Calcutta, Oct 20: The CPM central committee appears to have underestimated the decline in the party’s vote in Bengal in the Lok Sabha polls last May. The final poll data compiled by the National Election Study (NES) now shows that the decline in the party’s — and the Left Front’s — vote was sharper than what had been calculated earlier. Also, the erosion was spread across all social groups, including...

INDIA’S achievement in setting up a huge structure of local self-government institutions has won worldwide recognition and respect. However, the massive numbers of rural self-government or panchayat raj representatives should not be allowed to obscure the reality of some very important weaknesses in our panchayat raj institutions. True, some states have notable achievements to their credit in this respect, but taking an overview of the national situation it can be...

Many grassroots activists in Chhattisgarh are circulating a note among all democratic elements in the country to raise the demand of de-escalation of conflict between the security forces and the adivasis. They want lakhs of displaced adivasis of Dantewada be allowed to return to their villages and rebuild their ravaged agrarian and forest based economies. However, this time they also want an assurance from the state government on right to...

The National Tribal Policy ‘draft’ is reason enough to celebrate. But what it lacks is the voice of the adivasi who it claims to protect, says SMITA JACOB THERE ARE nearly 500 tribes in India constituting 140 million of us – 80 million Scheduled Tribes on the census record, and 60 million off the record, called the ‘denotified and nomadic tribes’ who have never been counted by India’s census. And...

It's official. Even as Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy admitted there had been 20 suicides by farmers in the state in the last 40 days, yet another case came to light on Saturday. Peddolla Nadipi Bhumanna hanged himself at home in Donchanda village of Morthad mandal late on Friday night. It’s learnt that the 55-year-old farmer, faced with crop failure, was driven to desperation because he was...