NEARLY one thousand people suffered injuries, scores of them severely in brutal police attack on the Left activists in West Bengal on May 22. But the real headline of the bloodied day was the determined fight of people against an authoritarian government. The twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah reverberated with the struggling ethos of the people. Left peasants and agricultural organisations took the initiative for a march to Nabanna, the state secretariat on burning issues of the people, particularly of rural people.
A DEPUTATION consisting of three members of the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch – Nathu Prasad, Surinder and Subhashini Ali (ex MP) met the National Human Rights Commission chairperson and gave him a memorandum on the brutal attack on dalit families in Shabbirpur village in Uttar Pradesh on May 5. Members of the DSMM have been visiting the village and also the injured in the district hospital several times since May 9. The memorandum gave a detailed account of the incident and the background to it.
IN the wake of malware WannaCry infecting hundreds of thousands of computers using a stolen NSA hacking tool, Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft has blamed the nation-states in pursuit of cyber weapons, as a major danger to the people.
THERE is an imminent need for waging a united struggle to thwart the threats being posed to fundamental rights of the people enshrined in the constitution and to achieve social justice in the country, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said at a seminar in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh on May 11.The seminar was also addressed by CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakara Reddy and Republican Party of India (RPI) president Prakash Ambedkar.
ON May 11, 2017, the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha (AIKS) held an ‘Aasood’ (Whipcord) state convention followed by an ‘Aasood’ state rally to the house of the BJP’s state agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar at Khamgaon in Buldana district of Vidarbha region. Mahatma Jotirao Phule had written a celebrated book that was aptly called “Shetkaryacha Aasood” (Whipcord of the Farmer). It was from this that the AIKS coined the name. Khamgaon town had been decorated with hundreds of AIKS flags.
THE Maharashtra state committee of the All India Democratic Women’s Association held its meeting last month in the working class city of Solapur, amidst great enthusiasm. It was held in the wake of the recent municipal corporation elections, in which many women candidates of the AIDWA contested on the Left symbol and gave a tough fight.Kamini Adam won as municipal corporator by a thumping majority against candidates of all bourgeois parties and CEC member Naseema Shaikh and some other AIDWA leaders lost by small margins.
THE Modi government is completing three years in office amid much fanfare and propaganda about its achievements during this period. Aiding this propaganda is the advance estimate of GDP which projects a growth-rate of 7.11 per cent for 2016-17, a shade lower than last year’s 7.93 per cent, but apparently impressive nonetheless.
THE BJP government is celebrating the completion of three years in office with their trademark grandiose and fanfare. Seen from the perspective of the vast majority of the Indian people, there is no occasion for any celebration. The livelihood conditions of the Indian people have sharply deteriorated during the course of these three years.The BJP government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has unveiled the true character of the BJP functioning as the political arm of the RSS. The RSS continues to pursue its ideological project of converting the secular democratic Republic into their
An important feature of the October Revolution was the forging of a worker-peasant alliance. Lenin had set out this strategic alliance as essential for the completion of the democratic revolution and for advancing towards socialism. It is in keeping with this worker-peasant alliance that Lenin gave the slogan of the revolutionary dictatorship of the workers and peasants.On the land question, the Bolshevik party programme called for “Nationalisation of all lands in the country, the land to be disposed off by the local Soviets of Agricultural Labourers and Peasant’s Deputies”. However, the
THE Modi government is set upon privatising defence production in the country. Both foreign and Indian private companies are being invited to enter defence production and the manufacture of hi-tech weaponary. This has serious implications for national sovereignty and the future course of the country.The ministry of defence has finalised its new policy for defence production. It has decided to identify six Strategic Partners (SPs) from domestic Indian companies.