THESE days are terrifying for college and university campuses in Kerala. A series of attacks on SFI activists has taken place across the state in the past one month. The ABVP, with the active support of the RSS and the BJP, has been in the forefront of most of these incidents, posing an open threat to democracy on campuses. A number of SFI leaders braved murder attempts. In the past two weeks, more than 30 SFI activists were attacked by these goons.

AS the assembly elections in Gujarat are due in December, atmosphere of communal tension and Hindu fundamentalism cannot be far away.The hint of this phenomenon was available last weekend with the death of one person in a communal clash in north Gujarat while the main urban cluster of Ahmedabad hosted a Virat Hindu Sammelan which issued a 12-point charter titled ‘Hindu first’.Despite claims of apparent tranquility prevailing in Gujarat, a trivial altercation between two students belonging to different communities deteriorated into a communal clash that quickly spread to few adjoining villag

A delegation comprising of Brinda Karat, Mariam  Dhawale (AIDWA general secretary), PK Sreemati (treasurer, MP, Lok Sabha), Sudha Sundarararman and S Punyavathi (vice-presidents), Kirti Singh (legal convenor) and Asha Sharma (JMS, general secretary) met the chairperson of  National Human Rights Commission HL Dattu on March 20 and appraised him of the tremendous repression and atrocities committed by the West Bengal Police and state government on the students and youth. The students and youth were protesting against the malpractices in the appointment of primary teachers.

IN the recent period, some positive changes are discernible in the movements and struggles in the state and in the participation of workers, peasants and many sections of the people in them. Even though threats and terror perpetrated by the ruling party and the police administration persisted, the response and participation of the people increased substantially.The kisan conferences in different districts and the presence of people in big gatherings at the open sessions of these conferences have set the pace for these movements and struggles after the last assembly elections.

THE Reserve Bank of India has just come out with a document titled Macroeconomic Impact of Demonetisation: A Preliminary Assessment, which, while conceding that demonetisation did have an adverse impact on output, suggests that this impact would have got over by mid-February, because of the re-monetisation that has occurred in the interim.