Risks of a Nationwide Blackout

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on April 04, 2020THE prime minister’s call to switch off lights for nine minutes on Sunday night to ‘fight’ Covid-19 poses a real threat to the country’s electrical system – the national grid. What could happen to the grid with the simultaneous switching off and on of all household lighting load, roughly 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the grid’s power? The grid could turn unstable and collapse. We could then have a cascading blackout, like it happened over most of India in July 2012.

Act on a War Footing to Fight Covid-19 Pandemic

Below we publish the full text of the letter addressed to the president of India by CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, on April 6, urging the president to prevail upon the central government to take action on the measures suggested in the letter to control Covid-19 pandemic.I AM writing to you, as you are the custodian of the Indian Constitution under whose sanction and authority, the central government functions.The country and people have gone through two ‘symbolic’ events so far.

TRIPURA: CPI(M) MLAs Donate their Salaries for Covid-19 Relief

IN the wake of countrywide lockdown against Covid-19, in order to provide some relief to the poor and the working people of Tripura, the CPI(M) MLAs have decided to donate 25 per cent of their salary for the next three months to the CM's relief fund.On April 3, a delegation consisting of opposition chief whip Tapan Chakraborty, MLAs Ratan Bhowmik and Sahid Chowdhury met the chief secretary of the state, Manoj Kumar, IAS and handed over cheques for the first month donation of a total of eight MLAs.

Pandemic and Pandemonium in Imperial Navy

THE American image has nosedived. President Donald Trump’s shoddy and tardy handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the hollowness of the so-called American dream and the neoliberal capitalist order. The images of America’s rotten privatised healthcare system is clearly pointing to the fact that America is both morally and materially incapable of leading the world out of the current health crisis.Many who see American primacy slipping away are now out in the open advising President Trump to take the lead in order to prevent China from filling up the global leadership vacuum.

Communists and the RIN Mutiny

THE growing nationalist sentiment that reached a crescendo around the INA trials developed into violent confrontations with British imperialism in the winter of 1945-46. Indian soldiers and young officers serving in the British armed forces in India were greatly influenced by these mass protests. A section of them were skilled professionals and hence were different from the earlier generation of Indians who had served in the British forces. Moreover, during the Second World War, they fought along with the Allied Armies and particularly the Red Army of the Soviet Union.

Indian Grid Survives a Modi 9*9 PM Emergency

THE Indian grid was tested as no grid in the world has ever been by PM’s 9-minute at 9 pm lights off call, on April 5. An unprecedented load reduction to the tune of 27 per cent or 32 Giga Watts took place and came back again, all within a span of 10-12 minutes. No grid in the world has ever seen a plunge and surge of load of this magnitude, so it was indeed a trial by fire for the Indian grid authorities, both state and national, and the generators.

MAHARASHTRA: CPI(M) Plunges into Relief Work for Lockdown-Affected Migrants and the Poor

MAHARASHTRA is the state in the country that has so far been most severely affected by Covid-19, both in terms of the number of cases and the deaths resulting from it. Mumbai and Pune cities have been the worst affected. There have been cases reported in 23 of the 36 districts.Comrades of the CPI(M) and those of all mass fronts – CITU, AIKS, AIAWU, DYFI, SFI, AIDWA – in several districts have been in the forefront of relief work for the migrants and the poor. The first part of this report covers Mumbai, Palghar and Thane districts.

Attend to People’s Concerns on a War-Footing

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation, Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc have issued thefollowing statement on April 3.THE country has entered the second week of the 21-day lockdown to contain the community spread of Covid-19 pandemic. Many problems have surfaced in a sharp manner which need to be resolved urgently. Many of these were anticipated but unfortunately no remedial action was taken before the announcement of the lockdown.1.

Immediate Measures to Protect the Health and Rights of the Peoples

Below we publish the statement issued by the Communist and Workers Parties across the world. 82 Parties have signed the statement including the Communist Party of India (Marxist).THE Communist and Workers' Parties are positioned with responsibility before our peoples. We are here!

Finance Versus the People in the Era of the Pandemic

THE current pandemic has brought to the fore, and with exceptional clarity, the fundamental contradiction underlying contemporary globalisation, namely, the contradiction between the interests of finance and thoseof the people. Indeed this contradiction, which characterizes the era of globalisation as a whole, has now come to a head.It is becoming clearly visible in country after country. Take the case of India.

Search form

Peoples Democracy newsletter