Student Organisations Join Together To Fight Attacks on Education

Four student organisations – SFI, AISF, AISA and AIDSO – have come together to launch a movement at the national level against the centralisation, commercialisation and communalisation of education. In a joint declaration, the organisations said efforts will be made to bring on board students’ organisations and groups at the state, district and campus levels who agree with the basic understanding as outlined in this declaration. Below is the text of the joint declaration:THE attacks at all levels and in different spheres of education have intensified further in the one year of Modi regime.

Economics and the Two Concepts of Nationalism

THE Westphalian peace treaties in 1648 which ended the thirty years’ and the eighty years’ wars in Europe are considered to have ushered in the era of nationalism and nation-States in that continent. But the concept of “nationalism” that emerged there was a non-secular majoritarian concept, which invoked both Christianity, and a sense of “otherness”, shading into oppression, towards various domestic minorities.Such nationalism did not preclude colonial conquests directed at other people.

DSMM Congratulates APSC for its Victory

The Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch has welcomed the lifting of the ban on the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle and congratulated the students for their victory. In a statement issued on June 9, the DSMM said that it is due to the fight put up by the students, their resolute opposition to the de-recognition of the APSC by the IIT-M administration and due to the popular pressure mounted by all the democratic sections of the society that led to lifting of the ban on APSC.

On De-recognition of APSC in IIT-Madras

THE de-recognition of the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC) in IIT-Madras at the behest of the HRD ministry invited reactions from various sections. The central executive committee (CEC) of the SFI had given a call to form Ambedkar-Periyar Forums on campuses across the country not only in solidarity with the friends in IIT-Madras, but also against the casteist-brahmanical regressive ideology of the Sangh Parivar.

Scuttling the Ishrat Case

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on June 9, 2015.THE decision of the central government not to sanction prosecution of some Intelligence Bureau officials in the Ishrat Jahan murder case is a blatant attempt to subvert the case. The CBI, after investigation, had proceeded to chargesheet those involved in the crime, including the four IB officers. The decision of the home ministry to protect these persons is unconscionable. Both the BJP government at the centre and the BJP government in Gujarat are working in tandem to undermine t

Condemn Arrest of Law Minister

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on June 9. THE arrest of the law minister of Delhi Jitender Singh Tomar by the police is a shocking instance of arbitrary exercise of power by the Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung. The Delhi police is under the jurisdiction of the Lt. Governor. The arrest has been effected when the matter of an alleged false degree acquired by the minister is before the court. The BJP government at the centre is using the Lt. Governor to ride roughshod over the elected state government of Delhi. The Lt.

Two Agendas: One Modi

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi during his one year of undisputed and unchallenged leadership of the Indian State had to single-handedly carry on his shoulders an extremely contradictory complex agenda of rising to the expectations of the Hindu Sangh Parivar on one hand and on the other the capitalist class. The public celebrations have been focused on the so-called achievements of the one year of the Narendra Modi government with a view to communicate with the various sections of the public about government’s achievements. However, the one- year celebrations are focused on peripheral basis.

CITU Opposes Govt Move to Amend Industrial Employment Rules

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has opposed the proposed amendment to the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central Rules, 1946, which aims at introducing “fixed term employment” with the unfettered right of the employer to retrench without notice and compensation, and appealed to the government to withdraw the proposal.In a letter to Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on June 9, CITU General Secretary Tapan Sen said, “It is really shocking because, the Ministry could silently issue the notification without consulting the Central Trade Unions and asking their opinion on

CITU Organises Massive Picketing in Tamilnadu

DEMANDING implementation of seven-point charter of demands, members from various unorganised sectors affiliated to the CITU staged a massive picketing across Tamilnadu on June 9.

The Resistible Rise of Economic and Religious Rights in Gujarat

IN Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and the State: A Biography of Gujarat (OUP 2012), Nikita Sud traces the state's politics under colonialism and later under its Hindu religious and business elites. Their joint vested interests led to the parallel consolidations of the economic and religious rights in Gujarat. The region inherited a rich mercantile as well as a rich peasant-artisan based handicrafts traditions that go back to three millennia. The region also inherited a rich plural culture that has been well chronicled in early and medieval Indian and Asian sources.

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