Wasantha Rupasinghe Yesterday, India, the third worst-impacted country in the world, reported 53,364 coronavirus infections, the highest number in a single-day in more than five months. Its total caseload is now over 11.73 million with a death toll of more 160, 440, even according to under-reported official records. The rapidly increasing number of infections
READ MOREStatement of the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) The Sri Lankan government announced on Monday that it will “develop” the Colombo Port’s Eastern Container Terminal (ECT) under the Ports Authority, reneging on an earlier agreement with India and Japan to run the terminal as a joint venture. The government, in an attempt to appease India,
READ MOREDavid North 1 February 2021 It is one year since the World Health Organization (WHO), on January 30, 2020, declared that the outbreak of COVID-19 constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued a statement accompanying the declaration noting that 98 cases had been reported in 18 countries
READ MOREJacques Valentin, Alex Lantier 1 February 2021 World Socialist Web Site Last month, the French Council of Islam ( Conseil français du culte musulman —CFCM) adopted the “Charter of Principles” of Islam imposed by the French government. The charter commits Muslim religious officials to respect the principles dictated by the French government, which since the end of 2019
READ MOREK. Ratnayake 1 February 2021 UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s recent report on Sri Lanka has recommended war crime probes and targeted sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on those “credibly accused of human rights violations.” The 17-page report was prepared for the upcoming 46th session of UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and
READ MOREWorld Socialist Web Site Our correspondent Over 500 Gartmore Estate workers at Maskeliya in central Sri Lanka remain on strike after walking out on December 28 to defend their jobs and social rights. On Wednesday, the strikers rejected an attempt by the plantation unions to push them back to work. Gartmore workers are demanding a
READ MORE14 December 2020 Rohantha De Silva India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Colombo late last month to participate in a Trilateral Maritime Security Cooperation meeting. Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Major General (Rtd.) Kamal Gunaratne, represented Sri Lanka, and Mariya Didi, the Minister of Defence, represented the Maldives at the meeting. Revived after
READ MOREWasantha Rupasinghe 8 December 2020 Indian farmers have called for a four-hour Bharat bandh (all-India shutdown) from 11 AM to 3 PM today to press their demand that the country’s far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government rescind a series of recently-adopted laws that put them at the mercy of domestic and international agribusiness. Several hundred thousand farmers,
READ MOREKranti Kumara 20 November 2020 The Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s incompetent and chaotic response to the COVID-19 pandemic has created an unmitigated socio-economic and medical disaster, with tens of millions of workers and their families forced to go hungry due to job and income losses and the pandemic raging across the country
READ MOREK. Ratnayake 26 October 2020 Last Thursday, the Sri Lankan parliament rubber-stamped the 20th Amendment to the constitution, which gives sweeping autocratic powers to the executive presidency—in line with the demands of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse,, who was elected last November. Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)-led alliance government secured the votes of 156 MPs,
READ MORENick Beams 17 October 2020 One of the most significant issues to emerge from the reports prepared by the International Monetary Fund for its semi-annual meeting conducted from Washington this week is the total dependence of the global capitalist economy and its financial system on the state. It was not the intention of their authors,
READ MOREA series of protests are currently underway across the North-East today as Tamils across the homeland commemorated the death of LTTE’s Lt Col Thileepan, despite a Sri Lankan court ban and intimidation from the security forces. Politicians, including from the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), joined civil society members and
READ MOREVijith Samarasinghe 15 October 2020 Sri Lanka’s secretary to the ministry of foreign affairs Admiral Jayanath Colambage announced last weekend that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Sri Lanka during his scheduled trip to India at the end of this month. Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark Esper are visiting New Delhi
READ MOREBy Kranti Kumara 11 September 2020 Despite a public outcry, India’s Supreme Court has convicted and sentenced prominent Indian lawyer Prashant Bhushan for “contempt of court” for having accused it of complicity in the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s assault on democratic rights. The court’s victimization of Bhushan for his trenchant remarks is a
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