Nineteen passengers were burnt to death when a Hyderabad-Bengaluru sleeper coach bus, run by V Kaveri Travels, caught fire after a collision with a motorcycle on the outskirts of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh on October 24. The accident brought to light the chronic government negligence in enforcing safety and other rules, and exposed the mad-for-maximising-profit private bus owners who blatantly flout norms and cut corners in utter disregard for safety norms.

The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union territories, announced by the Election Commission on October 27, is intended to overthrow the country's democratic system, the CPI(M) Kerala state secretariat has said and demanded that the central government roll back the move. The commission has hastily started efforts to expand the Bihar-model SIR across the country, including Kerala.

The announcement of the latest ceasefire in Gaza in early October 2025 was a rare moment of relief for the lakhs of Palestinians besieged for nearly two years, enduring daily bombardments, hunger and displacement. It offered some respite, some stoppage to the relentless killing, some hope of aid trucks entering into Gaza and the wounded receiving treatment. But that pause has proved fragile. Israeli forces have, true to their wont, carried out strikes and incursions post the deal. Humanitarian aid remains woefully restricted.

Proclivity to resort to lies and slander against opponents comes naturally to the Prime Minister and his cohorts, and they are employing them daily in their election speeches.Prime Minister and his yes-man Amit Shah have nothing to say about unemployment, corruption of monumental proportion, growing attacks on women, Dalits, minorities and other sections of marginalized communities, and the large scale migration which came into full play when the migrants workers took their homeward journey to take part in Bihar’s most popular festival Chhath, packed like sardines in all the Bihar bound tra

THE CPI(M), while evaluating the State Structure and Democracy in its Party Programme – which was adopted in 1964 and has since been updated – had correctly identified that the bourgeois-landlord system has failed to put an end to caste oppression. The worst sufferers are the Scheduled Castes. The Dalits are subject to untouchability and other forms of discrimination despite these being declared unlawful. Even after 60 years, the CPI(M)’s assessment of the Indian State and society, remains spot on.