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An intensive power struggle is going on between the old guard and the young Turks in the Congress even as the party is struggling with an unprecedented leadership crisis after a humiliating defeat in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has plunged the party into a further crisis by resigning and sticking to his decision so far.

The Communist Party USA elected two new leaders with deep connections to the labor and democratic movements as co-chairs at its 31st National Convention in Chicago. Rossana Cambron, a Mexican-American woman from Los Angeles, and Joe Sims, an African-American man from New York, were picked to lead the 100-year old party into its second century.

In the era of globalisation and trade, the issues of farmers and agriculture have assumed the centre stage of global economy. There is no denying the fact that negotiations in the multi-lateral forum, World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been stalled primarily due to agriculture. The developed countries continue subsidise their farmers and agriculture, directly or indirectly, in a big way to the disadvantage of the farmers in the Third World. While the developing countries are asking for a level playing field and disciplining the subsidies, the rich countries are not yielding to give up their illegitimate sway over the global economy. They have become more protectionist in trade instead liberalising global trade in an effective manner.

India has a work force of about 54 crore people. Despite that they are engaged in the productivity and development of the nation, they remain marginalized. Since most of them are in unorganized sectors they are devoid of any social security benefits. Those in the government departments and public sector enterprises, who are covered under social security, are only about 3%. Among the rest work force small number are in formal economy and vast majority, 93%, are in the informal economy. Other than Government and public sector employees, only about 11% of the total work force is covered under the social security schemes.

The BJP has found in hyper-nationalism a surefire winning mantra. It is clear that in all the forthcoming elections, the party will beat the patriotic drum to race ahead of its rivals. The obvious advantage of proclaiming loyalty to the motherland is that the claim cannot be effectively countered.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman seems to have a tough task before her if she has to fulfil the wishes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while presenting a fresh budget for 2019-20. The prime minister has clearly told a group of economists and sectors experts about his intention to undertake fresh reform measures to boost growth and make the Indian economy competitive. This would require a radically different trend in the government’s budgeting exercise which is traditionally loaded on non-developmental expenditure and high debt servicing costs.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In politics, as in life, what matters the most is perception. CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, whose elder son, Binoy Kodiyeri, is facing charges of rape and cheating made by a Mumbai-based woman, seems to have lost the battle of perception, which is that he should have resigned his post in the wake of the revelations.

With the world is becoming increasingly multipolar and with a US President like Trump who is resorting to unilateralism and aggressiveness in diplomacy, it is quite natural that meets such as G20 are bound to be acrimonious affairs. This is exactly what happened at Osaka, Japan, the venue of G20 summit that ended on 28 June.

Namami Gange, Aviral Dhara, Nirmal Dhara, and Swachchha Kinara (Obeisance to the Ganges, Continuing Stream, Clean Stream, and Clean Banks) are only a few of the attractive slogans that have been in use for last five years. Such slogans highlight the ability of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use enticing words capable of hiding the horrible reality of the situation. Though the huge gap between his words and deeds is sufficient to expose his dichotomy, people do not perceive it as his failure. Namami Gange programme is a case in point. Ganga remains unclean, and Yamuna which is part of Namami Gange is worst polluted in Delhi under his nose. He cannot blame people for that because Yamuna is polluted at his seat of power due to untreated industrial and municipal waste.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies may be self serving but has strong logic. Will it work in present political scenario? Many opposition leaders are bitterly opposed to this idea and boycotted all-party meeting convened by PM to discuss his proposal. They see such a change as quasi-presidential system in which Modi’s popularity will overwhelm local issues, giving BJP a huge unwarranted advantage.