Exactly a year ago, in April-May 2021, India was gasping for breath, bodies were floating in the Ganga, crematoria were choked and cemeteries overflowing. Yet, soon, the Modi regime denied that there had ever been any oxygen shortage or any unusual or avoidable number of Covid-related deaths.

On 19 May, 2022, the Higher Education Minister of Karnataka who has enforced the Hijab Ban in educational institutions in his state and is responsible for the exclusion of Muslim girls and women from education and their subsequent targetting, was the keynote speaker at the Commonwealth Education Conference organised by Bridge India and sponsored by Birmingham City University among others.

Reproduced from LokMarg 21 April 2022. Comrade Ravi Rai, CPIML Delhi Secretary recounts how he along with CPIML and CPIM leaders stopped the bulldozers at Jahangirpuri on April 20.

While people across the country celebrated the 131st Ambedkar Jayanthi on 14th April 2022, in Bargarh district of Odisha, Bajrang Dal members carried out a horrendous assault on a bike rally taken out by youth celebrating Ambedkar Jayanthi. The attackers also tore/damaged Ambedkarite banners, flags and bikes and urinated on them.

A fact finding team from the Left parties (CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), Forward Block) had visited the areas of Jahangirpuri-C block affected by communal violence on 17th April 2022 in the course of a Hindu-supremacist procession organised on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti. They spoke to the affected people and residents of the area belonging to both communities.

A CPIML fact-finding team met and spoke with the victim of the hate crime perpetrated in Satsangnagar (Sherghati) on 13 April 2022. They spoke with Mohd Naseem Shah and his family members at his home in Lodishaheed Maulviganj mohalla in Sherghati city to gather details of the incident.

The violence perpetrated in Bihar by the BJP-RSS under the excuse of Ram Navami is a cause for serious concern. So far, reports of violence have come in from Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Gaya and some other Districts. At Qazi Mohammadpur village in Paru Block, Muzaffarpur, a saffron flag was hoisted on the Masjid there under a conspiracy hatched by an organization called Hindu Putra.

Statewide protests were organized across Bihar on 19 April under the joint banners of CPIML and Insaf Manch against the communal hatred and violence incited under the excuse of Ram Navami on 10 April. The protests demanded a probe into the role of local BJP MLA Raju Singh, arrest of Hindu Putra Paru President Rishabh Thakur, and a probe into the role of communal organizations like the Hindu Putra.

The image of the yellow JCB (the brand is named after Joseph Cyril Bamford, its British founder) bulldozer has become the reigning image of India’s Hindu-supremacist fascism.

Two weeks into the invasion, Putin’s war on Ukraine shows no signs of abating. The shelling has become more intense and widespread over several parts of Ukraine which are seeing growing civilian casualties and an exodus of refugees. Ukraine is being subjected to massive devastation. According to Ukrainian forces, Russia too has suffered major military losses, in terms of both personnel and weaponry. As the economic and human cost of the war grows, the repercussions are being felt across the region and beyond.