ON Wednesday August 8, the Delhi High Court decriminalised begging in the capital. In the course of its hearing, it had raised the question how begging could be an offence in a country where the government was unable to provide food and jobs; its final verdict is in line with this thinking. Of course there was no central legislation, or legislation relating specifically to Delhi, that had criminalised begging earlier; but the capital region like several other states had simply used the provisions of the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act to treat begging as a criminal activity.
THE AIKS and CITU have congratulated the people of the country, especially the workers and the farmers, for their overwhelming response to the August 9 Jail Bharo movement. It was expected that over 20 lakh people will participate, but the reports received at the centre as we go to the press show that the number may increase the targeted figure. In Delhi, there was a solidarity rally by the CITU which later courted arrest at the Parliament street police station.
THE petition challenging Article 35A of the constitution before the Supreme Court is meant to open up another divisive issue in tune with the Hindutva politics espoused by the BJP and the RSS.
CPI(M) West Bengal state secretary Suryakant Misra in a statement issued on July 30, has demanded that all citizens residing in Assam should be enlisted in NRC.
THE monsoon session of Parliament began on July 18, with obituary references to departing leaders including Md. Amin of the CPI(M) who passed away on February 12. New CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Elamaram Kareem took oath on the first day of the session.
AGRICULTURAL workers play an important role in agricultural production, of food as well as commercial crops. They make up the largest share of all working people in our country. According to the last Census in 2011 there were 14.43 crore agricultural workers in India. This is about one third of our country’s workforce and 55 percent of the rural workforce. With continuing agrarian crisis, large numbers of small and marginal farmers are compelled to abandon cultivation and join the ranks of agricultural workers. Thus, their number has been rising steadily every year.
THE Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC), the apex decision-making body for all domestic and international defence acquisitions, as well as for indigenous R&D, finalised guidelines for the vaunted Strategic Partnership (SP) Model under which foreign manufacturers would tie-up with identified Indian partners for manufacturing the concerned platforms in India. The DAC chaired by the defence minister also drew up platform-specific guidelines for the forthcoming acquisition of Naval Utility Helicopters (NUH), which would be the first project taken up under this model.
THE proposal to eliminate the University Grants Commission and to tighten political control over the higher education system in India, has been mooted at the behest of Narendra Modi who is apparently concerned about the dearth of Indian names among the top-ranked universities in the world. This concern is not confined to Modi alone; it is shared by large numbers of persons in the country’s political establishment, and by many in the general public.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on August 1
THE National Register of Citizens (NRC) was part of the Assam Accord which decided on the cut-off date of 1971 to determine the question of illegal migrants settled in Assam. The work for preparing such a register did not proceed until the Supreme Court intervened and under its directions and supervision, the draft NRC has been prepared.
SPEAKING at a seminar on “ challenges facing India” at Chennai organized by the Tamil Nadu Platform for People’s Unity on July 29, the leaders of the CPI(M), Congress, DMK and CPI said that Modi government has failed on all fronts and called for ending the BJP rule.