2024

July 24, 2024
The Union Budget was presented by the Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman on the 23rd of July 2024. This was a Budget, in a true sense, prepared under the compulsions of Coalition Government as tbe BJP could not get a majority on its own in the recent Lok Sabha elections and had to depend on the Telugu Desam and the Janata Dal (U) to form the government.
Coalition compulsions are all too evident throughout the Budget. The fact that the Budget speaks of the Central (…)

MARXISTS, COMMUNISTS AND those who claim to be ardent followers of Marxist-Leninist ideology ought to take a few lessons from the latest RSS action; dump Narendra Modi – the public face of the saffron ecosystem – to protect and preserve the basic philosophy of the politics of Hindutva. Modi though, during his ten years of rule, put his best efforts out to prepare the ground for hastening the RSS mission of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra, the parent organisation disapproves of his (…)

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 (…)

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, (…)

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 (…)

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. (…)

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 (…)

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 (…)

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 (…)

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 (…)