THE 24-hour strike call in Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh given by the CPI(M) and the CPI on May 24 against the negligent attitude of the state government toward the problems of the people of this drought-hit region was a resounding success. People from various walks of life lent their support to the bandh. It got tremendous response despite the repressive measures initiated by the Chandrababu Naidu government to foil it. A huge number of Left cadres was taken into preventive custody on the previous night and the state government made frenetic efforts to see that the bandh was a failure.

THE BJP has declared a war to unseat the Left Front government in Tripura. It is in consonance with its declared policy to marginalise the Left, particularly the CPI(M), as we straightforwardly and stoutly oppose their communal Hindutva ideology. But inevitably Tripura will be political Waterloo for the BJP, which is trying to manipulate the people’s mandate by muscle and money power, along with its Hindutva communalism. This was asserted by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury in a crowded press conference at the CPI(M) Tripura state committee office on May 21.

A SAFFRON clad swami very close to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar in Kerala faced an unusual act of retaliation while he was trying to rape a young woman aged 21.  The victim chopped off the genitals of the habitual rapist, Srihari alias Gangeshananda Theerthapaada who claims to be a part of an Ashram at Panmana in Kollam district. The Ashram was established by Chattambi Swami, the great reformist leader who died in 1924.

HARASSED and beaten by the self-styled cow vigilantes for long, dalits of Gujarat have now confronted the ruling BJP with real cause of unnatural deaths of cattle. Through an innovative march, the dalits have pinpointed that more cows die due to eating plastics than at the slaughter houses. Taking the cue from the cow vigilantes who consider bovines as their ‘mother’, dalits have demanded that any one causing unnatural deaths of cows should be prosecuted for matricide under appropriate laws.This was among the many demands a dalit rally through Wadhwan and Surendranagar towns of Saurashtra r

THERE is an imminent need for waging a united struggle to thwart the threats being posed to fundamental rights of the people enshrined in the constitution and to achieve social justice in the country, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said at a seminar in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh on May 11.The seminar was also addressed by CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakara Reddy and Republican Party of India (RPI) president Prakash Ambedkar.