AFTER holding public hearings on various issues concerning the people of the Santal Pargana division of Jharkhand from December 19 to 22, the CPI(M) has resolved to hold a month-long campaign in the panchayats of the four districts – Godda, Sahebganj, Pakur and Deoghar – comprising the division, in January 2024.The first public hearing was conducted at the mining project site of Rajmahal Opencast Coal Project, of Coal India's ECL company, in Godda district. Hundreds of farmers who had given their land for mining work gathered there.

HUNDREDS of local residents, including women, men, and children, braved the freezing weather on January 1st this year to assemble at Ambedkar Park in Jhandapur to remember Safdar Hashmi on his 35th martyrdom day programme.

THE first state conference of the Himachal Apple Growers Association took place on December 24-25, 2023, at Rampur in the Shimla district in which 92 delegates from 16 blocks participated. Following the condolence resolution, CITU state leader Amit delivered the welcome address at the conference.The inaugural address was given by P Krishna Prasad, treasurer of the All India Kisan Sabha, who shed light on the challenges faced by apple growers at the national level.

ON October 8, 2023, with the sympathies of the world on its side, the Israeli authorities spoke with a renewed bellicosity. It vowed to “eviscerate” Hamas; the governing body that has managed everyday affairs in the small strip of land we know as Gaza and the body that led a highly audacious military operation, a day earlier, to break the captive blockade under which 2.5 million Gazans have been forced to live. However, as we have learnt over the course of the past few months, for Israel and its allies in the western world, there is no distinction between the Hamas and a Palestinian.

THE G-20 DelhiSummit adopted an omnibus declaration which included a section on “Gender Equality and Empowering all Women and Girls”. Through 17 clauses which reiterate the importance of women’s “leadership and equal participation” in decision-making processes, the declaration resolved to set up a “working group on women’s empowerment.” Given the global reality of continuing discrimination against women and girl children, such a working group to focus specifically on steps to address such existing discriminations can only be welcome.