Despite the deafening silence of the mainstream media, the social media space exploded with images and videos of a continuous stream of more than 50,000 red flag bearing working people, mostly tribals, marching across the Palghar district in Maharashtra. This was the heartland of the legendary battle ground of the Worli Revolt. Marching from the Charoti to Palghar Collectorate, a distance of 55 kilometers, day and night, for 48 hours, the sea of laal baota raised the issues of land and eviction which stands threatened by the abuse of Forest Act implementation. They raised the question of employment in the wake of the new law dismantling the guaranteed 100 days’ work in rural areas. They expressed concern for the new Labour Codes which threaten to take away workers’ right to protest and strike. They were loudly protesting the introduction of the Electricity Act which tends to legitimise the privatisation of power distribution networks and installation of pre-paid smart meters which will sharply raise not only the consumption cost of individual consumers but also increase the cost of agriculture manifold.

In many ways, this march reenacts the historic Nasik-Mumbai Long March of the farmers which exploded and formed an important backdrop for the opposition to the three obnoxious Farm Laws. Only this time, the size of the march is double that of the earlier one and is staged by the poor working people of a single district. In the dying stages of the winter session of the Parliament, the Modi government tried to rush through many obnoxious pieces of legislation, but particularly three of them are aimed at the lifeline of the working people – the GRAMG, the notified 4 new Labour Codes and the Electricity Amendment Act.

Modi government’s tearing hurry is not accidental. It smacks of the neo-fascist characteristics it has come to assume, making the functioning of the Parliament virtually farcical. These legislations signal a death blow to the wider sections of the working people, both in rural as well as urban areas. People’s Democracy has already published detailed articles about how GRAMG is going to take away the demand driven guaranteed nature of work available with the rural poor. In this issue itself, a point-by-point rebuttal of the government’s ploy in deceit and fraud has been provided.

The corporate communal government is trying to shift the burden of the growing distress of the global and the Indian economy on to the shoulders of the working class, as reflected in the notification of the Labour Codes. Knowing fully well that there will be growing working class struggle, the government is backing the corporates to the hilt by trying to do away with the right to protest, negotiate and even strike.

On the other hand, the privatisation of electricity, especially in the distribution networks, will massively curtail the people’s right of access to electric power, an absolute pre-requisite for the everyday lives of citizens. The curtailment of such rights is accompanied by a distressing increase in the daily expenditure particularly affecting the cost of agriculture.

This shifting of the burden is inevitable, given the current direction and policies of the Modi government. In the neoliberal paradigm of economic policy making, the reduction to adapting a single GDP driven narrative has been normalised. Obviously, this cannot capture the magnitude of the agony that the working people suffer through sharp levels of incremental inequality, unemployment and poverty.

The government has been all along claiming that India is growing at 8.2 per cent. The irony is that even the strongest votaries of the neoliberal paradigm – the IMF and the World Bank – are respectively revising down the estimated growth for India to 6.6 per cent and 6.5 per cent, for 2025-26. This downward revision is accompanied by reservations about the official data, over the weaknesses of its credibility and the associated lack of confidence. Clearly, this suggests a possible manipulation of numbers to manufacture a façade of growth for the crisis ridden economy.

Corporate India’s clamour for increased government spending itself betrays the economy’s underlying weakness. Despite India Inc.’s record reserve cash holding, more than double the 2019 figure of such companies are reluctant to invest in new projects because of sluggish and subdued demand. Apart from the demand constraint, this is impacted by weakening domestic consumption, persistent inflation and global trade uncertainties. Hence the wooing of the government to boost infrastructure spending, offer tax incentives and implement pro-business reforms to stimulate demand.

Understandably, the government’s response is the vicious triad of legislation. But who can make this corporate communal nexus driven government realise that the malady remains elsewhere? The Indian Rupee has fallen into a bottomless pit. It has already been adjudged as the worst performing currency in Asia. This is lethal for the working class, farming community, and MSMEs. At the same time, there is a net FDI outflow from India as well. The Labour Bureau data is bleak with the numbers engaged in the manufacturing sector declining, along with the average real wage growth.

The World Inequality Report has brought out a skewed pattern with top 10 per cent earning 58 per cent of the national income. This is up from 2022. However, the bottom 50 per cent receives only 15 per cent. Displaying a similar trend, top 1 per cent holds 40 per cent and top 10 per cent holds 65 per cent of total wealth in the economy. Amidst this gloom, CMIE data shows that profit earned by corporates relative to capital employed is at a 14-year high. In September 2025, the profit after tax relative to capital employed was 10.47 per cent. This is a hands-on demonstration of super profit extracted from super exploitation.

The triad of bills is the government’s response. Instead of lifting their little finger to ameliorate the hardships of the people, they want to further burden them and snuff out all possible avenues of protest and revolt. Therefore, the struggle for survival and livelihood has to be the center-piece of the working people. The true implication of these legislations will have to be taken to the last household in every rural and urban habitation. If the attempt is genuine, sincere and tireless, what we have witnessed in Palghar can be replicated across the country. The strike of the workers supported by the farmers on February 12, 2026, will be a resounding success to drive home the message of mass resistance surmounting the caste -communal divide.

(January 21, 2026)