UTTAR Pradesh will be crime free – was the much-touted slogan of Yogi Adityanath after he became the chief minister. The illegal method of eliminating crime, aka ‘encounters’, started in 2017. “Thok do” (shoot them) was the dictum given to police officials to gun down criminals. It is a different matter that the chief miniter himself is facing 15 criminal cases and 143 MLAs of the state have criminal cases registered against them, of whom 83 are from the ruling BJP.The policemen are offered promotions in the wake of encounters.

WITH an aim of raising awareness on Tuticorin massacre and to highlight the grievances of the people of Tamil Nadu, the state committee of CPI(M) has conducted rallies for a week, from June 8-14,  across the state. These rallies originated from six corners of the state, namely Thiruvallur, Vellore, Nilgiris, Cuddalore, Ettayapuram and Kanyakumari and exposed the crony capitalist actions of the state and the centre.After campaigning in the districts along the way, the above rallies have converged at Trichy on June 14.

ROAD transport workers and small vehicle operators conducted struggles across the country over their various demands including wage revision.Road transport workers of Maharashtra went on a surprise strike from June 9 against the unilateral announcement of a meagre increase in wages. The authorities threatened the workers that those who did not accept the wage revision should leave their jobs, paying the way for the government to engage contract workers in the arising vacancies. This provoked the workers and they went on the surprise strike without waiting for a strike call from the unions.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, in a statement issued on June 17, has  said that he is joining the protest rally to the prime minister’s residence on June 17, to express serious condemnation over the manner in which federalism, a fundamental feature of our constitution, is being undermined by this BJP central government.Utilising the office of the governors and Lt. Governors, the BJP central government is seeking to destabilise non-BJP democratically elected state governments. This is happening with the democratically elected governments in Delhi and in Puducherry.

EMS Smrithi 2018 this year was without its founder and driving spirit, Chandradutt; or Duttmash, as he was fondly called. He passed away on March 20 from the recurrence of cancer that he had fought for the last 22 years. Even though he was not present at the final event, his was the plan for this edition of the series. It was he who pushed for the focus to be on Marxism, Science and Technology, and guided us in selecting the speakers. For all of us, this year’s EMS Smrithi was our tribute to Duttmash.