A rare labour lawyer who consistently refused to represent management

By Harsh Thakor*

Sanjay Singhvi, a senior leader in India’s Communist revolutionary movement and the working-class movement, passed away on April 23 at Hinduja Hospital due to prostate cancer. He was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPI(ML) (Mass Line) and the General Secretary of the Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI). His death is regarded as a significant loss to the trade union and Communist movements in India and internationally.

Singhvi came from a family with a strong leftist background. His father, K.K.S. Singhvi, was a noted labour lawyer, and his aunt, Sundra Navalkar, was a prominent trade union leader and Communist revolutionary.

For over four decades, Singhvi played an active role in the Communist movement. He combined his work as a Supreme Court lawyer with leadership in the trade union movement and served as the Asian Coordinator of the International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organisations (ICOR). Throughout his career, Singhvi was known for his logical, scientific communication style, fluency in Hindi and English, and for blending seriousness with humor. Colleagues describe him as dedicated, flexible, and principled, avoiding anger, ego, or pettiness in his activism.

Singhvi was one of a diminishing group of labour lawyers who, for ideological reasons, consistently refused to represent management. He was respected for his efforts in defending workers' rights, including securing limitations on factory working hours. He rejected traditional Communist strategies such as the semi-feudal thesis of Indian society and the protracted people's war approach.

Singhvi’s political involvement began in the student movement, as a member of Vidhyarthi Pragati Sanghatana. A gold medallist in law, he participated in the 1978 anti-fee hike agitation and 'Go to Village' campaigns, linking urban and rural struggles. As a lawyer and activist in Chandrapur, he worked with tribal communities and later with the Akhil Maharashtra Kamgar Union and the Contract Labour Kamgar Union, organizing resistance against contract labour practices.

In the mid-1990s, Singhvi left the CPI(ML) People's War group and joined the CPI(ML) Red Flag led by K.N. Ramachandran, supporting the view that India was a neo-colony. He later played a leading role in the TUCI and worked among airport and diamond industry workers. Singhvi became a Politburo member of the CPI(ML) Red Star from 2011 to 2018, before leaving to form the CPI(ML) Mass Line following internal disagreements.

Within the CPI(ML) Mass Line, he contributed to formulating political documents and organizing conventions. He also participated actively in forming the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangharsh Abhiyan (MASA) and took part in the international Lenin Seminar.

While recognized as a strong trade union leader and organizer, Singhvi's approach to party-building and ideological development has been critiqued by some for deviating from Marxist-Leninist-Maoist orthodoxy. He rejected the Chinese revolutionary path and traditional theories of India's socio-economic structure.

Sanjay Singhvi's life reflected a commitment to workers' rights and revolutionary politics. His contributions to the trade union and Communist movements are noted by many, even as assessments of his political orientation vary.

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*Freelance journalist

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