Massive Rally of Peasants to be Held in New Delhi on Feb 24

WHEN BJP won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with an absolute majority, the corporate media illustrated it as a personal victory of Narendra Modi as the emerging national leader who will remain as the unquestionable centre of power for decades to come. But now after merely one-and-a-half years under his governance, the people across the country conceive the truth that only because of the absolute majority in Lok Sabha, the BJP-led NDA may remain in power up to its five year term, otherwise Modi as the prime minister has proved to be a liability than an asset for the BJP in national politics.H

CITU Andaman & Nicobar State Conference Held

THE Andaman & Nicobar State Conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) was held on November 21-22 in Port Blair. The two-day conference gave a call to intensify movements on various long-pending and genuine demands of the employees and workers in the islands.The conference began with an open session at Tiranga Park, Aberdeen Bazar in Port Blair at 5 p.m. Before the open session, a huge procession of workers marched through the main areas of Port Blair.

Tribal Protests Force AP Govt to Suspend Bauxite Mining Lease

UNITED and unrelenting struggle by tribal people and CPI(M) has forced the Telugu Desam Party-led government in Andhra Pradesh to suspend its order, granting bauxite mining lease for Jerrala reserve. The TDP government had on November 5 issued the order, granting mining lease to the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) for bauxite blocks of 1,212 hectares in Jerrala, Visakhapatnam.

Hindutva, Mathematics, Pythagoras and Zero

THE Hindutva brigade have been continuously proclaiming that the Greeks learnt Pythagoras from India. This is what Harsh Vardhan, the BJP science and technology minister, claimed in the Indian Science Congress last year; that “we” discovered the Pythagoras theorem and gave it “magnanimously” to the Greeks. There have also been claims of vedic mathematics, which is sought to be introduced in the schools as advanced mathematics of the vedas.

The Seventh Pay Commission Report

THE central government sets up a Pay Commission about once every ten years to recommend what the structure of salaries, allowances and pensions for its current and retired employees should be. The seventh Pay Commission had been set up accordingly by the UPA government before it left office and it submitted its report to the finance minister on November 19, with the suggestion that its recommendations should be implemented with effect from January 1, 2016.

Rising Farmer Suicides: Massive Dharna in Guwahati

THE Assam State Kishan Sabha organised a massive dharna in Guwahati on November 19 against the state and central governments over growing peasant suicides in the state. "Not suicides and self-annihilations, but united mighty struggle against the anti-peasant and anti-people policies of the BJP government at the Centre and Congress government in the state is the only way to lift the peasantry out of the present crisis" was the central slogan that reverberated in the massive dharna at Lakhidhar Bora Khetra in the heart of the city.

Thinking Together

Our electoral policy in Bihar should be subject to strong scrutiny. Left parties should have contested a minimum number of seats, say 50, and supported the Grand Alliance in the remaining193 seats. By contesting in all seats, we have indirectly made the NDA path smoother. The Grand Alliance defeated the NDA on their own strength. Why do we forget the words of Dimitrov given in 1930s when fighting against the world's largest communal, fascist and repressive force, the Sangh Parivar? Your comments are expected.

CPI(M) MP Writes to Govt on Deteriorating Situation in Tea Estates in West Bengal

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP and CITU general secretary Tapan Sen has written a letter to Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, seeking her urgent intervention in the matter of rapidly deteriorating situation in tea estates in West Bengal. In the letter, dated November 24, Sen said that although profit of the tea garden owners are on the rise, the condition of plantation workers have been fast deteriorating. And the worst hit are the workers of tea estates "where either the gardens are closed down or abandoned by the owners".

Valley of Starvation Deaths

THE undulating lush valleys of tea estates in West Bengal’s Darjeeling hills, Dooars and Terai regions are turning into valleys of death.
“Nearly 100 people died of starvation and acute malnutrition in the five closed tea gardens in Dooars since January this year with at least 10 of them dying last month itself”, reported Times of India on July 30, 2014, “The workers are paid only Rs 90 for eight hours a day to produce the expensive Darjeeling tea, while in Terai and Dooars the figure is Rs 95 a day.”

AIDWA Condemns Brutal Rape & Murder Of a Girl in Bengal

IN a press statement issued on November 23, the All India Democratic Women’s Association has strongly condemned the brutal rape and murder of an adolescent girl of tenth class in Kakdwip, South 24 Parganas on November 22. This is an incident trailing after Park Street, Kamduni, Katwa and innumerable such in West Bengal under the regime of a woman chief minister. The earlier cases are yet to see justice. AIDWA strongly feels that West Bengal has become a state of rape and violence against women.

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