ERASURES of historical events and even historical persons have been used to serve political and ideological ends of the powerful over the centuries. It is not a coincidence that the first great emperor Ashoka remained unknown in the land of his birth for more than nearly two thousand years after his birth. It was only after the inscriptions on the pillars that he had distributed in different parts of his empire were deciphered by James Prinsep, a British colonial administrator in 1837, that the facts of his existence and his significance became known to his fellow Indians and were soon in
THE inaugural speech of Donald Trump and the flurry of executive orders issued by him on the first day as president, show that Trump does what he said he will do. In claiming to make America great again, Trump has threatened to take over the Panama Canal, the control of which had been handed to Panama by a treaty in 1977. He has renamed the `Gulf of Mexico’ as the `Gulf of America’ and promised more imperial steps to expand American territory as no US President has done in recent history. Trump has ordered an emergency in the southern borders with Mexico and deployed the army to check im
THE GDP growth figures being officially put out are suspect, given the fact that the calculation is based on an implicit inflation rate that is not even a fourth of that emerging from the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
THE winter session of the Tripura Assembly commenced on January 10, 2025. When the BAC report was placed in the House, informing members that the session would have only three working days, Jitendra Chaudhury, the Leader of the Opposition, stood up in protest. He remarked that the Parliament and state Assemblies are integral to the democratic system of governance.
THE 24th Assam State Conference of the CPI(M), held on January 5-7, 2025 in Guwahati, resolved to significantly expand the Party’s independent activities and build planned and sustained movements on local issues in the coming days.
PUNJABI daily Desh Sewak organised a function at Bhakna Bhawan Auditorium in Chandigarh on January 1, 2025 to commemorate the completion of 29 years of its publication. The event was dedicated to Comrade Sitaram Yechury. A large number of people from various walks of life participated in the programme.
THE Ministry of Education (MoE) last week released the Unified District Information System for Education Plus report making available the latest data regarding the total enrollment of students in 2023-24. The report gives the lie to the tall claims being made by the government about improvements in the education sector and reveals the stark truth that the total enrollment of students has dropped by over a crore in 2023-24 as compared to the previous years. A total of 24.8 crore students were enrolled in 2023-24 which is a drop of 37 lakh students as compared to the previous year.
THE imperialist countries led by the US have been imposing unilateral sanctions that do not have any backing from the United Nations against countries that dare to defy their diktat. According to one estimate almost one third of the countries of the world have been subject to such sanctions at one time or another. Such sanctions include the freezing of those assets of the sanctioned countries that are held in western financial institutions, as has been the case with Iran, Cuba, and North Korea among others earlier, and with Russia most recently.
THE three-day 17th state conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was held from January 11-13, in Kaithal.The conference began with an open session held at the local grain market. The open session was presided over by Inderjeet Singh and conducted by Premchand. Addressing the public meeting, Party Polit Bureau member, Nilotpal Basu said that the country is going through a severe crisis. Unity in diversity has been the foundation of our country.
Two branch conferences – an industrial branch in Chennai and a rural branch in the Kaveri Delta – resolve: “We shall mobilise workers and peasants in class struggles and make the Party strong.”CONFERENCES from the branch level to the state have taken place in Tamil Nadu, with the state conference ending on January 5, 2025. These conferences have discussed the implementation of the tasks set by the 23rd Party Congress held at Kannur and the 23rd Tamil Nadu state conference held in Madurai, both in 2022.