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Editorial |
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Let Us Make 2012 A Year of Heightened Struggles
and Powerful Initiatives
As the first year of the second decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, we can see a welcome upswing in popular struggles across the world. Reeling under economic recession, corporate loot and dictatorial rule, the people have clearly started fighting back across the world. History will remember 2011 as the year of the Arab Spring and also as the year of the ‘Occupy’ movement....Full text
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Commentary |
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Kishenji’s Murder : Exposing TMC’s True Colours
Arindam Sen
The gruesome murder of comrade Mallojula Koteswara Rao, better known as Kishenji, brings out the true colours of the Trinamul Congress (TMC) Government in West Bengal. Mamta Banerjee actually copied the strategy adopted by the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh in 2004: promising peace and talks with Maoists before elections followed by severe repression and liquidation of Maoist leaders immediately after coming to power in the name of encounter deaths....Full text
The Congress-UPDS ‘Peace’ Deal in Karbi Anglong
On November 25, the Union Government and the Government of Assam signed a tripartite accord with the UPDS (United People’s Democratic Solidarity), an insurgent organization operating since 1999 in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam. It may be recalled that since 1986, the people of Karbi Anglong have been calling upon the Union Government to implement Article 244A, the unique provision inserted in the Constitution of India through the Twenty-second Amendment Act, 1969. Article 244A provides for the formation of an autonomous State ...Full text
Durban Deal : Sell-Out for Developing Countries
Radhika Krishnan
The Durban Climate Change Conference concluded a few days back, with environment and forests minister Jayanti Natarajan hammering in the last nail in the coffin of India's long-standing position that all global negotiations should happen with equity as a basis. The global media is claiming that a "historic" deal has been brokered at the Durban conference – they are quick to remind us that Kyoto Protocol as well as the UN-sponsored multilateral negotiation process has somehow been rescued against all odds. ...Full text
The AMRI Disaster
The Killer Fumes of Corporate Greed
The morning of December 9 came as a huge shock to Kolkata and the entire country. More than 90 lives – including old-age patients in various stages of treatment and recovery – were lost in a fatal disaster in the AMRI hospital in Dhakuria in south Kolkata on that fateful morning. The disaster was triggered by a major fire that broke out in the basement of the super-speciality hospital in the pre-dawn hours, but it was the toxic fume engulfing the multi-storey building which claimed most of the lives....Full text
Bhanwari Devi Case : Dirty Picture of Feudal Exploitation and Violence
Kavita Krishnan
The disappearance of auxiliary nurse and midwife (ANM) Bhanwari Devi in Rajasthan has exposed the vulnerability of the state’s women health workers, especially dalit women, to exploitation and violence at the hands of top politicians....Full text
Pakistan’s Pain Can Never Be India’s Gain
Sanjay Kumar
We don’t see Pakistan speaking in one voice very often; different stakeholders react differently to a given situation depending upon their interest and political leaning. However, the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers at the hands of NATO a few weeks ago united the Pakistani population in their collective grief. People sick and tired of the western design demanded in one voice a complete overhaul of the relationship with the US....Full text
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Policy Watch |
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UID Aadhaar Under Cloud
The UID (Aadhaar) Bill (National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010), pet project of Home Minister P Chidambaram and the UPA Government, is already underway in several states. Yet, a huge question mark now stands over its very existence. The Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance has delivered a huge blow to the Aadhaar project, endorsing many of the apprehensions, concerns and objections which many activists had been raising (See Liberation April 2011)....Full text
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Feature |
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Corporate Retail : Government Claims – and the Reality
In the flood of official (and media) propaganda in the wake of the government’s (temporarily stalled) move to permit FDI in retail, the actual reality of what this will mean is being lost. For this it’s necessary to look at this issue logically, rather on the basis of hype. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma’s letter to political parties offers a good place to start....Full text
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Special Report |
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Rural Poor Turn Out in Massive CPI(ML) Rally at Patna
Even as Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s much-hyped ‘Seva Yatras’ were proving to be a flop show, thousands of peasants, labourers and other sections of the rural poor turned out in CPI(ML)’s Rally at Gandhi Maidan, Patna on November 21....Full text
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Tribute |
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Bhupen Hazarika: Voice Of The People
Anju Barkataki
An avalanche seemed to have burst on the streets of Guwahati. For three consecutive days from the 7th of November, wave upon wave of people kept flowing night and day towards a common destination – Judges’ Field, where lay the mortal remains of the man who had found a place in the hearts of all the people of the North Eastern part of India, especially his homeland, Assam. ...Full text
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Updates |
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Sankalp Divas in Memory of Comrade VM
December 18, the death anniversary of Comrade Vinod Mishra, was observed as Sankalp Divas (Pledge-taking Day) by Party units all over the country. This year, the December 18 programmes also launched the fund collection drive for the party’s forthcoming Ninth Congress....Full text
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International |
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And Now, Moscow Warms Up For Democracy
Arindam Sen
In a matter of months since spring this year, the movement for democracy, transparency, probity in public life and other country-specific issues has crossed continents and acquired a global sweep. As the international year of street protests draws to a close, the snow-covered roads of Moscow and St Petersburg have started warming up with angry demonstrations.
Not that post-Soviet Russia has not witnessed popular protests earlier....Full text
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Cover |
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Kisan Sansad at Parliament Street Against LARR Bill
Hundreds of famers from all over the country gathered at Parliament Street on November 30 to hold a ‘Farmers’ Parliament’ (Kisan Sansad) on policy issues affecting farmers, including the Land Acquisition Bill and FDI in retail. The Kisan Sansad, organized by the All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM), was attended by farmers from UP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha and several other states....Full text
Formula of Destruction
Somak Roychoudhury
If they don’t have bread, why don’t they eat cake? The French queen Marie Antoinette’s infamous words might have been recalled by NOIDA’s working class, as they witnessed the Formula One spectacle unfold at the Buddh International Circuit at Greater NOIDA....Full text
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