A JOINT delegation of women’s organisations comprising Jagmati Sangwan, general secretary (AIDWA), Sudha Sundararaman, vice president (AIDWA), Annie Raja (NFIW), Jyotsna Chatterjee (JWP), Indrani Mazumdar (CWDS), Sharla James (GOS), Asha Gambhir (AIWC), Divya David (YWCA) and Binish (AIDMAM), met Lok Sabha Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, on July 3 to express their concern at the shocking statement made by Tapas Paul, TMC MP. The delegation submitted a memorandum demanding stern action against the member concerned for his public threats to rape and kill.
AT seven in the morning on June 8, 2014, a young boy named Danvir, while riding a motor cycle, was mowed down by a dumper near Pataudi-Mohammadpur road junction in Tauru, a small town in Mewat district of Haryana. His body got entangled in the dumper’s wheels and was dragged for about 50 metres on the road. Sensing the seriousness of the accident, the driver deserted the dumper and its cleaners there. The latter were Raees and Mubarak, both Meo Muslims belonging to village Dhulawat; just six km away from the site.
THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has condemned the Narendra Modi led government for deceiving the millions of toiling peasantry by announcing unremunerative and unfair minimum support prices (MSP) for the kharif crops for the crop season 2014-15. The statement which the AIKS president Amra Ram and general secretary Hannan Mollah issued on June 26 recalled how Narendra Modi had made tall claims and promised that farmers would be given MSP which would be not less than 50 percent over and above the cost of production.
THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has expressed serious concern over the gas pipeline blast in Magaram village of Amalapuram mandal of East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh in the early morning on July 27. The blast killed at least 14 people and injured several others.
JULY 8, 2014 marks the culmination of the birth centenary year of Comrade Jyoti Basu, one of the most outstanding leaders of the Left movement in India, the longest-serving chief minister in the country who led West Bengal for nearly a quarter century, and the last of the CPI(M) Navaratnas. These Navaratnas – and innumerable other veteran Communist leaders of that generation – made immense contributions and untold sacrifices during extremely difficult times for the building of the CPI(M) and the Left movement in India.
THE Indian economy is currently saddled with a bizarre combination of three distinct problems: there is inflation, almost at a double-digit rate, which has been going on for a long time; in an economy where the bulk of the working population does not have money wages indexed to prices, such inflation extracts a heavy human cost.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on July 1, 2014.
THE speech of the Trinamool Congress MP, Tapas Pal, inciting violence and rape against CPI(M) workers and women, is shocking and obnoxious. He threatened murder, destruction of homes of CPI(M) men and to send his boys to rape the women there.
THE outrageous remarks made by a Trinamool Congress member of the Lok Sabha, Tapas Paul, have rightly caused nationwide indignation and outright condemnation. Such comments which legitimise terror, violence and rape as political instruments have no place in any democratic civil society.
THE CPI(M) and the Left fared badly in the Lok Sabha elections. The Party could win only nine seats and polled 3.25 per cent of the votes contesting 93 seats. Apart from this, two independents supported by the Party and the LDF won the election from Kerala. With the CPI winning one seat, the total tally of the Left is only 12.
WEST Bengal erupted in protest against Trinamool MP Tapas Paul’s open threat to kill CPI(M) workers and rape the women of their families. After his frightening speech was telecast, people from different sections have condemned him sharply. The Left Front has noted that the speech of the MP is another example of attack on human rights and democracy in West Bengal.