MODI’S Rafale “Deal” has raised a number of questions. How is it that the need for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force, suddenly dropped to only 26 in three years? How is it that the price per aircraft rose from $81 million in 2012, to $243 million in 2015? Or by three times per aircraft, even taking inflation into account. What changed in the intervening three years between the two deals – the UPA’s in 2012 and Modi’s in 2015? And even more curious, who took these decisions and how?

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), in a statement issued on November 22, has strongly condemned the threats and acts of violence unleashed by right wing vigilante groups like the Rajput Karni Sena which has prevented the release of the film ‘Padmavati’ on the scheduled date. The parallel system of ‘goonda raj’ being perpetrated by such extra constitutional groups has been exacerbated by the felicity with which several constitutionally elected state governments have succumbed to these pressures.

THE 19th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was held in October in Sochi, Russia. More than 20,000 delegates from more than 150 countries participated in the festival and pledged to continue their relentless struggle to achieve peace, solidarity and social justice, with uncompromising fight against all imperialist tendencies in the present world order.This year's festival was coinciding with the centenary celebrations of the Great October Revolution and it was because of this precise reason that the International Preparatory Committee (IOC) decided to hold the festival in Russia.

 THE 23rd edition of the annual global climate summit, officially known as the Conference of Parties (COP23) concluded at Bonn in the early hours of November 18, several hours past its scheduled conclusion. This delay, as has happened on past occasions too, was the consequence of last minute confrontations between the developing countries and the developed ones. Notwithstanding the hype surrounding the signature and early ratification of the Paris Agreement by 170 countries, the developed countries continue their well-known tactics in relation to the developing world.

CPI(M ) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on November 22THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its deep grief at the passing away of Comrade Sukomal Sen, chairman of the Central Control Commission and ex-officio member of the Central Committee.  Sukomal Sen died after a long illness.  He was aged 83.Sukomal Sen joined the Party in 1952.  He was the organiser and builder of the State Government Employees movement in the country.  He served as the general secretary of the All India State Government Employees Federation from 1982 to 2008.