Improper Comments of Judge  The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on August 3, 2014 THE views expressed by Supreme Court Justice A R Dave about the teaching of the Gita and the Mahabaratha in schools, is improper and unwarranted. What Justice Dave has advocated is religious instruction in all schools from Class I.

DURING the course of the 2014 general elections, we had pointed out, more than once, various features of the Narendra Modi-led BJP campaign that led to the unmistakable conclusion that `development’ and `Gujarat model’ employed as election mascots were only the veil concealing the actual ground reality of the campaign that focused on the sharpening of communal polarisation.

THE Thai army, as most commentators in the region had predicted, has finally taken the first decisive step towards staging yet another coup to oust a democratically elected government. On May 20, an announcement on the Army run radio, said that the country was placed under martial law. The media has been put under strict censorship. The army spokesman specified that the civilian government would be allowed to function under the current caretaker ministry. The justice minister, Chalkasem Nitisri, has said that the army had taken the step without consulting the government.

THE Maharashtra state committee of the Democratic Youth Federation of India has organised a three-day study camp at the state level in which 108 youth leaders from 17 districts participated. The DYFI Pune district committee and well-wishers in Pune district hosted the camp which was held from June 13 to 15, 2014 at the Shramik Bhawan at Akurdi.DYFI founder state secretary and CITU state vice president Mahendra Singh inaugurated the camp on the morning of June 13.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association took the initiative to organise a two-day workshop on health related issues for activists from the Hindi speaking states. The growing challenge to achieving the right to health care, in a context where government policy was increasingly promoting the private corporate sector in health services at the expense of the public health system was the subject of a Commission in AIDWA’s tenth national conference in Bodh Gaya.