AIDWA Welcomes Amendment to President’s Address

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association, in a statement issued on March 10, has welcomed the amendment passed in the Rajya Sabha to the president’s address regarding the rights of all citizens to contest panchayat elections. This reiterates AIDWA’s position that an amendment prescribing minimum educational qualifications to contest the panchayati raj institutions affected the most marginalised and poor sections of the society including dalits and women.

Sericulture Farmers Hold Dharna in Delhi

HUNDREDS of sericulture farmers from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh assembled in Delhi at Jantar Mantar on February 29 and had a day-long dharna. Sericulture farmers are in an acute crisis due to the BJP government decision to cut import duty of raw silk drastically to just 10 percent. Earlier UPA government had reduced import duty from 33 percent to 5 percent and then due to protests increased to 15 percent. This was reduced to 10 percent. This has led to dumping of cheap silk from China and also illegally through Nepal and other neighbouring countries.

Comrade Ashok Ghosh

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on March 3.THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its profound sorrow at the death of Comrade Ashok Ghosh, veteran leader of the All India Forward Bloc.Comrade Ashok Ghosh, inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose, joined the freedom movement at a young age. He had participated in the Quit India movement. He headed the West Bengal unit of the Forward Bloc since 1952.

Left Parties Delegation Meets Chief Election Commissioner

A Left Parties delegation comprising Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) general secretary, D Raja, CPI secretary, Debabrata Biswas, AIFB general secretary and Nilotpal Basu, CPI(M) central secretariat member met the chief election commissioner on March 9 and submitted a memorandum concerning some issues in West Bengal.

Bengal Assembly Poll: Left Front Releases First List of Candidates

THE Left Front released its first list of candidates on March 7 for the ensuing assembly poll in West Bengal. The first list included 116 candidates; among them 16 are women and 25 candidates are coming from the religious minority communities. Sixty candidates are in the fray for the first time. Left Front chairman Biman Basu announced the names at a press conference. Bengal will witness six-phase polling on seven days from April 4 to May 5.Basu said that the formation of a greater front is under process to implement the call to oust TMC and save Bengal.

Towards Assembly Polls

ELECTIONS to the five state assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamilnadu and West Bengal have been announced. Polling will begin on April 4 and the process will continue till May 16. Counting for all the states will be held on May 19. These elections are important not only because it will determine who will form the state governments there, but it will also have a bearing on the future course of national politics.The BJP alliance which has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha has not been able to maintain the momentum.

AIKS Calls for Peasant Protest Week from April 8-14

THE union budget 2016-17 is a serious rightward shift to further fortify the domination of monopoly trade and agri-business interests over agro-processing and marketing sector, intensifying the neo-liberal reforms which are the root cause of the current acute crisis in agriculture. The proposals of 100 percent FDI through the FIPB- Foreign Investment Promotion Board route on food products and processing and to start e-platform by amending APMC Act for marketing of agro produce are two obvious examples in support of big capital and MNCs.The farmers are reeling under acute agrarian crisis ma

Rightwing Attack on Protests over JNU Issue, Rohith Suicide

GOONS of BJP, RSS and other rightwing forces launched attack on protests and demonstrations, organised by Left and democratic forces in several parts of the country, over the Jawaharlal Nehru University issue and the suicide by dalit scholar Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad Central University.

Pakistan Terror Strike: One among Many

JUST weeks after the terror strike in Pathankot, Pakistan was hit by an even more deadly attack. Before that, in the same fortnight, there were major terror attacks in Istanbul, Jakarta and Ouagadougou. Terrorists, belonging to a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, attacked the Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda near the city of Peshawar in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The university is named after Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Week in Parliament

THE Budget Session of Parliament began on February 23 with President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to a joint session of both the Houses. After the President's address, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha met and made obituary references. Both the Houses were adjourned after laying the President's address on the table of the respective House.

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