THE formation of the communist government in Kerala on April 5, 1957 was hailed in India and throughout the world as a new experiment. Before this, the Communist Party had never won a free and fair election in any part of the world. The Communist Party won 65 seats in the then legislative assembly of 127 and emerged as the single largest party in the first elections held for the newly formed Kerala state. It secured more than 50 per cent of the votes in 34 constituencies and between 48 and 50 per cent votes in 8 constituencies.

ON July 29, Nilotpal Basu, Polit Bureau member of CPI(M), had written a letter to the Election Commission of India expressing CPI(M)’s views in response to their letter dated July 17, 2020 seeking opinions on the modalities to be followed for holding elections to Bihar assembly.“Taking into account the conditions imposed by the pandemic and the safety requirements, according the highest priority to the safety of people’s lives, we want the Election Commission to ensure conditions that permit elections to be held on the basis of physical participation of the voters and the political parties.

THE pandemic and the lockdown are certainly causing an absolute shrinkage in the gross domestic product of the Indian economy. But these tend to obscure something very serious that was happening even earlier, namely a real income decline for vast numbers of working people.There are several pointers to this fact. The rate of chronic unemployment in 2018-19 was the highest ever in the last 45 years at 6 per cent compared to the usual 2 to 3 per cent.

WITH the American presidential election just a few months away, Donald Trump is down in the polls. People’s trust or approval of Trump’s handling of the pandemic is at an all-time low.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Brinda Karat has lodged a police complaint against Nageswar Rao, an IPS officer who is Director General of Fire Services, Home Guards and Civil Defence under union home ministry, for his tweets inciting communal hatred.  She has written to union home minister Amit Shah on July 28, regarding the same and urged him to ensure the prosecution of the officer according to the law of the land.