WHILE Ashok Mochi handed over a water bottle to Kutbuddin Ansari, the latter smilingly accepted it and gave a red rose to Mochi. And then the audience gave them a standing ovation the moment when these two persons, belonging to a state which was ripped apart by genocide 12 years back, shared the same stage in Thalipparamba on March 3, 2014, to express their mutual trust and love. This was a noble occasion, characterised by a meeting of Kutbuddin Ansari and Ashok Mochi, two faces of the communal pogrom in Gujarat in the year 2002.
TRIPURA Left Front, on March 5, has announced the names of the candidates for the two parliamentary constituencies. LF convener Khagen Das announced that the LF in its meeting on March 5, has unanimously decided on the names of the LF supported CPI(M) candidates for Tripura West (general) and Tripura East (ST) seats. From Tripura West (general) seat LF candidate will be CPI(M) state committee member since 2012 and CITU state general secretary Sankar Prasad Dutta.
THE state of Kerala recently witnessed an unprecedented and unparalleled political upsurge in all the 140 assembly segments, during the course of the Kerala Raksha March which started from Vayalar on February 1 and culminated in a rally on the Kozhikode beach on February 26. “Secular India and Developed Kerala” was the slogan of the yatra.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) met in New Delhi on March 1 & 2, 2014. It has issued the following statement on March 2
THE schedule for the 16th general elections has been announced. These will be the longest ever general elections planned in the country barring those disrupted and delayed due to exigencies such as prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination or the Kargil war. Spread over five weeks beginning April 7 and ending May 12 – these elections will be held in nine phases, the largest number so far.
THE terrible communal attacks that occurred in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts of Western Uttar Pradesh forced thousands of poor, working class Muslim families into an existence of misery, hunger, cold, sickness and complete insecurity. What are euphemistically called ‘tented camps’ lack both the tents and the semblance of order that these words imply. In open fields and empty ditches, people stuck poles into the ground and hung plastic sheets on them and then crept under them with their families.
The All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) in a statement issued on February 25, has extended full support to the struggle of the anganwadi workers and helpers in Andhra Pradesh demanding minimum wages and retirement benefits including pension and gratuity to all anganwadi workers and helpers. The struggle is led by the Andhra Pradesh Anganwadi Workers and Helpers’ Union. AIFAWH demanded the state government to immediately concede the genuine demands of the anganwadi workers and helpers in Andhra Pradesh.
In a letter addressed to Ghulam Nabi Azad, union minister for health & family welfare on February 27, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Brinda Karat brought to his notice the ill conceived move by the Medical Council of India to bring an amendment to the Ethics regulation for doctors for exempting "the Professional Association of Doctors" from the jurisdiction of the Medical Council of India.