PRAGOTI

It is clear that it is the ruling classes, their political parties and their elitist policies that are at the root of the situation in which Maharashtra and its people find themselves after 51 years. The popular worker-peasant slogan in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement of building a ‘Socialist Maharashtra in a Socialist India’ has been negated by these same forces. With the imperialist-oriented neoliberal policies of the last two decades, the mass of working people are being sidelined, economic and social disparity has widened and corruption has reached unprecedented levels. Ashok Dhawale, Maharashtra state secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist) writes on the 50th anniversary of the formation of the state.

A poetic tribute to the revolutionary Marathi poet Narayan Surve by Pallavi Chavan. The poem, originally composed in Marathi, has also been translated in English by the poet. Both the versions are included in the post below.

The Khairlanji Verdict, in which six persons were awarded the death penalty for the massacre of dalits, is anything but historic. In treating the massacre as a purely criminal act, it actually masks caste realities. S. Anand writes in The Hindu.