During the 1980s and 90s, under the red flag of CPI(M) and Kisan Sabha, poor peasants fought a fierce class struggle to reclaim their lands from feudal lords and exploitative moneylenders in the Panch Pargana of Ranchi district. These struggles marked a historic chapter as the peasants eventually emerged victorious, but 65 peasant activists lost their lives during these battles.

THE government last week released, after cabinet approval, its much awaited Indian Space Policy after having earlier put out a draft inviting comments. This is the latest in a long series of similar attempts which predictably failed due to faulty assumptions about national priorities in the space sector, about interests and capabilities of the private sector in India, about interests and motivations of foreign entities to invest in the Indian space sector. The current ISP 2023 suffers from a repetition of all these weaknesses and a failure to learn from past mistakes.

THE Quad, consisting of four countries, the United States, Japan, Australia and India is gradually taking the shape of a security alliance which was the intent of the original name of the grouping – the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.The security angle was highlighted by the recent meeting of the military chiefs of the four Quad members held in Sunnylands in California on May 15-17, the Indian Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan attended the meeting.

A MEETING in memory of late Comrades Madan Ghosh and Mridul De, both former members of CPI(M) Central Committee and state secretariat, was held at Pramod Dasgupta Bhavan in Kolkata on May 10.At the beginning of the meeting floral tributes were paid to the portraits of Comrades Madan Ghosh and Mridul De by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, senior leader of CPI(M) Biman Basu, state secretary of the Party Mohammad Salim, Polit Bureau members Surya Mishra and Ramchandra Dom,    Soma Ghosh, wife of Comrade Madan Ghosh, Swapna De, wife of Comrade Mridul De, CPI state secretary Swapan Bane

THE Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions, in a statement issued on May 8, has expressed its whole hearted support to the justified demand of young women wrestlers for stringent action against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, BJP MP and the chairperson of the Wrestlers Federation of India, who, as per two FIRs registered against him, harassed them sexually.