RICH tributes were paid to Comrade Ananda Pathak and Comrade Arati Dasguta, frontline leaders of working class movement and CPI(M), in a condolence meeting on December 29 at Kolkata. Both of them breathed their last on November 28.The meeting, presided over by Biman Basu particularly remembered their contribution to the development of working class movement in the state.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on December 26.

THE formation of the government of Jammu & Kashmir has become complicated because of the nature of the result and a hung assembly. The BJP, which benefited from the polarisation in the Jammu region, is trying to impose its political design in the formation of the government. This should be resisted in the interests of the unity of the state and safeguarding its special status.

BETWEEN January 1 -15, CPI(M) units will organise solidarity actions with the adivasis in Assam who have been the targets of brutal attacks by Bodo extremist organisations. Over 70 adivasis have been killed and 1.15 lakh adivasis have been forced to flee their homes and are living in miserable conditions in camps. While organising such actions on different dates within this period, funds for relief can also be collected.

THE last two weeks have seen various business organisations, editorials in the corporate media and political commentators decrying the spate of communal activities and propaganda in the country. Under the Modi government, the RSS and its outfits are increasingly asserting the Hindutva agenda. The latest has been the campaign to “reconvert” those who have left the Hindu fold. According to the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, this is not conversion but a ‘ghar wapasi’ and in his words, the return of `maal’ stolen by a thief.

“...We Communists are people of a special mould. We are made of a special stuff. We are those who form the army of the great proletarian strategist, the army of Comrade Lenin. There is nothing higher than the honour of belonging to this army. There is nothing higher than the title of member of the Party whose founder and leader was Comrade Lenin. It is not given to everyone to be a member of such a Party. It is not given to everyone to withstand the stresses and storms that accompany membership in such a Party.