CHEER leaders of neo-liberalism have mounted a high crescendo campaign hailing that the last quarter century since Dr Manmohan Singh, as the finance minister, initiated the process of neo-liberal economic reforms in 1991 had created a India which would have been impossible otherwise.  Further, such reforms are the only way, we are being told, that India can move closer to the mythical El Dorado – a land where milk and honey flow freely.  An objective assessment of the condition of our people and the polity, as a consequence of these reforms, is, thus, in order.Indeed, the neo-liber

BOTH Houses of Parliament took up short-duration discussion on the situation arising out of price rise in the country in the last week of July. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said it is an extremely important issue that concerns the life and death of our people. Recently, the CPI(M) had organised a nationwide protest action, in which lakhs and lakhs of people participated. That generally shows the manner in which people are concerned about the relentless rise in the prices of all essential commodities.

Jharna Das Baidya, CPI(M) MP from Tripura raised a Special mention in the Rajya Sabha on August 3, on the issue of recent cases of trafficking of 31 young tribal girls from Assam. She expressed shock at the trafficking of 31 young tribal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat, in the name of education, to indoctrinate them in Hindutva at the RSS camps. This violates the national and international laws on child trafficking. The victim girls belong to Bodo and Santhal communities in Assam’s Kokrajhar district. They were all aged between 8 to 14 years.

THE transformation of the agrarian landscape under contemporary capitalism has yielded new ways in which big companies use their financial power to control the production processes in agriculture. This use of financial and political clout can take many forms. The first is of course outright land deals where companies directly control both land and production. This is especially true of the African countries where agricultural supply chains have spread considerably. Here the control of land by the companies is direct either in terms of transfer of ownership, or through long term leases.

THIS 13th August, we will be celebrating the 90th birthday of one of the living legends of our times – Fidel Castro Ruz. Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926 in a relatively well-to-do family and studied in various religious schools for the wealthy, before graduating in law from the University of Havana. For many, this would have provided the perfect platform to pursue conservative politics. But not for Fidel, as he is fondly called. He chose a different path, to become one of the greatest and finest revolutionaries.