THE designed plot and hullabaloo created by the anti-CPI(M) conspirators stood debunked after the court rejected the argument of the CBI that the Balanandan committee recommendation was overlooked and the same was suppressed before the cabinet so as to get the approval of the council of ministers fraudulently. The Balanadan committee was appointed by the LDF government on 19th September 1996 to make a detailed study and to formulate specific recommendations on various issues vis-à-vis the steps to be taken to raise the resources for enhancing power generation.

THE term McCarthyism refers to the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism. The US senator Joseph McCarthy led a witch-hunt against communists during the 1950s claiming that “there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathisers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere”. He could not prove his claims and later the term McCarthyism applied to similar anti-communist activities.

THE scope of analysing the recent Panchayat election results of Burdwan district in West Bengal is, in many ways, somewhat limited. It is very difficult to determine people’s true preferences amidst planned disruption of the electoral process by Trinamool Congress (TMC). It is rational to compare the present Panchayat election ‘results’ with that of the last 2011 assembly elections, where, even amidst the so-called ‘paribortan’ wave, the Left front still won 9 out of 25 seats in this district and secured 44.8 per cent votes.