Former Kerala Chief Minister and veteran CPI(M) leader V S Achuthanandan, a key figure in Kerala's political history, died on Monday at the age of 101. He was a founding member of the CPI(M) and served as Chief Minister from 2006 to 2011.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is set to elect its next general secretary, with speculation rife over who will lead the party. Leading contenders include M A Baby, backed by the party's Kerala unit, and Ashok Dhawale, who enjoys support from the West Bengal lobby. Other potential candidates include Mohammed Salim, B V Raghavulu, and Brinda Karat. The election will take place at the 24th CPI(M) congress in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
'According to JP, Indira Gandhi was not much of a danger to democracy. He said, it was Sanjay Gandhi and his gang.'
Biman Basu, the senior-most Marxist leader in the country, pays homage to a comrade he has known and admired since the 1980s.
After being marginalised by the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the Left parties have appealed the prime minister to issue a commemorative stamp in the late leader's memory. Anita Katyal reports.
The Left Front government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal got tributes from the US-India Business Council.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
'I had to persuade him. I think he was a sceptic to begin with, but later on he was convinced that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that there was no other way out.'
Sitaram Yechury strived to have the country's Left movement shed its doctrinaire approach to India's socio-cultural complexities and stitch electoral and social alliances to fight the Sangh Parivar.
He was reviled by critics in his party as a neo-liberal in disguise but till the end, he retained his belief in secularism and the humanity of Communism.
The CPI-M leader was the chief minister of the state from 2000 to 2011.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
'She could have sat down with the students and taken a list of their grievances including their allegations and suspicions.' 'Not all suspicions are true, but you have to listen, you have to let the steam come out.'
'...or go to jail.' 'The government is getting them silenced.'
The veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader is likely to undergo a few tests later in the day, which will help in ascertaining the severity of the infection in his lungs that landed him in the hospital on Saturday afternoon.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
A top Chinese diplomat has described Jyoti Basu as "China's great friend" and India's "greatest communist" while paying floral respect to the departed leader.
Both Ramala and Subhas took care of the old and ailing Basu in his last years and paid a visit to his Indira Bhawan residence regularly.
In an apparent disagreement with his own party, senior CPI(M) leader and West Bengal Assembly Speaker H A Halim has said that had Jyoti Basu become the Prime Minister "the course of the country's history would have changed".
Gandhi, then a newly appointed Congress chief, had staked claim to form the government at the Centre after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 1999.
The founding president of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front completed 23 years, four months and 17 days of uninterrupted service in office on Sunday.
Naveenbabu turned 75 last October and there have been rumours of ill health, which he denied last Friday.
No lives were lost after cyclone Biparjoy made landfall. Preparations for Biparjoy were not only extensive, they were also telecast far and wide. Ahead of the cyclone's landfall, Shyam G Menon observes there was considerable publicity on how much the government was geared up to face the storm and its aftermath.
'I have seen, even in my village, people hanging pictures of Communist leaders -- Jyoti Basu, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong -- in their drawing rooms. Could we not hang pictures of Swami Vivekananda? '
The Indian economy is sinking but everyone's busy leading the high life, no one's worried, says veteran economist Ashok Mitra, in an interview to Rediff.com's Indrani Roy.
The Congress on Tuesday rejected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's charge of discrimination against non-UPA states by the Centre, saying that the blame was put on the central government to cover up a state's failure.
Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member and state secretary Biman Bose emerged from the hospital at 12.12 pm on Sunday weeping to formally announce the passing away of 95-year-old Basu.
'Mithun has showed Hindi cinema that a tall, dark man with a charming smile and a great physique can take the world on.'
A former Indian Police Services officer, who lodged an FIR against Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and was considered very close to the Left Front government during Jyoti Basu's tenure, is among five former police officers contesting the West Bengal assembly polls on Trinamool Congress tickets.
Just like veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Joyti Basu, a senior Maoist leader, who is currently lodged in a Bihar jail has offered to donate his body for medical research.
Housing minister in the previous West Bengal government, Gautam Deb discusses the reasons behind the party's rout and the policies of the new government led by Mamata Banerjee.
All the five former Indian Police Service officers fielded by the Trinamool Congress won comfortably, while TC nominee and former chief secretary Manish Gupta humbled Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, his one time boss.
Communist Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan and national secretary D Raja will go to Kolkata and represent their party at the cremation.
Eighteen years after she vowed never to set foot again in Writers' Building from where she was forcefully evicted while on dharna with a rape victim before Jyoti Basu's chamber, Mamata Banerjee on Friday stepped in as chief minister.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday demanded a judicial probe into the Purulia arms drop case alleging "gross negligence" of the then central government in handling the same which was meant to destabilise the the Jyoti Basu government in West Bengal.
The government on Thursday dismissed claim by Purulia arms drop case accused Kim Davy that the 1995 operation was carried out by the "political forces" at the Centre to destabilise the then Jyoti Basu government of West Bengal.
Terming the rise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the helm would be a disaster for communal harmony, Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee alleged that Trinamool Congress was also trying to hitch an alliance once again with the BJP.
It is worth wondering how far the fulsome national coverage Jyoti Basu received this week was warranted, except on the basis of his record as India's longest-serving chief minister.
