View Articles

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The beleaguered Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government received a much-needed shot in the arm with the Supreme Court refusing to stay the ongoing land survey and social impact assessment (SIA) for the SilverLine project.

Modi government has been very liberally distributing promises of help but not money. MSME sector is a case in point that is struggling for its survival, even as the Union Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises is deprived of sufficient funds for smoothly running itself, its schemes and projects. The department related Parliamentary Standing Committee has not only pointed out the inadequate allocation of funds, but also warned that it “would jeopardize the smooth functioning of the Ministry and successful implementation of its schemes/projects.”

The Joint Platform of the Central Trade Unions and the independent Sectoral Federations and Associations congratulates the workers of all sectors, organised and unorganized, the govt. departments, the public sector, the private establishments, small-medium-micro enterprises, rural and urban working people, having participated in different ways, made a grand success of this two day general strike. The participation crossed 20 crores facing all odds, ESMA, intimidation, and obstructions of all kinds including the high handedness of police in some cases and high court order in Kerala prohibiting strike for BPCL and Govt. employees.

Mercurial Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Supremo, appears to have climbed down a bit to realize that she cannot on her own bring about opposition unity under her umbrella without main opposition Congress being in the pack. The fact that she had contacted DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin to find a way to deal with high handedness of Narendra Modi led central government in unleashing ED and CBI raids among opposition leaders to make them bend and kneel down. Also she has lately been making overtures that she is not averse to the idea of Congress being part of opposition unity. Stalin who has been advocating that Congress should lead the opposition alliance, may perhaps impress upon Mamata that this is the time to be united and perhaps work towards forging a combined opposition approach to deal with the frequent central agency raids among opposition leaders and parties.

Political circles in Nepal are keenly watching how much the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will score gains in his first bilateral visit (1-3 April 2022) after taking over as the PM in July last year. Moreover, the visit takes place during the year of election to the National Assembly of Nepal. It is not that it is his first visit to India as the PM. During his first tenure as the PM in February 1996 when Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was the Indian Prime Minister, Deuba came to India as the then PM. He took along with him prasada (sandalwood) from Samrajeswor Pashupatinath Mahadev for Narasimha Rao who was pleasantly surprised at the gesture. Expectedly, the Nepali premier will repeat the gesture for his present counterpart Narendra Damodardas Modi.

The 23rd Congress of the CPI(M) is being held at Kannur in Kerala from April 6-10. The Party Congress will set out the political direction of the Party for the next three years.

Three weeks have passed since March 10 when the results of five state assembly elections were announced. From that very day, the winner in four states BJP, is preparing for the next round of elections scheduled in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat by the end of 2022. In both the states, the BJP is the ruling party but the saffrons are not taking it with ease. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself kicked up the campaign in Gujarat on March 11. The conclave of RSS soon after made an objective assessment of the results on the basis of their data analysis to work on acting on the weaknesses identified.

Nuh, Haryana: Indonesia’s Rory Hie continued in the lead following a steady second round of three-under 69 at the Gurugram Challenge at Classic Golf & Country Club here today.

New Delhi: Hockey India on Wednesday retained defender Amit Rohidas as captain while naming the 22-member Team for the FIH Pro League double-header against England to be played at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha on 2nd and 3rd April.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The two-day nationwide general strike observed on March 28 and 29 by trade unions in protest against the Union Government’s ‘anti-people’ policies was, expectedly, a success in Kerala.