Sudipto Sen, the chairman of the Saradha group of companies, was arrested in Kashmir on April 23, 2013, for allegedly defrauding lakhs of depositors who had invested in various schemes floated by his companies.

On April 2, the four major student union federations jointly held a protest against the withdrawal of campus democracy in West Bengal.

Yet another gruesome attack on democratic rights was witnessed in West Bengal which cost a young life.

This was not merely an electoral loss but a major defeat of a bastion, says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta about the Left Front's loss in West Bengal. He argues that there has to be a rethink in the Left's political outlook and organisation following this loss.

Election results in five states - bad for the left, ambiguous for the Congress, no hope for the BJP.

 History is repeating itself in West Bengal, with Maoists, the Trinamool and the Congress doing what they had done in the late 60's and early 70's. And it will not be history repeating itself, first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce. This time around, it will be a much bigger tragedy.

Poverty does not lead to Maoism. It certainly contributes to it, but it does not produce it. What produces Maoism is the act of making political violence legitimate (even glorifying it). Rather than make the case that there is space within the (however limited) democratic institutions, people like Arundhati Roy trumpet the armed road. Patient work through the democratic institutions produced the important developments for the Dalit [oppressed caste] movement and the working-class movement.