Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) has issued the following statement on June 16.
WE feel very disturbed by the developments that have happened at FTII Pune. One cannot allow this institution to be pulled down by the government with such insensitivity. These are places of higher learning and cutting edge technology. FTII has great legacy and that has to continue on that path. We fully support the protests of the students. Save FTII is to save freedom of expression and intellectual freedom.
THE Central Executive Committee of the Students Federation of India in a statement issued on June 15 has expressed solidarity with the students of Film and Television Institute of India, FTII who are bravely protesting against the shameless attempts to saffronise one of the prime institutes of the country. An indefinite hunger strike has been launched by the students against the Modi led NDA government's appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of the governing council of the FTII.
AS the campaign enters the final lap for the by-elections to the Aruvikkara assembly constituency in Kerala, the LDF candidate and former assembly speaker and minister M Vijayakumar is gaining more and more support from the people from all walks of life in a three cornered fight.
THE Khammam district committee of the CPI(M) has undertaken a bus jatha campaign demanding the enactment of a law for providing reservations in private sector for SC, ST and OBCs. The jatha began from Bhadrachalam on May 19, marking the 30th death anniversary of P Sundaraiah. The jatha toured 1600 kilometres in the district in the 19 days of campaign.The jatha aimed at bringing awareness among the people and educate them on the problems arising due to non-implementation of reservations in the private sector.
THE NDA government’s appointment of hack loyalists to important positions in the sphere of education has rightly raised concerns about the damage being done to the education system. But this is not the sole source of danger to the system. The era of globalisation of capital brings in its train a process of destruction of education, of which in the Indian context the intrusion of communal-fascism into the sphere of education is an important additional ingredient.
A SERIES of events has turned the capital Delhi into a battleground in recent weeks. First it appeared that a typical power struggle between opposing political forces had broken out. There was open mudslinging between Delhi’s Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), over who has the right to appoint senior bureaucrats and others in sensitive positions.
THE BJP and the Congress parties are the two sides of the same coin and their policies of governance are the same. BJP is pursuing the same policies of neoliberalism as started by the Congress in 1991. These policies are responsible for the deterioration of conditions of not only tribals but also of the youth, farmers, working class and the general masses, said Manik Sarkar, chief minister of Tripura and Polit Bureau member of CPI(M), at the Mahapadav in Udaipur.
THE All India Kisan Sabha has condemned the BJP-led NDA government’s decision to exclude rubber farmers in Kerala and Tamilnadu from the subsidies they were entitled to for new planting and replanting. In a statement issued on June 15, it said that this move comes at a time when the rubber farmers are in an acute crisis due to fall in price of rubber. Farmers in Kerala alone are yet to be paid subsidy arrears of over Rs 30 crore for trees already planted. The Rubber Board’s own estimate recommends replanting on 2 lakh hectares in Kerala.
The following is the text of the message of greetings sent by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to the 22nd Congress of AKEL that was held in Nicosia, Cyprus from June 4-7, 2015.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on June 15.
THE intervention by the minister of external affairs, in inappropriately facilitating the travel of a person with serious criminal charges connected with the IPL controversy, is completely unacceptable.