THE elections to the five state assemblies have given a clear verdict. The unambiguous message is the outright rejection of the Congress in four states. Only the small state of Mizoram in the North East is an exception where the Congress retained its majority.

In Rajasthan and Delhi, where there were Congress governments, they have been routed in a manner never before. In Rajasthan, the Congress managed to get only 21 seats which is just over 10 per cent of the total seats. In Delhi, it has got an abysmal eight seats which translated into only 11 per cent of the total seats.

EVEN as the Congress led UPA-2 government was trying to come to terms with its humiliating defeat in Delhi assembly polls at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party, the national capital had another glimpse of the power of the common man, just a few days later. Lakhs of workers, common men and women, thronged the Parliament Street from all over the country on December 12 to warn the government and the party leading it that it would have to face the same fate in the ensuing elections to the parliament, unless concrete measures were taken on their demands.

THE Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) has condemned the recent incident of moral policing of the art exhibition by Balbir Krishan at the Muse Gallery, Marriot Hotel, in Hyderabad on December 1, 2013.

This was how the gallery director was quoted in The Times of India ---

Archana Prasad

Brinda Karat

COMRADE Shyamali Gupta died as she had lived, ever thoughtful about her organisation. At the time of her death, she was a member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M), a secretariat member of the Party in West Bengal, the first woman to have held this responsibility. She was president of AIDWA and editor of Ek Sathe, the monthly Bengali magazine brought out by the West Bengal committee of AIDWA.