CPM moots right to strike clause

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader Nilotpal Basu today said his party would ask the government to amend the Constitution and include the right to str...

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader Nilotpal Basu today said his party would ask the government to amend the Constitution and include the right to strike.

Talking to reporters, Basu said there was need for debate on the issue. The CPI(M) had preferred to be quiet on the issue, with only a section of hardliners insisting on the right, but with the Trinamool Congress making it a political issue, the CPI(M) has been forced to take sides and yield ground to the hardliners.

Basu said, ‘‘Unless you remove the causes which provoke strikes, you cannot really take away the right. As discussion on judicial reforms is on, this is the correct time to debate the right to strike.’’

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The Left parties would raise the matter with the government so that the issue could be looked into seriously, he said, adding that thousands of youths and workers had assembled at the Capital to seek the constitutional status of strikes.

Asked to comment on West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s strong and open dislike for strikes, Basu said that the CM had said so in respect of bandhs, but had come out in favour of the right to strike.

State AG pleads with HC on bandh

		KOLKATA: West Bengal Advocate General Balai Chandra Roy on Tuesday pleaded before the Calcutta High Court for ‘‘defusing the situation’’ arising out of its ‘‘injunction order’’ terming bandhs as illegal and unconstitutional last month. Even as the HC division bench adjourned the case till January 25 next year, Roy said, ‘‘as the bandhs are over now, it would be my humble submission that this bench defuses the situation’’ arising out of its order. — ENS

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