The CAG Report: Raja Has No Clothes

Prabir Purkayastha

THE Comptroller and Auditor General’s final report which is circulating in the media has substantiated all the charges that  Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and MP, had made in his letter to the prime minister in May 31, 2010. The dimension of the scam for Second Generation (2G) licenses as per CAG's calculations is a mammoth Rs 1,76,000 crore. It has also brought out some new issues that were not known before. Out of the 122 new licenses awarded, 85 were to parties who did not qualify as per DoT's own criteria on eligibility. 

Legalising Injustice

Brinda Karat

A fortnight before the national advisory council finalised its recommendations for the food security bill, the global hunger index report 2010 placed India in the range of countries that have an “alarming level of hunger” ranking it 67^th out of 84 developing countries, a worse record than countries like Rwanda and Sudan. But this reality did not seem to have had much influence on the Sonia Gandhi headed national advisory council. The finalised recommendations fall far short of what is required to ensure a legal framework for food security but of even more concern is that in some respects the recommendations, through omissions and commissions do more damage than good. 

The Right-Wing in US Elections

R Arun Kumar

BARACK Obama, the president of United States is on his first visit to India, after suffering a severe reverse in the mid-term elections held to the House and Senate. Exactly two years ago, Obama was elected as the president of the US promising change amidst lot of hope. He was riding on an anti-Bush wave that swept the entire country. While his victory was correctly termed as a 'progressive change', the current reverse suffered by the Democrats too should be viewed as a 'dangerous change'. Dangerous, not because of their defeat but more due to the resurgence of the Republicans, neo-conservatives and the extreme right-wing forces  represented by the Tea party movement.

The Dilemma of the European Left

Prabhat Patnaik

THE recent developments in France take one back to May 1968. The militancy of the workers, the coming together of the workers and the students, the wave of sympathy for the striking workers, the open defiance of “the logic of the system”, are all reminiscent of May 1968. There is however a fundamental difference. In May 1968, the workers were not striking for any economic demands;

Highly Inadequate to Tackle Corrupt Practices

Vijender Sharma

ALL stakeholders in the institutions of higher education have since long been demanding that a comprehensive enabling legislation should be enacted by the central government in order to bring private general and professional higher educational institutions under social control. This should include regulation of fees and charges levied from students, admissions of students, reservations, course contents, examination, service conditions of the teaching and other employees, and infrastructural facilities.

RSS’s Terror Links

WITH increasing evidence surfacing on the involvement of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) linked people in terror attacks, the RSS appears to have adopted the policy of `offence as the best form of defence’. It has called for nationwide protest actions on November 10 with the participation of its topmost leaders. More on this later.