Lalit Modi and BJP: Cosy Nexus

THE Modi government is faced with a major scandal concerning the Lalit Modi affair. What this episode reveals is serious impropriety on the part of a senior minister in the cabinet, the cosy nexus of crony capitalism and the typical response of a government which wants to deny and cover up the whole affair.

TAMILNADU: Kalvarayan Tribals Protest against Govt Notification

THOUSANDS of people marched towards the RDO office situated in Kallakurichi, in Villupuram district in the morning on June 17. They were all tribal people. They were from the Kalvarayan Hills, an important tribal centre in Tamilnadu.Recently, one fine morning the department of forests of government of Tamilnadu had given a very big shock to the tribal people of Kalvarayan Hills. The department released a notification that the 13,000 acres of land, which are in the hands of the people under cultivation for a long period, would be converted as ‘reserved forests’.

Debroy Takes the Hatchet to Railways

THE Report of the Bibek Debroy Committee for restructuring of Indian Railways (IR) has predictably recommended dismembering of IR and its privatisation in all but name, preferring to call it “liberalisation” instead. No doubt critiques of these recommendations will be dismissed by the BJP government and its corporate and other cheerleaders as knee-jerk reactions by the Left or from antiquated ideas of the Nehruvian-socialist era. The shoe is actually on the other foot.

One Year of Modi:A Regressive Ideology Pushes Down Women

HOW are Indian women living under Modi rule? This is a government of promises and advertisements, owing allegiance to corporate capital. Indian women have no place in the new face of the country created by the government. Gender discrimination is one of the pillars on which the government stands. Indian democracy has been fighting patriarchy throughout, but the one year experience of Modi government saw the bitterest form of discrimination against women with a dangerous combination of neoliberalism and patriarchy.

Student Organisations Join Together To Fight Attacks on Education

Four student organisations – SFI, AISF, AISA and AIDSO – have come together to launch a movement at the national level against the centralisation, commercialisation and communalisation of education. In a joint declaration, the organisations said efforts will be made to bring on board students’ organisations and groups at the state, district and campus levels who agree with the basic understanding as outlined in this declaration. Below is the text of the joint declaration:THE attacks at all levels and in different spheres of education have intensified further in the one year of Modi regime.

Economics and the Two Concepts of Nationalism

THE Westphalian peace treaties in 1648 which ended the thirty years’ and the eighty years’ wars in Europe are considered to have ushered in the era of nationalism and nation-States in that continent. But the concept of “nationalism” that emerged there was a non-secular majoritarian concept, which invoked both Christianity, and a sense of “otherness”, shading into oppression, towards various domestic minorities.Such nationalism did not preclude colonial conquests directed at other people.

DSMM Congratulates APSC for its Victory

The Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch has welcomed the lifting of the ban on the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle and congratulated the students for their victory. In a statement issued on June 9, the DSMM said that it is due to the fight put up by the students, their resolute opposition to the de-recognition of the APSC by the IIT-M administration and due to the popular pressure mounted by all the democratic sections of the society that led to lifting of the ban on APSC.

On De-recognition of APSC in IIT-Madras

THE de-recognition of the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC) in IIT-Madras at the behest of the HRD ministry invited reactions from various sections. The central executive committee (CEC) of the SFI had given a call to form Ambedkar-Periyar Forums on campuses across the country not only in solidarity with the friends in IIT-Madras, but also against the casteist-brahmanical regressive ideology of the Sangh Parivar.

Scuttling the Ishrat Case

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on June 9, 2015.THE decision of the central government not to sanction prosecution of some Intelligence Bureau officials in the Ishrat Jahan murder case is a blatant attempt to subvert the case. The CBI, after investigation, had proceeded to chargesheet those involved in the crime, including the four IB officers. The decision of the home ministry to protect these persons is unconscionable. Both the BJP government at the centre and the BJP government in Gujarat are working in tandem to undermine t

Condemn Arrest of Law Minister

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on June 9. THE arrest of the law minister of Delhi Jitender Singh Tomar by the police is a shocking instance of arbitrary exercise of power by the Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung. The Delhi police is under the jurisdiction of the Lt. Governor. The arrest has been effected when the matter of an alleged false degree acquired by the minister is before the court. The BJP government at the centre is using the Lt. Governor to ride roughshod over the elected state government of Delhi. The Lt.

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