THE no-confidence motion discussed and voted upon in the Lok Sabha on July 20 became an occasion for exposure of the four-year record of the Modi government.Though the motion was in the name of a Telugu Desam MP, whose purpose was to highlight the betrayal by the Modi government of the commitment made to Andhra Pradesh to declare it as a special category state, the opposition was able to focus on a range of issues concerning the many failures of the Modi government.

NEWSPAPER headlines over the last few days have highlighted three facts which point to the current abysmal state of the Indian economy. The first relates to inflation, where the June 2018 wholesale price index was 5.77 percent above that of June last year; this is the highest inflation rate witnessed since December 2013. The second is a burgeoning trade deficit: the trade deficit in June, at $ 16.6 billion, was again the highest for any month in the last five years.

IT is now about ten months after Hurricane Maria hit the US territory of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean in September 2017. The hurricane destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, brought down electricity and drinking water systems, and communications networks. It also wreaked havoc on health facilities, roads and other infrastructure, much of which has not yet been restored. Estimates have put the total damage caused at over $100 billion (Rs 6,80,000 crores), making it the third highest economic loss due to tropical cyclones in the US since 1900.

SINCE May 22 which has become a black day for the people of Tamil Nadu, following  the brutal killing of 13 innocent protestors against the “all powerful” Sterlite Industries, a unit of Vedanta Group, the state police has started defending its ‘stooge behaviour’ across the state. It has unleashed a reign of terror among the people of Tuticorin through a series of raids and arrests upon the people, completely disregarding the rule of law along the way.When the CPI(M) had planned to organise a protest meeting against the police massacre, permission was denied to organise it.

AN open daylight murder of democracy is taking place in the states of West Bengal and Tripura. Human rights and political freedom have come under severe strain. This is increasingly being seen all across the country as, for example, in the brutal suppression of dalit protests as well as use of draconian laws against human rights activists.