Ramaswami: On International Labour Day, the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), wrote an opinion piece commemorating the role of Babasaheb Ambedkar in institutionalising labour rights in India—the right to strike, living wages, decent working conditions, social security and so on. He argued that inspired by Ambedkar the current government has taken steps to improve the quality of life of workers. Strikingly, Meghwal makes this claim at a time when at least five states—Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh—have amended the Factories Act, 1948, to extend the permissible working hours from eight to 12 hours a day, or 72 hours a week (for a period of three months), which defeats the very foundations of May Day.