2020

* Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Dec 26, 2020
* Feud in Ruling Communist Party Lands Nepal in a Crisis| Barun Das Gupta
* Vajpayee The Mask December 24, 2020 Also Born On Christmas | John Dayal

Letter to the Readers – Mainstream, Dec 26, 2020
The Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly had been dissolved in November 2018 and then the Central Government abrogated Article 370 thereby taking away the Special Status of the State on August 5, 2019 and detained political leaders of all parties except for the BJP for a long spell of a year and more leading to a paralysis of political activity. People of the former State have voted in the recently held local body District Development Council (…)

The unending feud in the two factions of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) has landed the country in a first class political crisis. Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli, who lost majority in the House of Representatives or the lower House of Parliament did not resign, as is the practice in a parliamentary democracy, but prevailed upon an obliging President to dissolve Parliament instead. General election was due in 2022 but now it has been advanced to April 30 and May 10 net year.
When (…)

The Christian community is celebrating Christmas, perhaps more joyously this season so as to get over the trauma and the gloom of the Covid pandemic. Most churches, however, did not have the traditional midnight mass, and parishioners of many city churches were requested to call early so that they could be allotted seats in churches observing a very strict social distancing. Many attended a virtual Mass, for Catholic, or a prayer service live-streamed over the internet through dedicated (…)

by P. S. Jayaramu
In Karnataka Politics, Janata Dal (S), popularly known as JD(S), is very much in news. It’s State President Kumaraswamy has supported the BJP led Yediyurappa Government on a few issues where it badly needed his support. Firstly, the amendment to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act (1961which give the right to any one to buy farm land which was previously restricted only to those with agricultural backboard. He defended his decision stating that by ending 79(a,b) of the Land (…)

by Prof. (Dr.) M. R. Biju and M.R.B.Anantha Padmanabha
Prelude
Article 243 E and 243 U of the Constitution of India deals with the question of duration of Panchayats and Municipalities and periodicity of elections to the rural and urban local bodies. It says “Every Panchayat/Municipality unless sooner dissolved under any law for the time being in force shall continue for five years from the date appointed its first meeting and no longer”. This constitutional provision also prohibits any (…)

by Arun Srivastava
The much publicised December 25 meeting of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi with the agitating farmers proved to be a non-event. An impression was created that the exercise undertaken on the birthday of the former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was a serious attempt to diffuse the impasse. But in reality it simply aggravated the situation and made the farmers harden their attitude. Today’s Modi’s assertion has made them disillusioned and are now sure that he was (…)

In the Covid pandemic and December winter of Northern India, a few lakh peasants and farmers have organised a protest march towards the national capital demanding the repeal of the 3 anti-farmer legislations recently enacted by the Modi Government. It is perhaps an unprecedented event in free India and the largest peasant revolt in the world ever, when the tillers of the soil and the occupants of the farmhouses have been forced to abdicate their traditional occupation for begging justice (…)

December 22, 2020.
To,
Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar,
Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare,
Government of India.
Re: Request to repeal the recent Farm Acts.
Dear Shri Narendra Singh Tomar ji,
As economists who have a deep engagement with India (we are a group of around 40 economists from across the world who work on the Indian economy), and who desire a fair distribution of income and wealth in the country, we are seriously concerned about the recent Farm Acts (…)

[Statement by a Trotskyist Platform in India in wake of the agitation against the new Farm laws]
Radical Socialist
December 20, 2020
As winter cold descends hard on North India, the newly emerged ’trolly cities’ along the length of National Highway 1 and 9 at the Singhu and Tikri borders respectively, are getting longer day by day. Carrying with them rations for months, these protests have emerged as a formidable reaction against the neoliberal march of the Khaki Brigade and (…)