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Editorial |
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US Agent UPA Government Must Quit Immediately!
The leaked Radia tapes revealed how corporate houses control crucial decisions made by the Central government, and exposed several UPA Ministers as corporate appointees. Now, US embassy cables leaked by the whistleblower website Wikileaks have revealed clear evidence of the lengths to which the US monitors and influences the functioning of Government and Parliament....Full text
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Commentary |
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Budget 2011:
Concessions for Corporates, Cuts for the People
With Assembly elections approaching in several key states and the government having lost all credibility for its complete failure to check prices and curb corruption, the Budget this year was widely expected to be a desperate ‘balancing act’. A ‘balancing act’ it has been, but the end result is once again more of the same: a crushing burden on the common people, bountiful largesse for the corporate biggies.....Full text
Infernos in Fukushima: Need to Re-think Nuclear Energy
PKS
Even before we could grapple with the losses due to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, news of a horrendous nuclear accident from its north-eastern prefecture of Sendai started pouring in. Three nuclear power stations – Fukushima, Onagawa and Tokai – have been badly hit by the earthquake and tsunami. Out of these, the situation at Fukushima (which houses a total of 10 reactors on its two sites – Daiichi and Daini) has become too dire. From Hiroshima to Fukushima, Japan has made a tragic journey.....Full text
The CVC Fiasco : The Appointee Has Lost His Job, the ‘Masters’ Must also Lose theirs!
Dipankar Bhattacharya
Six months after appointing PJ Thomas as the Central vigilance Commissioner, on March 7 Manmohan Singh told the Lok Sabha that the appointment was an error of judgement. The PM’s admission of course came only after the Supreme Court struck down the appointment on 3 March as being illegal and arbitrary. Till that moment the government adamantly defended the appointment in the face of a growing public outcry. The Prime Minister even advised the judiciary to stay within its limits and not intrude into the domains of the legislature or executive. At one stage Home Minister P Chidambaram, one of the three members of the High Power Committee alongside the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, even sought to argue that the government was not aware of Mr. Thomas being chargesheeted in the palmolein scam that had rocked Kerala in the early 1990s. ....Full text
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Opinion |
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What's the 'Aadhaar' of the UID Scheme?
Gopal Krishna
The national identity card scheme represents the worst of government. It is intrusive and bullying. It is ineffective and expensive. It is an assault on individual liberty that does not promise a great good…” – Theresa May (British Home Secretary) announcing the complete dismantling of the UID project in the UK in June 2010....Full text
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Commemoration |
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Remembering Dr Kotnis in his Birth Centenary Year
Anindya sen
warakanath Shantaram Kotnis was one of the younger members of the Indian medical mission to China in 1938. Born in October 2010 in a lower middle class family in Solapur in Maharastra, the young Kotnis must not have found it very easy to leave behind the prospects of a medical career for an uncertain future of selfless service in a strange land. His father, a factory clerk had had to borrow huge amount for Kotnis’ study of medicine in Bombay University....Full text
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Cover Feature |
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Against Soaring Prices, Mega Scams,
Assault on Democracy
AILC March to Parliament Demanding
‘UPA Government Quit Power!’
On 14 March, thousands of people from all over the country marched through the streets of Delhi to Parliament demanding that the UPA Government quit in light of unprecedented corruption, backbreaking price rise, rampant unemployment and assault on people’s movements.....Full text
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Campaign |
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Combating Corruption in
Corporate-Dominated India
Corruption has once again emerged as arguably the foremost concern of the Indian people. Not a week passes without some scam being unearthed in some corner of the country. These scams could be related to any department of any government, but as easily they could also involve the top brass of the Army, venerable judges of the apex judiciary or top officials of premier institutions of scientific research. While the pecuniary gains involved in these scams may not always be obvious or easily measurable, all scams slaughter public good for private gain in utter disregard for the fundamental notions of fair play and justice. Given the frequency, range and magnitude of these scams, one can easily say that corruption today is certainly no aberration; it is a hallmark of governance in the corporate era.....Full text
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Updates |
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Women Celebrating IWD Centenary Arrested in UP
Women at many places in Uttar Pradesh were forced to celebrate International Women’s Day in jail! UP has seen a spate of incidents of violence on women, with ruling BSP MLAs involved in several such incidents of rape, abduction and murder of women. Women from poor and oppressed communities in particular have been at the receiving end of these incidents. On 8 March this year, the UP Administration once again underlined its hostility to women’s assertion and demands for equality, by arresting women who had gathered to celebrate the International Women’s Day Centenary!...Full text
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International |
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Stop Imperialist Aggression on Libya
SArindam Sen
(with inputs from Arvind)
With the Western powers and their allies including the Saudi monarchy launching a military intervention in Libya, the people’s ongoing movement to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi’s regime has entered a new, more complex phase. Now in addition to their struggle against the domestic tyrant comes the new challenge of foreign imperialist intervention. At least forty eight people are reported dead in aerial bombardments and missile attacks on the first day itself, and this is just the beginning.....Full text
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