From marxistindia at cpim.org Sat Apr 15 13:46:31 2017 From: marxistindia at cpim.org (news from the cpi(m)) Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2017 13:46:31 +0530 Subject: [Marxistindia] On Incidents in Kashmir Message-ID: April 15, 2017 Press Statement The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement: On Incidents in Kashmir The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its deep outrage over reports of a Kashmiri youth being tied on a jeep belonging to central security forces ostensibly to be used as a shield against stone-pelters. The 26 year old Farooq Ahmad Dar is reported in media to have said that he has never been a stone pelter and works on embroidering Kashmiri shawls. Though the J&K Chief Minister has announced an enquiry, those responsible for this outrage of parading a Kashmiri youth tied to a jeep through 8-10 villages must be made accountable and punished. This incident followed the anger evoked over a video that went viral on social media showing stone-pelters heckling and attacking a CRPF personnel who was discharging election duties. The CRPF has since filed a police complaint and three Kashmiri youth have been arrested. (Hari Singh Kang) For Central Committee From marxistindia at cpim.org Sat Apr 15 20:03:03 2017 From: marxistindia at cpim.org (news from the cpi(m)) Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2017 16:33:03 +0200 Subject: [Marxistindia] CPI(M) General Secretary's letter to EC on Tripura BJP President's speech Message-ID: Press Release The President of the Tripura unit of BJP, Shri Biplab Deb, has cast aspersions on the objectivity and fairness of the Electronic Voting Machines. This comes in the background of the widespread apprehensions about EVMs. CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has written a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner and demanded among other things that in elections in Tripura EVMs with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) should be used. We are herewith releasing the full text of the letter. **** April 15, 2017 Dear Sir, I am herewith forwarding a very serious matter from the state of Tripura. You must have also received this directly from the Tripura State Committee of CPI(M). The President of the Tripura unit of BJP, Shri Biplab Deb, has in a public meeting cast direct aspersions on the objectivity and fairness of the Electronic Voting Machines and dared the Chief Minister of Tripura to lodge a complaint against him. A video of the relevant part of his speech has also been submitted to you along with the clippings from the major print media dailies in the state. In the light of widespread apprehensions regarding the neutrality and fairness of EVMs that are being voiced across the country, such outrageous statements destroy the foundations of the Election Commission's declared objective of conducting free and fair elections. The Election Commission, a Constitutional authority, is the only body that can ensure the conduct of free and fair elections which is the bedrock of our democratic system. In the light of such outrageous statements, I would request you to act immediately both to punish the concerned individual appropriately and to give an assurance to the people of Tripura that the Election Commission is committed to ensuring a free and fair poll in the state. In the light of these developments, it is imperative that the EVMs that will be used in the state of Tripura must all be linked with the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). This is the least that can be done to restore some confidence amongst the Tripura electorate on the free and fairness of the electoral process in the coming elections. With regards, Yours sincerely Sd/- (Sitaram Yechury) General Secretary -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: