Split In Both Major Alliances Leads to an Unprecedented Free-For-All Fight

AFTER over a month of pretence at negotiations over seat-sharing, both the major alliances in Maharashtra finally announced their split on September 25. The Shiv Sena-BJP communal combine which was formed in 1989, broke up after 25 years; and the Congress-NCP alliance which was formed in 1999, split after 15 years. With all these four parties now contesting the state assembly polls separately, it is a completely new situation in Maharashtra today. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is contesting most of the seats; and so also is the BSP.

MODI'S US VISIT: Introducing Bad Patents & Removing Liability for US Suppliers

THE US-India Joint Statement signed during Modi's visit to the US has opened the doors for two Indian laws that have been passed by the Indian Parliament. One is on patents – the Indian Patents Act – that contains some measures to keep drug prices low for the people, which the US and its pharmaceutical industries have been trying to change for the last decade. The second is on nuclear liability, again anathema to the US nuclear industry.The Modi visit is also important for what he did not raise with the US government.

Capitalism and Discrimination between Workers

THERE is a peculiar paradox at the centre of capitalism. Since it is a system that institutes free mobility of workers between sectors, real wage rates should be equalised across occupations which are not too dissimilar from one another in terms of their arduousness, or hazardousness, or unpleasantness, or skill requirements, or intensity of effort etc. In other words, more arduous, more hazardous and more unpleasant jobs should be better paid compared to less arduous, less hazardous or less unpleasant ones, other things being equal (i.e., per unit of homogeneous labour-time).

CPI(M) Demands Judicial Enquiry Into the Murder of Two Dalits

THE Punjab state committee of the CPI(M) has strongly condemned the cold blooded murder of two young Dalit brothers at Jamalpur in Ludhiana district.

Labour, Capital and the Corporate Media

THE relationship between capital and labour is not confined to the material reality alone, rather it operates as much in the production and communication of knowledge. The penetration of capital into all non-material ideological spheres and the instruments of hegemonic control has become a norm under the neo-liberal regime. The privatisation of electronic media and its control by big and trans-national capital under neo-liberal globalisation is one such example of this phenomena.

Why Mamata Govt is Desperate to Hide Terrorist Network?

THE response of Mamata Banerjee government to the Burdwan blast incident is intriguing, to say the least. The state police and administration seemed busier to hush-up rather than expeditiously enquiring into the network of the conspiracy.The blast took place in a house in Khagragarh, close to Burdwan town on October 2. It was clear from the very beginning that some bombs had gone off in the rooms. Initially the police claimed that it was a ‘small blast’, nothing important. Reports came that the police and fire brigade persons were resisted by two women from entering into the room.

CPI(M) Delegation Visits Flood-Hit Areas in J&K

A DELEGATION of the CPI(M) led by Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member and MP visited the flood affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir on October 7. In Jammu, the delegation was accompanied by Sham Prasad Kesar, regional secretary of Jammu, Om Prakash, Kishor Kumar, state committee members of the CPI(M) and others. The delegation also visited Government Medical College, Jammu and met the persons who were injured in Pakistan firing at the international border.

Doordarshan’s RSS Telecast Condemned

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on September 3.

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) condemns the decision of Doordarshan to telecast live the speech of the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami. The RSS uses the occasion to propagate its Hindutva ideology.

The national public broadcaster has no business to telecast live the speech of the chief of an organisation like the RSS. Such an action shows how the public broadcaster is being misused by the Modi government.

Reduce Diesel Prices

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on October 6, 2014.

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) registers its protest over the refusal of the government and the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to reduce the price of diesel, despite the fall in crude oil prices in the international market.

Price of Brent crude, the global oil price benchmark has fallen below $92 a barrel. It is reported that the OMCs are earning Rs 1.90 on every litre of diesel as `over recovery’.

NIA Should Investigate Blast