Terrorist Attack in Assam Condemned

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on August 5.THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the suspected terrorist attack at Balajan Tiniali Bazar near Kokrajhar town, headquarters of the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) administration.

Neoliberal Assault on Knowledge: Education Reduced to ‘Skill Acquisition’

THE formal adoption of the neo-liberal reforms programme by the Government of India (GOI) in 1991 had a far more pervasive impact on the education system and policy than is usually recognised. The commercialisation and marketisation of education put it outside the grasp of the majority of India’s population, 78 percent of whom were living on less than twenty rupees per day (Arjun Sengupta Committee report), and altered the concepts of knowledge, education and its curricular content.The democratic deficit was the most obvious feature of the National Policy of Education (NPE 86-92).

CPI(M) Leader Visits Injured Kashmiri Student

ON August 8, Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) visited Insha, in the hospital in Delhi where the 14 year old Kashmiri girl student has been admitted since July 24. She was blinded by pellets fired straight at her by the armed security forces, deliberately aiming at her forehead, when she was looking down from the window of her two storeyed house in Sadow, Shopian. Her case is symbolic of the barbarous atrocities committed on Kashmiri youth by armed security forces. She has had to undergo two surgeries for serious injuries to her forehead and eyes.

Thousands Come Out on Streets across Country in Solidarity with Bengal

ON the call of the CPI(M) Central Committee, thousands of people took part in marches and rallies across the country from August 1 to 7 in solidarity with the Party cadres and Left Front activists in West Bengal who have been experiencing continuous violence and attacks ever since the Trinamool Congress took over the rein of the state five years ago. Twelve CPI(M) and Left Front members and supporters were killed during and after the 2016 state election, taking the total number of cadres and supporters killed to 186 since the 2011 assembly polls. Over 3,000 were injured during the period.

A Captive Press

THE emergence and evolution of the press has historically been closely aligned to the rise and development of capitalism. The same capitalist impulse enabled the advent and growth of the public sphere in England from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Journalism was a collateral development in this public sphere. The idea of such a sphere, which was not private, which was shared and more inclusive, was initially considered preposterous, strongly resisted and sought to be curtailed and controlled by the Crown and the aristocracy.

Political Economy of Neo-Liberalism

CHEER leaders of neo-liberalism have mounted a high crescendo campaign hailing that the last quarter century since Dr Manmohan Singh, as the finance minister, initiated the process of neo-liberal economic reforms in 1991 had created a India which would have been impossible otherwise. Further, such reforms are the only way, we are being told, that India can move closer to the mythical El Dorado – a land where milk and honey flow freely. An objective assessment of the condition of our people and the polity, as a consequence of these reforms, is, thus, in order.Indeed, the neo-liber

INDEPENDENCE DAY: Resolve to Fight Neo-Liberalism and Communalism

INDEPENDENCE Day on August 15 is an occasion to commemorate the epochal freedom struggle against British rule which saw the participation of millions of people across the length and breadth of the country. It is an occasion to pay homage to the tens of thousands who laid down their lives for the cause of freedom.

The Week in Parliament

BOTH Houses of Parliament took up short-duration discussion on the situation arising out of price rise in the country in the last week of July. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said it is an extremely important issue that concerns the life and death of our people. Recently, the CPI(M) had organised a nationwide protest action, in which lakhs and lakhs of people participated. That generally shows the manner in which people are concerned about the relentless rise in the prices of all essential commodities.

Massive Victory Rally in Solapur Celebrates Sanction of Scheme of 30,000 Houses for Unorganised Workers

JULY 24, 2016 was a special day in Solapur. The massive Home Maidan saw a huge 70,000-strong rally of unorganised workers – an overwhelming number of whom were women, including Muslim women in thousands – to celebrate the eventual sanction by the central and state governments of a scheme for building 30,000 affordable permanent houses for unorganised workers. The sanction came after a prolonged struggle that was led by the CPI(M) and CITU.

Take Action against Traffickers

Jharna Das Baidya, CPI(M) MP from Tripura raised a Special mention in the Rajya Sabha on August 3, on the issue of recent cases of trafficking of 31 young tribal girls from Assam. She expressed shock at the trafficking of 31 young tribal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat, in the name of education, to indoctrinate them in Hindutva at the RSS camps. This violates the national and international laws on child trafficking. The victim girls belong to Bodo and Santhal communities in Assam’s Kokrajhar district. They were all aged between 8 to 14 years.

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