Contextualising Cultural Praxis

Below are the excerpts of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Lecture delivered by Sitaram Yechury on November 22, 2014. The memorial lecture was organised by the Jana Natya Manch.

LOCATION OF CULTURE:
A MARXIST APPROACH
By choosing this, I am conscious of, at least, two limitations at the outset.

900 Homes Uprooted without Notice in Delhi Slum, Party Takes up Cause of Homeless

IT took no more than a few hours for about 900 slum dwellings to be pulled down last month at Rangpur Pahadi in south Delhi, the swiftness and suddenness of the action catching the thousands of residents of the settlement off-guard and leaving them with little recourse for justice in a case where the court itself was ignored by Delhi government officials as they carried out their demolition drive.

CPI(M) Organises Special Convention to Save & Strengthen Govt Schools

IT is an untold story.
Untold stories and unnoticed issues are always identified and revealed to the public only by the Communists.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Tamil Nadu unearthed the shocking truth that nearly 1000 schools of the state government were closed in the last ten years, which is the period covering both the DMK and AIADMK rule.
Taking this issue seriously, the state committee of the Party had organised a Special Convention in Chennai on November 29.

Arithmetic of Precision Drone Strikes: Kill 28 to Eliminate One Target

THE drone strikes have been touted by the US as “precision” weapons, taking out specific “targets” with minimum “collateral damage”, the military speak for killing innocent victims. The recent report in the Guardian (The Guardian, November 24, 2014) by Reprieve, a human rights group, shows how bogus this claim is – for killing 41 targets, drone strikes killed an estimated 1,147 others. In other words, for successfully killing one “target”, 28 people have to be killed.

Cutting Social Sector Expenditure

THE NDA government is reportedly planning drastic cuts in social sector spending in 2014-15 to reduce the fiscal deficit. According to a report in The Hindu of November 27, the cuts relative to the budgetary provisions for this year could be as large as 25 percent in many sectors. While the government has not confirmed these reports, the coyness of its protestations, together with the pervasiveness of such reports, and the clear evidence at least with regard to one area where cuts are being effected, viz.

Janapaksha Yatra: Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing but Mockery

THANKS to the geography of Kerala, yatras organised by various political parties from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram touch almost all districts in a straight line. Many leaders had organised yatras (processions) in the past in order to propagate their respective ideologies. But a yatra, christened as Janapaksha Yatra, organised and led by state Congress president V M Sudheeran to propagate among others the need of prohibition in the state not only failed to make an impact but it also became a laughing stock to all including Congress men and women.

Massive rally in Kolkata Demands Mamata’s Interrogation

A RALLY organised by the Kolkata district Left Front, demanding the CBI interrogation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Saradha Chit Fund probe, has witnessed huge gathering of people in Kolkata on December 2, 2014. This rally reflected the simmering anger among the people regarding the pace of the CBI investigation. While one after another evidence is coming out, exposing the complicity of top TMC leaders in the scam, the CBI and the ED have so far restrained themselves in circling round some aspects of the scam while avoiding the conspiracy angle.

TMC Land Mafia Kills Peasant Woman Strong Wave of Protest in Nadia

A VILLAGE in Nadia district witnessed barefaced brutality of the TMC regime when an armed gang of the ruling party attacked the peasants to capture a tract of land and shot dead a woman. Many others, including two women and a student suffered serious bullet injuries in the attack.

Justice VR Krishna Iyer

Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on December 4, 2014
I AM deeply saddened at the passing away of Justice VR Krishna Iyer. Krishna Iyer was a visionary jurist, statesman and champion of human rights. Elected as an independent, he became the law minister in the first Communist ministry in Kerala in 1957. As a Supreme Court judge, he gave several landmark judgements which interpreted the rights of citizens under the constitution favouring the common man.

Times Report Misleading

THE Times of India report (dated December 1) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to attend the state cabinet meeting in Tripura is misleading.

The actual fact is that during the prime minister's visit to Tripura, the chief minister and state ministers are going to meet him at the state guest house. They will submit a memorandum and discuss with him issues concerning the state. This has been clarified by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

It may be recalled, that such a meeting of state ministers had taken place when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Tripura.

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