Editorial

IF the Modi government thought that it got a ‘clean chit’ from the Supreme Court on the Rafale deal and that it would be treated as the last word on the subject, it could not have been more mistaken. Rafale is back with a vengeance. Modi had to devote considerable time defending the deal in his marathon post-budget parliament speech and since then we have had explosive revelations concerning objections raised from within the Defence Ministry to the process of negotiation and terms of the deal.

AFTER the unprecedented CBI vs CBI showdown in Delhi a few months ago, which actually signalled the beginning of a systematic purging of the premier investigative agency in order to pack it with police officers with dubious track record known for their proximity with the trio of Prime Minister Narendra  Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, we now saw the bizarre spectacle of an open clash between the CBI and the Kolkata Police.

REPUBLIC Day 2019 was the fifth Republic Day under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi and the mood of the country was anything but celebratory. The customary Republic Day eve address of the President, the pomp and grandeur of the Republic Day parade, the long list of Padma awardees and Bharat Ratnas may suggest that it is business as usual. But if we look at the larger picture emerging from outside of Lutyen’s Delhi, we can easily see India’s continuing descent to an ever deeper crisis.

THE Constitution of India has been in existence for nearly seventy years now. When Narendra Modi credits his government for doing things that no previous regime could do in 70 years, he is certainly right in one respect. The Constitution of India has not been sought to be subverted so desperately ever in the past.

THREE months before Parliamentary elections, Delhi Police has filed a chargesheet in a three year-old “sedition” case against JNU students. The reason is transparently obvious. The JNU student activists charged with sedition, and student and youth movements all over India, have emerged as one of the most vibrant and vigorous voices of Opposition to the Modi Raj that is devastating India’s economy and social fabric.

DURING the campaign for the 2014 Parliamentary elections, Narendra Modi promised to create two crore jobs a year. Instead, it has reached the point of losing one crore jobs a year. In 2018 - the Government’s fourth year in power - 110 lakh jobs were lost in India, and unemployment rates are soaring steeply.

THE very first day of the year 2019 brought a welcome gust of fresh winds to blow away the stale, stagnant air of Brahmanical and obscurantist patriarchy. Lakhs of women stood on the streets of Kerala forming a 620 kilometer long Women’s Wall all across the state: symbolising their determination to stand as a wall against forces seeking to roll back the equality and dignity won by women and oppressed castes in Kerala and India.

In lieu of Editorial

[ Issued by CPI(ML) Central Committee ]

NO matter which way you slice it, the results for Assembly Elections in five states give confidence and fresh energy to the anti-fascist resistance and people’s movements in India.

TWENTY six years have elapsed since modern India’s most shocking incident of televised mob vandalism. If the Ram Janambhooomi campaign provided the first example of the Sangh-BJP game plan of grand communal mobilization, the demolition of the Babri Masjid gave us a clear glimpse of how the BJP could shelve the constitution and subvert the rule of law to serve its fascist agenda. Since that fateful afternoon of December 6 1992 we have had numerous examples of the fascist subversion of the state even though the specific slogan of ‘mandir wahi banayenge’ is yet to be realized in full.