HUNDREDS of activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) took out a 13-km march from Walajapet to Mel Visharam in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu on August 14, urging the government to protect the River Palar from sand mining mafia.

The movement was a culmination of protests against rampant sand mining in the state as well as in the River Palar which flows through Vellore district.

WITH a resolve to carry on Comrade Vijender Sharma’s unfulfilled tasks, a condolence meeting on August 14 paid homage to the departed comrade. Hundreds of Party workers, members of the intelligentsia, Delhi University teachers participated in the meeting held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi. The meeting adopted a condolence resolution moved by the Delhi state committee secretary PMS Grewal. K M Tiwari conducted the proceedings.

RECENT months have witnessed a steady deterioration in relations between Washington and Beijing. The acceleration in the process started with the visit of President Barack Obama to Tokyo, where he re-emphasised his political support for Japan’s claim to the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. The American president had also explicitly stated that if hostilities broke out between China and Japan, the US is bound by treaty to come to the defense of its long time ally.

IN yet another gruesome attack, a woman was brutally gang-raped and murdered on August 17, 2014, in village Sunia, Kanthi in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal. The state has been a victim of innumerable atrocities on women as well as internally displaced families due to the political vengeance resorted to by the Trinamool Congress. Thousands and thousands of families are forced to stay out of their homes, displaced due to their affiliation to the CPI(M). With the aid of the police and the administration, the TMC has been continuously targeting these families and unleashing terror.

‘CLEAN India’, this is one of the slogans given by Prime Minister Modi in his much acclaimed speech on Independence Day. Modi announced that by 2019 all habitations will have safe drinking water and each school will have a toilet and all villages will have latrines for women. The basic infrastructure of 500 small towns will be upgraded. While the repeated announcement of a sanitation drive is always welcome, the launching of a total sanitation and Clean India Campaign is not unique to ‘Modi’s vision’.