THOUSANDS of cadres of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and class and mass organisations are engaging themselves in full swing in the flood relief works across Chennai, Cuddalore, Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur, Villupuram, Nagapattinam districts and Pudhucherry, which were worst affected in the recent heavy rains.The Party led by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and state secretary G Ramakrishnan is visiting each and every part of Chennai and distributing relief materials to the affected people.

THE visit of Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to Islamabad to attend a conference on Afghanistan, preceded by the meeting of the national security advisors and foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan, mark an abrupt reversal by the Modi government of its stand with regard to talks with Pakistan. While it marks a welcome change, it also underlines the flip-flops and the lack of consistency in Indian diplomacy vis-à-vis Pakistan.

Below are the edited excerpts of the speech made by Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) leader in Rajya Sabha on ‘Commitment to Constitution’ on 27 November 2015.EVEN before this session was announced, our Party had demanded that Dr Ambedkar’s 125th birthday should merit a special session, so that some new laws, which we think are important, can be implemented. The attacks on dalits should be looked at. This government’s statistics itself, on the dalits, since 2014, ever since this government has come to power, show that atrocities on them have gone up by 19 percent.

LAKSHMAN Santal finally got something to eat, a packet of puffed rice and boiled peas. Not fresh enough though, but this meagre and nearly-rotten food is his lifeline for at least two more days. Santal, a worker of Bagrakote Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri, was served this food as part of “sarad” (funeral ceremony) of his wife. Just because his wife Mukti Santal, 44, died of starvation a few days ago, and the neighbours arranged a kind of ritual for her that Lakshman could smell of something called ‘food’ after long hours of starvation.

THE Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) at a press conference held in New Delhi on November 28, has expressed its deep disappointment over the outcome of the two day special sitting of parliament on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar who dedicated his entire life to the just cause of downtrodden sections of our society. His tireless fighting against caste discrimination and for social justice has now been put under tremendous pressure.