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The rightist BJP riding on the back of its so-called secular allies, JDU and TDP, managed to get its much-hyped Waqf Bill adopted by the Lok Sabha on April 2. With this, the Narendra Modi government has moved several steps forward in not only taking over the centuries-old Waqf management from Muslims, but it has also succeeded in its avowed mission to erase the identity of the Muslims.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi national president Akhilesh Yadav has consolidated his position as leader PDA (backwards, dalits and minorities) after his opposition to waqf amendment bill 2025 in Parliament. The manner in which Akhilesh Yadav and his party MPs launched attack on BJP on the issue of waqf amendment Bill 2025 has strengthened his hold over minority community.

Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D. Raja gave a clarion call on Wednesday for the building of principled unity of all communists in India to act as the vanguard of the battle against the Narendra Modi government and the RSS-BJP led Sangh Parivar. Addressing the inaugural session of the 24th congress of the CPI(M) at Madurai, the CPI leader said that the combined Left has to mount a decisive resistance against the corporate communal assault by the Narendra Modi government in the last ten years against the Indian nation, its people and the country’s institutions.

It is curious that Indians have learnt of New Delhi’s willingness to cut tariffs for American goods from President Donald Trump rather than an official statement from the Modi government. It is as though charmed by Trump’s personal warmth towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has conceded without putting up a fight. The fact that such a significant policy shift has been revealed by Washington rather than New Delhi raises concerns about the transparency and strategic prudence of India’s trade negotiations.

President Trump inflicted 20 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports and 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods. Canada retaliated with 25 per cent tariffs on American exports worth US$ 20.7 billion. There is a possibility of expanding this retaliation to US$ 86.2 billion worth goods if Trump tariffs are not cut after 21 days. China retaliated earlier with 10 to 15 per cent tariffs on different US exports. Tariffs on India are slated to begin April 2, 2025 onwards.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has published a series of orders on April 1, 2025 allowing hike in essential medicines, other drugs, and medical equipment. Prices of essential drugs have been allowed to increase by 1.74 per cent in 2025, as against 0.005 per cent in 2024. The last five years have witnessed sharp rise in prices of essential drugs which were increased by 1.88 per cent, in 2020; 10.76 per cent in 2021; 10.76 per cent in 2022; and 12.12 per cent in 2023, making the prices already unaffordable for the common people.

BHOPAL: Both BJP and Congress have decided to take several steps to streamline their organization. BJP has decided to launch "Gaon Chalo Basti Chalo Abhiyan (Let us go to villages and communities) from April 9 to April 12. April 6 is Party's foundation day. On this day party's flag will be unfurl on party members house. On the same day party's one lakh active members will hold meetings in every booth. In the gaon chalo abhiyan every ordinary member has been asked between April 9 and April 12 will learn party's history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Welfare Programme on April 14 party will celebrate Dr. Ambedkar's birthday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has, once again, blazed a new trail by deciding to constitute a commission for the elderly, the first of its kind in the country.

If in the United States, the world’s second largest federal democracy, the number of seats in the House of Representatives could remain capped at 435 since 1913, there is no reason to justify the latest delimitation exercise to freshly fix the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each state of India for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies in keeping with the population growth. The country is now going through a census exercise after a gap of several years. In fact, India should be more concerned about how to contain its population growth and make its legislatures truly contributive to the electorate. Two years ago, India surpassed China as the world’s most populated country. This is despite the fact that China is nearly three times larger than India in terms of land mass. Ideally, India should focus on how to control the population size to benefit the public from the country’s real time economic growth after the current census exercise. The delimitation exercise should take a back seat.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] begins its five day session of 24th Congress on April 2 at Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The 24th congress, held after every three years is expected to frame the road map of the party for the next three years till the 25th congress which is scheduled for 2028. The intervening years since the last party congress witnessed the holding of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and many assembly polls to the state assemblies. In the next three years, the most important political event for the party is the holding of assembly elections in Kerala in April/May 2026 since the party is in power in the state heading the Left Democratic front government. Further, the year 2025 is the centenary year of RSS and in this year as also in the next three years, the Hindutva forces led by RSS strive to advance many steps forward to achieve their objective of establishing Hindu Rashtra.