SBI Chief’s Objectionable Remarks on Farmer Loans

The All India Kisan Sabha general secretary, Hannan Mollah, has written an open letter to the SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya on March 23 against the comments she made on writing off loans of the peasantry. Below we publish the text of the letter.YOUR response in a gathering of the Chamber of Indian Industries in Mumbai on March 15 that a debt waiver to farmers will disrupt credit discipline has made us to take the pain of writing this open letter.

Gross Violation of Human Rights of Students and Youth in West Bengal

A delegation comprising of Brinda Karat, Mariam Dhawale (AIDWA general secretary), PK Sreemati (treasurer, MP, Lok Sabha), Sudha Sundarararman and S Punyavathi (vice-presidents), Kirti Singh (legal convenor) and Asha Sharma (JMS, general secretary) met the chairperson of National Human Rights Commission HL Dattu on March 20 and appraised him of the tremendous repression and atrocities committed by the West Bengal Police and state government on the students and youth. The students and youth were protesting against the malpractices in the appointment of primary teachers.

Thinking Together

Q. As per the Party Programme what are the major contradictions at the present stage of the revolution and which is the main contradiction?Chandan Biswas, Burdwan, West BengalAns. The three main contradictions that exist in Indian society are:

The West Bengal Political Situation & Our Struggle

IN the recent period, some positive changes are discernible in the movements and struggles in the state and in the participation of workers, peasants and many sections of the people in them. Even though threats and terror perpetrated by the ruling party and the police administration persisted, the response and participation of the people increased substantially.The kisan conferences in different districts and the presence of people in big gatherings at the open sessions of these conferences have set the pace for these movements and struggles after the last assembly elections.

Unlimited Corporate Funding: Subversion of Democracy

THE Modi government has taken another surreptitious step to harness corporate funding for the BJP and to subject the political system to the sway of big money.While presenting the Union Budget, the finance minister had announced that the government would introduce “electoral bonds” as a means of funding for political parties. According to this concept, anyone wanting to contribute money to a political party can, through a bank, purchase an electoral bond for a specified amount. This bond can then be put into the account of a political party. The noteworthy feature of this bond is that th

The Reserve Bank on Demonetisation

THE Reserve Bank of India has just come out with a document titled Macroeconomic Impact of Demonetisation: A Preliminary Assessment, which, while conceding that demonetisation did have an adverse impact on output, suggests that this impact would have got over by mid-February, because of the re-monetisation that has occurred in the interim.

TELANGANA: Communists Will Give a Fitting Reply to Fascist Forces

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat warned that the Red brigade would not keep quiet, if attempts are made to obstruct the “Polikeka” meeting – the struggle convention for social justice, scheduled to be organised in Hyderabad on March 19 as a culmination to the five-month-long Mahajana Padayatra undertaken by the CPI(M) in Telangana. She made it clear that as the chief minister, it is the responsibility of K Chandrasekhar Rao to see that the “Polikeka” meeting is allowed to be conducted peacefully.

NAGPUR: People Give Fitting Reply to VC’s RSS-Dictated Action

THE Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University every year organises seminars under the Dr Ambedkar Study Centre of the University, which is supposed to be an autonomous body. This year on March 18-19, 2017, a two day seminar was organised on the subject “Decay of Democracy – Challenges and Solutions”. It was decided that this seminar would be inaugurated by Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M).

National Health Policy 2017: Assurance for Whom?

THE government has finally approved the National Health Policy-2017, bringing to an end a two year long process. A draft of the policy was available since mid-2015 but it is believed that the government, at the Niti Ayog’s behest had been unhappy with some specific parts of the earlier draft that was critical of the private sector.Experience with past National Health Policy documents (we have had two in the past – one in 1983 and one in 2002) have not been particularly positive.

The ‘RSS Factor’ in Dalit Politics

AFTER the massive win in Uttar Pradesh, the prime minister has announced that the stage is set for a ‘New India’ which is based on development and not on the politics of caste or religion. This claim is based on the understanding that the people of UP defied the caste and religious equations this time to defeat the forces of ‘castiest’ and ‘communal politics of BSP and SP-INC combine’ in order to support social harmony and development in the state.

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