Vol. XLIX No. 31 August 03, 2025

Attacks on Minorities: Inherent Trait of Hindutva Politics

DURING India’s anti-colonial freedom struggle, progressive forces in the country argued that our diversities should be celebrated and a modern democratic India ought to be formed. However, this was objectionable to the right-wing forces, particularly the Akhil Bharatiya...

Read More

Shameless on Gaza

THE Modi government should hang its head in shame – if it has any sense of shame left. Unfolding before the eyes of the world is the horrific and unbearable spectacle of mass starvation in Gaza, of babies and children wasting away due to malnutrition and hunger, and at the doors of death. The 21-month Israeli war on Gaza has now transformed into genocide by starvation. Yet, the BJP rulers are unmoved. There has been not a single statement of protest or condemnation of Israel’s tactics of starving...

HIV Drug Profiteering and Global Inequality

THE National Health Service in the UK has recently approved Hemgenix. The gene therapy drug that cures hemophilia B costs around Rs 30 crores (£2.6 million) for a single injection dose. This is now the world's priciest medicine. It is an indicator of our disabled pharma system. Life saving innovations become designer commodities. Much of the development for gene therapy has come from publicly funded research. Though gene therapy drugs involve...

Travesty of Justice

CPI(M) expresses dismay and deep disappointment over the verdict in the Malegaon Blasts Case. The verdict coming after seventeen years of the incident has acquitted all the accused citing lack of evidence. The blasts had killed six innocent people and injured nearly hundred. It is a travesty of justice that the accused including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, then a serving Army officer and others have been acquitted on the pretext of lack of evidence and procedural...

Legacy of VS Lives On: Delhi Meet Pays Tribute

A CONDOLENCE meeting chaired by Amra Ram, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, was held in Delhi at HKS Surjeet Bhavan on July 30, to commemorate the life and legacy of Comrade V S Achuthanandan. In his address, Amra Ram said that VS not only fought tirelessly for the cause of the working masses but also proved to be an efficient administrator, reviving many public sector undertakings during his tenure. He noted that the massive turnout during VS’s...

Protest Movements Intensify in Bengal

The call for justice in the brutal rape and murder of Abhaya is intensifying in West Bengal, with the Abhaya Mancha, a powerful coalition of diverse organisations, declaring a series of protests for the coming month. The movement's explicit goal is to rid Bengal of "rapists, oppressors, looters, and their patrons and protectors." A significant "Kalighat Chalo" (March to Kalighat) programme has been slated for August 9, aiming to ignite a widespread...

Starve, Silence, Disable New Weapons in Israel’s Genocidal War

IN Gaza, the cannibal devours relentlessly – its hunger insatiable, its thirst for blood unquenched. The savagery unfolding is unprecedented, more brutal than anything recent memory can bear. Its crimes are so grotesque that one would be tempted to draw parallels with those tried at Nuremberg. The thunderous plea of Tagore seems to pale when faced with the indescribable and unsurmountable suffering...

Joint Meeting of Energy Sector Workers’ Federations

ON July 27, representatives from three major energy sector workers’ federations met in Thiruvananthapuram and initiated a process of coordinated actions across the electricity, coal and petroleum sectors. The meeting, attended by leaders from the Electricity Employees' Federation of India (EEFI), All India Coal Workers' Federation (AICWF), and Petroleum & Gas Workers' Federation of India (PGWFI), discussed in detail...

Is Night Work an Equal Opportunity for Women Workers?

EVEN as central trade unions and other organisations working towards securing workers’ rights and mobilising against the anti-people policies of the BJP led Modi government were preparing for the massive national strike against the four Labour Codes on July 9, some state governments were busy enacting the very provisions that are being opposed by trade unions in the name of “Labour Reform” but are really for the sake of “Ease of...

Rural India Rises in a Massive July 9 Strike

ON July 9, 2025, as the urban proletariat launched a powerful strike, the villages of India also echoed with the sound of resistance. In a historic show of unity and determination, agricultural workers, rural labourers, peasants, and other toiling masses across the country rose in a massive rural strike. The rural proletariat responded forcefully, turning the day into a historic moment of collective assertion. The strike was called by a joint...

Maha: CPI(M) Protest in Dahanu against Smart Meters and Power Privatisation

A LARGE protest rally and gherao of the Dahanu office of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (Mahavitaran) was led by the CPI(M) last week. The protest was against the installation of smart meters, electricity privatisation, and the huge power bills that are attacking lakhs of peasants, workers, and common people. The rally marched into and occupied the Mahavitaran...