View Articles

The Modi government has made no secret of its intention to hand over India’s public sector to its favoured corporate houses and foreign multinationals. And this is backed not by any economic argument, but rather by its desire to raise resources for government expenditure, thereby betraying both its utter ignorance of economics and its bloody-minded determination to favour its crony corporate houses.

As the state assembly elections polling begins on March 27, Bengal is getting all the focus both nationally and internationally as the BJP leadership led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister Amit Shah, has taken this eight phase poll in the state bordering Bangladesh as the biggest challenge of their political career since the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. In no state elections, the PM and the HM have visited any state for campaigning so many times. The Home Minister is in fact campaigning in the districts and is using his clout to both directly and indirectly influencing the senior IAS and IPS officials. There are reports that district officials, especially the senior IPS officers are being transferred by the election commission at the instance of the local BJP leaders.

Even a hardened JD(U) supporter will feel ashamed at what chief minister Nitish Kumar did on Tuesday in the Bihar assembly. It is beyond imagination how he could defend the entry of the Bihar police inside the assembly precinct and thrash the opposition legislators.

The Supreme Court verdict on interest waiver during the moratorium announced in the wake of Covid pandemic and the consequent lockdown upholds the importance of natural justice in the interpretation of law, at the same time steering clear of areas that are beyond the expertise of the court.

India finds itself more concerned about the safety of its citizens even after one year of the announcement of general lockdown of the country. Vaccination drive is in place which is too slow to tame the new wave of the spread of COVID-19. ‘Variants of concerns’ have dramatically risen to 771 and still increasing fast. Theirs being capable of escaping immunity, developed naturally or induced by vaccines, is a matter of grave concern, especially in the recent spike in new cases with latest addition of 53,475 a day. India has reached its highest rate of infection in the last two weeks since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

The visit of the US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, to India barely two months after the Biden administration took office indicates the importance the United States attributes to India as a defence partner and ally.

The Supreme Court in its hearing on electoral bonds petition on Wednesday expressed right concerns about the misuse of electoral bonds but the important point which the learned judges, especially the CJI S A Bobde should know that this electoral bond issue is just a small part of the BJP government's systematic efforts since its coming to power in 2014 to steamroll the opposition parties through financial muscle power and thereby ensure its stability through funding by the big corporates. In the process an unique system of quid pro quo has been institutionalised in the Indian business world which was never in existence in this country's history since Indian independence.

LUCKNOW: Enthused by the success of nadi adhikar yatra to reach out backward community of Nishada, the Congress under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi is planning to take out Bunkar Adhikar Yatra to woo lakhs of weavers in the state. It would be worth mentioning here that Priyanka Gandhi directed state Congress to take out jal adhikar yatra for backward Nishad community who were victims of police atrocities.

With more than 70 films under his belt, Prosenjit Chatterjee is a name to contend with in Bengali films, and the world known as Tollywood. Two films where he has played the lead last week won two awards at the 67th National Film Awards. Jestoputra won the best screenplay and best music awards while Gumnaami won the best adaptation award. Despite trying hard for the past several months, the Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, been unable to get Prosenjit on its side so far. Nor has the Trinamool.

Soon, we will see a spate of privatisations. The more profound effects of this new policy approach will be felt by the banking sector. Here it is largely an issue of ideology. The nationalisation of banks was done to serve a social purpose that the private banks will never fulfill. Hence the decision of the government to privatise public sector banks may slow down the growth of priority sectors of the economy.