A FRENCH princess sometime in the 17th or 18th century was told that the peasants were restless and complaining they had no bread. The princess was said to have uttered the legendary phrase, “well then, let them eat cake!” This phrase came to be used to highlight the disregard for the peasants, and lack of understanding of their condition, on the part of the then French aristocracy.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, on April 26, wrote to Prime minister Narendra Modi on the measures that need to be put in place in order to fight and defeat the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that the sudden and abrupt announcement of the lockdown had left the people and the state governments completely unprepared to meet the grave consequences and suggested 12 measures that are needed to be taken by the government.
THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 28, condemned the action taken by the central government against 50 Revenue Service Officers for their report suggesting tax-hike on the rich. It said that the government’s action was thoroughly unjust and autocratic.
IN the coronavirus lockdown period, the CPI(M) Telangana committee had conducted online political classes for its cadre and called upon its members to actively participate in social service programmes to reach out to the needy during this crisis time.
SINCE the very outset, thousands of migrant workers with the back breaking huge sacks trudging along, often with wives and children for hundreds of kilometers have been the unputdownable images that have refused to leave us. Since the abrupt announcement of the national lockdown with a notice of four hours, such images have come to haunt us. Thousands of migrant workers at the Anand Vihar bus station immediately after the announcement marked their arrival in the increasingly intense discourse on our response to Covid pandemic.
SHIMMERING discontent among the daily wage earners, poor people, transport workers, and unorganised sector workers, rural peasants and agriculture workers came to the fore as they responded in a big way at the call of CITU, AIKS, AIAWU, AIDWA, SFI, DYFI and raised the collective war cry, ‘provide ration instead of speeches’. The slogan reverberated all across Bihar on April 21.
THE coronavirus global pandemic is still raging with its epicentre in the United States of America. It is during this time that President Trump and his administration have launched a frontal campaign against China, blaming it for the creation of the virus and its spread going to the extent of demanding compensation for the damage caused.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on April 22
THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the communal targeting of India’s largest religious minority – the Muslims – that is increasingly taking place during the current battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. Nasty abuses, social media postings dutifully relayed by the trolls of the ruling party supporters is simply not acceptable. They violate basic constitutional provisions. Such crimes must be proceeded against and punished in accordance with law.
WORLD is facing an unprecedented threat in the form of a new pandemic. Covid-19 has already claimed around 0.16 million human lives in the world. The total number of reported cases around the globe is 2.3 million in 210 countries according to the WHO.
LEFT Front and mass organisations in West Bengal, while delivering relief as much as possible to the poor and stranded people, have also raised their voice on burning questions of peoples’ life and livelihood.