Refusal

IN spite of the best of efforts, the pen is refusing to write in these excruciating times, about the excruciating times. It is very obdurate. Even now it took a lot of pleading, cajoling, convincing, threatening and at long last, only the act of hanging it up altogether, made it accede.Of course it has its point of view, justified. It demanded only an answer to its one question. The question it put was very simple – what’s the use of all its efforts? Name and fame were never under consideration, thus not even considered as an answer to this simple question.

New Govt Declares Review of Modi’s Pet Bullet Train Project

THE new chief minister of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi coalition government, Uddhav Thackeray, soon after taking office, has made the welcome announcement that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project of the BJP central government will be subjected to a thorough review. This announcement is the result of the consistent struggle waged by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) against the bullet train project for the last few years.

Twelfth National Conference of AIDWA

THE 12th national conference of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), held from December 27-30, 2019 in Mumbai concluded with the call to safeguard the constitution and fight the neoliberal policies and Manuvadi ideology of the current BJP-RSS regime.740 delegates from 24 states attended the conference held in Ahilya Rangnekar Nagar and Mangleshwari Debbarma Hall, Saboo Siddik Polytechnic at Byculla in Mumbai.

Safdar Hashmi’s Life and Death

‘SEASONS come and go – as do governments – and currently Delhi is witnessing a particularly cold spell.’ When the noted poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar said this, an ostensible statement about the weather became a poetic barb at the ruling dispensation. He was addressing hundreds of workers and their families on January 1, 2020, at the site of Safdar Hashmi’s killing at Jhandapur in the Sahibabad Industrial Area on the outskirts of Delhi. ‘But one season doesn’t change, for the poor – the season of exploitation and oppression.’It is this ugly reality that the rulers want to hide.

State Govt Led Violence in Muzaffarnagar

POLICE violence committed on the residents of Muzaffarnagar on December 20, Friday prayer day, biased treatment meted out to the victims of police violence in respect of the registration of first information reports and complaints by the state and district level administration of Uttar Pradesh, and lack of medical attention to injured is under discussion in the national and international media.Dinesh Abrol (Delhi Science Forum) and Subir Banerjee (Delhi state CPIM) visited the town area of Muzaffarnagar on December 28, 2019 to meet the victims of police atrocities and to hear from them abou

CITU Holds Young Workers Convention

THE working class people of Tripura are trying their best to come out on the streets ignoring all threats, intimidation, attacks and hooliganism of the BJP goons. They have organised series of programme during last few months.On September 5, CITU organised a state level convention in Town Hall where more than one thousand workers from all walks of life participated. The convention adopted a programme for wide spread campaign of January 8 strike.In the meantime, district wise conventions have been held in all eight districts.

‘PM Pleading Ignorance on NRC is Meaningless’

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that there had been no discussion on a countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC) is not correct, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has said. Talking to the media in Hyderabad on December 28, Yechury said, “In 2014, answering to my question, the home minister said that NPR (National Population Register) will be started and on the basis of which the process of NRC will begin in all the states. Since then the announcement of NRC made for eight times. This is on record.

Pax Americana and the Threat of Nuclear Armageddon

THE decade ends with two major threats to humanity: global warming and the threat of a nuclear war extinguishing our civilisation. We have dealt earlier with global warming and the refusal of advanced countries, particularly the US, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The US is also leading the charge for a nuclear armageddon, dismantling all nuclear arms control treaties.

Demand-Constrained Versus Supply-Constrained Systems

THE idea is an old one, but the Hungarian economist Janos Kornai clearly conceptualised it, by drawing a distinction between a “demand-constrained system” and a “resource-constrained system”. A demand-constrained system is one where employment and output in the system are what they are because of the level of aggregate demand is what it is; if the level of demand increases then output and employment in the economy will increase, with very little increase in the price-level.

2020: Take the Struggle for Secular Democracy Forward

THE year 2019, which has ended, saw the imposition of a full-fledged Hindutva authoritarian regime in the country, a rapidly deteriorating economic situation and a continuing assault on the constitution and the democratic rights of citizens. The end of the year witnessed a spontaneous and powerful protest movement in defence of the constitution and against the assaults on secular-democracy.The BJP won the Lok Sabha election of May 2019 riding on the back of an orchestrated “nationalist” campaign in the wake of the Pulwama terrorist attack and the retaliatory Balakot strike. The return of

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