laid down policy against communal hate content.This confirms the overall apprehensions over the Facebook’s activities across its three platforms: WhatsApp and Instagram. A stinging exposure by New York Times in 2018 revealed its questionable practices.

THE heroic struggle of the Punjab peasants against the betterment levy in 1959, added a glorious chapter to the history of the Indian peasant movement.

ON November 10, 2019, President Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia announced his resignation from the presidency. Morales had been elected in 2014 to a third presidential term, which should have lasted until January 2020. In November 2019, protests around his fourth electoral victory in October led to the police and the military asking Morales to step down; by every description of the term, this was a coup d’état.