The Week in Parliament

ON July 5, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2019-20 in Lok Sabha and subsequently it was laid in Rajya Sabha. Speaking on the budget in Lok Sabha, P Natarajan said it is shocking that the government has chosen to give several tax concessions to the corporate sector while burdening the common people with additional excise duties on petrol and diesel to the tune of Rs 2 per litre. The budget shows very little increase in spending for people. Total subsidies as per cent of total expenditure have remained almost unchanged at about 12 per cent.

Appalling Discrimination against Kerala in Union Budget 2019-20

THE employment guarantee scheme has been one of those government interventions in our country which have been most beneficial to the people. As per last year's revised estimates, the government had sanctioned Rs 61,084 crore for this scheme. But the NDA-II government has allocated only Rs 60,000 crore for the scheme in this year's budget – a reduction of Rs 1,084 crore when compared to the previous budget. Even though the scheme is supposed to provide 100 days of employment per worker, the average days of employment per worker so far is just 46 days.

Travesty of Panchayat Elections in Tripura

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on July 12THE three-tier panchayat election to be held in Tripura on July 27, 2019 is witnessing a massive and widespread attack on the democratic process. During the nomination period, from July 1 to 8, candidates of the CPI(M) and other opposition parties were prevented from collecting and filing nomination papers by armed gangs of the BJP. Bike-borne hoodlums of the BJP were stationed before the election offices, so that no opposition candidate could collect or submit nomination papers.

On the Draft National Policy on Education

ONE cannot but be struck by the tone of smug self-satisfaction that pervades this report, that India was the origin of most great ideas including the Pythagoras theorem and the Fibonacci series, that Indian universities like Nalanda and Taxila were unique and unparalleled institutions, and that Sanskrit has a literature that is larger than Latin and Classical Greek combined, and so on. In fact the report recommends the setting up of a Mission Nalanda and Mission Taxila to revive old glory.

PUBGwale, Culture and Politics

MOBILE gaming or broadly video gaming has caught India like fire. It has become a common sight to find people fiddling with their mobiles in any public place. Even in interactions within a family or closely-knit friends, ‘phubbing’ (the act of ignoring someone you are with, and giving attention to your mobile phone instead) has become common. The spread of internet availability also is making us give more importance to our mobiles than to other forms of social interactions. One of the major pass-times for the young is to play various games on mobiles.

Odisha: Peoples Movement will Resist the Challenges

SITARAM Yechury, general secretary of CPI(M) has called upon the secular democratic forces and the people of the country to meet the challenges thrown by BJP, the political arm of fascistic RSS.

HATE, THREAT & VIOLENCE: VHP Tries to Whip Up Communal Sentiments in Delhi

BARELY a day passes without reports about Muslims being attacked and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in various parts of the country. In the first two weeks of July, over a dozen such cases were reported from different areas, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. As the ruling BJP refuses to act against right-wing goons creating havoc across the country, Muslims and Dalits are bearing the brunt.The right-wing forces are now trying to expand their footprint across the country and create communal tension.

Halt Acts of Coercion and Intimidation

Below we publish the letter to the prime minister dated July 11, signed by around 30 Opposition MPs, on the raids at the homes of senior advocates Indira Jaisingh and Anand Grover. Those who signed the letter include TK Rangarajan (CPI(M)), D Raja (CPI), Anand Sharma (Congress), Jaya Bachchan (SP), Santanu Sen (TMC), Sanjay Singh (AAP), WE, the undersigned individuals strongly condemn the raids at the homes and offices of senior advocates Indira Jaisingh and Anand Grover this morning by the CBI. The raids are being carried out in both Delhi and Mumbai.

Fifty Years after Bank Nationalisation

FIFTY years ago on July 19, 1969, fourteen large private banks had been nationalised.

Proposed Labour Codes Castigated

THE entire labour law architecture of the country will be destroyed if the Modi government’s proposed labour codes are enacted by parliament, warned senior advocate Colin Gonsalves at a recent meeting organised in Delhi. Leaders of several central trade unions who echoed these warnings included Deepak Sharma of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Swadesh Dev Roye of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Vidya Sagar Giri of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).

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