THE devastating flood in Bihar has caused large scale destruction of infrastructure and rendered lakhs of people homeless, taking shelter on the side of highways and high lands without food, water and other essential needs. Among the 16 flood-ravaged districts, Bhagalpur is the worst affected and cut off from the state capital. The national highway connecting Bhagalpur is also under water. The so-called preparation of the government to face the flood is nonexistent.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India have issued the following joint statement on August 18THE United States has suffered a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan. Twenty years after the toppling of the then Taliban regime, the Taliban are back in power.
AN Independence Day speech, more so one which marks the beginning of the year of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence would surely have merited a reiteration of the values which won us our independence. But not for Prime Minister Modi. In his 88 minute long speech, there was only a cursory reference to the freedom struggle and its heroes.
WHILE Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rolling out more than even his usual quota of lies, deceits and jumlas in his speech at the Red Fort, India's 75th Independence Day on August 15, 2021 was marked by lakhs of farmers and workers organising huge Tiranga Yatras on ‘Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas’ all over India, including at the protest sites at Delhi's borders.Reports are pouring in from different locations about the various ways in which the day was marked with Tiranga Yatras by farmers and workers. Women farmers took the lead in different places in Haryana, Punjab and elsewhere.
MONSOON session of the Parliament that concluded on August 12, 2021, revealed the undemocratic and anti-constitutional face of the BJP government. It revealed the levels of intolerance this government has towards the parliamentary proceedings and debates, which are the basic building blocks of Indian democracy. At least 20 bills were passed without discussion and voting. New anti-people legislations were bulldozed on a daily basis and were passed without discussion by suppressing the voice of dissent.
THE CPI(M) state committee has strongly condemned the decision of the state government of online transfer policy by creating a common cadre of teachers and non-teaching staff of all universities, including the health university of the state.The state committee of the Party which met at Rohtak, which was also attended by Nilotpal Basu, Polit Bureau Member, issued a statement in this regard on August 17.
THE Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has vide a Gazette Notification issued on August 18, 2021 exempted certain government establishments from the purview of Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
THE nation has been debating our collective achievements, weaknesses and failures over the past 74 years since Independence in relation to the vision of the republic’s founders and of the independence movement. This article discusses two key founding ideas which do not always get the attention they deserve or do so largely in an obligatory fashion.
AMERICA’S ignominious exit from Afghanistan, the collapse of the Afghan National Army, the fleeing of President Ashraf Ghani and the rapid takeover by the Taliban, have all been stunning developments. Twenty years after the United States and its NATO allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban regime, the Taliban are back in power in Kabul. The US spent over $ 2 trillion in these two decades and at the height of the occupation there were 130,000 NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan.
SIMPLE analogies can be deceptive, even dangerous. An example is the analogy often drawn between the household and the State. Just as a household cannot “live beyond its means” for ever, and sooner or later its creditors not only stop giving loans but take away the assets of the household for defaulting on loan repayment, likewise, the State cannot “live beyond its means” for ever and go on borrowing ad infinitum; sooner or later its creditors stop giving loans and even attach its assets.This is a very common argument.