THESE days are terrifying for college and university campuses in Kerala. A series of attacks on SFI activists has taken place across the state in the past one month. The ABVP, with the active support of the RSS and the BJP, has been in the forefront of most of these incidents, posing an open threat to democracy on campuses. A number of SFI leaders braved murder attempts. In the past two weeks, more than 30 SFI activists were attacked by these goons.

THE Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University every year organises seminars under the Dr Ambedkar Study Centre of the University, which is supposed to be an autonomous body. This year on March 18-19, 2017, a two day seminar was organised on the subject “Decay of Democracy – Challenges and Solutions”. It was decided that this seminar would be inaugurated by Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M).

A UNIQUE exercise in Party education and exchange of ideas among comrades took place in West Bengal on March 19, when study circles were organised in Party branches throughout the state. The agenda of the study circle was Party Programme.  CPI(M) West Bengal state committee has decided to organise such a single day programme with an aim to educate and re-educate all Party members about the main strategic document of the Party. These study circles would serve as supplementary to organised Party classes and help self-education too.

A FORTNIGHT before the results to the Uttar Pradesh and other four state assemblies were declared, the same rightwing offensive was evident in the elections to 10 municipal corporations (MC), 25 zilla parishads (ZP) and 283 panchayat samitis (PS) in Maharashtra. These elections took place last month and the results were declared on February 23.THE OVERALL PICTUREThe BJP won eight of the ten municipal corporations – Nashik, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Ulhasnagar, Solapur, Nagpur, Amravati and Akola with clear majorities. The Shiv Sena retained Thane with a clear majority.

THE budget of 2017-18 is an expression of the commitment of the government of Kerala to take bold and imaginative decisions in the service of the people, despite resource constraints and the inequalities of centre-state financial relations.Every budget has plan and non-plan components. This year, in a budget that envisages plan plus non-plan expenditure of more than Rs 1,19,601 crores, about one-quarter comes from plan expenditure.