US Navy in Lakshadweep: Gunboat Diplomacy Masquerading as Freedom of Navigation

HAVING endorsed US Freedom of Navigations on the South China Sea, the Indian government had a rude awakening. It discovered, from a US Seventh Fleet announcement on its website, that the US had conducted a similar Freedom of Navigation Operations in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around Lakshadweep on April 7. This was done without requesting India’s prior consent.

MNREGA Wage Hike of Less Than Four Per Cent is Cruel to Rural Workers

THE central government has announced new wage rates for the people working under MNREGA for the year 2021-22. According to the revised rates announced by the Ministry of Rural Development on March 15, the enhancement is from Rs 0 to Rs 23 in different states. At the national level, the hike is than four per cent which is unfair towards the poor rural workers, majority of whom are dalits, tribals and poor rural women. While the prices of essentials are skyrocketing, the government is reluctant to increase the wages.

Kerala: Unholy Nexus of Congress-IUML & BJP

AN unholy and surreptitious alliance between the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the BJP is not uncommon in the electoral history of Kerala. An undercover mutual understanding between them was found explicit exactly three decades ago when elections to the Assembly and Lok Sabha were held simultaneously in the summer of 1991.Leaders of the UDF and the BJP campaigned separately for their common candidates in Vadakara Lok Sabha seat and Beypore Assembly seat.

Farmers Block KMP Highway

TENS of thousands of farmers from the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders, led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), blocked the Kundli Manesar Palwal (KMP) Highway and the Kundli Ghaziabad Palwal (KGP) Highway at several points for 24 hours on April 10-11, 2021. All traffic on this crucial artery that connects the borders of Delhi and is a bypass for all the outer cities, ground to a halt. Huge public meetings were held along with songs and cultural programmes.

Subverting the Election Commission

THE subversion of constitutional bodies under the Modi regime is proceeding apace. Nothing exemplifies this more than what has happened to the Election Commission of India (EC).The EC’s stand on the elections for three vacant seats from Kerala in the Rajya Sabha has brought out the stark fact that the Commission is bending to the will of the Modi government.

CITU Supports Indefinite Strike by KSRTC Workers

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on April 14, has extended full support to the ongoing strike by the state transport workers in Karnataka (KSRTC) demanding immediate settlement of their long-overdue wage revision. The workers and their unions made all efforts to resolve the issue through more than a year long persuasion with the concerned authorities and the state government.

Bihar: Bust of Martyr Comrade Jagdish Chandra Basu Installed

A BUST of Comrade Jagdish Chandra Basu was installed on April 11, 2021 in Meghauna panchayat in Khagaria.Comrade Jagdish was murdered, the last year-2020 on April 11, during the lockdown. The reason for murdering Comrade Basu was that he was fighting against the culprits of the region, these culprits were involved in killing a principal of Chikni Primary School on August 15, 2019. Comrade Jagdish Chandra was relentlessly fighting for ensuring that the culprits are caught. This gang was involved in multiple murders.

Biden’s Package and Its Pitfalls

US President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue package is one of the most ambitious measures to revive the US and, with it, the world economy. Coming on the heels of Trump’s $2 trillion package last year and a further $900 billion package announced in December 2020, it seeks not just to provide relief from the pandemic but to start a new boom in the US which, it is expected, will have spill-over effects for the world as a whole, notwithstanding the protectionist measures against imports introduced in the US under Donald Trump.

WEST BENGAL: Conspiracy Resulted in Sitalkuchi Firing

THE politics of polarisation and violence took its fatal toll in Sitalkuchi in Coochbehar district in the fourth phase of elections in West Bengal. Five youth were killed, four of them in CISF firing in a bizarre turn of events.Sitalkuchi witnessed communal campaign and incitement to violence from the BJP and the TMC even before the elections. In the election campaign, BJP leaders upped the ante of their poisonous campaign. On the other hand, chief minister Mamata Banerjee called upon ‘people’ to ‘gherao’ the central forces.

Assam: A Strong Campaign for a Secular Government

THE election to Assam Assembly was held in three phases—March 27, April 1, and April 6. The turn out was massive, around 82.04 per cent and the election was by and large peaceful.After the Lok Sabha election in 2019 where BJP won nine out of 14 seats in Assam, the urge for unity against BJP slowly gained ground. The election results of 2016 Assam Assembly election and Lok Sabha election in the state in 2019 show that the combined vote share of non-BJP Parties was greater than the vote share of BJP and its allies. In the 2016 Assembly election, BJP and its allies AGP and BJP got 86 seats.

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