AT a time when peasant masses in the country are engaged in a valiant struggle for the repeal of the central government’s three infamous laws, and have laid peaceful siege to Delhi, braving rains and bitter cold, it is worth recalling Friedrich Engels’ study of the peasant war in Germany in 1525, that also celebrated its outstanding leader Thomas Muenzer.
WHATSAPP, a company owned by Facebook since 2014, has issued a new privacy policy changing its data-sharing rules, which will come into effect by February 8, 2021. In this new policy, WhatsApp has declared that it will share data with Facebook, its parent company, about users' chats, connections, location and device information, transactions and payments. It will also share data of our interactions with other businesses that use Facebook as a platform. The public outcry over the new privacy policy has prompted an exodus to much safer alternatives like Signal.
JANUARY 8, a delegation of the All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers(AIFAWH) -CITU, met the family of the anganwadi helper who was gang-raped and murdered in a temple in Badaun, UP. The delegation comprised A R Sindhu, president and Usharani, general secretary of AIFAWH, along with UP anganwadi union president, Veena Gupta, general secretary, Chaman Ara and Niger Parveen, an advocate and activist of CITU.The delegation met the family members of the anganwadi helper who was brutally gang-raped and murdered in a temple in Badaun district of UP and expressed condolences.
DEMANDING repeal of three farm laws, and withdrawal of proposed 2003 Electricity (Amendment) Bill, the Telangana Rythu Sangham (Farmers Association) is organising a bus jatha in Telangana from January 1st to February 1, 2021. From November 26th, lakhs of farmers and people are agitating in Delhi demanding the repeal of farm laws.
THE Supreme Court of India (SC), after hearing a clutch of petitions on the farmers’ struggle, but completely ignoring the ones that challenged the very constitutionality of the three Farm Laws criticized the central government for its handling of the farmers' struggle on January 11 and suspended the implementation of the Farm Laws ‘until further notice’ on January 12.
THE Haryana chapter of All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee(AIKSCC) has condemned the police action on farmers who had assembled to peacefully register their opposition to a bogus mahapanchayat at Kaimla village of Karnal in support of anti-farmer laws being imposed in dictatorial way by the Modi regime.
On January 14, 2021, the CPI(M) has sent the following message to the LPRP.THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) greets the 11th Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and wishes it all success. We take this opportunity to greet all the members of the LPRP and the people of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.The 11th Congress of the LPRP is being held under most excruciating times. The hollowness of the capitalist model of development was thoroughly exposed during this period.
"Where the people are many and their hands are all emptyWhere the pellets of poison are flooding their watersWhere the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prisonAnd the executioner's face is always well hidden."WHEN the COVID pandemic took lives and the reality of the health care system of the country plagued by continued neglect was barely open, the Modi government true to form forced students to take final year exams. But it has done nothing to now reopen educational institutions except bring out guidelines which are an eyewash.
THE protest at Capitol building in Washington on January 6 was unequivocally condemned worldwide. Apart from the general feeling which many of us had to this protest/ attack, I was also intrigued to know- “How old is the building?” The same building which was targeted by the Trump supporters. This Capitol building was made operational in 1800 after seven years of construction work and continues to stand tall and serve its purpose.
THE darkest nightmare came alive on January 6, 2021. The venue was the most exalted symbol of American democracy, the Capitol Hill, which houses the Congress and the Senate. Images and live streaming videos invaded television households not just in the US, but across the world, with explosive fury.The setting for this extraordinary ‘insurrection’ was the holding of the Congress and the Senate for confirming the formal election of president – elect, Joe Biden. All possible institutional and legal challenges by Donald Trump to deny the results had been exhausted.