THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) held a militant protest on January 4 on the road towards Parliament House against the purification rituals carried out by the priests after two women entered the Sabarimala temple. They also denounced the violence let loose by the RSS-BJP in Kerala on January 3. Women and students marched from Vithalbhai Patel House towards Parliament House, brushing aside all attempts by the police to stop them. They were finally stopped by barricades near Vijay Chowk.
SINCE the Narendra Modi government has assumed office, reason and science have come under continuous threat -- beginning with the prime minster himself suggesting that the elephant-headed Lord Ganesha could be a proof for the existence of plastic surgery during the Puranic ages. Similarly, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had observed that roadside tarot card readers with a caged parrot were far more superior than trained astronomers in anticipating future events.
THE two-day general strike called by the Central Trade Unions on January 8 and 9, 2019 will go down as an important landmark in the history of the working class movement in India.The strike saw the participation of around 20 million workers and employees belonging to all sectors – organized, unorganized and government.
ON the December 3, 2018, remains of cow-flesh were found in a field in Mahav village, Bulandhshahr district. There was an uproar by people alleging ‘cow slaughter’ and, in a short time, hundreds of men collected shouting slogans about ‘mother cow’ and ‘mother India’. Some people filled a trolley with the remains and drove it to the main road in front of the Chingraoti Chowki (police post) and blocked the road.
A CPI(M) delegation comprising of Brinda Karat and Subhashini Ali (PB members), Surinder Singh (member, state secretariat, CPIM) and Jagveer Bhatti (district committee member, CPIM) visited Naya Bas and Chindraoti villages in Siyana block, Bulandshahar on January 5.
THE massive mobilization and Rural Harthaal called by Kisan organisations in support of the 48 hours all India workers strike were successful in many parts of the country.
MARX wrote Capital especially for the working class, for the struggle of the workers. With special emphasis on the history of English capitalism, he made clear the manner in which not only the material means of production are being constantly created and reproduced anew in the course of English capitalist production, but the conditions for exploitation as well. With the piling up, the accumulation of, capital, its power is extended over an ever-increasing number of wage-workers.
MOHAMMAD Salim, Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha termed the triple talaq bill as unnecessary and inappropriate. Participating in the discussion on December 27 he said exactly a year ago we had discussed about this issue and we had opposed it even at that time. In the Rajya Sabha a committee was formed but the report is still awaited; then you brought in an ordinance.
JANUARY 1, 2019: It was no wall, literally it was a fortress. Tens of thousands of women gathered on the western side of National Highway to imprint a new history. The women’s wall became multilayer fortress in through all districts on the first day of 2019. The wall became a fortress of humanity, equality and unity. All sections of women comprising of agricultural workers, teachers, nurses, Kudumbashree women, coir and cashew workers, students and prominent writers, artists, actors joined the women’s wall.
ON the intervening night of January 1, a few hours after a women’s wall organized across Kerala, two women, named Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga entered the Sabarimala temple at 3.45 am. They started their pilgrimage from Pamba at 1.30 am and reached Sannidhanam at 3.45 am, the sanctum sanctorum of Ayyappa temple under police escort in plain clothes.These two names are marked in the history as the ‘first women’ in the age group of 15-50 years to enter Sabarimala, after the remarkable judgement of Supreme Court on September 28 that allowed the entry of women without any age restriction.