Editorial

Bihar 2010

Bihar has delivered a stunning verdict. An outgoing government returning to power with 85% majority is a very rare phenomenon in the history of parliamentary democracy anywhere in the world. That such a thing has happened now in the state of Bihar which has been known for the presence of the widest spectrum of political forces in the legislative arena is indeed quite remarkable....Full text

Cover Feature

Spate of Scams:

[The rapid proliferation and sheer scale of scams that we are witnessing are shameful even by Indian standards. The 2-G spectrum scam has been dubbed the mother of all scams in India, involving as it does a whopping Rs 1,76,379 crore lost to the public exchequer. But now we know, about 12 times that money had been illegally siphoned off our country to Switzerland and other tax havens. Mr Dev Kar, a former senior economist with the International Monetary Fund and currently a lead economist with the US-based research body Global Financial Integrity (GFI), has estimated that between 1948 and 2008 our country has been drained of $462 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) in this way. And this is a very conservative estimate, the GFI adds. ....Full text

Feature

Barack Obama's India Visit –

(The ruling Congress and main opposition BJP alike were unanimous in hailing US President Barack Obama's India visit as a great success. Behind all the hype, what did the visit spell for the Indian people? In the feature below, we take a look at some aspects of the visit that were obscured in the 'feel good' media coverage. – Ed/-)                     
Jobs for the US – at What Cost for Indians?
On the eve of his visit to India, and on the heels of mid-term polls in the US where voters showed their discontent with the Obama government by allowing Republicans to wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats, an op-ed piece by US President Barack Obama appeared in the New York Times. The article, seeking to address concerns about recession and unemployment in the US, indicated clearly that his visit to Asia and India was a quest for jobs in the US, seeking "new customers in new markets for American-made goods." Referring in particular to India, Obama wrote that the trip spelled "billions of dollars in contracts that will support tens of thousands of American jobs," and was intended to "explore ways to reduce barriers to United States exports and increase access to the Indian market.".....Full text  

Special Report

Comrade Ram Naresh Ram Will Always Remain Alive in Ours Hearts

CPI(ML)’s senior-most leader and architect of the people’s revolutionary struggles led by the CPI(ML) in Bhojpur, Comrade Ram Naresh Ram (Parasji) passed away on 26 October 2010 at the age of 86. He was one of the founders of the revolutionary CPI(ML) current in the communist movement in Bihar. With his demise, a glorious chapter in the history of post-independence revolutionary struggles comes to an end. Comrade Ram Naresh Ram was born in 1924, in Ekwari village in the Sahar block of Shahabad district (now called Bhojpur).....Full text

States

Jharkhand:
Towards Panchayat Polls

D.P.Bakshi
After a gap of 32 years, Panchayat elections in Jharkhand – the first since its inception as separate state -- are just round the corner. Over the last 10 years, time and again there were attempts to hold the elections, but social tensions engineered by different ruling parties and intervention by the judiciary came in the way.....Full text

Investigation

Delhi Building Collapse:
Crime Against Unorganised Workers

[CPI(ML) teams conducted an investigation into the collapse of a building in Laxminagar, in which a large number of workers and their families were killed. A team comprising CPI(ML) CCM Prabhat Kumar, Delhi State Committee members Amarnath Tiwari and V K S Gautam, and Comrade Gourishankar, visited the site on November 16. This was followed up by a visit to the Lalita Park Community Hall by East Delhi Secretary VKS Gautam, as well as Narendra, Chandan Negi, Uma Gupta, and Kanika Singh, in which they met some of the survivors of the incident. The main findings and recommendations of these fact-finding teams are summarised in the report below.] ....Full text

Updates

XII th National Conference of Jan Sanskriti Manch:
Upholding A Culture of Resistance

Dedicated to the struggles against the culture of exploitation and oppression, the 12th National Conference was organised successfully in Durg (Chhattisgarh) on the 13th and 14th November 2010. Representatives from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Orissa, as well as West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra participated. Professor Manager Pandey and Pranay Krishna were once again elected as President and General Secretary......Full tex

International

Students Resistance to Fee Hikes in Britain

On November 10 this year, more than 50,000 students from all over Britain converged in the streets of London protesting the new proposals for massive cuts in higher education, which will spiral the cost of a college and university degree. The current coalition government in the United Kingdom, comprising strange bedfellows in the form of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, is pushing for a formula – known as Lord Browne's proposals – which will reduce spending on higher education from the current £7.1 billion to £4.2 billion – a huge 40 per cent cut by 2014-15.....Full tex

Cover

Red Salute to Comrade Rajesh!

With a heavy heart, we have to convey the tragic news of the untimely death of Comrade Rajesh Ranjan, an activist of AISA and CPI(ML), who passed away of a sudden cardiac arrest on the morning of 26 October 2010.....Full text