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New Delhi: Ace Indian archer Atanu Das has promised to put up his best performance in Olympics asserting, “Tokyo will be the best one, I will be a lot more prepared”.

Yes. This is a presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Yes, this is an election about health care, education, economy, climate justice and so many other important issues. More importantly, this is an election about whether or not we retain American democracy. This is an election the Democrats must not lose.

Ecuadorian president Lenín Moreno and his allies have gone to great lengths to prevent former president Rafael Correa and his political movement from returning to power.

LUCKNOW: CPI national secretary Atul Anjaan said that the manner in which three bills were cleared in the parliament showed as to how BJP-NDA-RSS led Narendra Modi government threw all democratic and parliamentary practices to serve their corporate interests.

BHOPAL: Covid-19 has caused strange, sometime contradictory developments. One of the major development is the total erosion of democratic practices and near collapse of institutions. It is for the first time that nearly half of cabinet consists of such persons who are not members of legislature. It is for the first time that Madhya Pradesh is being ruled by non-people’s representatives. Two of them will have to quit the ministry if they are not elected by October 22 because six month period will expire on that date.

The United Nations will be 75 next month. An organization can be considered to be still young but it is time for stocktaking. The UN came into being after its structure was finalized in an international conference in San Francisco in October 1945 in which 50 countries including India participated. Since then it has grown and today the UN has 193 members. Moreover, the United Nations of today is hugely different from the United Nations 75 years ago.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, RBG as she was known, has passed on. At 84, she said that she was amazed that people wanted to take pictures with her. This coded remark probably sought to undo several stereotypes–that only young, blond woman are attractive and that age was a disability in public life. RBG was capable of disarming anyone in a quiet way and was capable of subverting the status quo from within the status quo.

The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020 is deeply problematic because it further weakens the rights and resources available to the states by taking away the statutory promises made under the new GST regime and while on the other hand cornering public funds for PM CARES to the direct disadvantage of state relief funds.

The National Democratic Alliance government has sought to liberalise the contract labour system in the country through labour codes introduced in Parliament on Saturday by giving companies a free hand to hire such workers, along with an easier licensing regime. The central trade unions of the country are livid at the passing of the bill adversely affecting the interests of the workers. They have planned for country wide agitation against the passing of the bill by taking advantage of the present pandemic.

More than the arrogance it is the sense of insecurity gripping the RJD, and especially its chief ministerial aspirant, Tejashvi Yadav that has been proving to be a major deterrent in giving a final shape to the opposition grand alliance (mahagathbandhan) in Bihar. Only fifteen days back the general secretary of CPI(ML) liberation, Dipankar Bhattacharya has aroused the opposition passion for defeating the rightist forces by feeding the information that the grand alliance was a certainty and would soon acquire a shape. But the scenario has undergone a change. Expressing deep sorrow Bhattacharya after a fortnight informed that his party has refused to accept the number of seats offered.