AROUND a thousand people representing a large number of organisations responded to the call for a day-long National Assembly in Defence of Education which was held on October 14 in New Delhi at the Mavlankar Auditorium.
INDIA’S writers have done the country proud. They have stood up to condemn the rising attack on freedom of expression, the worst manifestation of which was the killing of Prof M M Kalburgi who was murdered by extremists on August 30.
THE campaigning agenda of the BJP and the PDP during the recent assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir was diametrically opposed to each other. While the BJP polarised the situation that benefited it in Jammu province by bagging 25 seats; PDP got 28 seats in Kashmir province owing to its slogan of self rule and claims to resist “Modi Wave”.
THE observations of the speaker of J&K legislative assembly vis-à-vis private members bills submitted on the beef ban are regrettable. In a statement issued on October 4, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, CPI(M) leader and MLA Kulgam, said that it was not expected from the speaker to disrespect his constitutional mandate of neutrality and virtually act as spokesperson of the government.
The remarks of the speaker indicate that the government has shelved the much needed debate on the bills related to beef ban.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on September 29 said that the widening economic divide was deepening caste oppression and caste-based attacks against dalits and other backward classes.
Addressing a special conference against honour killings in Tamil Nadu at Cuddalore, organised by the district committee of the CPI(M), Yechury said the situation was becoming worse for socially oppressed sections like dalits and OBCs with caste atrocities and murders in the name of honour, on the rise.
UNABATED farmers’ suicides and intensified distress in Telangana state is causing serious concern among everyone concerned with farmers, development and well being of the people. According to published list of farmer’s suicides, district wise along with names of Mandal and village by daily newspaper Nava Telangana, over 1168 farmers have committed suicide between 2nd June 2014 (State formation day) and 28th September 2015.
ELAP 2015 (Encounter of the Progressive forces of Latin America) was organised in Quito, Ecuador from September 28-30, 2015. ELAP is organised by the Allianz de Pais, the ruling party of that country. 63 Communist, Left and progressive parties/movements participated in this conference along with our Party.The Communist Party of Cuba, Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), Communist Party of Chile, Sandinistas of Nicaragua, MAS of Bolivia, FMLN of El Salvador, PSUV of Venezuela are some of the prominent parties, which participated in the conference from within the continent.
GROUPS aligned with the Sangh Parivar are doing everything in their power to engineer riots in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of prime minister, Narendra Modi. Most unfortunately, Congress leaders are also supporting their BJP counterparts in this unholy conspiracy. On October 5, so-called ‘holy’ men and religious leaders gave a call to take out a protest rally against the refusal of the district administration to allow them to immerse Ganesh statues in the Ganga in the third week of September.
GIVEN the dire socio-economic conditions of minorities in the country, there is urgent need to have a Sub Plan for them separately as also 12 per cent reservation in education and jobs. This was underscored by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury who addressed a state-level convention on these two issues in Hyderabad on October 5th as chief guest. He criticised the Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao for not implementing his poll promise of providing 12 per cent reservations to minorities if voted to power.
AS the oath-taking ceremony of members elected to the first Lok Sabha was in progress in Parliament House, New Delhi, in 1952, a Leftist member of Parliament from West Bengal drew the attention of the Speaker to a fair and handsome tribal youth and said, “He is Dasaratha Deb, elected to Parliament as a Communist candidate from East Tripura (ST reserved) seat. But still he is being hounded by police with arrest warrant. He has been elected while being in underground.” The Leftist member then urged Speaker G V Mavalankar to intervene in lifting the arrest warrant against Dasaratha Deb.