Latest news with #CPI(M)
News18
3 hours ago
- Politics
- News18
Who Is Arya Rajendran, India's Youngest Mayor, Cited By NYC's Mamdani In Now-Viral Post?
Last Updated: Mamdani's 2020 post about CPI(M) leader Arya Rajendran, who became India's youngest mayor at the time, became viral after he won the race for New York Mayor. Zohran Mamdani, 33, stunned political circles in the United States by defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as well as the Democratic establishment to win the party's primary for mayor – in what is being described as a political earthquake in the US. However, his victory put the spotlight on Kerala politician, Arya Rajendran. Mamdani, the son of acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair, is on course to become the first Muslim Mayor of New York. His campaign focused on everyday economic issues like housing, transportation, child care and food prices. Mamdani attracted the scorn of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) base over his socialist rhetoric and religion. US President Donald Trump slammed his victory, calling him a '100% Communist Rhetoric". Mamdani's views on Israel – whom he has accused of committing a 'genocide' in Gaza – did not sit well with Republicans and some Democrats. Who Is Arya Rajendran? However, attention has turned to Mamdani's 2020 post on CPI(M) leader Arya Rajendran, who at the time became the youngest Mayor in the country and took charge of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. Rajendran is a prominent leader from Kerala's Nair community who created history by becoming the youngest mayor anywhere in the world in 2020 at the age of 21, breaking the records of Sabitha Beegum becoming Kollam mayor at 23 and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis becoming Nagpur mayor at 27. In the 2020 civic elections, Rajendran won from Mudavanmugal ward in the city, defeating her nearest Congress rival by a margin of 549 votes. The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front bagged 51 seats, BJP 34, UDF ten seats and others five in the election. She is married to CPI(M) MLA Sachin Dev. In 2023, Rajendran made headlines after a photo of her working from her office with her one-month-old baby went viral. She was inducted into the CPI(M)'s Thiruvananthapuram District Committee in 2024. Why Is Mamdani's Post Going Viral? Mamdani had then retweeted a post from the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Puducherry committee congratulating Rajendran for her achievement, writing 'them: so what kind of mayor does nyc need right now? me:" them: so what kind of mayor does nyc need right now?me: — Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) December 27, 2020 This post showing his early political ambitions is being highlighted now to claim that Mamdani is a communist. 'Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think Arya Rajendran would be a matter of discussion in the New York mayoral election," a user wrote on X. Several right-wing politicians and influencers also branded him as a 'communist", claiming he will destroy New York with his liberal and progressive agenda. Mamdani has also been criticised for his views on India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. First Published: June 27, 2025, 08:18 IST
Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Protests rage against Zumba, Kerala govt doubles down: ‘Keep religion away from education'
Amid growing protests against the Kerala government's decision to introduce the fitness dance form Zumba in schools, the state's Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government has said it would not budge. The government had announced introducing Zumba in schools earlier this year. The decision has triggered protests from religious outfits such as SAMSATHA, which has a high stake in religious education in Kerala and outside the state. The outfits claim that the move would adversely affect morality. On Saturday, the protests swelled after more organisations came out against it. CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby told media in Kozhikode that organisations had the right to make comments on issues including in the education sector, 'religion should be kept away from education'. 'Children should grow mingling with one another. Those who oppose should rethink their stand. In a secular country, religion should be kept away from public education. They can comment on issues, but they should not dictate terms on education,' he said. Meanwhile, the government too doubled down, calling the protest 'more dangerous than the drug menace' and that it was 'more dangerous than the drug menace'. 'Certain quarters have come out against Zumba, which is being introduced in schools as part of anti-drug initiatives,' Education minister and CPI(M) leader V Sivankutty said. 'What is being held in schools is a short physical fitness programme. Students are performing Zumba in their uniforms.' He further said: 'According to the Right to Education (Act), it is mandatory for all students to take part in learning activities suggested by the government. Parents have no choice in it. According to the rules, the teachers have the responsibility to undertake activities per orders of the education department. Nobody has asked the students to wear revealing dresses and participate in Zumba'. The minister also shared videos of students of two schools in Muslim-majority areas performing Zumba in uniform wearing headscarves. Higher education minister Dr R Bindu also shared a video of college students — including Catholic nuns — dancing to music at a college in Irinjalakuda in Thrissur. The protest against Zumba will take Kerala to the dark ages, he said. This came on a day when Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen state president Hussain Madavoor once again made his objections known. 'Girls and boys dancing in revealing dresses will adversely affect their mental status. Even if they are performing Zumba in school uniform, we cannot agree that girls and boys dance together,' he said. Likewise, Wisdom Islamic Organisation general secretary T K Ashraf said children are not being sent to school 'perform mixed dance'. 'There may be people who see Zumba dancing as progressive (but) it is highly deplorable to depict those who oppose Zumba as extremists and retrogressive,' he said. This isn't the first time that there were protests against some of the CPI (M)-led government's gender-neutral policies. The government's attempt introducing gender neutral uniforms in schools and plans to do away with separate benches for girls and boys in schools also met a brick wall. Meanwhile, CPI(M) general secretary M. A Baby was accused of promoting atheism in school textbooks when he was the education minister from 2006 to 2011 and was forced to withdraw one textbook. The Zumba row is another litmus test for the CPI(M) regime, which, after its disastrous showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has been leaving no chance to attack 'Islamic extremism'.
India Today
4 hours ago
- Politics
- India Today
How victorious Congress, Pinarayi's party are reading Nilambur bypoll verdict
The Nilambur bypoll victory has set the Opposition Congress in Kerala in a jubilant mood. This is the first time the party has snatched a ruling-front seat in the Left Democratic Front's (LDF) nine-year term since the Congress and the United Democratic Front (UDF), which it leads, the victory in Muslim-dominated Nilambur is a promising development in the run-up to assembly elections next year. The win has shown the party is capable of putting factionalism behind, uniting its cadre and building a cohesive the CPI(M), whose candidate M. Swaraj lost by over 11,000 votes, had banked on a vote-split from a widening gap between the Muslim religious body Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama and UDF constituent Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the Congress stepped up its campaign on the ground and cornered the Pinarayi Vijayan government on sensitive issues. For instance, the escalating human-animal conflict in Nilambur, located in the Western in the past, the Congress could put up a united face and the IUML actively joined the poll campaign despite its leadership having reservations about the winning candidate Aryaden Shoukath. 'The Congress has reasserted its position for the first time in its nine-year-long history of being in the Opposition. Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan took a bold step by denying P.V. Anvar the Nilambur seat despite the IUML leadership favouring his candidature,' said political analyst S. resigned as Nilambur MLA in January after facing the heat for alleging that additional DGP M.R. Ajithkumar was involved in gold smuggling. Ajithkumar is widely considered as enjoying the trust of the Vijayan government.'Had the Congress yielded and made Anvar its candidate, the victory would have gone into the latter's account. But with a clean win with its own candidate, the Congress can now face the local body polls in December on a confident note,' said as the Vijayan-led LDF is eyeing a third consecutive term in Kerala next year, the Congress can turn things around with a 6 percentage point higher vote-share than in 2021 (38.8 per cent).For the CPI(M), the Nilambur result is an alarm bell against any complacency. 'We are identifying factors that caused our defeat and will take redress measures. The LDF won the assembly polls in 2016 and 2021 on merit. Our government in Kerala has ensured good governance. Setbacks like these (Nilambur) give us more insight as we march forward,' A. Vijayaraghavan, CPI(M) politburo member and a leader involved in the Nilambur campaign, told INDIA the moment, the CPI(M) leadership is sending out signals of weathering the Nilambur storm as it discusses ways to counter the Opposition and scale up welfare delivery in the months leading to the assembly elections. But in the Congress's scheme of things, if not an outright storm, the political wind already looks poised to change Vijayan's move to appoint Ajithkumar as the next DGP of Kerala fizzled out after his name was excluded by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in a meeting held on June 26. The UPSC shortlisted three senior IPS officers for the DGP's post—Nitin Agarwal, road safety commissioner of Kerala; Ravada A. Chandrasekhar, special director at the Intelligence Bureau; and Yogesh Gupta, director general of Kerala Fire and Rescue to India Today Magazine- Ends
Hans India
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Hans India
‘Assault on soul of Constitution': Oppn slams RSS' view on Preamble
New Delhi: Several Opposition parties on Friday denounced RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's call to review the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble, terming it a "deliberate assault" on the soul of the Constitution. The attack came a day after the RSS proposed reviewing the two words, saying they were included during the Emergency and were never part of the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar. While the Congress saw it as a "deliberate assault" on the soul of the Constitution and claimed the RSS-BJP had never accepted Ambedkar's Constitution, the CPI(M) said the demand exposes the RSS' long-standing objective of subverting it. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the mask of the RSS has come off again as they want 'Manusmriti'. CPI(M) leader and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Hosabale's call is a "brazen attempt to dismantle the core ideals of our Republic". "Invoking the Emergency to discredit these principles is a deceitful move, especially when the RSS colluded with the Indira Gandhi government during that time for its own survival. To use that period now to undermine the Constitution reflects sheer hypocrisy and political opportunism. "Secularism and socialism are not additions; they define India. Every citizen who believes in democracy must raise their voice against this communal agenda," Vijayan said on X. The Left parties and RJD alleged that Hosabale's proposal was part of a conspiracy to change the Constitution. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the BJP/RSS attacked Ambedkar, Nehru, and others involved in the framing of the Constitution from November 30, 1949, onwards. "The RSS and the BJP have repeatedly given the call for a new Constitution. "This was Modi's campaign cry during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The people of India decisively rejected this cry. Yet the demands for changing the basic structure of the Constitution continue to be made by the RSS ecosystem," Ramesh said. The Chief Justice of India himself delivered a judgment on November 25, 2024, on the issue now being raised by a leading RSS functionary, he said. "Would it be asking too much to request him to take the trouble to read it?" Ramesh said. He also shared on X a copy of the judgement.
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Left parties slam RSS demand to remove ‘socialism' and ‘secularism' from constitution's preamble
NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Friday strongly condemned RSS Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale's call for the removal of 'socialism' and 'secularism' from the Preamble of the Constitution, denouncing it as an assault on India's founding values. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] stated that the demand exposed the RSS's long-standing agenda to subvert the Constitution and replace the secular democratic republic with a Hindu Rashtra. 'RSS's demand to remove socialism and secularism from the Constitution's Preamble is a direct assault on India's core values. The RSS has always upheld Manusmriti over the Constitution. Secularism and equality are its foundation. The CPI(M) will fiercely resist this divisive agenda to protect our democratic republic,' posted CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby on X. The CPI(M) said the inclusion of these principles in the Preamble was not arbitrary, but represented the ideals for which freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and his comrades gave their lives.
