THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on February 18,  had pointed out that the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi was only aimed at creating an illusion of a farmer-friendly government while vast majority of the peasantry, especially landless and tenant farmers were excluded from the scheme and the amount per peasant was pittance.

“JANWADI Mahila Samiti has given us an identity, it has taught us how to stand and fight for our rights”“When I move around in my mohalla, people say: look here comes a leader of the Janwadi Mahila Samit.

THE three-day strike of the employees and officers of BSNL, which started on February 18, 2019, is a huge success. It was called by the All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB). Almost all the telephone exchanges, administrative offices, customer service centres, etc, remained closed throughout the country, on all the three days. The government invoked the draconian ESMA to suppress the strike.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on February 13THE report tabled in the Parliament on the last day it met before the general election by the comptroller and auditor general `On Capital Acquisition in Indian Air Force’, raises more questions than providing answers.1)    The report does not cover the issue of offset contracts.  Hence, there is no mention of the Reliance Defence and how the original public sector partner, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), who was to manufacture 108 fighter jets was summarily removed by offset contract.  This, we are informed, will be d

 THE long awaited CAG Report on the Rafale and 10 other defence acquisitions begins with two wrong notes. One is the acceptance of the government’s demand to redact the price details of the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) or the Rafale deal; then its disclosure in the preface that the total cost of the 11 defence acquisitions is Rs 95,000 crore, effectively giving away the Rafale deal price. A simple two minute calculation (see table 1) reveals that the price of the Rafale deal or the BXX in the CAG’s table of prices was Rs 60,576.54 crore. A case of carelessness in redaction?