 Hello and welcome to Dispatches From India, a show by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the major stories from across the country, what Indians are talking about and the impact it will have on politics, economy and society. We first get into our News This Week section. We start with a grief-stricken story from the city of Kanur in Kerala. A fisherman and a member of the CPIM, the Communist Party of India Marxist, Hari Dasan, who was 54, was hacked to death allegedly by a silence affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the RSS. This is the ideological parent of the ruling party at the centre, the Bharatiya Janda Party or BJP. The assailants were reportedly waiting near Hari Dasan's house, near the seashore, hacking him to death on his return. His brother and relatives, who live in the vicinity, reached the spot, but their attempts to save him were in vain. This is, however, not the first incident of right-wing violence on communists in the state. Here is students federation of India, central committee member Nitish Narayan, shedding some light on the issue. The history of the RSS killing against the communist activists started some 60 years back when communists were on the streets to resist the attempt to spread communal hatred and violence. RSS had declared in India that they have three enemies, first being the Muslims, then the Christians and third one being the communists. In Kerala, the communists have been the first target of the RSS for many years. And in the recent time, RSS how more violently attacked and killed many communist activists, Kunal Haridas being the last person, many more might also follow. This is also an attempt to destabilise the Kerala society, also to hide the people's friendly alternative policies being taken up by the left-wing government. I also reiterate that this brutal incident of the murder of a communist activist took place on 21st February when the left workers, activists were getting ready to celebrate the publication of communist manifesto on the bookstay. On the one side, communists are celebrating books. On the other side, RSS is taking blood. It is barbarism versus humanism. It is socialism versus fascism. It is book versus blood. Many sections in the country have been disappointed with the union budget 2022-23 for not addressing their concerns. A number of organisations representing urban workers, farmers and agricultural labourers held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi today. The All India Kisan Sabha Centre of Indian Trade Unions and All India Agriculture Workers Union convened to express their disappointment with the budget they believe will further push the working class in India towards poverty. We spoke with Vijukrishnan All India Joint Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha on the matter. Today there were countrywide protests called jointly by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, the All India Agriculture Workers Union and the All India Kisan Sabha against the betrayal in the recent union budget. The budget has totally disregarded the concerns of the farmers and the working class. It rather is more like seeking a revenge on the farmers and the workers for the victory that they have achieved in the United struggle that happened from a historic struggle for more than one year in India. The budget actually has seen a huge cut for agriculture. More than a lakh crore has been cut. Allocations have been cut for agriculture. There has been cut of rural development allocations also has been cut. Even for employment generation in the times of pandemic for agriculture workers for the poor it could have helped them in the times of the pandemic. Even for NREGA the Rural Employment Guarantee Act there has been a drastic cut. Simultaneously we also find that for food subsidies fertilizer subsidy there has been a big cut that has taken place. So this budget has been totally anti-poor, anti-farmer, anti-working class. Against that we have had thousands of farmers and workers across the country who have had protests today and there will be a prolonged campaign which would be taken across the country to expose the pro-corporate face of the BJP government and expose the fact that this budget is anti-poor. Next we get into our in-focus section where we take a deeper look at some of the burning issues in the country. This month marked the first anniversary of the coup in Myanmar where the military overthrew the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The past year has been brutal with various sections of the population facing heavy repression. There has also been no solution to the dire crisis of Rohingya refugees who live in difficult conditions in many neighbouring countries. On February 22 Rohingya refugees and rights activists staged a protest in New Delhi. Here is what they had to say. We have come here to protest against this. It has been one year since the coup in Burma. There has been no special pressure from the international community. So we believe that if we cut our voices through the media and through the society, the Indian government and the international government will remember this again. It may be a little too much for them to remember again that the situation in Burma has been over for the past year. Thousands of people have died after 2021. The protest is going on there and the elected government is detaining them. And finally we are in Manipur, a state that finished 50 years of its statehood in the year 2022. It will begin polling on Feb 28 for the 12th Assembly elections in the state. To give you a brief history, Manipur was an independent state from 1947 to 49 after which it merged with the Union of India. In 1963 it was declared a Union territory and in 1972 full statehood was achieved by the state. Our team spoke with some young women from the state addressing their concerns and disappointments with the government. From what I have seen during this past BGP rule, they were very biased and I have faced some problems quite myself personally on that also. So I prefer Congress over it. This is going to be my first time voting for the election but then when Congress was rolling before the BJP came, there was not so much of an issue of getting jobs or it's not just about jobs means like we didn't have to be that much scared of going out here and there or certain things as a girl as a woman. But now that BJP are rolling there are certain crimes that's happening and it's not just about our safety but it's more about if we talk about education also there are issues that how do I say because of corruption to be very frank. This is going to be my first time voting the election and like as I've seen and I have experienced I feel no particular party is like giving opinion for girls giving spaces for girls. They put many things for girls in their manifestos I have seen that and even today I have seen like scooty for every girl child in the colleges yeah I have seen that it's a manifesto by BJP I think but I have not seen anything any party doing work properly regarding the woman in the society and what the woman had faces know what woman faces and all they haven't stand properly for women even once. What I felt was when Congress was ruling we thought there was still corruption back then also but then now it has like tremendously increased so much. I've seen many facials providing spaces for LGBTQ community and all that's good that's like I think it's very happy. So it's just manifestos? No I don't but we'll see because we have like for the past few years people have been electing the same people who won't do anything you know this time the people the involvement is very high. Right now we have so many candidates who had like doctorate degrees who have who are retired from high officials you know we have all that but I think ampadhuti is a very important quality that every candidate must have. Now when the election is coming around means like the the candidates who are electing the candidates so they're quite active in involvement with the people like of their constituency but when election gets over or when there is a gap between the election you know before the election for the five years they don't involve that much with the people so I want them to have little involvement with the people consistent yeah yeah be consistent because we can see them coming only when the election is quite near they don't do that when the election is over. We often discuss this no like will you get a job in Manipur because it's it's there where it all started so yeah I'm planning to come back here in Manipur and like started live here so yes because yeah we need to do something if we all go I don't know who will bring the change it's like small steps matter so I think we can settle here. I actually was studying outside for quite a long only for my master I'm here because of corona I couldn't go out but since the like study that I'm doing like the subject that I'm doing it will be little difficult for me to get a job here but I want to try for being a professor here in Manipur because the amount of lady professor in our college is quite less so yeah I want to come back. I'm not satisfied with the rate of the change but small steps are coming up that's I'm happy with that we can expect more in the coming elections that's all I can say we cannot bring up changes directly from where we were. And that's all we have for this episode of Dispatches we will be back next week until then keep following peoplesdispatch.org thank you for watching.