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MSME sector is clearly no government priority. PM Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech did not even mention it. Indian entrepreneurs were praised, employment generation was talked about, vague assurances given for greatly boosting development of India, but the MSME sector is conspicuously absent from his speech, though it has been contributing 30 per cent of GDP, 48 per cent in exports, and employs largest number of workers among all enterprises in the country whose estimated number in unincorporated non-agriculture units was around 11 crore. Among all industrial units in India, 95 per cent are MSMEs. It holds the key to inclusive growth and plays a critical role in India’s future, how come our Prime Minister had forgotten the sector altogether?

The ruling party members hailed with cheers the finance minister Nirmala Seetharaman as she informed them in the last concluding week of the monsoon session of parliament that five loss making giants of public sector enterprises would be sold out soon. She did not indicate her action was a part of economic reform as such she was moving to reduce burden of providing finances to keep them running. Her announcement was welcomed as it indicated the reversal of the restricted economy concepts pursued by the Congress regime for first three decades. She was providing a firm foot hold to private players as all five units are a part of core economics.

India and Pakistan are both turning 75 and the wounds of Partition have long dried up. But the thought that enabled the division of the subcontinent is not dead. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Horrors Remembrance Day’ will be observed, reluctantly by a swathe and eagerly by another, those who call themselves the ‘New India’, for whom “Horrors Remembrance Day” is a tight slap in Pakistan’s face.

The inevitability of the farmers agitation influencing politics and the approach of political parties towards the farmers issue determining the future course of the stir itself is becoming clearer by the day as elections in crucial states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are approaching. It is not secret that a section of the agitation leadership does have political ambitions, although opinions are divided on such a major change of course.

Parliament can change its rules to give MPs more teeth in questioning the government and empower its committees to become critical stakeholders in the law-making process. This will increase the stake that MPs have in the effective functioning of the institution, and disincentivise them from disrupting it. But this alone will not stop parliamentary disruptions.

Father Stan Swamy spent his life working with Adivasis in Jharkhand in defence of their rights. He did not want their jal, jungle, zameen exploited by unscrupulous and corrupt vested interests. For this, he had to pay the ultimate price! On 8 October 2020, he was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case, though he had no connection with it. He died waiting for a chance to clear his name.

The catchy slogan, Naya Pakistan, riding on which the meteoric advent of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf took place eight years ago now confronts its supremo and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan Niazi in the 75th anniversary year of the birth of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s dream nation. Two years ago, the PM, flanked by' Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi, adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, adviser to Prime Minister on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, and minister of state for overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari, conceitedly told a packed house, mostly comprising non-resident Pakistanis in Washington,” People ask where is Naya Pakistan?’…It is being created in front of your eyes. "Democracy is successful when the leadership is answerable."

Independence Day is something special this year, not only because we are celebrating the 75th Independence Day, or beginning a yearlong celebration during the 75th year of Independence, but also because it reminds us about the threat of modern day slavery of the working class and their struggle to protect their rights to decent work and social security.

At long last, the opposition parties are showing signs of unprecedented unity in taking a common position against the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The abrupt ending of the Parliament session by the ruling regime on August 11 instead of the scheduled August13, was a deliberate decision to avoid any discussion on the allegation of snooping by Pegasus software. The Government knew what it had done in 2017.Already French, Israel and US government agencies have initiated investigations. It was a compulsion for the Modi Government to avoid any such move.

Much has been and will be written about Justice Rohinton F. Nariman, who retires from the Supreme Court on August 12.