Year: 2017

News

Support the mass petition campaign lead by the bank workers unions!

30 December 2017

Earlier this month the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank workers unions has announced a mass petition campaign to draw the attention of the parliament and the government to the present detrimental policies on the banking sector. 

The bank workers unions have also outlined their demands in the mass petition which opposes the banking reforms and their agenda for privatisation, demands to withdraw the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) bill, and to safeguard the depositors’ money, demands to take the stringent action on the willful corporate loan defaulters, and not to pass on this burden on the shoulders of the ordinary people etc. These bank workers demands also support the cause of the farmers, ordinary bank consumers and the cooperative banks.  read more

Aadhaar
Analysis

The Aadhaar of Unfairness

26 December 2017

The following article was written by Sangeeta Delampady, a young political activist based in Bangalore.

It is not a rarity these days to receive frequent text messages asking for the linking of Aadhaar to a bank account or a mobile number. The government has been asking us to link this universal ID to various utilities. It has become voluntarily mandatory for every single citizen to link Aadhaar to several services so as to avail the required facilities without interruption or disconnection. Aadhaar has been hailed as a one-step, or to be precise, one-fingerprint solution for all our needs. This 12-digit number is supposed to make our lives convenient and give an identity to those who do not have any ID-related document. But is that really the case? read more

GST Protest
Analysis

Is the end in sight?

23 December 2017

Wind of dissent developing against Modi regime. Economic whims of Modinomics will trigger serious, longterm political implications

The current scenario looks like, India’s Modi regime has run out of steam. First time since its euphoric victory in May 2014, it is on a back-foot, even to the extent of backtracking some of its much touted policy economic decisions. Undoubtedly, even within Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), dissension is out and vocal on Demonetisation (Currency Ban) and Goods and Services Tax (GST), making Modi and his coterie vulnerable. Though it may be bit too early to predict BJP’s fortune in 2019 General Elections, for the first time in three years, on a general scale one could see winds of dissent developing against the Party wielding power for the so called monolith of Hindutva. read more

Kanch Illaiah
Andhra Pradesh

‘SAMAJIKA SMAGLARLU KOMATOLLU’
The Question Of Capital Accumulation

23 December 2017

It is more than evident now that the Hindutva brigade consisting of predominantly lumpen sections, basing themselves on the cultural and social backwardness prevalent in the society threaten anybody and everybody, and even execute their threats by physically eliminating them.

Very soon after the assassination of Gauri Lankesh, another fearless public intellectual, fighter and author Prof. Kancha Ilaiah, is being hounded, verbally threatened (over the phone)on the publication of a translated pamphlet, originally published in 2007 as a research paper on the historical evolution of castes in the Indian society. read more

Gauri Lankesh
Analysis

The assassination of dissent

23 December 2017

Gauri lankesh took on the forces of reaction through her meticulous political stand point

It started with Dhabolker, then Pansare, followed by Kalburgi and on 5th September of this year it was Gauri Lankesh. Many of us who rush to write or say things about such horrifying events are dumbstruck even to this day, months after that ghastly murder. Gauri Lankesh, who was our own and personally known to many thousands, her popularity as a people’s person became more than evident on the 12th September “I am Gauri -We are Gauri” rally, which drew thousands from all walks of life. As a testimony to her truly secular nature, people from all faiths and religions thronged the Bangalore rally. Very much like her illustrious father; P Lankesh, Gauri too was undoubtedly a unique person of the masses, who was consciously dissenting, struggling and was avowedly anti-establishment, like her father never feared to say it loudly. read more