IN the midst of the current tumultuous situation in valley which is wrecking innocent lives with terrible alacrity, it seems words like peace and security have completely disappeared from our  living idiom as some of us may have held on to the faintest hopes that these words carry in the situation that has beset us for so long.

THE Left parties, including the CPI(M), and various mass organisations commenced relay hunger strike demanding the TRS government to continue the dharna chowk at Indira Park in Hyderabad. Started by the Left parties on April 15, the relay hunger strikes by different mass organisations and different sections of the people would continue till the 14th May and culminate into occupation of Dharna Chowk on the 15^th May.

THESE days are terrifying for college and university campuses in Kerala. A series of attacks on SFI activists has taken place across the state in the past one month. The ABVP, with the active support of the RSS and the BJP, has been in the forefront of most of these incidents, posing an open threat to democracy on campuses. A number of SFI leaders braved murder attempts. In the past two weeks, more than 30 SFI activists were attacked by these goons.

THE Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University every year organises seminars under the Dr Ambedkar Study Centre of the University, which is supposed to be an autonomous body. This year on March 18-19, 2017, a two day seminar was organised on the subject “Decay of Democracy – Challenges and Solutions”. It was decided that this seminar would be inaugurated by Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M). Invitation cards were printed and distributed, the press was informed and the university even sent flight tickets to Yechury a month ago.

A UNIQUE exercise in Party education and exchange of ideas among comrades took place in West Bengal on March 19, when study circles were organised in Party branches throughout the state. The agenda of the study circle was Party Programme.