SINCE the start of July, communal conflagration and tensions mounted in large parts of North 24 Parganas district. The district, along with Howrah, Birbhum and Maldaha, has witnessed communal clashes in recent months. Major areas of disturbances this time are in Basirhat, Bangaon, Barasat sub division. Apparently it started with a derogatory Facebook post attacking Islam and its holy places. The identified culprit is a teenager, but whether he acted on his own or had any RSS links, is not clear.

WITH the advent of the BJP in power, Indian cities too got integrated to the overall development of capitalism in the country. There is a changed scenario where the cities are facing a different role in the name of sustainability, apparently is otherwise, for more appropriation of capital. But one thing is universal in the changing paradigm of development in cities and that is the neo-liberal framework in which the cities are being assigned the task. To quote David Harvey, the cities are now changing from just being city managers to city entrepreneurs.

ADDRESSING the media in Rohtak on June 30, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury demanded the self styled cow vigilante groups to be outlawed  for their unabated criminal activities in the form of lynching mobs targeting especially the citizens belonging to minority communities and dalits. He expressed dissatisfaction over the belated response of the prime minister commenting that Mahatma Gandhi would have never accepted killings in the name of cows while he did not reveal what his government was doing to effectively deal with the lynch mobs or so called Romeo squads.

SINCE the start of July, communal conflagration and tensions mounted in large parts of North 24 Parganas district. The district, along with Howrah, Birbhum and Maldaha, has witnessed communal clashes in recent months. Major areas of disturbances this time are in Basirhat, Bangaon, Barasat sub division. Apparently it started with a derogatory Facebook post attacking Islam and its holy places. The identified culprit is a teenager, but whether he acted on his own or had any RSS links, is not clear.

WITH an eye on the Tripura Assembly election slated for early next year, parochial forces such as IPFT, an open political wing of the outlawed NLFT, have declared a destructive movement of indefinite blockade of the lone national highway and railway in the state from July 10 on the so-called demand of a separate state to be carved out of the existing Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).