CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on June 24, 2019

THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its deep anguish and grief over the murder of two young comrades in West Bengal at the hands of the criminals attached to the TMC.

THE press release of the government in the late evening of June 13, announcing reduction in the contribution for Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme hit the pages of national press on June 14.

AS we go to press, the state election commission of Tripura might declare the schedule for the election to the three tier panchayat bodies of the state. But the record of the last 15 months of the BJP-IPFT rule in the state puts a big question mark about whether the polls will be free and fair. The undemocratic manner of functioning of the state election commissioner too has added to the worry. 

THE International Labour Organization (ILO) became a part of the Modi government-appointed so-called expert committee deciding on the methodology of calculation and fixing national minimum wage in India. In the process, it conveniently ignored all existing tripartite forums and existing laws, including a Supreme Court judgement. 

THE president’s address to the joint session of parliament, the first after the Lok Sabha election, was expected to spell out the vision and priorities of the second Modi government.  But President Ram Nath Kovind’s speech was sparse in detail and more went unsaid than said. 

It is clear from the speech that the ruling party sees the “New India” as radically different from the India before 2014.  The RSS notion of a Hindu nationalist Bharat underpins their vision of a ‘New India’.