2020

DOCUMENT
Communist Party of India Ajoy Bhawan 15, Indrajit Gupta Marg New Delhi - 110002
March 25, 2020
Press Release
CPI Terms Rs 15,000-Crore Modi Package as Very little
Communist Party of India General Secretary D Raja issued the following statement on March 25, 2020 terming PM’s financial package of Rs 15,000 crore for healthcare as very little:
The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India is of the strong view that the financial package of Rs 15,000 crore for (…)

by Hem Borker
Nothing about the riots that unfolded in Delhi, the police repression of the student protestors in Jamia Millia Islamia or the mob lynchings of Muslims, is spontaneous. The reason for this deep-rooted hatred and inhuman violence lies in the politically-designed, socially-embedded trajectory of Discipline-Hate-Punishment, which we routinely see playing out before our eyes.
As gory images of the violence unleashed during the Delhi riots started streaming in, there was soon a (…)

March 26, 2020
Soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation on Wednesday on the government’s coronavirus response and measures to be adopted to deal with the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to him on the phone. The Indian and Russian readouts (here and here) have alike highlighted that the two leaders “agreed to strengthen coordination in the coronavirus response effort” (Kremlin).
The two countries are facing similar challenges. Having done very (…)

International Press Institute, 25 March 2020
The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists for press freedom, today called on European leaders to protect free flow of information and ensure that media freedom will be guaranteed as states strive to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
IPI joined together with eight other press freedom bodies to express its profound concerns about the dangers of governments taking advantage of the (…)

by Mustafa Khan
Impunity in Indian context differs from region to region and from group to group. When witches were hunted tried and condemned to be burnt at the stake there was no avoidance in the western countries. In New England the people believed that the devil lived just off the clearing in the forest. In Delhi they are burning Bharatvasi who are passed off as Indians without a religious tag! And now when the deadly coronavirus is raging this Friday the PM Modi is still fiddling with (…)

Musings - March 25, 2020
If we are over with clapping and banging on thaalis and the other noise rendering sessions, its time to sit up and see the dark realities hitting millions amongst us. Lack or rather the near-absence of water. And when we say wash hands every twenty minutes with water and soap to keep off the Corona virus, do we realize that millions do not have access to water nor soap. At times not even a drop of clean drinking water! Nor do they have access to the basic food (…)

Islam and Hinduism are only different pigments used by the Divine Painter to picture the human species. To show bigotry for any man’s creed and practices is to alter the words of the Holy Book.
Shivaji to Aurangzeb, 1679
It is not true that Shivaji succeeded because he believed in the Hindu religion. Evidence suggests that he set out to do something better for the world than merely save his religion.
Govind Pansare
Shivaji (19 February, 1630 — 3 April, 1680)
The contested social (…)

In summing up the role of the Indian judiciary in post-Emergency years, the eminent scholar of Jurisprudence, S. P. Sathe observed: “Post-emergency judicial activism was probably inspired by the Court’s realization that its elitist social image would not make it strong enough to withstand the future onslaught of a powerful political establishment. Therefore, consciously or unconsciously, the Court began moving in the direction of the people…it facilitated access to the courts by relaxing its (…)

Before the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register dharna at Ghata Ghar was symbolically withdrawn on 23 March morning, I happened to visit the dharna site on 21 March evening with the purpose of sitting their with my spinning wheel or Charkha in support of the women. Immediately the police arrived and wanted me to leave the site citing that it was a women’s protest. I’ve been here earlier and have spun a couple of times outside the area (…)

EDITORIAL
Shorn of any partisan approach the PM’s address to the nation yesterday on the corona crisis across the country highlighting the need to comprehend in full measure the enormity of the danger before us was indeed welcome as he spoke, for once, as the PM of the entire nation, a task he has seldom performed with the desired effect. On March 19 he spoke like a national leader underscoring the words “sankalp” (resolve) and “sayyam” (restraint), most necessary in the prevailing (…)