2017 IS beginning on a dismal note for millions of people in India. They have lost their livelihoods and are deprived of their hard-earned wages. Many are unable to access their meager savings which are locked up out of reach in banks. All this pain has been inflicted on them by Narendra Modi’s quixotic demonetisation announced on November 8. With the fifty days for depositing old notes ending on December 30, there are no signs of the travails of the people coming to an end.

THE past year once again provides a clear picture of neglect of public health by the BJP led government and further, a disdain towards policies that promote welfare. The year has seen several outbreaks of infectious diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, often reaching epidemic proportions in many parts of the country. The epidemics have laid bare the inability of the country’s health systems to protect people’s health.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on December 20, 2016.THE central government and  RBI's action in imposing fresh curbs on depositing amounts exceeding Rs 5000 in old notes is whimsical and anti-people.  In fact, the latest order is because almost all the notes taken out of circulation have come back into the banking system exposing the fraudulent claims that black money will be eliminated.  Communist Party of India (Marxist) demands the immediate retraction of these and other restrictions on using and depositing the old t

THE liberation of eastern Aleppo from the clutches of jihadi forces after a struggle lasting over four and a half years, signals the complete unraveling of the plot that was hatched to bring about regime change in Syria. It is “game over” for the west and its regional proxies in Syria. With the ouster of the rebels from the last remaining pockets of eastern Aleppo, the Syrian government now has complete control of all the major cities in the country.  President Bashar al Assad described the liberation of the entire city as a historic turning point.

The coordination committee of minority cultural groups organized a seminar on ‘Uniform Civil Code and the Left’ in Kannur on December 20. Addressing the seminar CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat said the BJP is using the issue of Uniform Civil Code as a weapon to obliterate the identity of Muslims in the country and that the fundamentalist position insisting that instant and arbitrary triple ‘talaq’ is ordained by Islam will help communalists create a communal divide in the country.