Why the Prices of Petrol & Diesel should be Cut?

THE crash in global crude oil prices raises questions in relation to the petroleum pricing policies of the Government of India.

India imports around 80 per cent of its crude oil requirements so international prices of crude oil have a direct bearing on the price of petroleum products.

In January 2014 when the global price of crude oil was 106 dollars per barrel the retail price of petroleum products, petrol and diesel were Rs 72.43 and Rs 54.34 per litre (Delhi prices) respectively.

TAMIL NADU: The Monsters and the Perseus

KARL Marx said of his fellow Germans in Modern Europe: “Perseus wore a magic cap so that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over our eyes and ears as a make-believe that there are no monsters.”

In Modi's India, the monsters and their tools for destroying free speech and expression are well-known. Here in Tamil Nadu, the monsters hunted down an eminent writer. The Left forces, the CPI (M), the CPI and Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association (TPWAA) protested against this attack.

In Support of Perumal Murugan

The following is the press statement issued by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust on January 17, 2015.IN another shocking and serious blow to the freedom of expression, Perumal Murugan, an influential Tamil writer at the peak of his creative powers, has been bullied, blackmailed and harassed by anonymous vested religious elements led by the Hindutva right, in collusion with the police and the state administration of Tamil Nadu, into helpless submission – so much so that he has, in pain and frustration, announced that he is giving up writing altogether.

Women’s Safety & the Sangh Parivar: A Comment

THIS week Kiran Bedi joined the Delhi BJP as its star campaigner, and declared in the first very statement that in Delhi “women’s safety is the main issue and not Statehood”. She said that if she wins elections than she would ensure that there was better policing including community policing in order to ensure women’s safety. Almost immediately in response to this, Sharmishtha Mukherjee, the Congress candidate from Greater Kailash, stated that the main issue for her constituency is women’s safety and she would use her MLA funds to do community policing if she won.

No More Polarisation: CPI(M)

The following is the statement issued by the Jammu and Kashmir state committee on January 17.

THE J&K state committee of the CPI(M) expresses its dismay over much-politicised debate regarding West Pakistan refugees’ issue and has urged the public and political leadership to resist the attempts of the vested interest to use the issue for regional and religious polarisation.

Bribe for Bar: Pillai’s Tape Says Mani Received Rs 21 crores

AN audio tape handed over to media by Dr Biju Ramesh, leader of Bar Owner’s Association, discloses that the finance minister and Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani has received Rs 21 crores as bribe.

Central Trade Unions Demand Directional Change of Economic Policies

The following is the statement issued by the Central Trade Unions on January 17, 2015

The central trade unions asserted in the pre-budget consultation meeting with the finance minister on January 17, 2015, that the government should ensure ‘Ease of life and livelihood of the common people”, “not merely ease of doing business”.

Gyan Sangam - A Road Map to Privatisation of Public Sector Banks

IT is very much shocking that the meeting of chiefs of the public sector banks named as Gyan Sangam held on January 2-3, 2015 at Pune laid a road map for privatisation of public sector banks. The BJP led government at the centre took the lead for this summit.

Wages of Neo-liberalism

JEREMY Seabrook, one of the most vocal voices of labour today, in his latest book The Song of the Shirt, takes us to the bleak, almost surreal, world of Dhaka garment industry’s over 3,000 sweatshops. Tens of thousands of workers – 80 per cent of them women and children – labour here for long hours, in cramped and squalid conditions to eke out a subsistence existence. Many malnourished live on one meal a day, with diseases never far away and doctors beyond their reach. Nevertheless, for these workers, the only thing worse than these sweatshops is not to have them.

Pakistan: Roots of Terror

THE Peshawar massacre of the innocents could be a turning point in Pakistan. At least for the moment all the important stakeholders seem united in their determination to confront the scourge of terrorism which has been mercilessly stalking the country for more than a decade now. At this juncture there is a consensus in the country that the time has come to crush the militant groups which have been running amok since the overthrow of the Taliban government and American occupation of Afghanistan in 2001.

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