THE current pandemic has brought to the fore, and with exceptional clarity, the fundamental contradiction underlying contemporary globalisation, namely, the contradiction between the interests of finance and thoseof the people. Indeed this contradiction, which characterizes the era of globalisation as a whole, has now come to a head.It is becoming clearly visible in country after country. Take the case of India.

Below we publish the points raised by Elamaram Kareem, CPI(M) MP in the All Party Meeting called by the Prime Minister on April 08.TAKING part in the all party meeting convened by the Government of India, Elamaram Kareem, CPI(M) MP, began by appreciating the decision of convening the meeting of representatives of political parties to discuss the prevailing national situation. CPI(M) and other Left parties have been requesting the prime minister for calling an all party meeting since February as the Covid-19 pandemic started spreading in India.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) demanded the central government’s intervention to prevent firms from sacking its employees and to ensure payment of salaries during the coronavirus lockdown in the country.As part of its relentless efforts to safeguard the rights of the workers in the country, the union had written the fifth letter in a row, on this issue to the secretary of the ministry of labour and employment.Tapan Sen, the general secretary of CITU, in the letter, highlighted the fact that most of the cases of violation of the government orders in this regard have occurred in the

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association, in a statement issued on April 7, has strongly opposed the unjustified move of the Department of Health and Family Welfare suspending rules 8,9 (8) and Rule 18A under the PcPNDT Act, ostensibly due to the coronavirus pandemic. This suspension goes against the main purpose of the Act to stop sex selection by means of certain basic and vital compliances that genetic labs and clinics etc have to follow in keeping records and submitting these for scrutiny to the appropriate authority and for re-registration.

IN Lok Sabha, A M Ariff took part in the discussion on budget for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The central government has presented an annual budget of Rs 1.01 lakh crore for the union territory for the financial year 2020- 21. By this decision of allocating this much of an amount of money for the UT, the government is giving a message to other states in the country that if every state became a union territory, then the development of the state and unemployment issues will be sorted out by the central government.