The following is the letter written to the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee by the creative and academic community of West Bengal, by all members of PEN International, India, West Bengal Branch, by the creative community of Gujarat and Maharashtra and by many eminent writers.AS citizens of a democratic country, we are deeply concerned about the growing culture of murderous intolerance and the brazen assault on the fundamental right to life of those who maintain the core values of diversity, plurality and tolerance of which you yourself have recently reminded us.

THE RSS and dozens of its so-called socio-cultural outfits have become very aggressive in unleashing violence during recent months since the BJP assumed power on its own under the leadership of Narender Modi. In spite of false tall promises and acute anti incumbency against the UPA-2 government, the BJP had got a mere 31 percent of the vote share.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on October 16, 2015.

A POLITICAL storm has been buffeting Malaysia's prime minister, Najib Razak, for the last couple of months. A corruption scandal, whose magnitude has dwarfed previous scams, has galvanised the people in many cities, including the capital, to stage massive anti-government protests. $US700 million from the State run investment fund called the 1MDB allegedly found its way into the personal bank account of the prime minister. The story first surfaced in July this year.

IT is a classic case of securing the bastion even before the battle has been fought. When the deadline to file the nominations ended on October 15, CPI(M) Kannur district committee had a big reason to cheer. Ten CPI(M) women candidates in the newly carved Anthoor municipality had been elected unopposed. No political rivals, either the Congress or the BJP, had turned up for filing nomination. Nomination of four UDF candidates has been rejected by the election commission in the final scrutiny. Out of 28 wards, 14 have been won by the LDF without a contest.