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In a written reply on December 11, 2023 in the Lok Sabah during the current winter session, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment Rameshwar Teli claimed that unemployment rate in the country has a declining trend over the year, obviously to give a political message to the electorate in general, and the unemployed youth in particular that the government under PM Narendra Modi’s leadership is performing well on the unemployment front. However, only two days later it was found that 4 out of 6 breaching the parliament security on December 13, were actually distressed on account of unemployment, and one of the arrested woman claimed that she wanted to draw attention of the Modi government.

Congress having a massive rally in Nagpur to celebrate its foundation day on December 28 is unlikely to have any significant political or electoral bearing on the RSS. Congress was born in Bombay in 1885. But the party leadership chose Nagpur as the venue of celebration for obvious reason to send a message to RSS, which has its command centre there.

The Indian stock market is looking like unstoppable, for now. The equity markets are scaling new heights and along with that, the investors are reaping riches. The BSE Sensex has increased by close to 1000 points in intra-day trading on Friday. The NSE index has climbed by close to 300 points.

BJP’s top leadership seems to act in unconventional ways. That relates to its unexpected choice of chief ministers in three states, Vishnu Deo Sai in Chattisgarh, Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh and Bhajan Lal Sharma in Rajasthan. To the public at large, and often the know-it-all media, these names could have been randomly picked up.

So after all the “jalsas” to crown chief ministers of three states — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, forget Telangana, it is ‘Congressi’ — a probe has been ordered on the Parliament security breach, with the Modi government’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi telling the country, shamed by a bunch of unemployed nondescripts, that things were on course when it's apparent that nothing about Parliament was or is on course.

With a sankalp (pledge) at KV temple of Varanasi to get rid of the anti-people government of the BJP, the Uttar Pradesh Congress will launch its UP Jodo Yatra on December 20 from Shakumbhari Devi temple in Saharanpur and culminate at Naimisharanya (Sitapur) after covering 16 parliamentary constituencies in 10 western and central districts of UP over 25 days.

Only a few months ago, RSS-BJP clan had created hype around “Nari Shakti Vandan”, just after PM Narendra Modi government had introduce Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023 on September 19 in a special session of Parliament. Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was the new epithet for the Bill which was brought forward as if BJP was the only champion of the women’s cause. In November 2023 state elections, RSS-BJP clan campaigned against ruling opposition states claiming women were not safe there, as if only opposition parties are at fault. However, in the beginning of December 2023, when Crime in India report for 2022 was released we knew that crime against in India rose sharply by 4 per cent, and situation was worse even in BJP ruled sates, such as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. And now a victim woman judge in Uttar Pradesh seeks permission from Supreme Court of India to die with dignity, since she was unable to get justice.

Parliament attack 'mastermind' Lalit Mohan Jha is in police custody. Four of his underlings – if he is ‘mastermind’, indeed – have been charged with terrorism under various sections of the UAPA, supposedly one of the toughest anti-terror legislations anywhere in the world. Does that mean, Neelam Devi, Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D., and Anmol Shinde, along with Lalit Mohan Jha, are deemed terrorists and “saffron terror” is god’s own truth, not the figment of some dervish imagination?

Come winter, a season of mellow fruitfulness, Kolkata springs up pleasant surprises. A three day festival on Sahir Ludhianvi, whose lines of love and protest are still hummed began on December 15 at Dhana Dhanyo stadium.

Neo-liberalism propagates a set of outright falsehoods to present itself in a favourable light compared to the preceding dirigiste regime in India. The basic theme is to suggest that under neo-liberalism there has been such an acceleration of the growth rate of Gross Domestic Product that the people as a whole have become much better off, and vast masses of them have been lifted out of poverty (one particular enthusiast has even claimed that poverty now afflicts only 2 per cent of the population). Of course the dirigiste period was not all milk and honey, and nobody criticised it more trenchantly than the Left; but the claim that neo-liberalism represents an advance over it as far as the people’s living standard is concerned is a preposterous one.