THE central executive committee of the Students’ Federation of India in a statement issued on October 7, has said that the AK Roopanwal commission report is erroneous and vacuous.A one member judicial commission headed by former judge of Allahabad high court AK Roopanwal was formed to look into the circumstances, which led to the ‘institutional murder’ of Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on October 10, 2016.THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the brutal murder of its Paduvilai local committee member, K Mohanan, by RSS hoodlums this morning. A group of heavily armed RSS goons entered the toddy shop where the 52 year old Mohanan was working and hacked him to death. There were around 30-40 sharp wounds inflicted on his body. This is the second murder of a CPI(M) worker in the Dharmadom constituency represented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

IN the second week of September, North Korea carried out its fifth nuclear test. The last two tests have been in quick succession. The latest nuclear test, the most powerful so far, coincided with the country's 68th independence day celebrations. It was conducted in the underground testing facility of Punggye-ri in the northeast of the country. The magnitude of the blast has been estimated at between 10 and 20 kilotons, much higher than the test in 2013 which was estimated to be between 6-7 kilotons. Pyongyang has claimed that the latest test was that of a hydrogen bomb.

FAKE nationalism of the Hindutva variety is not limited to only the national movement, where the RSS was conspicuous by its absence. It is also manifest in Modi's Make in India, which is an offer to global capital to exploit India's cheap labour, along with various tax breaks and subsidised land. This is in contrast to how self reliance and development was seen in the national movement. It saw developing knowledge as integral to the process of developing the country and its people.

THE Barkagaon police firing incident, in which four persons including two minor students were killed, lays bare the barbaric designs of the BJP-AJSU government in Jharkhand and its intentions of serving the interests of the corporates at the cost of the toiling masses of the state.On October 1, police resorted to unprovoked firing on the agitating peasants who were demanding proper compensation for their lands that were acquired for mining operations to supply coal to NTPC power plants. The peasants had been on ‘kafan satyagraha’ under the leadership of local MLA Nirmala Devi for 16 days.