Some Comments on the Draft National Forest Policy 2018

THIS note on behalf of the CPI(M) is to record our opposition to the main thrust of the Draft National Forest Policy 2018 which is to privatise and commercialise forests. We see the policy document as a continuation of the unjust and pro-corporate process established by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act (CAFA). This highly flawed law had eliminated the rights of tribal communities, other traditional forest dwellers and gram sabhas for access and management of forests and their produce. The draft policy takes this approach even further.

Hyderabad All-Set to Host 22nd Congress of the CPI(M)

HYDERABAD is gearing up towards hosting the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The Party state committee and the reception committee have taken the opportunity to host the Congress in the newly formed state of Telangana to campaign extensively against the twin dangers of neo-liberalism and communalism. The Party state committee is utilising the Congress preparations to implement the direction given by the Kolkata Plenum – to build a revolutionary party with a mass line.It is after sixteen years that Hyderabad is once again hosting the Party Congress.

India’s “Open Door” Policy for US Military Liaison Officers

INDIA and Ghana, the two main allies of the United States are now closer to the US than ever before in their postcolonial history. The two have signed the agreement with the US, which will give easy access to their respective land and airwaves. American forces can move in and out of Ghana and India with minimum paper work and with minimum restrictions. The Ghana-US defence cooperation agreement was ratified by the Ghanaian parliament on March 23, 2018.

AILU Demands Justice in Unnao Rape Case

THE All India Lawyers Union, in a statement issued on April 10, has expressed shock and dismay at the incident of a girl accusing a sitting BJP MLA from Bangarmau in Uttar Pradesh and attempting suicide infront of chief minister Yogi Adityanath's residence. More shocking is the silence of the chief minister on the incident and the custodial torture and resultant death of the father of the girl suggesting involvement of the brother of the MLA. The police of concerned police station is complicit.

Repression and Violence in Tripura

IT is five weeks since the Tripura election results were declared following which the BJP-IPFT state government was formed. From the evening of March 3, when the results were announced, a spate of attacks on CPI(M) and Left parties offices, houses of supporters and trade union offices began. Since then, there has been no respite in the attacks by the BJP-RSS gangs.

Electoral Setback in Tripura and its Causes

THE outcome of the recently held Tripura legislative assembly elections was utterly disappointing. Left and progressive people, not just in Tripura but all over India, could not believe that the Left Front would be defeated in this election. The Tripura state committee of CPI(M) in its initial reaction said that election results were totally unexpected.The reasons behind this observation by the Party are discussed below.

The Prospect of Food Shortage

ORTHODOX economics has for long been haunted by the prospect that the growth in foodgrains output in the world economy would not be sufficiently high to sustain the growing population of the world. Malthus was an early exponent of this fear.

CITU, AIKS, AIAWU Condemn Police Firing on Dalits

THE All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) note how the response to the call for a Bharat Bandh by various dalit organisations has been widespread in states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, reflecting the anger against the Supreme Court’s decision to dilute the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and the refusal of the central government to deal with the situation adequately.The unions, in a statement issued on April 2, have condemned the brutal police firing which has led to the death of four peo

The Peopling of South Asia and the New Genomic Evidence

SLOWLY, but surely, the story of the peopling of South Asia is being unravelled, using genetic data and their analysis. The latest in this series, is a preprint of a paper by David Reich, Vagheesh Narasimhan and others in biological archives, The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia in www.biorxiv.org.

Save Independence of Judiciary

ON March 21, Justice J Chelameswar, the most senior judge of the Supreme Court and a member of the Collegium, wrote to the Chief Justice of India to convene the full court on judicial side to discuss the matter of government interference in the appointment of judges to high courts.

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