A report on the visit of the CPI(M) cadre delegation led by Janardan Pati, member of the Central Committee of the Party, was published in People’s Democracy dated September 29-October 5, 2014. This article is specially on some of the historical places linked to Comrade Mao Zedong that the delegation visited in China.
JOURNALISTS report other people’s events, actions and concerns all the time. But they rarely tell their own stories. A recent workshop on Media and Gender issues was one of those rare occasions when Delhi’s journalists admitted some bitter truths about their own working lives. Several women journalists spoke about the harassment they have experienced while trying to establish themselves as professionals in a challenging environment.
THE two-week campaign for the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections concluded on October 13; the date of polling is on October 15; and the counting of votes is on October 19.
THE horrendous incident of gang-rape of six teenager Mahadalit girls in Kurmuri village under Sikarhatta police station of Bhojpur district did not create the situation which we had witnessed during the Delhi gang rape case.
There was no candle march, no outpourings of emotions, no media reporting from ground zero, no panel discussions on various TV channels and no celebrity visited the place to console the hapless girls who had gone to sell the scrap which they had collected from garbage heaps to help their families in their daily struggle for survival.
ADDRESSING an impressive public meeting on October 11, CPI(M) General Secretary, Prakash Karat made a fervent plea for sending Left members to assembly to raise issues of working masses, push forward the struggle for alternative policies and healthy politics in Haryana. He pointed out that the people of Haryana fed up with anti-people, thoroughly corrupt and ayaram-gayaram politics of the Congress, the BJP and other ruling class parties, are looking for new politics.
ON September 22, 2014, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) withdrew at the behest of the central government, which was bowing to the pressure from drug companies, its July 10 order capping the prices of 108 life-saving drugs. These drugs are essential for treating a whole range of diseases from diabetes to cancer, to tuberculosis, to HIV/AIDS to cardiac diseases. The sequence of events is as follows.
SPECIAL Judge and 36th Additional Sessions Judge John Michael Cunha delivered a historic judgment in Bengaluru on September 27, 2014, holding the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the general secretary of the AIADMK, Selvi J Jayalalithaa guilty of charges of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced her, along with three others, to four years of simple imprisonment. She was also asked to pay a fine of Rs 100 crores.
WEST Bengal Provincial Krishak Sabha (AIKS) started Krishak Jathas throughout the state on October 15. The jathas will crisscross entire rural Bengal for five days. The jathas, mainly at block level, will travel across all villages in the state, mobilising thousands of peasants and agricultural workers, rural poor in an unprecedented manner in recent memory.
THE very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud inflicted serious damage to the coastal city of Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh as it made landfall at Kailasagiri on the outskirts of the city at 11:30 am on October 12. It also seriously affected the north coastal districts of the state along with few coastal areas in Odisha. The prior warning by the Cyclone Warning Division of India Meteorological Department and its exact prediction of path of the cyclone reduced the loss of lives to 35 persons.