Party leader Rahul Gandhi dubbed the Union Budget as a 'zero-sum budget', saying it has nothing for the salaried, middle class and the poor.
Rajya Sabha on Monday witnessed two adjournments during the pre-lunch sitting following uproar over Centre sending a team of officials to West Bengal to assess the situation in the state after a spate of violence.
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.
Rahul said it is clear that things are "not normal" in Jammu and Kashmir.
Communist Party of India-Marxist polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Monday hinted at a possible merger of the two Left parties -- CPI and CPI-M -- in the near future.
Gandhi's name was the only name discussed when 18 opposition parties met to decide on their candidate for the vice presidential poll, the sources said.
The central government on Monday issued a Gazette notification to extend the tenure of defence secretary, home secretary, director of Intelligence Bureau, and secretary of Research and Analysis Wing for a period of two years.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday asked the Election Commission to convene an all-party meeting to allay their apprehensions about the reliability of electronic voting machines.
Speaking on Neo-Liberalism, Secularism, and the Future of the Left in India, Yechury stressed that the "two Indias" could not survive together.
The two day Communist Partyof India-Marxist state committee meeting which is significant after the Polibureau decision of demoting the octogenarian leader and Chief Minister of Kerala ,V S Achuthanandan from the party polibureau will begin in Thiruvananthpuram on Tuesday.
The Budget proposal for creation of electoral trusts for political donations came in for severe criticism by Left parties, with the CPI(M) saying it would be the "fountainhead of all political corruption".
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's decision to skip the funeral of CPI-M veteran Jyoti Basu has snowballed into a major controversy.On Thursday, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury alleged that Banerjee has 'insulted' the people of West Bengal by not attending the state funeral of the former West Bengal chief minister.It was not the Bengal CM, but Sonia Gandhi's elite Special Protection Group, which made Banerjee stay away from the funeral.
"By not attending (the funeral) and justifying her absence, she has insulted the people of Bengal who turned out in lakhs. Now they will have to decide," he told media persons when asked to comment on the Railway minister's absence at the funeral on Tuesday.
Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday paid tributes to former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, whom they described as a great patriot and an eminent statesman. Both Ansari and Dr Singh visited the AKG Bhawan, the Communist Party of India - Marxist headquarters at Gole Market in New Delhi, at approximately 11 am and paid floral tributes to the departed leader. They were received by CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury.
Gandhi came along with Mukherjee and while the former president left after sometime, the Congress chief offered to drop him back but Mukherjee politely refused.
In a unique initiative, students from IIM-Ahmedabad will work with Communist Party of India - Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury and help in planning for the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme this year. They will be involved in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Provisions of the Right to Information Act will be analysed. Students will assess funds spent by the constituency and create a monitoring system.
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja said the top leadership will not attend the meeting called by the TMC chief.
With prices rising, lawmakers of the world's largest democracy are seeking a better pay package.
Gokhale has said that China used its "close connections" with the Left parties in India to "build domestic opposition" to the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The Left Front in West Bengal is "under siege" senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury has said, claiming that a situation similar to the "anti-fascist terror" between 1972 and 1977 is emerging in the state.
After weaning away Biju Janata Dal from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition, the Left parties are now eyeing another National Democratic Alliance ally with senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday holding discussions with Janata Dal-United leader and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury rubbished Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's charge that Maoists and Marxists were two sides of the same coin and said she had no knowledge of communist movements in the country.
The CBI on Thursday conducted searches in the offices of the wireless planning cell, the department responsible for allocating spectrum, and the office of deputy director general (access services) at the ministry headquarters in New Delhi.
While Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the Interim Budget was nothing but a 'perorative' (lengthy and pompous) document and government had in fact lowered the expenditure on major social structure schemes, CPI leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja called it a 'lollipop' budget meant for the coming elections.
Yechuri also said the process of merging Air India and Indian Airlines (Indian) has not taken place in a proper way.
The future of India depends on the future the Left and its ideology, Sitaram Yechury, politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist said. Speaking at Columbia University on 'Neo-Liberalism, Secularism, and the Future of the Left in India', Yechury said the destiny of both India and the the Left are intertwined and it was the left which realized the idea of India correctly.
Politburo member Sitaram Yechury speaks about the party's strategy and alliances
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.
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav joined the protest in the Lok Sabha and, along with Left leaders, demanded suspension of the Question Hour to take up a discussion on the issue. The House was adjourned for about 20 minutes and later parliamentary affairs minister P K Bansal said a structured discussion on the price situation would take place on Wednesday.
CPI-M calls her bid 'desperate attempt to save herself'.
Rohith's mother and brother raised the demand for enactment of Rohith Act during the ongoing Parliament session to prevent discrimination and institutional atrocities towards Dalits, tribals and marginalised sections at the educational institutions.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday said the government was not sure of mustering majority in the Lok Sabha and hence was shy of having a debate on price rise under rules which entail voting.
"It is a huge scam. . . . The CPI-M has been opposing this. The Parliamentary Standing Committee, of which I am the chairman, has also all along opposed it," Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said. He said the public-private participation route, pursued by the Planning Commission, was 'disastrous as finally the burden falls on the people'.
The new political alignments in Orissa are not a sudden development. Low-key consultations between Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik and Communist Party of India - Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury had been on even before March 5, though it was on that day the two leaders spoke to each other directly.However, the two leaders decided not to interact for the next few days fearing that their high-profile meetings would alert the BJP.
The Communist Party of India - Maoist on Thursday rubbished charges leveled by the Communist Party of India Marxist, that the Trinamool Congress was patronising Maoists, saying the Left Front party was trying to keep itself afloat by making such allegations. "There is no need for us to have the CPI-M or the Trinamool Congress as allies," Maoist leader Kishenji said while reacting to the CPI-M's allegations that the outfit was protected by the TC.
Their parleys, which staved off a breakdown between the Left and the ruling coalition for the time being, followed a series of meetings between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and top leaders of the party till late Thursday night.
Leaders of Left parties, who have strongly opposed the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal, have started receiving "death threat" mails.
The Communist Party of India on Thursday claimed that the results of the recent assembly polls in several states clearly showed that parties other than the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party had polled 'significant' percentage of votes and it was 'perfectly possible' for a non-Congress anti-communal combine to garner support.
Without opposing the EC's decision to hold a five-phased general election, Left parties on Monday said some parties would find it difficult to sustain their campaigns in certain states and expressed the view that a two-phase election in West Bengal would have been better.
The 84-year-old priest-activist Stan Swamy, arrested under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Elgar Parishad case, died at a Mumbai hospital Monday in the middle of his fight for bail on health grounds.
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