THE meeting convened by the prime minister with mainstream political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir – first time after the abrogation of the erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370 – has made it clear that mainstream political parties can’t be written off by caging and discrediting them with bundle of lies and slander campaigns. This has also demonstrated that coercive measures can’t force the people into submission and silence can’t be portrayed as acceptance.

MANY extraordinary things are happening in Yogiraj, Uttar Pradesh: opposition candidates prevented from filing their nominations for zilla panchayat presidentship elections, corona patients in villages being asked to sit under neem trees in order to breathe oxygen because of the unavailability of medical facilities...The most extraordinary, however, are the scandalous land deals being entered into in Ayodhya by members of the trust entrusted with the construction of the Ram Temple for which thousands of crores of rupees have been collected from devotees.

THE Left parties had given a nationwide call for a protest fortnight from June 16 to 30 to condemn the Modi-led BJP central government for the savage and continuous price hikes of diesel, petrol, gas, cooking oil and several other essential items.

The AIKS CKC had given a nationwide call to take up burning local issues of the peasantry in each state and link them up to the fundamental demands of the historic farmers’ struggle.

HECTIC preparations are on all over the country to make the June 26 call to ‘Save Agriculture, Save Democracy’ against the BJP-RSS Modi government a massive success. As noted last week, the call was given to mark the completion of seven months of the farmers’ struggle, and also the 46th anniversary of the imposition of the internal emergency by the then Congress regime. The people today are fighting the undeclared poisonous emergency of the Modi-led BJP-RSS regime.

CPI(M) WEST Bengal state committee held its meeting on June 19-20, to review the assembly election results. Presided by Biman Basu and attended by Party’s general secretary, Sitaram Yechury and some other Polit Bureau members, the meeting thoroughly discussed the performance of the Party and of the Left in the assembly elections.