THE central executive committee of the Students’ Federation of India has, in a press statement issued on July 6, condemned the incidents of brutal police lathicharge against the students who were protesting on different issues related to education in Jodhpur of Rajasthan and in various parts of Kerala. The statement underlined that July 6 was the third day of the ongoing hunger strike in Rajasthan demanding proper reimbursement of scholarship, linking scholarship to inflation and better infrastructure in the hostels.

ON May 26, 2014, Narendra Modi had shouted from the rooftops that he believed in “minimum government and maximum governance”. He had also boasted that unlike the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government which had been involved in deep acts of corruption in public life, he would provide a clean government because “he would himself be above corruption and he would not tolerate any act of corruption by his government functionaries.” Arun Jaitley, not to be left behind, spoke in his master’s voice that the BJP would ensure “probity in public life”.

THE 11th state conference of DYFI Odisha State Committee was held at Berhampur on 27-28 June. The conference gave a call to strengthen the organization in the state by expanding it to new areas in the coming days and intensify struggle against the anti-people policies of the central as well as state governments and job for all.The conference commenced with the hoisting of flag. Then, DYFI general secretary Avoy Mukherjee paid floral tribute to the martyrs’ column, followed by leaders and delegates at Saheed Laxman Nayak Community Hall in Hilpatna, Berhampur.

A PURELY individual physical exercise like yoga has for the first time in the history of post-Independence India been given a national status because the central government announced that June 21 would become a landmark in Indian history when “the whole of India” would be officially expected to perform yoga exercises. The central government had asked every public servant, autonomous universities/colleges and others to observe June 21 as International Yoga Day, which was accepted by the United Nations at the sole initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

THE NDA government waged an incessant war on rural poor immediately after coming into power. As a key strategy of this war, the Modi-led government made an explicit commitment to remove any kind of State intervention which hinders the free play of market forces. The key elements of this strategy are allowing foreign and domestic private capital to poach the vast rural market through various means of market instruments. The precondition for such facilitation lies in the limiting the role of government agencies, systems that govern the economic activity in an agrarian economy.