JUNE 1, 2018 marked the first anniversary of the beginning of the historic united farmers’ strike in Maharashtra, which lasted for 11 days. The AIKS played a key role in the strike. This strike forced the unwilling BJP-led state government to concede a Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver package, declaring that Rs 1.5 lakh would be waived per farmer. However, the onerous set of conditions that it imposed threw lakhs of farmers out of the loan waiver net.A series of agitations were led against this betrayal of the BJP regime.
THE policy announced of lateral entry into the civil service at the level of joint secretary has raised a number of questions. The central government has advertised for ten posts of joint secretary to be recruited by a committee headed by the cabinet secretary. The applicants can be from either the public sector, universities, or, the private sector including those working in multinational companies. The requirement is that they should have 15 years experience in the job. This is just a thin end of the wedge. Lateral entry is being pushed by none other than the prime minister himself.
THE Singapore meeting between the leader of the DPRK Kim Jong-un and the president of the Untied States Donald Trump on June 12 was a landmark event. The joint statement issued after the summit committed the United States to provide security guarantees to the DPRK while Kim Jong-un reaffirmed his commitment to the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.The steps to be taken to achieve this have to be worked out between the two countries in the coming days.
DONALD Trump’s leaving the G-7 summit without budging an iota on protectionism is indicative of the disunity among the leading capitalist countries on the strategy to overcome the capitalist crisis. Trump has decided that the US would go its own way, by enlarging the fiscal deficit, not just for giving tax concessions to the corporates, which would have little demand-stimulating effect anyway, but also for increasing government expenditure which would have this effect, and at the same time by protecting the domestic market.These two strands of Trump’s strategy have to go together.
Manik Sarkar Obstructed in GandachharraTHE opposition leader and former chief minister Manik Sarkar was obstructed from entering the Government Dak Bungalow on June 11, by 15-20 goons of BJP in Gandachharra of Dhalai district. Sarkar is on a four-day tour of Dhalai and North Tripura districts with opposition's chief whip Tapan Chakraborty and MLA Prabhat Choudhury to visit the areas of Gandachharra, Langtaraivalley and Kanchanpur subdivisions where people, especially in tribal areas, are facing an acute problem of food and joblessness.
THE CPI(M) launched a campaign, ‘Poraduvom Tamizhagame’, in Tamil Nadu to sensitise the people about the suppression of democratic rights, excesses committed by the police, unbridled corruption, administrative bungling and the anti-people attitude of the AIADMK government.As part of the campaign -- ‘Poraduvom Tamizhagame’ (Tamil Nadu Protests), six rallies were taken out from different parts of the state and these culminated in Trichy with a public meeting on June 14.
THE autobiography of Moyarath Sankaran, published by Chintha Publishers, brings to attention the life of a remarkable person – an intrepid freedom fighter, social activist and emerging Communist leader.The autobiography was an unfinished project as it stops in 1932.
THE Jan Ekta Jan Adhikar Andolan (Peoples unity, peoples rights movement) is a newly formed platform of mass, class and social organisations, employees federations, teacher’s organisations, unorganised sector unions, dalit and tribal organizations, progressive non-government organisations and individuals. In its general body meeting, it decided to organise massive protests all over the country against the misrule of the anti-peasant, anti-working class, anti-minority, anti-dalit NDA government and expose the utter failures in its four-year rule.
IT is unusual for this paper to discuss a movie. But Kaala is an unusual movie. Of course all movies end with the hero defeating the villain or the ‘victory of the good over evil’. In that sense, Kaala is also a usual movie. It is the timing, the issues that are discussed and the political symbolism that layer the movie, which makes it unusual. Discussing the technical details, the treatment of the plot or the performances of the actors, is not the intent here.
COMING out of the historic summit that took place in Singapore on June 12, between the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the US, the president of DPRK, Kim Jong-un declared, “The world will see a major change”. Donald Trump, US president joined, stating that “Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace!” Analysts across the world, including nay-sayers are poring through the one and half page declaration adopted in the summit and passing their judgements.
