NEARLY one thousand people suffered injuries, scores of them severely in brutal police attack on the Left activists in West Bengal on May 22. But the real headline of the bloodied day was the determined fight of people against an authoritarian government. The twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah reverberated with the struggling ethos of the people.   Left peasants and agricultural organisations took the initiative for a march to Nabanna, the state secretariat on burning issues of the people, particularly of rural people.

ON May 11, 2017, the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha (AIKS) held an ‘Aasood’ (Whipcord) state convention followed by an ‘Aasood’ state rally to the house of the BJP’s state agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar at Khamgaon in Buldana district of Vidarbha region. Mahatma Jotirao Phule had written a celebrated book that was aptly called “Shetkaryacha Aasood” (Whipcord of the Farmer). It was from this that the AIKS coined the name.   Khamgaon town had been decorated with hundreds of AIKS flags.

THE 32nd death anniversary of the founder general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Comrade P Sundarayya, was observed by the Party and several mass organisations in Telangana on May 19. Rich tributes were paid to Sundarayya, recollecting his contribution for building the Communist movement, strengthening the Party, mass organisations, conducting struggles of the people and ideological struggle.

WITH the aim of reaching Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur district of UP, a delegation led by Than Singh, convenor of Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch and comprising of Rao Daud Khan, district secretary of the CPI(M), Advocate Vikram Singh and Vikas Negi from Moradabad and Advocate Rajneesh Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Navneet Singh and Surendra Kumar from Deoband, visited Saharanpur on May 9.The police administration of Saharanpur has so far not allowed any delegation from outside to visit Shabbirpur. The delegation therefore could not visit the site of the incidents.

AS part of a two-day session of the CPI(M) Odisha state committee, a seminar on ‘Challenges Before India Today’ was organised on May 3 at the Institute of Engineers hall in Bhubaneswar.CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, addressing the gathering of a cross-section of people, called upon them to be vigilant and fight back the danger posed today by communal forces led by the RSS-BJP. “Whether India, as we see it today, will remain the same? A combination of many religions, communities, castes – will it remain unaffected by the onslaught unleashed by Hindutva forces?” he asked.