The following is a statement signed and endorsed by more than a hundred artists, writers, critics, academics etc regarding the recent interference by the Government of India in some of the national institutions of culture and arts. The statement was issued on May 6.
SECRET ballot was held at the Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Generation Station of NTPC on May 6. The CITU union there has won the election conclusively. It was for the third time the secret ballot took place in the power station. In the first election held in March 2008, the CITU union won. In the second election held in May 2012, BMS union won. And now in the third time, the CITU union again won the elections defeating the BMS and INTUC unions.
SURELY it was giving me the goose bumps. I was simply overwhelmed by the enormity of the occasion and the circumstances. We were right there; meeting hall of the Thong-Nhat Palace (which in Vietnamese would read) -the reunification palace. It was here that at 11.30 am on April 30, 1975, the Liberation Army of Vietnam commandeered by Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap entered the main gates of this building then known as the Independence Palace.
HAVING once failed to get the nod of Rajya Sabha for its anti-farmer land bill, the government made another attempt to get it passed by Parliament and introduced the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which seeks to replace the re-promulgated ordinance, in the Lower House. In its attempt to push through the land bill and other legislations, the government even extended the Budget Session of Lok Sabha by three days till May 13.
SEVENTY years have passed since the victory over fascism, with the defeat of Hitler and hoisting of Red Flag over the Reichstag, but a new trend is emerging in our country whereby the Hindutva and right-wing forces are trying to implement what Hitler tried and eventually failed. As the Hindutva and right-wing forces attempt to replace India's secular and democratic traditions with a "neo-fascist" system, there is a need to strengthen the Left and democratic forces to counter these challenges.
ON May 26, the Modi government enters its second year. Without any doubt, one can assert that this government has created a record for its assault on the rights of the working people of this country. In its eagerness to satisfy the investors – foreign and Indian – the offensive against the hard won rights of the working people had begun in right earnest. The modus operandi has been to chant Shrameva Jayate (victory to labour) and attack the workers.It is now a three pronged attack.
Against the Privatisation and Commercialisation of Healthcare
The 21st Party Congress of the CPI (M) notes with grave concern the sustained attempts by the BJP government at the Centre to further erode public health services through a variety of measures that are designed to increase the profits of private corporate hospitals and insurance companies, throwing the mass of people at their mercy. At the same time it has permitted the increasing commercialisation of medical education which goes against the interests of public health services.
NEO-LIBERALISM is often seen only as an economic policy. This per se might not matter, since a specific set of economic measures do, no doubt, fall under the rubric of neo-liberalism.
ON April 18, S Ramachandran Pillai, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member presented the Political-Organisational Report adopted by the Central Committee to the 21st Congress of the CPI(M) held in Visakhapatnam from April 14-19. At the very outset he stated that since the Plenum on Organisation is going to discuss all aspects of the Party organisation and the functioning of the mass organisations, the Political-Organisational Report will be focusing on the state of the Party organisation today and it analyses some of the weaknesses prevalent.
Below we reproduce the text of the speech of CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy at the inaugural session of the 21st Congress of the CPI(M) at Visakhapatnam
COMRADE S Ramachandran Pillai, chairman of the Presidium, Comrade Prakash Karat, Comrade Debabrata Biswas, Comrade Abani Roy, Comrade Kavita Krishnan, Comrade Prabhas Ghosh, and comrade delegates,