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On 6th December, 1992, I was barely 10 years old growing up in a Doordarshan era in a middle class family in Delhi, where television was perceived as almost an ‘enemy’ of a child’s education. Still, I managed to catch a glimpse of the infamous photo of Babri Masjid being demolished by Kar sevaks and BJP goons, which left an indelible impression on me. To a child’s mind, it was the sheer violence of an old structure being broken down that was most troubling and disturbing. Then I experienced the schools being shut in Delhi, and riots happening in North India, including Delhi and Mumbai, with incredulity and fear, as if the entire world I had known till then was being demolished.

All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has noted with concern the ”Report of the Expert Committee” of Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, on Determining the Methodology for Fixing the “National Minimum Wage.” It is flawed and questionable on different valid grounds and it cannot be considered full and final in so far as the quantum of National Minimum Wage is concerned.

Any one venturing to speak truth and that too on the face of Nitish Kumar is the most hated and despised person in Bihar. The same thing has happened with poll strategist Prashant Kishore who was made the senior vice president, second to Nitish. His only fault was Prashant had observed “Before realigning with BJP, Nitish Kumar should have sought fresh mandate. For those who saw in him a potential challenger to PM Modi, the move was a let-down. But those who were of the view that he had begun to compromise on governance in his zeal to take on Modi would feel he was right".

Women’s movements and TUs in some major industrial centres in India focused on working women’s issues while observing Women’s Day this year. As the Women’s Day 2019 was observed close on the eve of the general elections, the All-Women Coordination, a collective of 40 women’s organisations comprising Leftist, Periyarist, Ambedkarite and minority women’s groups in Tamil Nadu, released a Women’s Manifesto on the occasion of Women’s Day rally in Chennai, held however on 12 March for some logistic reasons. A close scrutiny of the issues that figured in the Women’s Day programmes in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai clearly showed that the focus this time was on the employment crisis haunting Indian women.

For years, Tom Vaddakan was a fixture in 24, Akbar Road, AICC Headquarters. Like furniture. Then, when new ones came, he was like the old office desk. Unfit around the desktops on wheels of the Internet-savvy Divya Spandana sort; the politically-heavy, close-to-Rahul Gandhi, Randeep Surjewala and Priyanka Chaturvedi-kind. Shifted from main conference hall to anteroom, Tom was not consigned to the attic because of a certain sentimental value attached, Tom Vadakkan left the building the other day and is now a glass-top tea-poy in the BJP Headquarters verandah.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

Paradox is a situation when a mathematician proves a thing true which is otherwise untrue. The latest CII report on net job creation in the MSME sector probably falls in this category of paradox as against all gloom over joblessness in the country. The report was a surprise because only a few weeks ago NSSO’s leaked survey said unemployment rate was worst in 45 years. The chairman of PM’s Economic Advisory Council had said, “We will have a new round of the NSS which will… show …substantial employment and substantiated job creation”. Now CII has come up with a survey that proves his claim. Everything seems to have a pattern in this election season.

China once again came in the way of designating JeM terror boss Masood Azhar a global terrorist in the United Nation’s list and political parties in India have reacted. Two tweets from Congress leaders put the country’s main opposition party’s view on the global community’s failure to convince China in perspective. One from party spokesman Randeep Surjewala, which he tweeted within minutes of the news breaking, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s China policy has been a “series of diplomatic disasters” and the other from Congress President Rahul Gandhi who said that “Modi is scared of Xi Jinping.”

Distressing indeed is to watch our opposition leaders fighting among themselves for petty personal gains, than taking seriously the challenges staring at the face of the country. The leaders who claim themselves to be veterans and seasoned politicians in their pursuit to protect and preserve their personal interests have miserably failed the country.

World Bank forecasts global economy to shrink to 2.9 percent in 2019, from 3 percent in 2018, citing the US-China trade tension. Given the fact that USA and China account for a little over one-fifth of world trade, the escalation in trade row will have a major impact on global trade, vis-a-vis, global economy.