THE toxic activities of gau raksha samitis that have sprung up all over the country has led to increased attack on not only Muslims but also dalits. This was the pattern in the past, and also the pattern today. Even as the protests against the Una attacks rocked the country, Bajrang Dal targeted dalits in Chikmaglur in Karnataka, the eighth such attack in the last two years. This was followed by the beating of two dalit men in Lucknow for skinning a dead cow.

CONSIDERABLE confusion has been spread by the corporate media that the Rajya Sabha approved the GST Bill on August 3.  In this context, it must be understood that, as the Indian constitution stands at present, a Central Tax on Goods and Services cannot be imposed by the central government.  The constitution needs to be amended to allow the legislation of a centralised Goods and Services Tax.

DEFENCE minister Manohar Parrikar symbolises much of what is wrong with the Modi government. Parrikar, as the minister for defence, occupies a vital position in the union cabinet. But this has not deterred him from spewing intolerance and bigotry; making bellicose statements against Pakistan and compromising the image of the armed forces. More worryingly, he seems bent upon converting the Indian armed forces into a subordinate ally of the Pentagon.

“DALIT atrocity is Gujarat model, that is why Modi is silent”, said CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat after visiting Samadhiyala Village in Junagadh, Gujarat.  A CPI(M) delegation led by Brinda Karat with P K Biju MP, Arun Mehta, Central Committee member and many other state leaders met Sarviya Babu Bhai and Kavita Bai at their home, parents of the young men who were brutally beaten and humiliated by a vicious mob of gau rakshaks. They told the delegation that they were not at all satisfied with the investigation.

Today, wealth inequality in India is much sharper than ever before. The top 1 percent that owned a little more than a third of India's wealth in 2000, now own more than half the wealth in the country. In this same period, the share of 99 percent of India's population went down from almost two-third to less than half.