India’s oldest Socialist Weekly!
Editor: Dr. G.G. Parikh | Associate Editor: Neeraj Jain | Managing Editor: Guddi
The total premium paid under PMFBY by the Centre, the States and the farmers to insurance companies during the last 5 years was Rs 1,26,521 crore, whereas the insurance companies paid only Rs 87,320 crore to the farmers towards settlement of claims.
Genetically engineered Bt cotton varieties were widely promoted by powerful private companies as being less susceptible to pests, hence reduce pesticide use and increase yields. However the actual experience of farmers in India has been very different from this.
For all the lip service leaders of the RSS and BJP pay to the Constitution, in truth they are deeply averse to its core tenets such as pluralism, caste and gender equality, freedom of speech, and federalism, writes Mahadeva.
A statement by the first tribal President of India, ‘Droupadi was not my original name’, brings back painful historical memories to Adivasi communities, the earliest inhabitants of this country. The anguish she expressed has been shared by many Adivasis, as expressed in this poem.
Few people in the nearby villages believe the project has made their lives any better. Even many of those who have found employment in and around the project seem largely lukewarm to it, as the jobs are poorly paid and exploitative, and say that they were perhaps better off without them.
In the hinterlands of Madhya Pradesh, untouchability thrives, as younger generations of Dalits, OBCs, and Adivasis accept it as a way of life. While enjoying the fruits of their hard work and labour, upper castes and even OBCs avoid physical contact with Dalits.
On October 18, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, GOI permitted the environmental release of genetically-modified mustard. Being the first food crop, expert studies question the environmental, biosafety and human health risks associated with hasty government approval.
The SC ruling has sanctioned a forward-caste only quota, endorsing the reactionary idea that reservations to SCs/STs and OBCs have resulted in injustice to forward castes who may not be equally well off. This is a stupefying inversion of our Constitution’s idea of equality.
The comparative study of increase in the MSP during the one decade of the Modi govt. and one decade of the Manmohan govt. reveals that the proportional increase in MSP during the Manmohan govt. was almost 2 to 3 times higher than increase in MSP during the Modi govt.
A malicious campaign against the peerless monarch has been going full throttle since the ascension to power of the Hindutva-propelled BJP government in New Delhi. But interestingly, the progressive policies of Akbar are detested heavily in neighbouring Pakistan also.
Janata Weekly is India’s oldest independent socialist weekly.
Ever since its founding in 1946, Janata has voiced its principled dissent against all conduct and practice that is detrimental to the cherished values of nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism, while upholding the integrity and the ethical norms of healthy journalism. For more than seventy years now, week after week, it has continued to analyse the changes taking place in the country and the world from a socialist standpoint, and thus promote the spread of socialist ideology in the country.
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