THE Thai army, as most commentators in the region had predicted, has finally taken the first decisive step towards staging yet another coup to oust a democratically elected government. On May 20, an announcement on the Army run radio, said that the country was placed under martial law. The media has been put under strict censorship. The army spokesman specified that the civilian government would be allowed to function under the current caretaker ministry. The justice minister, Chalkasem Nitisri, has said that the army had taken the step without consulting the government.

THE Maharashtra state committee of the Democratic Youth Federation of India has organised a three-day study camp at the state level in which 108 youth leaders from 17 districts participated. The DYFI Pune district committee and well-wishers in Pune district hosted the camp which was held from June 13 to 15, 2014 at the Shramik Bhawan at Akurdi.DYFI founder state secretary and CITU state vice president Mahendra Singh inaugurated the camp on the morning of June 13.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association took the initiative to organise a two-day workshop on health related issues for activists from the Hindi speaking states. The growing challenge to achieving the right to health care, in a context where government policy was increasingly promoting the private corporate sector in health services at the expense of the public health system was the subject of a Commission in AIDWA’s tenth national conference in Bodh Gaya.

THE two day meeting of the All India Kisan Council of the AIKS concluded on July 26, with a call to undertake massive campaigns among the peasantry against the efforts being taken by the BJP led Modi government to impose neo-liberal policies on the people of the country, especially on the peasantry. The resolution adopted by the meeting called upon the peasantry to rebuff the communal conspiracies of the BJP-Sangh Parivar duo and work for the defence of secularism.

2014 MARKS the centenary of the epic voyage of Komagatamaru. It was on July 23, 1914 that Komagatamaru which was anchored at the Vancouver Harbour since May 23, 1914 was forced to return when the Canadian authorities refused to allow the passengers to land and subjected them to inhuman harassment and repression for eight weeks. This is an event enshrined in golden letters in the long struggle of the Indian people for freedom from the British colonial yoke.