‘Save Arts and Crafts College’ Movement Exposes Nitish Kumar’s Double Standard

COLLEGE of Arts and Crafts in Patna is facing an existential crisis due to the apathy and anti-cultural attitude of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. The college, affiliated to Patna University, has brought laurels to the state as well as the country and finds a place of pride in the art world.

Kerala Budget: A Laudable Effort to Jump the Fiscal Hurdle

THE revised budget of the Kerala government for 2016-17 presented by the finance minister Dr T M Thomas Isaac will be noted for the historic effort it makes to cross the barrier of neoliberal fiscal conservatism. The upper limit of fiscal deficit set for the state government is three percent of the state domestic product (SDP). This cap on borrowings is too debilitating for the state government, especially in view of the mounting revenue deficit of the state.

CPI(M) Demands Action on Security Personnel for Gruesome Killing of Adivasis

GUMUDUMAHA, so far an unknown adivasi village of Kandhamal district in Odisha has attracted attention all over the country for killing five innocent adivasis. CRPF and state SOG personnel termed them as Maoists and killed them on July 8th night. This is the third such incident in the state of Odisha in a year, of killing innocent people in the name of Maoists.

On West Bengal Meeting

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on July 11.

SOME distorted reports have appeared in sections of the media about the meeting of the West Bengal state committee of the Party attended by Polit Bureau members which was held on July 10, 2016 at Kolkata.

Brutal Repression in Kashmir Condemned

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on July 11.

THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its grave concern at the deteriorating situation in Kashmir. Till now it has been reported that over 25 people, mostly youth have been killed and hundreds injured.

Arunachal Pradesh: Signal Verdict

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on July 13.THE five-member constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has given a signal verdict overturning the change of government in Arunachal Pradesh through central intervention and upheld the inviolable federal character of our constitution.Following the Uttarakhand experience, this Supreme Court judgment poses an irrevocable question of political morality and accountability of this BJP-led central government.

Scrap the AFSPA

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on July 9, 2016.THE Supreme Court judgement on the use of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has underlined how this draconian law is a threat to the safety and lives of citizens. This Act ensures that the security forces can act with impunity and kill people without being brought to justice. The Court has held that such killings are “destructive of the rule of law and plainly unconstitutional”.It is imperative that the government heed the judgement and repeal the AFSPA.

Kerala Budget Strengthens Petty Production

THE remarkable characteristic of the revised budget 2016-17 of Kerala presented by the finance minister Dr Thomas Issac is the thrust it gives to the task of modernisation of agriculture and production sector. This aspect has the potential to help the state in the long run to overcome the imminent stagnation and prolong crisis looming large on the economic and social sphere of the state in the context of the failure of neoliberal model of reforms and systemic crisis of world capitalist system.The budget has been hailed for its emphasis on social welfare and it truly deserves so.

Kerala Budget Focuses on Social Security, Infrastructure Development

THE road map for tackling the challenges thrown by the global economic slowdown and the crisis in the Gulf was laid out by the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala in its first budget. In what is clearly an aspiration-driven budget, finance minister T M Thomas Isaac has sought to give a big push to infrastructure development using extra-budgetary resources, while attempting to raise tax revenue with better tax administration and fresh imposts and provide a healing touch to vulnerable sections. Traditional industries like coir, cashew and handloom also get focus in the budget.

Modi's Foreign Policy: Westward Ho!

Two years after Prime Minster Narendra Modi took over, India's foreign policy has significantly changed its contours. Without taking parliament and Indian public opinion into confidence, the Modi government has gone ahead and virtually changed the country's traditional non-aligned status. The pro-western tilt that had started during the earlier NDA and UPA regimes has become even more pronounced in the last two years, despite India being a member of groupings like BRICS and IBSA. So much so that the Obama administration now wants India to be given the exalted status of a non-NATO ally.

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