AUGUST 5 marks the completion of a year since the infamous steps were taken in parliament to nullify Article 370 of the constitution that provided for special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir and the damaging legislation which dismembered the state and created two union territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.  At one stroke, the Hindutva rulers reneged on the promise made to the people of Kashmir at the time of the accession that J&K will be accorded autonomy, resulting in the special status provided in the constitution.

I HAVE written about this in the past, but since bad economics comes thick and fast from the representatives of finance capital, especially the Bretton Woods institutions located in Washington DC, there is no harm in my repeating myself.The issue relates to a fiscal deficit and has acquired urgency at present because revenues of governments everywhere in the world, including India, have declined owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown, while the need for government spending on relief and healthcare has escalated steeply, necessitating larger fiscal deficits.Two grossly erroneous propositions

THE media is agog with stories about rail privatisation. The ministry of railways has sought private players’ request for qualification for 151 trains running on 109 rail routes. Howrah-Delhi, Howrah-Chennai, Howrah-Mumbai and Delhi-Mumbai are among the routes to be privatised. The lifelines of Mumbai and Kolkata, the suburban trains, will also be given to private entities.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on July 20THE third wave of floods in Assam, a more devastating one, has seriously affected the life and livelihood of more than 35 lakh people. Already 84 people have lost their lives. More than 3000 villages of 24 districts are damaged by land erosion by the mighty Brahmaputra, Barak and their tributaries. The flood has damaged 1.27 lakh hectares of cropped area and loss of innumerable livestock.

ON July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro and his compatriots stormed the Moncada garrison as part of their struggle against the then dictatorial regime in Cuba. Though that effort failed and Fidel himself was arrested and many lost their lives, this proved to be the pivotal moment in Cuba’s revolutionary history. It gave birth to the July 26 movement that spread throughout the country and contributed to the success of the subsequent armed guerrilla struggle led by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raul Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, and others.