‘SEASONS come and go – as do governments – and currently Delhi is witnessing a particularly cold spell.’ When the noted poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar said this, an ostensible statement about the weather became a poetic barb at the ruling dispensation. He was addressing hundreds of workers and their families on January 1, 2020, at the site of Safdar Hashmi’s killing at Jhandapur in the Sahibabad Industrial Area on the outskirts of Delhi. ‘But one season doesn’t change, for the poor – the season of exploitation and oppression.’It is this ugly reality that the rulers want to hide.

THE working class people of Tripura are trying their best to come out on the streets ignoring all threats, intimidation, attacks and hooliganism of the BJP goons. They have organised series of programme during last few months.On September 5, CITU organised a state level convention in Town Hall where more than one thousand workers from all walks of life participated. The convention adopted a programme for wide spread campaign of January 8 strike.In the meantime, district wise conventions have been held in all eight districts.

THE decade ends with two major threats to humanity: global warming and the threat of a nuclear war extinguishing our civilisation. We have dealt earlier with global warming and the refusal of advanced countries, particularly the US, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The US is also leading the charge for a nuclear armageddon, dismantling all nuclear arms control treaties.

THE year 2019, which has ended, saw the imposition of a full-fledged Hindutva authoritarian regime in the country, a rapidly deteriorating economic situation and a continuing assault on the constitution and the democratic rights of citizens.  The end of the year witnessed a spontaneous and powerful protest movement in defence of the constitution and against the assaults on secular-democracy.The BJP won the Lok Sabha election of May 2019 riding on the back of an orchestrated “nationalist” campaign in the wake of the Pulwama terrorist attack and the retaliatory Balakot strike.  The return of

THE Narendra Modi government has planned a ‘trishul’ attack against the constitution. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Population Register and National Register of Citizens are the three points of this trishul. All three are interconnected and a single package. These cannot be separated, warned CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat while addressing a seminar organised by the Tamil Nadu Platform for People's Unity in Chennai on December 26.After a cat-and-mouse game with the city police, the seminar against “anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim” CAA started with a packed house.