Despite the intense internal questioning, for Karat and CPI-M politics is still in command, writes Aditi Phadnis
Perhaps sensing mid-term polls, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has reinstated Kerala Chief Minister V S Achutanandhan and the party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the politburo
As Congress intensified efforts for a consensus candidate for the vice president's post, the Communist Party of India Marxist said it is in favour of a candidate who does not belong to the Congress. This was conveyed by CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had recently contacted him as part of efforts to seek support of political parties in selection of a candidate in the vice presidential election.
Defying a Communist Party of India directive to quit his post before the trust vote, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday chaired an all-party meeting in New Delhi ahead of the special session of the Lok Sabha to decide on the confidence motion.The Speaker had called the meeting of the floor leaders of parties to discuss issues related to the trust vote being sought by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in the wake of the Left withdrawing support to the UPA.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took on the Communist Party of India-Marxist saying that the language used by them is similar to that of terrorists.
After running into controversy again, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader M M Mani on Sunday strongly refuted having made a speech two days back in which he purportedly said that the party was involved in the murder of an INTUC leader in Idukki district.
CPI-M leader W R Varadarajan said senior party leaders Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu have requested the party to relieve them from politburo due to their advanced age and immobility. A decision on the request would be made on April 3. Both had urged the CPI-M to relieve them in the last Congress, but the party had requested them to continue as it felt their advice and guidance would be vital.
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday parried questions on whether veteran Marxist leaders Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet would continue in the politburo, but said he favoured "an early retirement policy". "We will decide on that in this Congress," he said when he was asked the question.
As the Congress in West Bengal on Tuesday threatened to intensify its agitation over the proposed renaming of Indira Bhavan at Salt Lake, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee alleged the Congress was colluding with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to attack her party.
Communist Party of India - Marxist veteran Prakash Karat was on Monday re-elected general secretary for the third consecutive term at the party's 20th Congress, which concluded in Kozhikode, Kerala. Karat, 64, was elected as general secretary in 2005 at the New Delhi Congress and reelected at Coimbatore for the second term. Attended by over 700 delegates from all states, the meet, which had deliberated on the poll debacle the CPI-M suffered in West Bengal and Kerala.
The CPI-M slammed the government for merely stating that New Delhi was studying the evolving situation in Serbia as there are 'several legal issues' involved in the declaration.
Communist Party of India-Marxist is expected to reveal its strategy on Saturday afternoon amid suggestions from allies that it was time to redefine ties and extend merit-based support.
The outrageous remarks by Trinamool Congress leader Tapas Pal reflect the reality of "politics of terror and intimidation" in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said on Thursday, as it moved Parliament to seek action against him.
Mahmudabad, head of the political science department at the private university, was arrested on Sunday after two FIRs were lodged on stringent charges, including endangering sovereignty and integrity, for his social media posts related to Operation Sindoor, police and his lawyer said.
Ashoka Univeristy associate professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad has been arrested for his social media post on Operation Sindoor, police said in Sonipat on Sunday.
The delegations led by Baijayant Panda, Ravi Shankar Prasad (both Bharatiya Janata Party), Sanjay Kumar Jha (Janata Dal-United), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Kanimozhi (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar) will visit a total of 32 countries and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of party organ People's Democracy, the CPI-M claimed that a 'disingenuous campaign' was on against it over the nuclear deal and sought to demolish the '1942, 1962 and 2007 syndrome.'
'Rather than assuaging the feelings of the Hindus accommodated in schools and hospitals, she calls a meeting of imams and tries to assuage them.'
Indicating a scam in the export and import of onions and some other essential items, CPI(M) on Thursday said the prices of these commodities were rising even when there was more than enough supply in the market.
The party has said that the ministers asked to be relieved.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist met in Vijayawada last week to confront the many challenges facing the party, especially in its strongholds, Bengal and Kerala. What did the meeting achieve? Can the CPI-M emerge from the crisis it finds itself in?
The Left Front government in West Bengal would try to distribute 1.53 crore Below Poverty Line cards in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday retained Garoth assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district albeit with a reduced margin than in the 2013 assembly polls. The Congress, however, termed the BJP's win with a lower margin than earlier as a "moral defeat" for the ruling party.
Karat said the Congress had made a 'mockery' of the national commitment to fight communalism by taking such a step.
Announcing the first list of candidates, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that of the 16 names announced, 14 are new, of whom three are women.
Left parties are pre-poll allies of the Congress, which is leading the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he congratulated his friend T M Thomas Issac for, what he sarcastically said, taking over as "Finance Minister of Somalia".
Hours after the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament, 50 individuals embroiled in land disputes in Kerala's Munambam joined the BJP, hoping for a resolution to their claims. The residents, who have been protesting for 174 days, allege that the Waqf Board is claiming ownership of their properties. BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar assured them of the party's support and a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express gratitude. The BJP capitalized on the Catholic Church's support for the legislation, accusing the Congress and the Left of appeasement politics. The opposition, however, questioned the impact of the bill on the Munambam issue.
Attacking the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for its "utter failure" to check rising prices, the CPI(M) on Friday said the Centre's "faulty approach" in blaming states, without taking effective steps to tackle the real issues, would not solve the problem.
Opposition parties in India have criticized the imposition of President's rule in strife-torn Manipur, accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing to address the ethnic violence and using the measure to cover up internal conflicts within the party. They demanded a clear roadmap for restoring peace and questioned the government's lack of transparency and inaction on the issue. The violence, which erupted in May 2023, has left over 250 people dead.
While acknowledging that they needed strong allies for a chance in the assembly polls, AIADMK cadres seemingly prefer actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam to the BJP, owing to the latter's 'communal agenda' and consequent hardline Hindutva image, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist is in a spot politically and socially in Kerala with the police unearthing more and more details regarding the involvement of Peoples Democratic Party leader Madani's wife Sufiya Madani in the Kalamassery bus burning incident and the close rapport both Madani and his wife had with the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayaiba operative Thadiyantavida Naseer.
In a virulent attack on the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay on Monday threatened to 'break the hands' of the CPI-M cadre if the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was attacked again.
Listing out issues over which the Trinamool Congress has differed with its ally Congress so far, the Communist Party of India - Marxist on Thursday asked how the two parties could continue to co-exist in the United progressive Alliance coalition and the government."We can't understand on which issue the Trinamool Congress agrees with the government. First, we want to know how they are co-existing," said CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has said the party was opposed to communalism not religion, and faith was no bar for anyone to join the party if he or she was willing to work in accordance with its programme and constitution.
The CPI-M, which is a major partner of the ruling Left Front, alleged that 30 party activists were killed by the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura after election to the state assembly was announced in January.
A Communist Party of India - Marxist leader was shot dead by suspected Maoists at Barikul in Bankura on Saturday. Rameshwar Murmu, the local committee secretary of CPI-M, was forcibly taken away from his residence at Bhulagara in the wee hours of Saturday by an armed group of 15 men, who pushed aside his wife and son, saying Murmu deserved to be killed for his 'anti-people activities'. Soon, the family heard gunshots and Murmu's body was recovered by security forces.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday noted that the letter circulated to defend Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Professor P J Kurien claiming to bring out the truth is a clever attempt to conceal key facts of the case and to deflect the demand for his resignation from the constitutional position, by dragging the party's name 'unnecessarily'.
