View Articles

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It has been an unremitting tale of neglect for Kerala in Union Budget ever since the Modi government came to power. The latest Budget is no exception to the ‘rule’!

While presenting her budget in Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tried to reason out her move to carry the budget papers in a red cloth. Red cloth otherwise has been pariah for the saffron as it symbolized Marxism for them. But here it was something different. It signified Hindu accounting process. In the old days, Hindu merchants, traders and business would wrap their accounts papers in red cloth and preceding they would worship goddess Laxmi for attaining more prosperity and wealth.

If Karnataka, with Bangalore as the IT capital of India, has banned workers’ strikes in IT industry, Tamil Nadu, with Chennai as the ‘Detroit of India’, now bans strikes in auto components industries. These so-called advanced states impose such strike bans by declaring them as ‘public utilities’ in a gross misuse of a provision in the Industrial Disputes Act (ID Act) that empowers them to ban strikes in notified public utilities. Going one step further, the State of Gujarat has even amended the ID Act itself to enhance its powers to ban strikes for one year followed by two successive years in any industry notified as public utility, though the original ID Act provides for such a ban only for six months.

BHOPAL: Three developments in Madhya Pradesh have damaged the prestige of the Bhartiya Janata Party. They are: 1. Decision of the state government to place the report of judicial commission headed by Justice (Retd.) N. K. Jain about some alleged malpractices by Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP national general secretary when he was mayor of Indore; 2. Disclosure about the obscene acts of a senior BJP leader, and 3. Revelation in the economic survey that Madhya Pradesh continues to be a BIMARU state.

Dictionaries have defined fascism as a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressed opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce etc.; and emphasizing on aggressive nationalism and often racism. It’s a political system that employs the principles and methods of fascism, especially one established by Mussolini in Italy 1922-43.

The majority of British media coverage negatively portrays Muslims, a groundbreaking report has found.

Labour is not united behind the Green New Deal, and that is a big problem for supporters of this important piece of progressive legislation. The fact is, the GND is unlikely to pass without the support of organized labour.

A rainbow of optimism has become visible in the Afghan horizon with the representatives of hitherto mutually warring sides agreeing to ink a permanent and durable ceasefire in order to terminate the 18-year-long fiercely-armed confrontation in Afghanistan at the intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha, Qatar’s capital. A permanent cease-fire means a Taliban guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for attacks in other countries as a step toward a political settlement through inter-Afghan dialogue.

Nothing is well with Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. While the rank and file is yet to overcome the shock inflicted by the electoral catastrophe, the family feud has simply pushed the party towards an uncertain future. Even senior leaders of the party are apprehensive of a split.

The move by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to deploy officers from CBI and Delhi Police to guard against abuse of Registry administration of the court amounts to an official confirmation of the rot that has set in at the hallowed precincts of the highest court of the land, just like any other institution of governance.