Mainstream Weekly

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• Budget 2024-25: An Aura of Words for States other than Bihar & Andhra Pradesh | SS Sangwan

  27 July 2024

  The transfers to all states through Finance Commission Grants is lower by 6 % in BE over the revised estimates of 2023-24. Even it has decreased by about 20 % in the last year. Under discretionary grants, the allocation has increased by about 18 % compared to 5 % in the previous year. There is increase in transfer through centrally sponsored schemes by about 10 % compared 5 % in the last year. It also support that transfer to states as per political considerations have increased in the last (…)

• Yes, the Subaltern Speaks! | Ajay Kumar Mishra

  27 July 2024

  Introduction
  My encounter with a subaltern voice comes from an anecdote involving a poor, widowed Dalit woman, approximately 55 years old, mother to four daughters, who arrived barefoot to secure college admission for one of her daughters. Upon receiving admission approval, her eyes gleamed with hope. This subaltern is vocal about her reality and dreams. The realisation of her dreams now hinges on the mainstream’s willingness to address subaltern educational aspirations. In the meantime, (…)

• Tribute to Samar Bagchi | Suresh Khairnar

  27 July 2024, by Suresh Khairnar

  It must have been 1990-91 after I became friends with Samar Da. We used to sometimes go to Calcutta Coffee House to hang out. One day we were both sitting at a corner table in the coffee house. After some time, three-four youngsters, including a girl, stood up with diaries in their hands and started saying autograph please. Samar Da said smilingly, "Suresh, they are asking for your autograph." I said, "Not at all, they have come for your autograph." Because Samar Bagchi was probably India’s (…)

• Will delhi live another life? | Jeevesh Gupta

  27 July 2024

  Dil-o-Dilli donon agar hain kharaab
  P’a kuchh lutf is ujde ghar mein bhi hain
  (My heart and my Delhi may both be in ruins
  There are still some delights in this ravaged home.)
  The above lines by Mir Taqi Mir were written in the 18th century after Delhi had died many a times and risen from ashes regaining its breath every single time. Mir still expressed that there is something about Dilli which keeps it delightful despite having witnessed many invasions and assaults, even massacres. (…)

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  Statement by Radical Socialist on the raging student movement in Bangladesh

  27 July 2024

  The Sheikh Hasina led government in Bangladesh likes to promote itself as anti-communalism and democratic. But in reality, this is an extremely authoritarian government. Two elections, 2018 and 2023, have been won by them through extreme rigging, the level of which is unachievable currently by any party in India . The raging student movement against quota culture in Bangladesh and the repression that the thugs and lumpens of Awami League is unleashing on it, is rare in India except in (…)

• Thousands evicted in Paris ahead of 2024 Olympics | Bharat Dogra

  27 July 2024, by Bharat Dogra

  At a time when most of the discussion is about who will win most medals, on the margins of the Paris Olympic Games several social groups have intensified efforts to prevent the further eviction of any more people. RDLM, a collective of over 80 different organizations, has alleged that thousands of the most vulnerable people including homeless and migrant people have already been evicted in a number of different actions. The number is likely to be around 12,500. In June this collective (…)

• Elections 2024: Democratic Ethos and Plight of Minorities | Ram Puniyani

  26 July 2024, by Ram Puniyani

  The recent order requiring eateries in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to display name plates — which has been stayed by the Supreme Court — has drawn chilling comparisons to apartheid-era South Africa and Nazi Germany, where Jews were forced to identify their businesses, precursing brutal persecution.
  In the 2024 general elections, the decline of the electoral clout of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its failure to reach the majority mark sparked hope that the democratic decline in (…)

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  statement by Ms Amarjeet Kaur General Secretary AITUC on the Union Budget 2024

  26 July 2024

  All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)
  Press Statement
  [July 23, 2024]
  The following preliminary statement by Ms Amarjeet Kaur General Secretary AITUC on the Union Budget presented today.
  Budget 2024 – 25 – A Document of betrayal
  Budget gives no hope to the labour, farmers, unemployed, and the have-nots
  It deceives the students, women and elderly
  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has presented budget for 2024-25, the seventh (…)

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  With per capita allocation of Rs.638/- health budget a joke | IDPD

  26 July 2024

  Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD)
  Date: 23.07.2024
  PRESS RELEASE
  Reacting to the health budget Dr Arun Mitra – President Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) has said that the allocation to health is far away from meeting the people’s health needs. The allocation for health is only 89287 cores rupees out of a total budget of 48.21 lakh crore rupees. This means health has been allocated only 1.8% of the total budget. If we calculate the total amount of budget (…)

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  Union Budget 2024-25 for Corporatisation of Agriculture | Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Jul 24, 2024)

  26 July 2024

  Samyukt Kisan Morcha
  Press Note issued in the virtual press conference
  24th July 2024, New Delhi
  Union Budget 2024-25 for Corporatisation of Agriculture
  Call for Burning Copies of the Budget in Villages
  Widest Unity of Farmers, Workers, Youth- Need of the Hour
  Appeals State Governments and Political Parties to fight policy of Power Centralisation in Agriculture, Cooperation to Seize the Rights of States
  No MSP@C2+50%, No Minimum Wage, No Wage Hike in MGNREGS
  Cut in (…)