Below we reproduce the text of the speech of CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy at the inaugural session of the 21st Congress of the CPI(M) at Visakhapatnam

COMRADE S Ramachandran Pillai, chairman of the Presidium, Comrade Prakash Karat, Comrade Debabrata Biswas, Comrade Abani Roy, Comrade Kavita Krishnan, Comrade Prabhas Ghosh, and comrade delegates,

THE one-day Jharkhand bandh against the anti-people Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill of the Centre on May 4 was a historic success. The strike was unprecedented and total with participation of people from all sections of the state, despite promulgation of prohibitory orders and imposition of Section 144 of the CrPC by the government. Defeating all disruptive designs of the ruling class, people in their large numbers came out on the streets spontaneously.

THE acquittal of Jayalalithaa by the Karnataka High Court in the disproportionate assets case has highlighted an undeniable fact of the judicial system in India -- that the rich and the powerful cannot be brought to justice for corruption and abuse of power. Jayalalithaa and three of her associates had been found guilty by a Special Court in September last year and sentenced to four years imprisonment and a Rs. 100 crore fine. A single judge bench of the High Court has overturned this verdict.

“FOUR and half centuries before, (on this day) in that very place (the atrium of the convent of Mani in the Yucatan) another Franciscan brother Diego de Landa, had burned the Maya's books and with them eight centuries of collective memory”. This memory of the Mayan civilisation would have been lost, but for Eduardo Galeano's entry for April 13, in his Children of Days. In our books, a post script should be added for this day – the day Galeano left, leaving us to celebrate his memories.“He wrote as if he were saying nothing. And he said everything”.

ANSWERING DMK MP Kanimozhi’s question on whether the Government of India planned to criminalise marital rape, the minister of state for home, Hirabhai Parathibhai Choudhary from Gujarat stated that “It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors eg, level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat marriage as a sacrament, etc. (Rajya Sabha Question 656, April 29, 2015).