 Hello everyone and welcome to news clip. I'm Anushka and here's another episode of the Daily Roundup. Let's take a look at the top stories for the day. No points for guessing what's the first story on the list. The growing discontentment against the Modi government has finally reflected itself in the results of the assembly elections that were recently held in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoran. The BJP has suffered a major setback even in the states of Rajasthan, M.P. and Chhattisgarh which were once considered to be the stronghold of the BJP. The increasing discontentment over the ongoing farmers' crisis, joblessness especially among the youth, stagnant wages as well as the twin disasters of demonetization and the goods and services tax or the GST have contributed to a decrease in votes for the BJP in these states. In Telangana and Mizoran, it was the local parties that walked away with the majority of the votes. The BJP saw declining seats from 5 to 3 in Telangana and in Mizoran they scrapped through with just a single seat. The results are telling of the fact that the voters are no longer fooled by the promises made by the BJP government. Neither are they interested in the divisive politics that encourages hate and violence. The desperate attempts by Yogi Adityanath to rake up the Ram Mandir issue to attract Hindu voters or the obscene amount of money spent on advertising, mind you the BJP topped the list of advertisers to beat companies like Netflix, Colgate and Detol to make it to the top, doesn't seem to have worked their charms on voters. For a more detailed analysis on the election results and the reasons for BJP's loss in MP Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh do log on to our website or click on the links shared in the description below. The Javans and Army officers of our country are hailed for their commitment to the nation but the news of defence personnel who work behind the scenes to provide supplies to the defence often go unreported. On the eve of Republic Day, four lab defence workers will be indefinitely striking against the speedy privatisation of the defence sector. The decision has been jointly announced by three major defence unions. Namely, the All India Defence Employees Federation, the Indian National Defence Workers Federation and the Bharatiya Prati Raksha Mazdoor Sangh. As per the employees, 25 factories will be badly affected by the privatisation drive. The factories manufacturing uniforms for the Javans will be the ones most affected. These workshops which are 60 to 80 years old with hundreds of acres of land will be handed over to the private sector. The employees have been protesting against this privatisation drive since 2017. NewsClick had earlier reported that the Federation had demanded that the 41 Indian Ordnance factories be dedicated as national assets and be treated as an integral part of the armed forces. Besides privatisation of the defence sector, the employees have also raised the issue regarding their pension. There are a number of studies that point to the growing frustration among Indian workers over wage issues. Despite this, the ILO has reported a healthy wage growth in its report. The flawed research methodology is one of the reasons for this discrepancy. The report uses data collected from the NSSO, that's the National Sample Survey Office, which is a household survey that covers all kinds of workers. But the data used was only available till 2012. For the missing years, the ILO has used data from the ASI, that's the annual survey of industries and clubbed it with the NSSO data. This is kind of problematic because ASI collects data via surveys which are conducted only at factories and so they cover workers only from the formal manufacturing sector. So by using ASI data, the ILO study not only excludes workers from other formal sectors, but also completely ignores workers in the informal sector. The research methodology adopted by the ILO has projected far more accurate figures in developed countries where the national data available on wages and employment are up-to-date and relatively accurate. In the context of developing nations where there is a paucity of good and reliable national data on employment and wages, a reworking of research methodologies might yield more accurate results. Given that the final figures were presented after consultation with the Labour Ministry of India, its validity and legitimacy needs to be critically reviewed instead of being applauded blindly. Jose Bernando de Silva and Rodrigo Celestino, members of the landless rural workers movement, the MST, were assassinated on Saturday by four heavily hooded gunmen who shot at them while they were having dinner in the Paraiba state of Brazil. The brutal assassinations of the MST leaders are further evidence to the systemic attacks faced by social movements in Brazil from the state and paramilitary forces. One of the central fears of social movements today is that with the election of Bolsonaro as president of Brazil this past October, this violence will only increase in time. The MST released a statement which declared, in these times of anguish and doubt about the future of Brazil, we cannot allow our destiny to be driven by those who have political and economic power. As such, we continue reaffirming our struggle in the defence of the land as central to guarantee dignity for the workers of the countryside and the city. The president of the unified workers central of Brazil Paraiba also shared his reactions to the assassinations. It is a moment of extreme sadness for two important movements of Brazil and for all the movements. The labour movement is in mourning, the MST is in mourning and from here in a little more than 20 days a new Brazil is coming closer that is very worrying. We have seen this new Brazil with these two barbaric assassinations and it is a mere reflection of what is coming for the Brazilians. We have to continue the struggle and use all possible methods to defend the working class. That's all we have for you in today's episode of the Daily Roundup. To keep yourself updated with more news, do log on to our website www.newsclick.in You can also see some of our videos on our YouTube channel and please do follow us on Facebook.