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Two of the Senate’s top supporters of workers, Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, have gone on the attack against corporate subsidies and irresponsibility. And though their legislation will go nowhere in the GOP-run 115th Congress, the two lawmakers are laying down markers for future legislative action to help workers.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sexual harassment complaint against P K Sasi, the CPI(M) MLA representing the Shoranur constituency, has put the party in a tight spot.

On the eve of the assembly election, Rajasthan has become a political hot-pot in which both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress are performing a tight-rope walk. Communal polarization has somewhat weakened giving way to a stronger caste polarization on the issue of reservation.

The BJP’s disconnect with Dalits is well-known. So, nobody can be faulted for seeing a sinister move in the I&B ministry’s advisory to media units not to use the term Dalit while referring to Scheduled Castes. The Dalit word has been posing the ruling establishment a challenge of unprecedented proportions, even threatening the chances for a second term for the Modi government. The word symbolised an emerging new identity for India’s oppressed people, seeking to catch up with an order that perpetrated centuries of exploitation and injustice against them.

The tenure of Justice Dipak Misra, who retires as Chief Justice of India on October 2, was mired in controversies, but he firmly stood against all the odds and had ultimately his way. The Opposition led by the Congress sought to bring an impeachment motion against Justice Misra but the motion was rejected by Rajya Sabha Chairman, Venkaiah Naidu. Naidu observed that the motion lacks substantial merit. “We cannot allow any pillars of governance to be weakened by any thought, word or action.”

Dichotomy looms on the bounce back in GDP growth in 2018-19 and its impact on job creation. Critics are puzzled that while the upturn was on account of growth in manufacturing, it has not made any proportional impact in terms of job creation.

Telangana Chief Minister, Mr K Chandrasekara Rao, a showman to claim unparalleled but untested achievements for his young State, has broken the ice for impending battles for 2019 in the South, where the Modi-led BJP has planned a major foray to earn a pan Indian presence.

A ‘senior citizen’ means any person being a citizen of India who has attained the age of sixty years or above. Population Census 2011 revealed that there are nearly 104 million elderly persons (aged 60 years or above) in India; the number of elderly persons is expected to grow to 173 million by 2026.

Nearly five lakh employees were stunned early this year when the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) responded to their demand of 25 percent wage increase with a counter offer of a mere 2 percent. It took a two-day strike on 30 & 31 May 2018 to push the management to come up with a revised offer of 6 percent. Even this was too low that it was summarily rejected by the employees.

There is no denying that Pakistan’s charismatic Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi will leave no nerve unstrained to carve a niche to prove that he is not just another premier while it will be naïve to speculate that he plans to get out of the cocoon of rightwing populism. Nonetheless, the impression is that the kaaptan will not indulge in dynastic or nepotistic politics nor give in to the lure of corruption. Some decisions, already announced, are unprecedented. Ban on foreign trips for ministers and bureaucrats for the next three months (likely to be extended) as also on air travel in business class apart, the PM’s directive, sent by his secretary M Azam Khan to heads of all government departments, directing them ‘not to suspend any contract or permanent employee in the government institutions’ (obviously, excluding those suspended by the courts) is a message of shunning vindictive tradition.