Latest news with #Left-wing
The Print
3 days ago
- General
- The Print
Bastar's forest, land belong to its residents, security camps to become thing of past: Deputy CM
'Youth have to understand what the current government of Chhattisgarh and the Centre have been doing to deal with it. You (youth) have the great power of social media in your hands, any news spreads like a wave among you. I request you to use your social media power for these things,' he maintained. Sharma, who holds the home portfolio, noted, 'Youth should know what Maoism is, where it started and how it started. They have to understand these things.' The Deputy Chief Minister made the remarks while speaking on the issue — 'The ugly face of Maoism – from Beijing to Bastar' — at an event organized at Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Auditorium in Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar district, an official statement said. Jagdalpur, Jun 3 (PTI) Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma on Tuesday urged youth to understand what central and state governments have been doing to stamp out the menace of Left-wing extremism and contribute in eliminating the ideology of the outlawed CPI (Maoist). The youth of Bastar will help end the Maoist ideology with their efforts and push for development. Security forces will always be there for their protection, the release quoted Sharma as saying. He said in 1989, a massacre was carried out at Tiananmen Square in Beijing because some youths had demanded democracy. Sharma said, 'Maoists want to form a government with the barrel of a gun. They want to form the government by killing democracy. They want to form the government like they have formed in China. They want to subjugate the people in the same way.' Referring to the opposition, he said, 'There are some people who travel from here to there, saying that (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi ji's government, (CM) Vishnu Dev ji's government are taking action (against Naxalites) so that resources of Bastar are handed over to someone. 'They are trying to spread big lies. I want to tell you that the intention of Chief Minister is very clear — water, forest and land of Bastar belong to Bastar, to the youth of Bastar, to the people of Bastar. Development of Bastar will be on the Bastar model. It will be done according to Bastar,' he asserted. Sharma said in the coming years, there will be no need for security camps in Bastar. Once Naxalism is eliminated, these camps will become centres for collecting, processing and marketing forest produce. PTI TKP RSY This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Demonising Thatcher may backfire for Keir
Faced with a new challenge in Reform UK's surging support in the polls, Sir Keir Starmer has turned to an old strategy: attempt to invoke the spirit of the 1980s, and call on tribal Labour loyalties in the fight against Thatcherism. In his speech today, the Prime Minister framed Britain's politics as a two-horse race between Left and Right. Where he differed from his predecessors was in defining this as a choice between Labour and Reform, dismissing the Conservatives as 'sliding into the abyss'. Nigel Farage will surely be delighted; it is a coup for Reform to be described by the Prime Minister as the de facto opposition given its status as outsider. It is this status, also, that seems to have dictated Sir Keir's line of attack. While the Tories can be held to their record, part of Reform's appeal is its lack of one. Mr Farage and his colleagues, having never governed, are untainted by the policy failures of the past 28 years. As such, Sir Keir has attempted to pin upon Reform the mantle of a Tory revival: the old enemy with a new face. All the old warnings were wheeled out. Mr Farage would 'spend billions upon billions upon billions' in 'an exact repeat of what Liz Truss did'. Reform's leader had no understanding of what it was like to grow up 'in a cost of living crisis', and would use 'your family finances … as a gambling chip on his mad experiment'. And while Sir Keir had 'protected those jobs' threatened by US tariffs, Mr Farage would not have. Supporting Reform, in other words, was supporting the pit closures, or their modern equivalents. No doubt the poll tax would have been trotted out had fiscal profligacy not been the theme of the day. The language may well appeal to Labour's base, and it would be unsurprising if jabs over the NHS and other invocations of Left-wing shibboleths follow. The general public may be less perturbed. While Reform has a great deal of work to do before its policies are a serious prospectus for government, observing as much is unlikely to be a killer blow from a man whose time as party leader has been defined by a series of screeching U-turns. A dose of genuine Thatcherism would probably do Britain good, and it is to be hoped that the Tories as well as Reform will embrace this spirit. Despite Sir Keir's jibes, he has done little to shift the country off an unsustainable fiscal course, and raised incentive-sapping taxes that destroy economic activity. By the next election, portraying his opponents as 'Thatcherites' may prove an own goal. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Germany offers to host Harvard ‘exile campus'
Harvard University could establish an 'exile campus' on German soil in response to Donald Trump's attempts to purge the institution of alleged Left-wing tendencies, Berlin's culture minister has suggested. This week, the US president tried to block the US's oldest university from enrolling any more international students by ordering his embassies to pause student visa interviews. It followed efforts to cancel the university's funding after it refused to remove diversity policies. Wolfram Weimer, Germany's culture minister, told Bloomberg News: 'I suggest that Harvard University establish its own exile campus in Germany. Our country stands for freedom of art and the press, for quality of studies and openness, discourse and diversity.' Students from Harvard were 'very welcome' in Germany, Mr Weimer added. He gave no concrete details of his proposal, but his office said that if his idea was considered a good one by Harvard then 'the respective departments concerned will discuss [it] in close coordination with each other'. Markus Blume, the Bavaria state education minister, backed the plan, saying: 'With its top universities, Bavaria has an outstanding offer for all students in the world.' He added: 'Our arms are open.' Mr Weimer last week described Mr Trump's measures against Harvard as a 'heavy blow against academic as well as artistic freedom'. He added that it 'shakes the transatlantic relation, which is built on shared values'. Andreas Gran, a professor at Frankfurt's International School of Management, said any foreign students who could not get into Harvard because of the US president's actions 'should be admitted to us – academic freedom applies here'. Karl Lauterbach, the former German health minister and a Harvard alumnus, also encouraged students to come to Germany, saying: 'We offer excellent opportunities and prospects after graduation.' Germany, however, is no stranger to clashes over academic freedom, with the last government's education minister having drawn up lists of lecturers to defund after they signed an open letter in support of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Prof Margarita Tsomou, a speaker from Krisol, an academic freedom network, told The Telegraph that Mr Weimer's proposal was 'highly hypocritical since he applies the exact same justification of anti-Semitism accusations as Trump for restructuring culture politics in Germany'. Mr Weimer's proposal was not welcomed by everyone. An MP from the far-Right AfD party wrote on X: 'The German government wants to make Germany the world centre of Islamism and anti-Semitism.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Chhattisgarh cops not keen to give Basavaraju's body to family
NEW DELHI: Chhattisgarh Police is purportedly not keen on handing over the body of slain CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju - killed in an encounter last week at Narayanpur in the state - to his "family" amid fears that a public funeral, left to his kin, may unnecessarily end up glorifying the top Maoist mastermind behind the brutal killing of hundreds of security personnel and innocent tribals. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Sources in Chhattisgarh Police said Basavaraju is survived by his stepmother and brothers in his native place in Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam district. His brother and few cousins have approached Chhattisgarh Police over the last few days to claim his body for performing last rites in Andhra Pradesh. Chhattisgarh Police is verifying the claims and will consider all aspects before taking a final call, TOI has learned. Senior officials hinted that Chhattisgarh Police may take a cue from Jammu and Kashmir, where, as per standard practice since 2019, bodies of terrorists killed in encounters with security forces are not handed over to their kin but laid to rest by police, unmarked, at designated burial grounds in the presence of only a few immediate family members. This is to guard against the past trend of massive public gatherings at funerals of terrorists organised in their native villages, which made them a potential ground for radicalisation and recruitment of local terrorists. "We may find a middle ground and allow relatives claiming Basavaraju's body to attend the funeral to be conducted by police at a secure location, away from the public eye. This would avoid a 'law and order' situation, and ensure the funeral is not mischievously converted into 'hero's farewell'," said a government functionary. A police officer said while the bodies of over a dozen of the 27 Maoists killed in the Narayanpur operation have been handed over to their kin in Chhattisgarh, doing the same for a leader of Basavaraju's stature is not seen as advisable. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "Basavaraju possibly had no contact with his family in Andhra Pradesh for over four decades, given his reclusive nature and Ninja-type movements. Interestingly, none of the relatives claiming his body have issued a public appeal or spoken to the media in the past, condemning his association with the CPI (Maoist). Even when confronted by police, they had disowned Basavaraju and distanced themselves from his violent ways," the officer said. Another officer told TOI there is suspicion that Basavaraju's relatives may have been secretly egged on by Maoists to claim his body, with the devious motive of using his public funeral to immortalise him as a "Maoist hero" and ignite support and sympathy among the public for Left-wing extremists.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Starmer's winter fuel capitulation has made Reeves's life a whole lot worse
Sir Keir Starmer's about-turn on winter fuel payments defused a backbench rebellion but there is no such thing as a free lunch. What is convenient for the Prime Minister is just the opposite for his Chancellor. Rachel Reeves nailed her credibility to the policy, citing her first major act in No11 as absolute evidence of her dedication to reducing borrowing. Cutting winter fuel payments was supposed to prove Labour could be trusted with the public finances and show markets that Sir Keir's administration could face down both his own Left-wing MPs and Britain's powerful pensioners, defying the so-called 'grey vote'. Now that plan has been shredded, and at the worst possible time for the Chancellor. Despite Reeves's record-breaking tax raid in last October's Budget and her insistence that she has put the finances back on an even keel after inheriting a 'black hole' from the Conservatives, the numbers are not complying. The Chancellor borrowed £20.2bn in April alone, new figures show. That is up from £14.1bn in March and from £19.1bn in April of last year. It is also more than economists had anticipated, especially given the tax increases which came into force last month. Employers' National Insurance contributions (NICs) jumped from from 13.8pc to 15pc, and the income threshold at which the tax is paid fell from £9,100 to £5,000. Sure enough, 'compulsory social contributions', the measure of National Insurance tracked by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), brought £14.7bn into the Treasury's coffers last month, up by £1.7bn compared with April of last year. Higher income tax, VAT, stamp duty and tobacco duty revenues also helped central government tax receipts rise by £3.6bn to £62.1bn in the month. Unfortunately, spending increased even more quickly. Public sector pay rises and higher running costs helped push up government departmental spending by £4.2bn. Benefits spending rose by £1.3bn to £26.8bn, with inflation-linked payments and the state pension triple lock driving up the welfare bill. Overall, the Government spent £6.6bn more in April than a year earlier but its revenue increased by only £5.6bn. It is in this parlous financial situation that the Prime Minister has decided to order the Chancellor to spend more on winter fuel. There are further threats too. The Government has to pay interest on its £2.8 trillion debt, a bill which came to £9bn in April. That is down from £9.5bn a year ago as around one-quarter of the debt is linked to inflation, which until recently was on a downward trend. But inflation is now rising again and the Bank of England is under pressure to stop cutting interest rates. Financial markets are also getting twitchy – and this has the potential to be the most critical factor. The investors who lend to governments in bond markets are increasingly worried about the US's $37 trillion (£28 trillion) debt pile. Donald Trump is piling on more borrowing under his 'big, beautiful' budget plan and there are fears about how sustainable this is. As a result, investors are demanding a higher interest rate to lend to the US. It is conditions in the American market that set the tone – and the price – for debt globally, threatening to push up borrowing costs for Reeves. The interest rate on 10-year gilts, as UK government debt is known, has risen from a low of 3.7pc last September to 4.7pc today. Adding to woes is the fact that the Bank of England's quantitative easing (QE) policy, launched in the financial crisis and ramped up in Covid, is now a drag on finances. While this money-printing scheme helped to ease financial conditions during times of calamity, higher interest rates mean the Treasury is now obliged to help the Bank of England pay interest to commercial banks that hold the QE cash. The Treasury's latest quarterly bill landed in April, showing it transferred another £4.1bn to Threadneedle Street. The smallest relief has been offered by the ONS in the form of a revision to data for the financial year that ended in March. The Government borrowed £148.3bn in the 12 months, which is £3.7bn less than initially estimated. However, it is still £11bn more than the Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast, indicating that Reeves's starting point is merely slightly less awful than had been the case a few weeks ago. Now she has to work out what to do about it. Downing Street argues that the improved state of the economy – GDP grew by an unexpectedly strong 0.7pc in the first quarter of the year – means the public finances are on a stronger footing, and so the winter fuel about-turn is affordable. Ruth Gregory, at Capital Economics, is unconvinced. 'Business surveys suggest that strength has fizzled out at the start of the second quarter. This will filter through into weaker tax receipts in the coming months,' she says. 'With the PM announcing a partial U-turn on the cut to winter fuel payments, the dilemma faced by the Chancellor over how to deal with increased spending pressures in an environment of low economic growth and high interest rates hasn't gone away. 'With the markets seemingly uneasy about more public borrowing, further tax rises are starting to feel inevitable.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
