THE Intelligence Bureau report suggesting that foreign-funded NGOs are holding up the nation’s “development” could be dismissed as a silly piece of officialese, were it not for the fact that the government of India seems keen to use it not just for acting against some particular NGOs but for breaking down any opposition to the process of primitive accumulation of capital unleashed by neo-liberalism.

EVEN before the new government announced the schedule for the budget session of the parliament and the date when it would present its first budget has come worrisome news on the economic front. This has two dimensions – one for India Inc. and the other for the vast majority of our people. As we noted in these columns earlier, post-elections is the payback time for those who heavily financed the BJP election campaign and forcefully projected Narendra Modi as the `messiah’ of India Inc.

BOTH Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state governments must take initiative to see that a special bench of Supreme Court takes up the Tsundur massacre of dalits case immediately, said CPI(M) Polit Bureau member B V Raghavulu in Hyderabad. He was addressing a dharna in front of Hyderabad district collectorate office organised by ‘Struggle Committee for Justice to Tsundur Dalits’, Left parties, KVPS and mass organisations on June 16.

IN a statement issued from New Delhi on June 6, the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) strongly condemned the remark reportedly made by the home minister of Madhya Pradesh, Babulal Gaur, a day before. It was reported that on June 5 the minister had said “rape is a social crime which depends on the man and the woman; it is sometimes right and sometimes wrong;” and that “it is not possible for any government to ensure that rape is not committed.”

THE Himachal Pradesh state secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)  has expressed deep grief over the washing away of over 25 people including 6 girls in Beas river in Mandi district. The CPI(M) has demanded a high level inquiry and  stern action against the guilty who allowed the water to spill over from Largi Dam  and also against the Himachal Pradesh State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC).