The oceans have long been celebrated as the highways of global commerce, carrying nearly 90 per cent of world trade and connecting economies across continents. Yet beneath this image of prosperity lies a harsh and often forgotten reality. Every cargo of crude oil, every shipment of food, medicines and industrial goods reaches its destination because millions of seafarers spend months at sea, isolated from their families and exposed to extraordinary occupational risks.

IN the first part of this analysis, we traced the trajectory of hollowing of India's constitutional institutions including the Election Commission, the anti-defection law, the judiciary's countervailing role, the conventions of federalism. Each instrument of democratic accountability has been bent, bypassed, or broken. That, however, was only the scaffolding. In this second part we try to highlight what is being constructed on that scaffolding.

On June 13, Karnataka’s home minister Priyank Kharge sent a letter to RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat asking him to reveal its ‘legal status, registration, office bearers, funding, expenditure, taxation and permissions for public activities.’  This drew two bizarre responses. One was from Bhagwat himself, who even while saying that he doesn’t need to respond to the letter, declared that "Hindu Dharma is not registered. Many things are not registered,” and that the government knows that the Sangh exists.

For centuries Cuba was a Spanish colony. During this period of subjugation, it fought bravely against colonialism and won its independence by fiercely fighting for its rights. The US President Donald Trump desperately wants to once again rob Cuba of its freedom and rule over it as a subjugated nation. The tightening of economic sanctions since he assumed office for the second time and the indictment of former Cuban President Raul Castro on May 20 are nothing short of declaration of its intention to occupy Cuba. The actual goal is to destroy socialist Cuba.

IN the recently concluded Central Committee meeting, the Party identified some of the major trends in terms of national developments as follows: “Assembly election results further consolidated the hold of the RSS-BJP over the political system; victory of BJP in Bengal is a major blow to the Left, progressive and secular forces; and state institutions like the ECI are openly carrying forward the RSS agenda, undermining the sanctity of the electoral process.” We further stated that the results in West Bengal and Assam “show the ascendancy of right-wing commu