WEST BENGAL: Sangh Parivar Targets Bengal

RSS-BJP has planned a massive expansion programme in West Bengal and communal polarisation is, as usual, the method they have chosen. In a latest attempt, Ramnavami festival has been organised politically with the Sangh backing. Viswa Hindu Parishad has decided to take lead and they have planned rallies throughout the state for five days. Rallies will be taken out in Kolkata too.Ramnavami is not a very big religious festival in Bengal, though it is observed in some quarters. But politicisation of the festival has led to huge campaign by Hindutva forces.

Beef Controversy in Kerala

DRAGGING his party into controversy, N Sreeprakash, BJP candidate for Malappuram Lok Sabha by-election, has promised that he will bring ‘halal’ beef to the voters, if they give mandate in his favour. The embarrassment of BJP’s national and state leadership was visible as they kept mum on the issue. Sreeprakash while addressing a press meet, promised to supply quality beef from clean slaughter houses. He clarified that the BJP was not against beef consumption, but only against illegal slaughter houses.“There are slaughter houses providing unhygienic meat of dead cows.

Aspirations for a New Kerala on EMS Ministry’s 60th Anniversary

KERALA’S first ministry was a milestone in the history of the world, especially with regard to the communist movements. It was set apart by the fact that it was the first ministry to assume office in the bourgeois parliamentary structure. A communist rule in the small corner of a country, governed by a constitution, built on the principles of bourgeoisie democracy.

AILU Holds Demonstration at Banga Bhavan

THE All India Lawyers Union, Delhi unit condemned the heinous attack on its president, a well known senior lawyer and former mayor of Kolkata, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya by the Trinamool Congress cadre in West Bengal on April 1.The targeted attack, AILU leaders said, was because of his stellar role in exposing the Saradha Scam and Narada Scam. Ironically he was attacked while he was on his way to the village where the victims of the unjust land acquisition were protesting and he was to render legal aid and legal advice to them.

Thinking Together

Why is the CPI(M) so biased towards Muslims and Islamic fundamentalism, ignoring and criticising the sentiments of Hindus and their thousands year-old culture? Sagarneel Sinha, Kailashahar, Tripura The question itself reveals a biased opinion of how the CPI(M) views Hindus and Muslims and their respective religions.Let us take the issue step by step. Firstly, the CPI(M) is a party which is based on a philosophy which has no religious bearings. Marxism is a philosophy based on the materialist outlook.

End of a Nuclear Pipe Dream

THE outcome of the Indo-US nuclear deal is now in total disarray. The nuclear deal was used to cement the strategic alliance between the United States and India. At the heart of the deal was the promise of full civilian nuclear cooperation extended to India and the quid pro quo was the military alliance coveted by the US which included the purchase of US arms.

Education, literacy, and the Russian Revolution

All Russia was learning to read, and reading – politics, economics, history – because the people wanted to know. . . . In every city, in most towns, along the Front, each political faction had its newspaper – sometimes several. Hundreds of thousands of pamphlets were distributed by thousands of organisations, and poured into the armies, the villages, the factories, the streets. The thirst for education, so long thwarted, burst with the Revolution into a frenzy of expression.

BJP Govt Drags India towards Contract Farming

THIS article is an attempt mainly to assess the direction of the Union Budget for 2017-18, whether it will help the peasantry to come out of the present systemic crisis and end rising peasant suicides. This is important especially in the context of substantial increase in the rate of peasant suicides in the over two years of the NDA government.

The Nefarious Money Bills

TRUE to form, the BJP government is all set to change the texture of the Indian State into a snooping and terrorising institution whose bonding with corporate capital will now get even closer and beyond any public scrutiny. And the content of the change it is unleashing is as damaging to democracy as the manner in which it is doing so.The manner of its doing so consists in introducing important legislation in the guise of “money bills”.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

THE Rajya Sabha took up short duration discussion on electoral reforms. Speaking on this, Sitaram Yechury said there is a need to fine-tune the electoral process. Because of money power and other such things, democracy is at stake. These infirmities need to be corrected. The government, in the Union Budget for 2017-18, has made two proposals -- the cash donations to political parties would now be restricted to Rs 2,000 each person and the introduction of electoral bonds. These are a mere eyewash. It is a mockery.

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