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Samajwadi Party Supremo Akhilesh Yadav has discovered religion, specifically ‘Hinduism’. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, with a nose for politics, took a ‘Ganga Snan’ and then took an oath to transform the Ayodhya Ram Mandir Complex into a top class wonder of the world when the Samajwadi Party will form government in Uttar Pradesh in 2027.

In capitalist economy, unemployment is one of the basic needs that keeps the worker always on the edge. The apprehension of job loss haunts all those in employment. And those unemployed keep in wait at the gate to replace those who dare challenge the system. There is never complete employment. Also the fear of job loss makes the toiler succumb to accept any wages offered. For the capitalist economy, it is necessary to keep wages low and maintain higher profits. However, unemployment that exceeds a certain threshold is typically not acceptable. As a result, daily unemployment figures are prominently featured on most television networks in Europe and the United States.

The imperialist countries led by the US have been imposing unilateral sanctions that do not have any backing from the United Nations against countries that dare to defy their diktat. According to one estimate almost one third of the countries of the world have been subject to such sanctions at one time or another. Such sanctions include the freezing of those assets of the sanctioned countries that are held in western financial institutions, as has been the case with Iran, Cuba, and North Korea among others earlier, and with Russia most recently.

LONDON: The ceasefire in Gaza, at least pausing a 15-month-long genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people waged by a depraved Israeli state, must be welcomed. If the ceasefire takes hold — always a doubt given Israel’s record in these matters — it offers some relief to the people of Gaza, whose suffering and losses are matched only by their resilience and resistance in the face of a terrifying onslaught.

Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal; Israel, Qatar and the United States have said, after more than 460 days of a war that has devastated Gaza. Apparently, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, under intense American pressure had to convince a lot of his coalition partners to seal the deal. Additionally, this deal comes as a win for Donald Trump, even before he starts his next stint as the 47th American President.

Ever since she faced the movie cameras in a tomboy's role in Satyajit Ray's Teen Kanya, in 1961, AparnaSen has been a head turner. Her unconventional beauty was heightened by her sex appeal through which her little grey cells brightly shone.

The announcement on Gaza between Israel and Hamas just five days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as the President of USA on January 20 has baffled many leaders of the peace movement as also left liberal political analysts as to how to properly assess the policies of this hard far right Republican. What Democratic President Joe Biden could not accomplish in the last fifteen months since the Hamas-Israel war began on October 7, 2023, Trump did it in few weeks after his election as U.S. President in November 4 elections last year. He did the job before taking over power formally.

Deteriorating health condition of the farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been fast-unto-death hunger strike since November 26, 2024, has become a matter of serious concern, since he has been willing to end his hunger strike if Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government agrees for talks on farmers demand, but the Centre has shown no willingness yet. On the 51st day of Dallewal’s hunger strike on January 15, 2025,Khanauri border has turned tense with another 111 farmers joining him on fast-unto-death.

The GDP growth figures being officially put out are suspect, given the fact that the calculation is based on an implicit inflation rate that is not even a fourth of that emerging from the Consumer Price Index (CPI). But despite such manipulated figures, the fact cannot be hidden that there is an economic slowdown. The latest GDP estimates for 2024-25 have also revealed this. The advanced estimates for FY 2025 have pegged India’s real GDP growth at 6.4 per cent, as compared to 8.2 per cent growth in the previous year. Earlier, the third quarter growth rate of July to September was 5.4 per cent.

Rahul Gandhi has come under severe attack from the saffron ecosystem for using the word “the state” while identifying the challenges and ideological threat the country and its people face today. Rahul is not a Marxist. But his remark “We are now fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian State itself” unravels the fact that saffron ecosystem has succeeded to a great extent in changing the basic character of Indian state, which is characterized by its values of equality, morality and decentralization of power to the grassroot level and taking care of the weaker sections of society, the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.