THE Left Front in West Bengal is fighting this election battle on four slogans: Remove Congress from power, Defeat BJP; Strengthen Left to build up non-Congress non-BJP secular alternative government and Defend and restore democracy in the state. In an appeal to the people of the state, the Left Front has called upon them to vote for the Left candidates to fight for the restoration of democracy in the state.
IT may not be a coincidence that there are simultaneous moves afoot in Asia, Europe and Latin America to remove democratically elected governments through unconstitutional means. The democratically elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich, has been forced out of office by an unruly mob. The prime minister of Thailand, despite having got a renewed democratic mandate, is slowly but surely being removed by a creeping coup d’état.
KERALA UNIVERSITY ORDINANCE 2013
"A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards ever higher objectives. If the universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the nation and the people."
--- Jawaharlal Nehru
PRESS RELEASETOWARDS A SECULAR GOVERNMENT THAT PROMOTES WOMEN’S INTERESTSWomen’s Charter for the 16th Lok Sabha Elections – 20144th March 2014As India heads towards general election for the 16th Lok Sabha, we, the women of India consider it a crucial battle, coming as it does in the wake of increasing sexual violence, honour crimes, and atrocities against Dalit, adivasi and minority women, together with rising unemployment, hunger, and relentless price rise.
AS the election campaign reaches its crescendo, the strategy of the BJP, led by Narendra Modi, is becoming more and more apparent. It is attempting to create a rainbow alliance of the middle castes and dalits in order to ensure that it reaches the half-way mark and does not need the help of those outside the NDA to make a government at the centre. In order to do this, it is stitching up alliances with prominent OBC and dalit groups. Thus it has inducted a senior dalit leader, Udit Raj, into its ranks and engineered an alliance with the LJP in order to make inroads into dalit votes.
The 58 session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women was held in the UN headquarters in New York on 10 – 21 March 2014. Over 6000 representatives from 193 UN member states and NGOs from all over the world participated in the session. The World Federation of Trade Unions which as a permanent representative at the UN in New York, was represented in the session by Hemalata, secretary, CITU and BV Vijayalakshmi, secretary, AITUC
THE recent disclosures that have come in the press that Vodafone and Verizon have helped their “parent” spy outfits – GCHQ (UK) and NSA (USA) – to spy on the Indian telecom network will not be a shock to the readers of this column. We have been writing on the dangers that foreign owned telecom companies pose to the Indian network as they can be used as Trojan horse.
One of the most deleterious consequences of neo-liberalism is in the sphere of education, but it is less studied than its more direct economic effects. I shall confine myself here to the sphere of higher education. Some detailed studies have recently come out on the effects of the neo-liberal dispensation on higher education in the United States; and these are of interest to us since whatever is happening in the U.S. is also happening in India at present. Neo-liberalism’s consequences are indeed quite universal.
THE Congress party, with great fanfare, has released its manifesto for the 2014 general elections. Readers will recall that amongst the six national parties, it was the CPI(M) that first released its manifesto to the Indian electorate on March 20, 2014. The Congress manifesto, the country is being told, has been prepared on the basis of a “unique exercise” which is a “reflection of the voice of the people of India”. The manifesto opens with a claim “The open Manifesto Process: Pathbreaking Political Reform”.