Artists Condemn Stifling the Voices of Dissent

IN a statement issued on December 23, prominent artists of Bengal film industry, noted that the way in which the organisers of the Ajmer Literature Festival in Rajasthan, buckling under the pressure of some militant ‘Hindutva’ groups, called off an event set to be addressed by veteran thespian Naseeruddin Shah, is a matter of great concern for all those who want to see our country strong and united rather than fragmented. The 68-year old actor was due to deliver the keynote address at the beginning of the festival on December 21.

PMFBY: Profiting from Farmers’ Distress

AMONG the series of schemes launched (or repackaged) by the Modi led NDA government, one of the most toxic is the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Its purpose is to provide crop insurance to farmers, that is, if the crop fails due to some non-preventable reason like weather calamity etc, then the farmers will be compensated for this loss.

An Unconstitutional Order

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statements on December 21. An Unconstitutional Order THE ministry of home affairs has issued an order authorising ten central agencies to intercept, monitor and decrypt “any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer”. This is a brazen attack on the fundamental right to privacy given to every citizen by our constitution. This order goes against the spirit of Supreme Court judgements on telephone tapping guidelines, the right to privacy judgement and the Aadhaar judgement. The

NPRD Condemns Attack on Disabled Youth in UP

THE National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD), in a statement issued on December 26, has strongly condemned the thrashing of a disabled youth by a BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh.The beating up of the youth merely because he did not subscribe to the BJP’s ideology and voiced his opinion openly, is a reflection of the times that we are living in – in a climate of increasing intolerance and hate.

Meanwhile in Tripura

CM Enjoys Lutyens’ Luxury While a Mother Sells her Girl ChildOFTEN such news reaches the newsrooms late, but however delayed they don’t lose the news value. We are talking about Binata Chakma of Kalagang-Charki ADC village of Pecharthal RD block, North Tripura. Parents of five children, Shek Chakma and Binata Chakma were forced to sell their fifth child, barely of 25 days to Sumanjoy Reang of Dainchharra ADC village on December 6 for a mere 2,500 rupees to feed their four children.

Left Democratic Front Expands in Kerala

THE Left Democratic Front (LDF) has expanded further in Kerala as four more parties, the Indian National League, Kerala Congress (B), Democratic Kerala Congress and Loktantrik Janata Dal join it, said A Vijayaraghavan, the convener of the front.While the Loktantrik Janata Dal is led at the national level by Sharad Yadav and Veerendra Kumar, MP, MV Sreyams Kumar is the chief at the state-level. The Democratic Kerala Congress led by Francis George, former MP, is a splinter group of Kerala Congress.

The BJP’s New Surveillance Regime

THE notification issued by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) arming10 government agencies under the Section 69 of the IT Act to break into all our communications and computers, has been followed by ministry of information technology modifying its rules. Taken together, these proposed modifications identify how the breaking of our communications will be done. The target in the first instance are the service providers – the telecom and digital service providers such as WhatsApp (owned by Facebook), Telegram, etc, and the equipment vendors.

DUJ Warns against Moves to Make India a Surveillance State

THE Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), in a statement issued on December 21, has castigated as ominous, unconstitutional and a direct attack on the freedom of the press, the order of the union home ministry authorising central agencies to intercept, monitor and decrypt “any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer.” This order we feel is reminiscent of the dark days of the Emergency, the statement said. DUJ noted the broad ranging powers given to no less than ten agencies, ranging from the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation to the Delh

Defeat Manuvadi BJP: DSMM

ON December 20, thousands of activists of Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) marched through the streets of Delhi and held a protest demonstration at the Parliament Street. They gave a clarion call to defeat “Manuvadi BJP” in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to defend dalit rights and to save the constitution.K Radhakrishnan, president, DSMM and former speaker of Kerala assembly termed the Modi led BJP government anti-Dalit and said four and half years have passed but this government did not take a single step to deliver justice to the dalit community of the country.

National conference of CWFI gave a clarion call to defeat BJP and allied forces to save India

THE 9th national conference of CWFI (Construction Workers Federation of India) was held at Sholapur, Maharashtra on October 26-28. The conference was presided over by R Singaravelu-president of CWFI.Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU inaugurated the conference. He termed the BJP rule as disastrous for the Indian economy and to the working class. He said, the Modi government is destroying the public sector companies and banks and is giving impetus to the private Indian and foreign monopoly companies to take over the Indian PSUs.

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