THE Punjab National Bank scam is the most brazen and shocking case of defrauding in the history of Indian banking. Nirav Modi, reputed to be the 85th richest Indian and his uncle, Mehul Choksi are reported to have embezzled Rs 11,400 crores through the repeated issue of fake letters of undertaking (LOUs) by colluding bank officials.
That the fraud has been going on since 2011 and peaked in the year 2017 indicates the scale and ease with which such fraud was perpetrated. Does this what “ease of doing business” amounts to in Modi’s New India?
THE Delhi Union of Journalists and its Gender Council, in a statement issued on February 16, has condemned the arbitrary sacking of editor Angshukanta Chakraborty by the India Today group for a personal tweet opposing hate news and fake news and demanding action against its purveyors. Her February 4 tweet said: “Promoters turning a blind eye to hate-mongering, fake news spreading anchors, editors, reporters and writers, or hiring them in the first place, must be tried in court as hate speech enablers-profiteers. Must be boycotted socially by secular politicians & industrialists”.
THE CPI(M) Tripura state committee has sent a detailed representation to the chief election commissioner on February 19, 2018 regarding certain crucial issues pertaining to the assembly elections of Tripura held on February 18, 2018. Despite expressing its concerns over the presence of outsiders, major display of money power and on the functioning of the EVM – VVPAT units, some substantial issues have arisen in course of the polling.
NALGONDA was the epicentre of the Telangana Armed Struggle which brought to fore the land issue. Nalgonda which had a background of Left struggles and strong Left movement hosted the second conference of CPI(M) Telangana from February 4-7, 2018. A huge rally led by the red-shirt volunteers preceded the inauguration of the conference.
THE sixth state conferene of CPI(M) Chhattisgarh committee was held from February 1-3, 2018 at Bishrampur in Surajpur district. It gave a clarion call to defeat BJP and to strengthen the organisation and expand mass struggles to establish Left as the alternative political force in the state. The conference was attended by 101 delegates, including four observers and eight women.
A PACKED auditorium with more than 650 students from southern states of India, reverberated with slogans against communalism and a determined conviction to safeguard the unity of the country The national convention ‘Aman Ka Ailan’ was organised by the Students’ Federation of India in Bangalore on February 17 as part of its nation-wide campaign against communalisation. Presiding over the convention, SFI all India president, VP Sanu said that the BJP has two agendas in our country – economic agenda and cultural agenda. They are hiding their economic agenda with their cultural agenda.
THE All India Kisan Sabha has submitted the Kharif Price Policy for 2018-19 to the chairperson, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Price (CACP), on February 16.
A DELEGATION of AIDWA leaders met the law minister on February 8 and submitted a memorandum regarding the Bill of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2017, bringing to his attention the concerns of various women’s organisations and individuals about it.
The law minister gave a patient hearing to the views expressed by the delegation and also explained the government’s stand point. He assured that the government would examine the questions raised in the memorandum seriously.
THE formation of Bahujana Left Front (BLF) in Telangana has brought to the fore a question as to how Communists could work together with Ambedkarites. This question arose because of the ripples created by the coming together of these forces. Though they have been distant from each other for some time, the relationship among Ambedkarites, followers of Phule and communists is a natural phenomenon. Like science and technology, communist ideology also did not emerge just like that out of the blue.