THE 38th West Bengal state conference of SFI was held in Malda from January 22-24, 2024. The conference underscored that the SFI has to fight more vigorously against the way BJP and RSS are playing politics in the name of religion and conspiring to destroy India's syncretic culture and modern education system. In actuality BJP aims to steal the dreams of students from marginalised poor families and create a situation in which the right to quality education will fall exclusively into the hands of the rich. The National Education Policy 2020 is doing just that.

ISRAEL’S genocidal war – despite the case opened at the International Court of Justice – continues unabated. Hundreds of Palestinians are killed each day, many of them children. Key infrastructure – including universities and hospitals – are being bombed and demolished, as Israel lays out its future for Gaza: a region of the Occupied Palestine Territory which Israel is seeking to ethnically cleanse (there is even a plan to expel Palestinians to Rwanda, following a policy that Israel has had in place for deporting asylum seekers since 2017).

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on January 19THE Government of India has issued an “office memorandum”, declaring that all government offices, central institutions and industrial establishments will remain closed till 2.30 pm on January 22, to “enable employees to participate in the celebrations for Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha at Ayodhya”.  It is reported that state governments led by the BJP have taken similar steps. This is yet another step to directly involve the government and State in what should be a purely religious function.

WE are all taught that there are no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ in history. In spite of it, many a times we always pose the question, ‘what if’, to deal with certain pressing issues confronting our present. Collecting few of such imaginary questions, a book was published – ‘What would Marx Do?’ as part of a series titled ‘How the Greatest Political Theorists would Solve Your Everyday Problems’.

JANUARY 17 was the 15th death anniversary of Jyoti Basu, the towering person of the post-independence Indian communist movement. On this day,  along with laying the foundation stone of Jyoti Basu Centre for Social Studies and Research (JBCSSR)  building, a seminar was organised at the construction site in Jyoti Basu Nagar, in the New Town. The topic of the seminar was “The Challenge to Safeguard Our Secular Democratic Republic”. CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Party state secretary Md Salim took part in the discussion.