IN the early 1940s, the Communist Party was present mainly among a few urban non-tribal people in Tripura. During this period, after the conclusion of Second World War, twelve educated tribal youth came together to form Janasiksha Samiti (JSS, Mass Literacy Association) on December 27, 1945. The objective of the JSS was to not only campaign for literacy, but also to struggle against exploitation, various social ills and superstitions prevalent in the tribal society. It also took up the issue of black marketing and hoarding that were rampant during the war years.
PROTEST programmes were held across the country on June 16 at the call of the Party’s Polit Bureau, demanding relief to the people who are badly hit by the Corona crisis and the resultant lockdown.WEST BENGALOn June 16, protest actions were very encouraging in Kolkata and in other districts. State government and its administration tried its best to disrupt our programme in Kolkata. All 16 parties’ state leadership took part in Kolkata central programme at Rani Rashmoni Avenue (Esplanade).
INDIVIDUAL stories of suffering and of heroism often reflect a wider social reality. There have been many such in this period of lockdown.Jyoti Kumari, a 15 year old dalit girl cycled 1200 km from Gurgaon to Darbhanga with her ailing father riding pillion to take him home. In an interview she said that her mother had mortgaged whatever little jewellery she had to buy them the cycle as there was no other way they could get home.
MOST of the big hotels in Shimla, the capital city, and in the state of Himachal Pradesh have started laying-off their workforce; the medium and smaller ones did it a few weeks after the first lockdown began.
AFTER the failed lockdown and rising numbers of Covid-19 cases, the Modi government, which declared an emergency under the Disaster Management Act, seems now to have given up. We are seeing rapidly rising numbers in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, which together have about 40 per cent of the new infections in the country.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has written to union home minister Amit Shah against the inhuman treatment meted out to the political and human rights activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.In her letter on June 21, Karat said, “Even though nine of the 11 arrested have been incarcerated for two years which is more than enough time for investigation, the NIA has been consistently opposing bail applications.
THE Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) is a burning issue of the banking Industry. The central government has been claiming that IBC would be an effective law to recover the NPA of the large borrowers. But the present experience seems to prove otherwise and due to that, the additional NPA in the current financial year is feared to increase astronomically. The issue of bad loan has been in existence from the time the financial institutions started lending.
BHUMI Adhikar Andolan(BAA) issued a press release on June 19, to roll back the decision to auction 41 coal blocks. BAA said that coal is not a commodity for private profit and it cannot be sold in the name of development. The BAA also demanded implementation of PESA-Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act and Forest Rights Act in its letter and spirit.The coal blocks listed in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are located in regions of dense forest, with several species of valuable tress and a rich wildlife.
ON June 1, Food Corporation of India had 10.4 crore tonnes of foodgrains. Never before has the government hoarded such a large quantity of foodgrains. This is 83.3 lakh tonnes in excess of what the government needs for operational and emergency requirements. The All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on June 24, has said that it is criminal to hoard such a large quantity of grains during a crisis such as the present, when hunger and food insecurity affects a vast majority of people in India.
THE All India Kisan Sabha has decided to send one lakh letters to the president, the prime minister and agriculture minister by email demanding to stop corporatisation of agriculture and ensure income support, health security, food, MSP, jobs and minimum wages. Letters were sent from the all India centre by Hannan Mollah, general secretary and Ashok Dhawale, president, on June 20.