Why no labour day Google Doodle for India?

1 May is Labour Day or International Workers’ Day when left-wing labour organisations and unions organize demonstrations all across the world. Karl Marx’s slogan, “Workers of the world unite” is popularly used on this day to signify the idea of the labour unity against the exploitative ruling classes.

Google, which is known for its Doodles on special days has posted a Labour Day-themed doodle but sadly its available only on the Russia homepage (www.google.ru), the Philippines homepage (www.google.ph), China (Hong Kong) and Bahrain. Users will be greeted with the Labour Day doodle in place of Google’s usual logo.

The doodle features a female worker,lifting up a metallic Google logo. She’s wearing a yellow helmet, and next to her one can see a red toolkit.

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Which begs the question… why not India? And why this selectiveness in deciding which countries should see the Google?

Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, and fundamentally began with the demand for the eight-hour workday movement, which urged eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.

One would think that such demands are universal - and particularly so in third world countries like India where labour exploitation is a serious issue! So why this discrimination Google? We demand our right to the labour day Google! (Along with a eight hour workday of course!)

Meanwhile May Day has been trending all over social media as well. Photos with quotes of Karl Marx, workers protesting etc are being shared on Facebook.