ISRAEL and the West mourned the death of Shimon Peres on October 27 painting him as a visionary statesman who had vainly fought for a two state solution to resolve the impasse between Israel and the Arab world. President Barack Obama accompanied by the former president, Bill Clinton, were among the prominent foreign personalities present at the funeral of the former Israeli president. It was the largest attended State funeral in Israel after that of his fellow Nobel laureate, Yizthak Rabin in 1995. More than 70 countries were represented at the funeral.
SO here we are once again, winter and a blanket of severe pollution in Delhi and the north Indian plains in general. These columns carried an article on the subject last year too, and it is déjà vu now. All concerned authorities are blaming the others, multiple problems are being pointed out, and a smog of confusing data to rival the smoke haze is being put out by numerous agencies and experts. The chief minister of Delhi has ordered a series of emergency measures, and the Courts have added their own.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on November 5.THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the order of the central government to ban the Hindi news channel, NDTV India, from going on air for a day on November 9. This is a brazen attack on media freedom and an attempt to gag freedom of expression.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement November 9.THE announcement made by the prime minister about the demonetisation of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes is not going to yield the desired result of unearthing black money. It will have limited effect and is more like political posturing.The claim that the demonetisation will check black money, fake currency, corruption and terrorism lacks substance.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on November 8.THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the BJP state government of Chhattisgarh for registering a false case of murder against noted intellectuals and activists. Named in the case are Prof. Archana Prasad of JNU, Prof.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on November 7.THE CPI(M) demands immediate action against the Delhi police for its highly condemnable actions against JNU students when male police manhandled and harassed girl students, while equally deplorable was the totally unwarranted action against the grieving mother of the missing student Najeeb who was dragged on the roads and arrested.
NARENDRA Modi went on national television at 8 pm on November 8 to announce that from midnight of that very date, ie, in a mere four hours’ time, 500 and 1000 rupee notes would cease to be legal-tender. The justification advanced for this bizarre move was that it would strike at “black money”.
CHIEF Justice of India T S Thakur in an open court accused the government of trying to “decimate the judiciary and lock justice out”. Citing the case of the Karnataka High Court, the CJI said that one entire floor of courtrooms was locked up because there were no judges. In the Allahabad High Court, half of the sanctioned strength of 160 judges are lying vacant.
At the outset, Sitaram Yechury said that because of the sharp decline in both the influence and strength of the Party at the national level, the Vizag Party Congress had felt the need for calling the Plenum to discuss organisational problems to remove bottlenecks to strengthen the revolutionary movement in the country, to improve the Party’s strength and to mobilise people behind the Party. The political aspect was taken up in the political report to the Party Congress.
THE Communist Party of Vietnam hosted the 18th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers' Parties, which was held for the first time in a socialist country, from October 28-30. The theme of the meeting was, “Capitalist crisis and imperialist offensive - strategy and tactics of the communist and workers’ parties in struggle for peace, workers’ and peoples’ rights, socialism.” M A Baby, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and head of the international department attended the meeting.