THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU), in a statement issued in December 2, have expressed profound grief at the death of around 200 people in continuing heavy rains in Tamil Nadu, particularly in the northern and coastal districts. The rains have broken a hundred year record for the month of November and created havoc in Chennai and other coastal cities. Houses, roads, railway stations and even the airport are submerged.  Life has come to a standstill.

SO COP 21 (Conference of Parties) is finally here and fingers are crossed all over the world that the summit will deliver a definitive outcome. Problem is that nobody is particularly optimistic about how effective that outcome will be in terms of dealing with the clear, present and immediate danger posed by climate change. At the same time, almost everybody is sure that COP21 will end with some concrete agreement, probably named after Paris much like the Kyoto Protocol that it will replace, that will be greeted with applause and hailed as a success.

Below we reproduce the excerpts from the speech made by Jitendra Chaudhury, Lok Sabha MP from Tripura on November 27 who spoke on discussion on commitment to India’s constitution as part of 125th birth anniversary celebration of Dr BR Ambedkar.TODAY we are celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar.

PUNJAB state Kisan Sabha organised an impressive state level rally on issues relating to peasantry in Punjab to commemorate birth centenary of Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet at  Bhasaur village (Dhuri)  in Sangrur district.  Hanan Mollah, general secretary, All India Kisan Sabha  while addressing the rally said that due to anti-peasantry policies of the successive governments, agriculture has become a loss making profession due to which peasantry has come under heavy debts. Peasants who are unable to pay their debts are committing suicides in large numbers.

 We expected them to speak about us, the dalits, the untouchables. Because, for us, speaking about Babasaheb without speaking about us, is meaningless. We thought they will speak about the attacks on us. We wanted them to speak about people who still shamelessly call us dogs. We hoped that they will talk about things that will help in the education of our children, jobs for us and an improvement in our overall life. For us, Ambedkar is a struggle and we thought that there will be a talk of our struggles in the parliament. Glued to the TV, we watched and watched and watched.