A spate of crimes perpetrated against the oppressed, Dalits and women in several districts of Bihar has put a question mark on the ability of the Nitish Kumar government to tackle the ever-increasing attacks aided by the old- and neo-feudal elements who rule the hinterland and are the pillars of political support to the present dispensation.Newspaper headlines in the past week make it amply clear that the political change of guard in Bihar has emboldened the feudal elements and that they have gone berserk. In Noorsarai in Nalanda, a poor man of low caste origin was humiliated and beaten up

THE first visit to India of the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, marked another step in the US gambit to draw India fully into a strategic-military alliance in what is called the “Indo-Pacific” region.Before his visit, Tillerson made a significant speech at a think-tank in Washington entitled, “Defining Our Relationship with India for the Next Century”.

THE Delhi Union of Journalists(DUJ) , the National Alliance of Journalists and All India Lawyer’s Union have, in a statement issued on October 24, congratulated the democratic opinion that demanded that the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Ordinance 2017 placed by BJP government in Rajasthan assembly for converting it into a statute should be withdrawn lock-stock and barrel. A small beginning has been made by its deferment they said.

The Central Committee of the CPI(M) issued the following statement on October 25THE Central Committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) in its meeting held on October 14-16, 2017 expressed its strong disapproval of certain remarks made by Gautam Deb, member of the Central Committee, to a Bengali television channel which were damaging to the Party.  Gautam Deb accepted his mistake and expressed regret.The Central Committee publicly censured Gautam Deb and warned him to desist from making such remarks.

CHAVISMO won an important victory in the regional elections of October 15.THE CONTEXTThese regional elections took place after having been preceded by a cycle of violence promoted by anti-Chavista forces both inside and outside Venezuela. After four months of violence from April to July and efforts by Venezuela’s political opposition to boycott the elections to the National Constituent Assembly at the end of July, Chavismo’s forces managed to turn the conflict to an electoral one.