JANUARY 26, this year, is the third Republic Day under the Modi regime. This has been a period when each and every institution of the republic has seen changes which mark the subversion of the founding principles of the republic. Dr BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution, remarked “However good a constitution may be, if those who are implementing it are not good, it will prove to be bad”. The men who are at present entrusted with the running of the republic – Narendra Modi and his cohorts who all belong to the RSS – are those who are committed to re-design the republican co
Below we publish an extract from Albert R Willaims’ Through the Russian Revolution written in 1967. Willaims was an American journalist and labour organiser who is most famous for writing memoirs about the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, an event in which he was both a witness and a participant.WHILE Petrograd is in a tumult of clashing patrols and contending voices, men from all over Russia come pouring into the city.
THE 15th central conference of Tribal Youth Federation (an affiliate of Democratic Youth Federation of India) was held from January 11-13, in Khowai. The conference started with an impressive public meeting at the Khowai Government HS school ground. It was addressed by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, DYFI state secretary Amal Chakraborty, TYF general secretary Amalendu Debbarma and CEM of TTAADC, Radhacharan Debbarma.
TRIPURA chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar was invited by Hampi Kannada University - the top-ranking university of Karnataka to deliver a lecture on “Political Economy of Tripura” on January 16. Addressing the faculty and students of the university, Manik Sarkar described the condition of Tripura before Left Front came to power and highlighted its achievements of second highest literacy rate, lowest difference in male-female literacy and zero farmer suicides.
THE point here is not that the Reserve Bank of India imposed on the working people of this country an utterly witless and utterly oppressive demonetisation; the point is rather that it had very little say in the matter.
BSNL Employees Union, the main recognised union of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, conducted its eighth all India conference at Chennai, from December 31, 2016 to January 3, 2017. 1,632 delegates and observers attended this conference. BSNL is one of the biggest public sector companies employing 2.25 lakh workers and officers.
There has been a long standing nexus between the RSS and big capital. Funding of Hate, a report published in 2002 clearly pointed to the nexus between the RSS, its affiliate organisations and foreign funding. The India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) and Sewa Bharti International are the two main channels through which Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams, Ekal Vidyalayas get their funding. In fact the facebook page of the Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram based in Jashpur says that all cheques and donations to it should be routed through Sewa Bharti or Sewa Bharti International.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on January 19, 2017.THE CPI(M) strongly opposes the clearance given by the union cabinet for disinvestment of shares in the five public sector general insurance companies. The decision is to disinvest by 25 percent shares in each of these companies.By this step, the government is weakening the nationalised general insurance companies which have been running well.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on January 18.THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemns the police firing at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal which has resulted in the death of two persons.The local people have been protesting against the acquisition of land for a power grid project. The TMC government should stop using force against the protestors. It should open talks with the people to settle the issue. There can be no forcible acquisition of land.
THE National Human Rights Commission is to be congratulated for taking the first step, even though much delayed, to bring justice to tribal women in the Bastar region of Chattisgarh. Its interim report confirms, through its independent investigation carried out in March 2016, the horrific gang-rapes, rapes, sexual assault and separately, physical assault, by security forces on 16 tribal women in different incidents in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. The incidents occurred between October 19 and 24, 2015, in the villages of Pegdapalli, Chinnagelur, Peddagelur, Gundam and Burgicheru.