ON February 3, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat expressed hope that the electoral understanding between the AIADMK and the Left parties would achieve success in Tamilnadu in the coming general elections, and also contribute to providing an alternative to the country.

Asked whether appeals had been made to other secular and democratic forces to be part of the alternative envisaged, he said discussions were on with various parties.

THE central executive committee of the Students’ Federation of India in a statement issued on February 1, 2013 expressed heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Nido Taniam, the 19-year old student studying at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, who was brutally attacked by shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi, before succumbing to his death on January 31. Following as it does the horrific incident of the gang-rape of a Danish woman, this incident reminds us that despite the tall promises by the incumbent government, Delhi remains to be an extremely unsafe city.

ON February 3, 2014, the CITU’s Haryana state president Surender Singh Malik, who is also a member of the Haryana State Minimum Wages Advisory Board, raised in the board’s meeting the demand that the minimum wage must be at least Rs 15,000 in Haryana. The Advisory Board’s meeting was called by the principal secretary of the Department of Labour and Employment of the state government, who is also chairman of the said board, in Chandigrah.

CHERTHALA in Alappuzha is a hamlet that once made a history because of its role in the formation of the present day Kerala. The same hamlet once again witnessed another historic event on February 1, 2014. On the day, Vayalar, where hundreds of communists made the supreme sacrifice in the struggle for independence, wholeheartedly welcomed the communist cadre on the day

THE CPI(M) and Left Front unleashed a massive campaign on peoples’ issues for more than a month in West Bengal. Left Front called for the campaign from 3rd January to 3rd February, which got a huge response from the people. The campaign focused on the restoration of democracy, immediate halt to atrocities against women, against price rise, fair prices for peasants, defending the rights of the workers, punishment of the chit fund fraudsters, against anarchy in educational institutions.