IN a landmark judgement on July 17, the Supreme Court has ruled that mobocracy cannot be allowed to become the “new normal”. The judgement came at a time when incidents of widespread brutalities against dalits, adivasis and minorities were being committed by well-organised vigilante groups in different parts of India. Coming down strongly on recurring incidents of mob lynching, the Supreme Court directed that the central government should bring a separate law to deal with such incidents and parliament should pass it.

IN a massive cleanliness drive throughout the state of Kerala, lakhs of people gathered under the banner of CPI(M) in every street to clear off the garbage accumulated in public spaces. This initiative taken by the Party ahead of the monsoon season is to ward off the threat of epidemics that may result due to the monsoon season with garbage piled up in many places

This pre-monsoon cleaning drive reflected the mass base and well knit organisational strength of CPI(M). Participating volunteers all over the state pledged to save the people from falling ill.

THE news of the devastation caused by floods in Kerala moved people from all states. People from all walks of life, from big industrialists to poor girls in remote villages, have rushed to help their suffering brethren.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state has suffered a loss of more than Rs 20,000 crores and more than 300 people have lost their lives. He urged all to contribute generously to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.

THIS year in June, the prime minister boasted that he was taking major steps to ensure that the income of farmers doubled in the next three years, i.e., by 2022. These remarks came in the context of sustained and often coordinated peasant struggles throughout the country, which highlighted the deteriorating plight of the farmers. The fact of the existence of suffering farmers, more than 12,000 of whom have committed suicide every year since 2012 (and more than three lakhs since the mid-1990s),  has been largely denied by successive governments.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), in a statement issued on August 29, has said that it is holding a National Women’s Protest Rally in Delhi on September 4.  The rally will begin at Mandi House at 11 am and culminate in a public meeting at Parliament Street. The meeting will be addressed by the family members of some of the victims of violence from different parts of the country.