ON November 12, Shimla, the state capital of Himachal Pradesh, witnessed a massive rally, perhaps the largest by mass organisations in the state. The rally was organised by six main organisations of the people; these were the All India Kisan Sabha, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, All India Democratic Women’s Association, Students Federation of India, Democratic Youth Federation of India and the Seb Utpadak Sangh (Apple Growers Association).
Here it needs to be mentioned that more than half the participants were women.
ATTACK, ransack, torture, threats of killing and lastly abduction. This is how Trinamool Congress compelled 6 CPI(M) councilors to resign by force in Halisahar Municipality in North 24 Parganas district. In one of most gruesome attacks on democracy, armed gangs of the ruling party blatantly declared that they would capture the municipality, won by the Left Front in 2010 elections.
Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M) along with Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member interacted with Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam who was a State visit to India. Both the leaders exchanged views on the current developments and expressed happiness over the strategic partnership between India and Vietnam. Nguyen Phu Trong thanked the people of India and the CPI(M) for their support to Vietnam and expressed the need for further strengthening of people-to-people relations.
THE ninth all-India conference of the All India Plantation Workers Federation (AIPWF), held in Agartala from November 22 to 24, concluded with an impressive mass rally of the workers on Sunday, November 24, in front of the Rabindra Shatavarshiki Bhavan. The meeting saw an enthusiastic gathering of the working class and other toiling masses from all the eight districts of the state.
AS election campaigning ended for the single phase Madhya Pradesh assembly polls on 25th November, the CPI(M) has concentrated a large part of its effort on two constituencies in Moreina-Gwalior region -- Jaura and Gohad.
On penultimate day of campaigning, on 22nd November, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and leader of CPI(M) group in Rajya Sabha, Sitaram Yechury, addressed impressive election rallies in both the constituencies.
LIBYA has been surely but steadily sinking into anarchy since the killing of Muammar Gaddafi on October 20, 2011. The regime change, supervised under western military tutelage that followed, has failed to provide either stability or security. If any further proof was needed of the state in which the country finds itself after the death of Gaddafi two years ago, it was graphically provided by the kidnapping of the country’s prime minister, Ali Zeidan, on October 5.
THE negotiations between Iran and nominally P5+1, but in reality the US, have led to an interim accord in which Iran will temporarily restrict its nuclear program and the US will ease some of the sanctions on Iran. This is prelude to a permanent agreement which will spell out the terms on which Iran can continue its enrichment program and the complete lifting of all sanctions on Iran.
THE sexual assault on a woman journalist by Tarun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, has once again brought to fore the need for stronger institutional mechanisms to investigate complaints of sexual assault including adequate prosecution of perpetrators.