Latest news with #CPI(M)'
Time of India
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
HC allows CPI(M) to hold ‘peaceful assembly' to ‘express thoughts' on Gaza
Mumbai: Weeks after the CPI(M)'s criticism of its observations while rejecting a plea to hold a rally in support of Palestinians, the Bombay high court has permitted the party to hold a "peaceful assembly" at Azad Maidan on August 20 between 3 pm and 6 pm to "express thoughts on genocide, purportedly occurring at Gaza. " The State govt through additional public prosecutor Shreekant Gavand informed a bench headed by Justice R V Ghuge that it would permit the assembly at Azad Maidan which has a designated spot for public meetings, agitations and processions under draft rules of the Maharashtra Police Act. Senior counsel Mihir Desai argued that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) only wanted to meet at the designated protest spot and were not seeking permission to march. He said the draft rules provide for space at Azad Maidan to assemble peacefully. The court was shown an affidavit filed by deputy police commissioner (Zone 1) in March 2025 indicating the draft rules. The rules stipulate that a protest meeting or assembly can be held between 11 am and 6 pm. At the hearing, the bench remarked that "peaceful assembly sounds good". "Demonstration sounds more intense," said Justice Ghuge. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Investire per il futuro? Inizia da qui eToro Click Here Undo You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai | Gold Rates Today in Mumbai | Silver Rates Today in Mumbai Last month police had denied permission on a plea by the All India Peace and Solidarity Foundation to stage a protest on the Gaza issue at Azad Maidan. The bench had asked Desai how his clients were affected by what was happening "thousands of miles" away. "Be patriots…speak up for causes in our own country," the high court remarked orally. Desai said democracies worldwide were holding peaceful protests on the issue. "Our country has enough issues. We don't want anything like this. I am sorry to say, you are all short-sighted… You are looking at issues in Gaza and Palestine. Look at your own country," the court said. The prosecutor had then opposed the CPI(M) plea on the grounds that permitting the protest may create a law and order situation and a conflict with reference to India's stand on the issue. After the police rejected the CPI(M) application, the party filed a fresh request before the high court challenging the refusal. It had also issued a statement criticising the court's observations. However, the court had refused to initiate suo motu contempt proceedings. A bench of Bombay HC Chief Justice Alok Aradhe in March this year had directed the state govt to frame rules to regulate public meetings, agitations, and processions in Mumbai, and implement them in "letter and spirit." Ends// Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
Hans India
a day ago
- Health
- Hans India
Ailing Tripura Assembly Speaker in Bengaluru for treatment
Agartala: Tripura Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen, who underwent an emergency surgical procedure at a private hospital here after he suffered a massive cerebral stroke on August 8, was taken to a Bengaluru facility for better treatment on Monday, his family said. Two doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi, came here on Sunday to provide an expert opinion on the condition of Sen who is 72 years old. 'They (doctors from AIIMS) thoroughly examined the patient and reviewed his case with a team of treating doctors. The experts confirmed that the initial management and timely brain decompression surgery had been appropriate,' the private ILS hospital here said in a Arijit Sen, the son of the Speaker, told reporters that his father's condition is stable with all vital organs functioning normally after the brain surgery.'We shifted him to a Bangalore-based hospital for further treatment,' he said. He thanked Chief Minister Manik Saha for properly managing the initial treatment of his Speaker suffered a brain haemorrhage at Agartala railway station on August referring to the opposition CPI(M)'s criticism of the Speaker's treatment in a private medicare facility here instead of GBP Hospital, a tertiary care institution for Heart, Brain and other disorders, his son said it was the family's decision to treat him there. 'He is our father, and we will decide where he will be treated. Nobody could dictate that to us. It is not good to play politics over an ailing person,' he said.
Hans India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Kerala CPI(M) leader faces backlash over astrologer visit, sparks ideological debate
Thiruvananthapuram: A fresh controversy has erupted within the CPI(M) after state secretary M.V. Govindan allegedly visited prominent astrologer Madhava Pothuval in Payyannur. The issue got traction on social media after a photograph of the meeting went viral. It also took centre stage at the recent state committee meeting. At the meeting, P. Jayarajan is understood to have raised concern that some party leaders are making visits to astrologers a habit, calling it a direct violation of the CPI(M)'s core Marxist ideology. Both Jayarajan and Govindan hail from Kannur and were once very close to each other, but now their relations seem to have strained. Jayarajan on Saturday feigned ignorance about it and said, 'I think all of you would have heard what Govindan had to say about it.' Drawing parallels with past controversies, a section in the party noted that targeting Govindan echoes earlier moves to isolate the late former state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan over a temple ritual dispute. With local body elections approaching, party leadership is expected to intervene to contain the dispute before it affects the organization's public image. Govindan, however, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying, 'No criticism has been raised against me. These claims are unfounded. The media is to blame as they create controversies and then ask for my response.' For the CPI(M), the astrologer controversy has become yet another test of internal discipline and ideological consistency, with the party now facing the task of managing both public perception and internal discord. Meanwhile, veteran party leader also played down the controversy, saying, 'See, we meet lots of people which including astrologers and others. Just because some CPI-M leaders meet an astrologer, it should not be seen that we are followers of such professionals.'
Saudi Gazette
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Thousands pay tribute to veteran Indian communist leader
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — Thousands are paying their respects to veteran Indian communist leader VS Achuthanandan whose funeral will be held on Wednesday. VS, as he was popularly known, died on Monday at the age of 101. He was a founding member of India's largest communist party and a former chief minister of the southern state of Kerala. Tens of thousands of people have thronged the streets to pay tribute to the politician, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Kerala's political history. Forced to drop out of school as a child, Achuthanandan overcame grinding poverty and torture in police custody to become one of the state's most beloved leaders. He was being treated at a hospital in Thiruvananathapuram after suffering a cardiac arrest last month. His funeral will be held near his hometown in Alappuzha district with full state honours. "Fighting for the rights of the oppressed and the exploited was the guiding principle of his life," MA Baby, general secretary of Achuthanandan's party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), wrote in tribute. He described the leader as "the epitome of struggle". Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, also from the CPI(M), called Achuthanandan a "limitless repository of inspiration and lessons". Apart from being Kerala's chief minister, Achuthanandan was the state's leader of opposition three times and a member of the CPI(M)'s Politburo for 23 years. Achuthanandan's popularity among Indian communists rivals only that of Jyoti Basu, the long-serving West Bengal chief minister and CPI(M) co-founder. But unlike the London-educated Basu, Achuthanandan came from humble roots and didn't finish school. While Basu shaped his legacy in power, Achuthanandan did so from the streets, championing people's issues as an opposition leader. Achuthanandan started working young after losing his mother at four and father at 11. As a teen in a coir factory, he joined the undivided Communist Party at 17 and began organising agricultural workers in Travancore in then British-ruled India. AK Antony, a former Kerala chief minister from the Congress party, said that as a school student in the 1960s, he would wait beside paddy fields to listen to Achuthanandan's speeches. "Achuthanandan's life and struggles and the torture and beatings he endured in the vanguard of the communist agitations for bonded agriculture workers in Kuttanad are unequalled and historical," he was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper. Achuthanandan led a 1946 revolt against the state authorities, in which hundreds of communists were reportedly killed. He went underground, was later arrested, tortured in custody, and spent five years in jail. His work spanned labour rights, land rights, education, women's right, anti-corruption measures and environmental protection. A staunch communist, Achuthanandan wasn't afraid to defy his party - most notably when he met the widow of TP Chandrasekharan, murdered in 2012 by a gang that included former CPI(M) colleagues after he broke away to form his own party. After public outcry forced the CPI(M) to reverse its attempts to sideline him in 2006 and 2011, Achuthanandan served as Kerala's chief minister (2006–2011) before retiring from public life following a 2019 stroke and living with his son in Thiruvananthapuram. — BBC
NDTV
21-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Comrade VS: The Staunch Communist Who Rose From Working Class To Lead Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: V S Achuthanandan, a staunch Marxist known for his sharp rhetoric, anti-corruption stance, and unwavering commitment to social justice, was India's first communist leader from a working-class background to rise to the office of Chief Minister. A founding figure in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) after the 1964 split in the undivided Communist Party, Achuthanandan's life in Kerala was defined by unrelenting struggle -- against the entrenched injustices of a caste and class-bound society, and against the creeping revisionism he saw within his own party. He died at the age of 101 on Monday. Whereas his peers--E M S Namboodiripad, Jyoti Basu and E K Nayanar -- came from privileged, upper-caste families and were drawn to communism by its intellectual promise, Achuthanandan lived the inequality they fought. Achuthanandan, affectionately known as Comrade 'VS' by party colleagues and even political opponents, led a life so eventful that he was once presumed dead and prepared for burial after being assaulted by police during a pre-Independence struggle for workers' rights -- only to survive, defy his attackers, and rise to become one of Kerala's most towering political figures. On Monday, Achuthanandan died at a private hospital here. For over eight decades, he remained firmly on the side of workers, farmers and the poor-- his politics shaped by the fires of anti-colonial resistance, class struggle and the complicated, often turbulent path of the Indian Left. Born on October 20, 1923 at Punnapra village in Alappuzha district, and educated up to Class VII, Achuthanandan's political awakening began early. He entered public life through trade union activism and joined the State Congress in 1939, before embracing Marxism a year later by becoming a member of the Communist Party. His political career was not without its cost. During the British rule and the turbulent post-Independence years, he endured five and a half years in prison and spent four and a half years underground to evade arrest. In 1964, he was one of the 32 prominent leaders who broke away from the Communist Party of India (CPI) to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), following an ideological rift. His role in this defining moment remains a cornerstone of the CPI(M)'s identity in Kerala. Achuthanandan served as the secretary of the CPI(M)'s Kerala State Committee from 1980 to 1992, helping to shape the party's strategy and mass base. He was elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly four times - in 1967, 1970, 1991, and 2001 - and twice served as the Leader of the Opposition, first from 1992 to 1996, and again from 2001 until 2005. Despite setbacks, including intra-party disputes that defeated him in 1996 Assembly polls in his home turf Mararikulam which kept him from the chief minister's seat, VS remained a beloved and uncompromising leader of the Left. Achuthanandan's journey, starting as a helper in a tailoring shop, transformed into a string of relentless battles, both within and outside his party, championing people's causes until he rose to the position of chief minister in the state in 2006. As opposition leader, he led a strong campaign against land grabs and the real estate lobby, winning support from people across social and political backgrounds. A fierce organiser within the CPI(M), Achuthanandan was never afraid of a fight -- not just with political opponents, but often with rivals inside his own party. Notable among them is politburo member and present CM Pinarayi Vijayan. In the 1996 Kerala assembly elections, although the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) won, Achuthanandan lost in Mararikulam, a shock defeat in a constituency long seen as his stronghold. The loss was widely blamed on behind-the-scenes moves by his rivals within the Marxist party. Many political observers at the time wrote him off, saying his role in the party and in Kerala politics had come to an end, only to be proved wrong. He fought his way back, rebuilt his position within the party, and returned stronger and more popular than ever. Achuthanandan's deep popularity among the public often placed his party in a difficult position. Despite opposition from the powerful Kannur lobby in the party, led by Vijayan, the CPI(M) was compelled to field him in the 2006 and 2011 assembly elections, thanks to strong grassroots support. He went on to lead the LDF government from 2006 to 2011, even as some within his own party continued efforts to sideline him. His time in office was marked by a tough stance on corruption, a push for transparency, and a focus on welfare schemes aimed at helping ordinary people. In the 2016 assembly elections, the CPI(M) once again turned to Achuthanandan, presenting him as the face of its campaign. Despite his age, he travelled across the state with energy, delivering fiery speeches in his trademark style and rallying support for the Left. The veteran was also known for his colloquial style of speaking and witty political statements. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi got a taste of VS' wit when the Communist veteran called him "Amul Baby". When Rahul remarked about his advancing age, Achuthanandan hit back at the then Congress General Secretary saying, "Everyone knows Rahul Gandhi is an Amul Baby, and he has fielded Amul Babies in some constituencies. His comments are meant only for infants, leaving the Congress leadership across India stunned.
