On January 8, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and former MP, Brinda Karat, addressed the following letter to Dr Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, on the reported proposal to amend the Forest (Conservation) Rules to facilitate illegal diversion of forest land.

DESPTE the hartal, blockade and boycott call by the BNP-Jama’at-e-Islami combine and the sporadic violence, the people of Bangladesh cast their vote to elect the tenth parliament on January 5. Before the polling started, armed cadres of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jama’at-e-Islami (JI) burnt down around 350 polling booths including schools, set afire ballot boxes with ballot papers, killed one presiding officer by hurling bombs, and cut the road links to prevent the movement of polling parties and security forces in some places.

THE All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) in a statement issued on January 7 has welcomed the suo motu notice served by the National Human Rights Commission to the secretary, union ministry for rural development and those of seven states on the suicides of MGNREGA workers as a result of non-payment of dues for work done over a long period of time in 2012-2013.

THE visit of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to India in the second week of December came at a time when negotiations with the Americans on the future of their forces in his country were poised at a critical stage. Before Karzai landed in Delhi, there were reports that the Obama administration had asked India to intervene on its behalf and persuade President Karzai to put his signature to the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) on the presence of US troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

ON a crisp sunny day as the world ushered in the first day of 2014, the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) organised a day long festival to remember the 25 years of Safdar Hashmi’s martyrdom. The Constitution Club Annexe was the venue of this memorable and important political and social event. The extravaganza like shows had artists from varied walks of life coming together on a common platform to remember an exceptional person whose life was cruelly cut short by those who were not comfortable with Safdar’s outspoken, non-conformist and radical methods.