Maharashtra AIDWA State Conference Held Successfully

THE tenth Maharashtra state conference of the All India Democratic Women’s Association was held in the Shaheed Dr Narendra Dabholkar Nagar in Sangli city from June 3-5, 2016. The hall of the conference was named after Shamali Gupta and the dais was named after Shaheed Com Govind Pansare.

Afghanistan: Beginning of a New Bloody Chapter

THE assassination of the Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour by an armed drone dispatched on the express orders of the American president, seems to have quashed all hopes of Afghan peace talks reviving in the near future. Mansour was killed along with the driver of the taxi car they were traveling on a highway in a remote part of Pakistan's Balochistan province. Though the car along with its occupants was charred beyond recognition, the passport which Mansour was carrying was found intact and displayed to international media.

Thinking Together

There is no recruitment for the government posts at the state and central government levels. Why is the CPI(M) and Left not taking up this issue in a big way?
Shyamlal Panda, Raigada

THE central government and most of the state governments are not filling up the vacancies in government posts. In fact there is a official ban on recruitment to these posts. According to the Seventh Pay Commission, in the central government departments there are 7.47 lakh vacancies. Lakhs more are there lying vacant at the state governments’ level.

Central Committee Communique

CC Calls for protest on price rise & growing unemployment from July 11 to 17; against unprecedented TMC violence, in Aug first week The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) met in New Delhi from June 18-20, 2016.

FDI: Ruinous Policies

THE Modi government has announced another set of sweeping liberalised norms for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in various sectors. In the last two years of the Modi government, there has been successive liberalisation of FDI norms across the board. The current relaxations include 100 per cent FDI in the defence sector, retail food trade, civil aviation, cable networks, DTH and other telecom services. Apart from this, 74 percent FDI through the automatic route will be allowed to facilitate takeover of existing Indian pharmaceutical companies.

Globalise the Struggle; Globalise Hope! Workers Paint France In Red: Demand Reversal of “Bosses Law”

THE protests across France against the bill proposing changes in the labour laws have been described as the biggest and longest protests since the French Revolution. What we saw indicate that it could well be an understatement. Over 1.2 million marched the streets of Paris on June 14, 2016 which happens to be the birth anniversary of the eternal revolutionary Che Guevara. Across France yet another 1.5 million workers are reported to have protested on the same day making it the biggest protest with never-seen-before kind of mass participation.

The Goods and Services Tax

FOR pushing through the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the NDA government is resorting to an enormous amount of untruth. The most blatant of these is the utterly bogus claim that the GST would increase India’s GDP growth rate by 2 percent per year. If the GST had such a miraculous effect, then the world capitalist crisis would have vanished long ago, since the US, which does not have a GST, would simply have moved to a GST regime, adding to its GDP growth rate and that of the world economy as a whole.

Yechury writes to External Affairs Minister Over an OFBJP, Malaysia Poster

SITARAM Yechury, CPI(M) general secretary and a member of the consultative committee of the ministry of external affairs wrote a letter to Sushma Swaraj, minister of external affairs on June 8 regarding a poster released by the Overseas Friends of the BJP. The poster is regarding the observations of the International Day of Yoga on June 19, 2016. Yechury said that it is both surprising and objectionable that the poster declares that this event is being supported by the High Commission of India, ministry of external affairs, ministry of ayush and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.

RSS Thinker who Scoffed at Ambedkar has Turned Arts Institution into Sangh Meeting Venue

The following is the statement issued by SAHMAT on June 9, 2016.
RAM Bahadur Rai, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s thinker who described BR Ambedkar’s role in framing the constitution “a myth” also has another achievement to his credit. Just two months after being appointed chairman of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, he has turned the government-funded culture institution into a centre for RSS activities in Delhi.

Philippines: Strong Man Emerges

THE Philippines, long used to dynastic politics, has for a change elected as president a grassroots politician, Rodrigo Duterte from Mindanao. The two previous occupants of the Malacanang Presidential Palace, Gloria Macapagal and Benigno Aquino, were children of former presidents. The candidate who stood second in the elections, Mar Roxas, is also the son of a former president of the Phillipines. Rodrigo Duterte, the tough talking long serving mayor of Davao City, who will be the new president of the Philippines rose from a much humbler environment.

Search form

Peoples Democracy newsletter