When Mamata Banerjee defeated the Communist Party of India (Marxist) last May after 34 years of power in West Bengal, her victory was portrayed by optimists as the beginning of a Kolkata Spring. Free of the communists’ rural thugs and urban heelers, the story went, the state would finally enter the 21st century. One year after Banerjee’s landslide, however, the new boss is looking a lot like the old one —...
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Inside Slave City-Debarshi Dasgupta, Dola Mitra, Pushpa Iyengar, Madhavi Tata, Chandrani Banerjee & Amba Batra Bakshi
What is it that makes the Indian middle class treat their domestic help with such derision and abuse? In her nine years as a nurse working with rescued domestic workers in Delhi, Mariamma K. thought she had seen the worst. That was until 2010, when she and her colleagues went to rescue a 17-year-old girl from a home in west Delhi. Sangeeta was found with bite marks all over her body....
More »'Wish I had not gone on hunger strike with Mamata'
-The Hindustan Times It’s like having a stomachache because of rage. I think I can’t express it with any better idiom. I’m virtually at a loss of words after hearing the news of Ambikesh Mahapatra’s arrest this morning. It has left a bad taste in my mouth. What is this? Shame on the state government, I’m aghast. Not even in my wildest fantasy could I imagine such a situation. Even an...
More »Centre needs Rs 2.3 lakh crore to fund RTE initiative by Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India With the Supreme Court bringing all recognized schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the government will have to boost spending on its flagship programme to meet the estimated Rs 2.3 lakh crore needed to fund the initiative over 2010-2014. RTE has been plagued with fund shortfalls with budgetary provision in the last two years being only half of what was estimated. The HRD ministry received Rs...
More »Marx and Engels not untouchables: Mamata
-IANS West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday said her government did not regard Karl Marx or Frederich Engels as "untouchables", in the backdrop of a recommendation made by a syllabus committee to trim the "over presence" of their political philosophy in history text books at the higher secondary level. "I have full regard for the left movement in the country. I salute both, the nationalist movement and the left movement in...
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