New Delhi, Aug 9 : Left parties would raise the banner of protest against the UPA government’s ‘anti-people’ economic policies by holding a dharna in the Parliament precincts next week, Left sources said today.     Parliamentary leaders of CPI-M, CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc met here today and decided that their MPs would concentrate on raising issues like price rise, unemployment, food security, agrarian crisis, FDI in retail and the general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) on taxing foreign investments, they said.     The leaders also decided to hold a protest dharna at the main gate of the Parliament House on Tuesday, the sources said.     The meeting was attended among others by Sitaram Yechury, Basudeb Acharia (both CPI-M), D Raja and Gurudas Dasgupta (both CPI).     The four parties recently staged a five-day dharna here on the issue of food security, demanding amendments to the Food Security Bill to include universalisation of public distribution system and ban on futures and forward trading in foodgrains and essential items, among other things.     The CPI-M has been demanding that the government enacts a law to make the right to food a fundamental right in the backdrop of the UN Global Hunger Index, which ranks India 67th among 80 countries which suffer from acute hunger of its people. It has estimated that 25 per cent of the world’s hungry today were Indians.     Besides growing inequalities, Yechury recently said widespread agrarian distress, suicides by farmers and drastic reduction in the per capita availability of foodgrains and pulses show the rise of absolute poverty among certain sections of people.

Whether PFRDA, Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill and Banking (Amendment) Bill will come to the Parliament in this session? As per reports in the media, the chances are dim since the government do not have the majority in the Rajya Sabha to get them passed. Some of the allies. Like Mamata Government, are not in support of these bills.  The chances are that to avoid complication, the bills may not be presented in this session.

The Quit India Movement of 1942 is completing 70 years. It was on 9th August 1942, that the Quit India Movement started demanding the Britishers to leave the country. It made ripples all over the country and the struggle took place which accelerated the Freedom Struggle.

We got freedom 5 years after the Quit India movement. But have been able to live up to the ideals and visions of the freedom fighters and martyrs. Even after more than 60 years of independence, the majority people of the country are deprived of even the basic necessities.

On this day, 6^th August, in 1945, the United States dropped the atom bomb ‘Little Boy’ in Hiroshima in Japan killing more than one lakh people and maiming much more who suffered radiation and died later or suffered their entire life. Another bomb named ‘Fat Man’ was dropped in Nagasaki, in Japan itself on 9^th August 1946, killing more than 80,000 and maiming more.

This massacre of common people, and not military, was carried out after the World War II was almost over and Germany has been defeated and Japan was going to surrender. In fact, it was a power show by the US and more than that, an experiment of dropping of atom bombs on the common innocent people to find out its destructive power. The cruel and demonic culture of imperialism was revealed to the entire world.

No more atom bombs have been used since then. But the horrible memory of those bombs is still fresh in the memory of not only the people of Japan, but the entire world.

Thousands and thousands of candles will be lit at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and all over the world in the memory of those innocent people died due to the bombings.

Let there be no further Hiroshima or Nagasaki! Let the world be made free from such destructive weapons!

To day while I was opening my blog site, I was happy to find out that more than one lakh viewers have already visited the site, since it started about two years back. More than 2,000 blog posting have also been made. While there had been ups and downs during certain periods, a set of viewers regularly visited and gave support and made many encouraging remarks. I was hesitant at first, but now I feel that I can continue this.

Thanks to all who appreciated as well as made encouraging and some times differing views!