CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on June 24, 2019THE 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.On June 22, a very young Comrade Tajimul Karim was killed mercilessly in Amdanga in the North 24 Parganas district.

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.The move appears to be good in that workers will be able to enjoy ESI benefits with a lower contribution as the medical and other benefits rendered by the ESI Corporation (ESIC) will continue to be the same. CITU and the Left trade unions vehemently opposed the role of the government. Sections of the media criticised them for taking such a critical view.

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 readers of this column are well aware how all the elections, including the election to the West Tripura Lok Sabha seat, post March 3, 2018 since the BJP-IPFT government assumed office have been r

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. It is the 15TH Indian Labour Conference (ILC) which decided on the method of calculation of minimum wages, which the Supreme Court approved giving it a legal foundation.

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’. The president refers to the mantra of ‘sab ka saath sab ka vikas’ relating to the previous term of the