THE news of the hacking of WhatsApp accounts of various activists, journalists and politicians in India through the use of the Pegasus spyware owned by an Israeli company NSO is disturbing and condemnable. The government of India has to explain how this hacking and breach of privacy had occurred and who was responsible. While the government has not come out with any explanations, more facts that point at government complicity in the hacking and surveillance have now become public.
...AS many as 1,400 smartphones worldwide – including 140 of Indians – have been hacked. This hack used Pegasus, the software tools from the notorious hacker-for-hire Israeli company NSO or Q Cyber Technologies. The fundamental question for us, is who-dun-it? The simple question that the government refuses to answer.
SIX years back, Prime Minister Modi embarked on selling the "great power” dream to the Indian masses. In 2014, Modi announced his intention to make India a “leading power” in the international order. He assumed that the country was in a perfect position to manage global affairs to serve national interests.
THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on November 6, has expressed deep concern at the mass retrenchments of employees in the IT sector. IT majors like Cognizant, Infosys, and Capgemini have reportedly announced retrenchment of thousands of workers. While Capgemini has already laid off around 5000 workers, Cognizant is reported to be laying off 7000 of its workers. Infosys announced that around 10 per cent of its...
FORMED twelve years ago, the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF), a broad-based organisation, has since carried out many successful struggles and movements, increased its influence over various sections of the society and made quite an impact in the southern state. Trade unions, associations of farmers and farm labourers, mass organisations,...
THE recent economic ‘stimulus package’ presented by the Modi government mainly to benefit the big business houses shall cost the exchequer of the country a huge amount Rs 1.45 lakh crore. More such stimulus packages are under consideration of the government. To make good the revenue loss, the government has resorted to selling out public sector undertakings (PSU) with huge physical and financial assets.
AT the Oxford Union, in a prestigious head to head debate, Sitaram Yechury opposed the motion as an Indian patriot against the suspension of article 370, the impact of the suspension in Kashmir and the manner in which it was done. The debate was held on October 29. The motion was defended by one of the vice presidents of the BJP, a former MP, Baijayant Panda.
MANABENDRA Nath Roy, popularly known as M N Roy, was an important figure in the early days of the Communist movement in India. Roy was the initiator of the formation of the Communist Party in Tashkent in October 1920. He played a pioneering role in spreading Marxist ideas and the role of a Communist Party amongst the fledgling Communist groups which emerged in India from 1921 onwards.
THE 12th state conference of Bihar AIDWA was held on October 19-20 at Madehpura Town Hall. The conference called for launching struggles against patriarchy, communalism, for joint land titles to women, land for housing to the poor and against casteist and obscurantist ideologies prevalent in the country.
COMRADE Zahoor Siddiqui, veteran communist and leader of the teachers’ movement in Delhi, passed away in Aligarh on November 3. He was 80 years old. Zahoor Siddiqui was amongst the first batch of members of the CPI(M) in Delhi. He became a member of the regional committee of the CPI(M) whose area of work included Delhi, Haryana and Western UP. Later when the Delhi state committee of the Party was formed in 1977,
