AS the Lok Sabha elections draw near, it has become clear that the electoral battle will be between not two but three combinations – the Congress-led UPA, the BJP-led NDA and the non-Congress non-BJP combination of parties.
AS the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata turned into a sea of humanity, splashed with crimson red all over, roaring slogans reverberated in every street leading to the ground, even the Ganges became red with streams of boats carrying hundreds of people, the question emerged, how this ‘miracle’ was made possible.
THE RSS/BJP and its PM aspirant’s desperation at the possible emergence of a combination of secular opposition parties – non-Congress, non-BJP – in the run up to the 2014 general elections has reached a new crescendo. A litany of epithets have been unleashed which should be considered unbecoming by anybody, particularly by somebody who is self-proclaimed by the RSS/BJP as India’s future prime minister. Some of his comments denouncing the `third front’ as `third rate’ have drawn a spontaneous response that such comments can come only from a `third rate’ mindset!
THE Indo-Canadian Workers Association (ICWA) of Canada held a public meeting in Surrey on Sunday, January 26. The meeting was organised in the Newton Library conference room and was attended by a large number of people from all walks of life. These included Jinny Sims, an MP, and Harry Bains, an MLA.
The meeting started with the observance of one minute standing silence in homage to the martyrs. The main speakers on this occasion was Surinder Sangha, Kulwant Dhesi, Hardev Singh, Jinny Sims, Hary Bains and Dave Hayer, a former MLA. The meeting was conducted by Surinder Dhesi.
A LANDMARK judgement delivered by Justice S M Mojibur Rahaman, judge of the Chittagong Special Tribunal, on January 30, 2014 has awarded death sentence to 14 accused who include some belonging to an Islamic fundamentalist outfit. Those convicted included Jama’at-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, BNP leader and former minister of state for home Lutfuz-Zaman Babar, Retired Major General Rezaqul Haider Chowdhury and Retired Brigadier General Md Abdul Rahim (two former chiefs of the National Security Agency of Bangladesh) and Paresh Barua, chief of the armed wing of ULFA of Assam.
THE entire history of our movement for freedom from British imperialism bears a very deep imprint of the Ghadar movement which was launched by those who had gone abroad for earning their livelihood but soon formed an organisation for the liberation of their motherland on the lines of the Great Uprising of 1857. This was what CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury stated while addressing a public meeting to commemorate the centenary of the Ghadar movement and to pay homage to the memory of the martyrs and others who suffered and made numerous sacrifices.
ON February 3, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat expressed hope that the electoral understanding between the AIADMK and the Left parties would achieve success in Tamilnadu in the coming general elections, and also contribute to providing an alternative to the country.
Asked whether appeals had been made to other secular and democratic forces to be part of the alternative envisaged, he said discussions were on with various parties.
THE Andhra Pradesh state committee of the CPI(M) has discussed about the electoral tactics to be adopted in the state for the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly elections during its two-day long meeting that concluded on 02nd February in Hyderabad. It has resolved that the central committee of the Party must decide on the tactics keeping in mind the opinions expressed by the state committee.
THE central executive committee of the Students’ Federation of India in a statement issued on February 1, 2013 expressed heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Nido Taniam, the 19-year old student studying at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, who was brutally attacked by shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi, before succumbing to his death on January 31. Following as it does the horrific incident of the gang-rape of a Danish woman, this incident reminds us that despite the tall promises by the incumbent government, Delhi remains to be an extremely unsafe city.
HISTORY is cruel; in its own way, it squares up the truth. Seven years back, a rural tract in West Bengal – Nandigram – shot to prominence. It resonated across the country. The cyber world took it beyond the national boundary and drew international attention. Political observers attributed electoral nemesis of the three decade electoral sway of the Left to the developments in Nandigram. Nandigram was seen as the ‘diabolical’ anti-peasant face of the Left in Bengal. And overall, it contributed to undermine the credibility of the Indian Left.