THE coordination committee of farmers’ organisations had decided to organise large joint peasant conventions for mass awakening (janjaagran) in major districts all over the state from July 10-23. The report of the first few conventions was carried in these columns last week.A total of 15 massive joint conventions of farmers took place in all the five regions of Maharashtra – northern Maharashtra, Konkan, Vidarbha, Marathwada and Western Maharashtra – from July 10-23. Over 40,000 farmers took enthusiastic part in all these conventions despite the sowing season in the monsoons.
CPI(M) has organised a state wide campaign and protest on July 19 against the centre’s strategic partnership with Israel. Modi government has been trying to derail the foreign policy pursued by the country for past several decades. The protest is organised in the wake of Modi’s recent visit to Israel. CPI(M) has appealed all democratic forces to protest against the centre’s decision to make Israel a strategic partner of India.
THE entire top brass of BJP’s state leadership is under fire for massive corruption charges against them. The storm was triggered when an internal enquiry commission report which reveals that Rs 5.6 crores have been taken as bribe, was leaked by a section of leaders. The report said that the money was received by the leaders to illegally arrange the sanction from Indian Medical Council to a self financing medical college floated in Cherpulasseri in Palakkad district by some businessmen.
THE presidential elections in Iran on May 19 saw the re-election of President Hassan Rouhani for a second term of office. As was widely expected by most Iranian observers, this was the most convenient outcome for the theocratic regime in Tehran. The election, from the opening of nominations, the vetting of candidates, the televised debates, during a three-week-long campaign, followed the normal practice of a carefully state-managed show.
SLOGANS of ‘Justice for Gudiya’ reverberated the air in Shimla demanding proper investigation into the horrendous rape and murder of a 10th class school girl, in Kotkhai who got the acronym of Gudiya meaning a doll or daughter. Since July 4, when Gudiya went missing, the district of Shimla initially and then many parts of the state saw massive protests in support of the foremost demand of proper investigation and action against the real culprits who according to the people were at large.Gudiya went missing on July 4.
IT is indeed ironical that just a day after the ILO facilitated a national stakeholders meeting on a proposed National Policy for Domestic Workers for the government of India at New Delhi on July 11, the incidents of violence and repression in Noida happened after the news spread that a domestic worker had been wrongfully confined by her employer in a posh apartment complex.
AFTER WannaCry and (Not)Petya ransomware hitting global high profile organisations, there is a much greater awareness of the risks from cyber weapons. Both these ransomware used EternalBlue, the stolen NSA exploit of a Windows vulnerability. The call for a Geneva Convention for controlling cyber weapons – a cyber Geneva Convention – has therefore grown, with Microsoft, Deutsch Telekom and other big corporations now backing the call.
ONE of the major components of neoliberal policies, popularly known as ‘LPG (liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation) policies’ is privatisation – privatisation of public enterprises, public resources and public services etc. Privatisation process in our country was initiated under the Congress regime in 1991 when the neoliberal policies were officially introduced.
AN exhibition titled ‘Women Freedom Fighters of the Left’ was inaugurated this morning by Subhashini Ali, vice president of AIDWA at the Constitution Club, New Delhi. Over two hundred women from different parts of Delhi and NCR participated in the meeting.On July 23 every year, AIDWA pays its homage to the memory of Captain Lakshmi Sehgal, one of its founding leaders.