The Union Government has recently come out with a 4th draft of the Indian Ports Bill, which seeks to replace the 1908 Indian Ports Act. Previous versions of the Bill have faced strong opposition from Coastal states, which have all raised issues around the strong powers given to the Union in the new drafts, resulting in a violation of the federal structure of governance. This comes in the backdrop of the Major Ports Authorities Act, 2021 being pushed through, repealing the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963.

CPIML statement issued on  10 September 2022

CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya in a letter to the Election Commission of India dated 05 September 2022, highlighted the alarming reports of coercive measures used by the election machinery for Aadhaar-EPIC linkage.

Bank loan write-offs and bank frauds continue to mount at an unprecedented rate under the BJP regime in the last eight years. Public Sector Banks (PSBs) which were in good financial health till 2014, started hitting the floor since the start of the Modi regime. This is also the time when corporate defaulters were given the freedom to regularly flee from the country with unpaid debts amounting to millions of rupees. Rishi Agarwal was the latest prominent name who left the shores with a whopping debt of Rs. 24,000 Crore!

The dark side of Start-Up Unicorns has begun to raise its ugly head. Under the garb of 'restructuring', and ' realignment of operations', the Start-Ups have begun to fire or terminate contracts of employees as a 'cost cutting measure'. Indian start-ups have retrenched a little over 11,000 people in the last six months. Industry experts predict that the situation might get worsened soon when more than 60,000 employees are expected to be axed by the end of this year!

Larsen and Toubro workers in Puducherry are agitating to demand equal wages for equal work and abolition of contract labour system in production. All four units in Puducherry were on total strike since 15 March 2022 for about 22 days.

The agenda of the central and state governments relating to land resources is slowly getting away from the long promises of freedom struggle, while we are celebrating 75 years of freedom.

(At a discussion marking the first national conference of the All India Lawyers For Justice – AILAJ on 28th and 29th May, 2022 at Bengaluru, Advocate Mihir Desai known for three decades of work as a workers’ and human rights lawyer in Mumbai, delivered a lecture on the role of the legal community in countering the fascist assault. Below is the text of his lecture, somewhat edited for readers of Liberation.)

Tribute to Karl Marx on his 204th birth anniversary.

“Constructing the future and settling everything for all times are not our affair... (what) we have to accomplish at present (is) ruthless criticism of all that exists, ruthless both in the sense of not being afraid of the results it arrives at and in the sense of being just as little afraid of conflict with the powers that be.”

As India observes the 250th birth anniversary of Rammohan Roy, one of the earliest and greatest campaigners for modern India, on May 22, 2022, we are faced with one of history’s cruel ironies. The incumbent regime is pushing 21st century India into revenge fuelled mass violence by distorting history and using the perceived wrongs committed by the Mughal dynasty that ruled India some three centuries ago.