MARUTI SUZUKI INCIDENT

 

CITU Demands Independent Enquiry

 

THROUGH a statement issued from New Delhi on July 19, the Secretariat of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has expressed shock and concern over the incident of violence in the Maruti Suzuki Plant at Manesar, Gurgaon (Haryana) on July 18 evening. It is known that one person died, several got critically injured, and the office and equipments were damaged in this violence, which the CITU has termed as “totally unwelcome and non-endorsable.”

 

Surprised at the manner in which this violence erupted, the CITU has demanded a thorough enquiry into the entire incident, including the source of provocation, by an independent agency. It said the possibility of bouncers or agent provocateurs having been planted to malign the workers and their union could not be ruled out. The workers’ union has reportedly alleged that the management engaged bouncers to manhandle the workers and their leaders during the talks with the management over the issue of suspension of one worker.

 

The CITU statement said, “The workers’ movement in the Maruti Suzuki plant at Manesar and Gurgaon, despite tremendous repression and highhandedness of the management, had never demonstrated violence in the past. During almost six months long workers’ agitation in Maruti Suzuki plant, when thousands of workers stayed day and night inside the plant for more than a month, at different spells, there had not been a single incident of violence from the workers’ side, neither any report of damage despite many provocations from the management and their hired goons like highhanded suspension of workers on flimsy grounds, summary dismissals and forcible debarment of workers from entering the plant.”

 

That is why, the CITU said, the July 18 incident at Maruti Suzuki plant at Manesar should be enquired into in depth by an independent agency, instead of one taking a shortcut route of projecting it as violence and arson by workers. The CITU noted that mass scale indiscriminate arrests and detention of workers and the rampaging of workers’ colonies are still continuing.

The CITU has demanded that the government must stop witch-hunt and terror on workers and institute an independent enquiry into the incident, including into the antecedents, to bring the truth to light and punish the guilty. 

 

CPI(M)’S

OPINION

THE Haryana state committee of the CPI(M) too has expressed deep concern over the unfortunate incident of violence and arson in Maruti Plant at Manesar and demanded an independent and impartial inquiry into the circumstances that led to the happenings, instead of blaming the ordinary workers for it.

 

The party’s opinion came out through a statement issued from Rohtak on July 20, pointing out that the managements of Maruti and other larger plants were totally intolerant towards workers’ unions and there was no mechanism for redressal of the grievances affecting the workers. Most of the managements have been allowed to adopt the illegal practice of recruiting anti-social elements as bouncers who resort to beating and terrorising the workers with impunity.

 

The CPI(M) state committee recalled that the Maruti workers did not resort to any senseless violence even during their prolonged agitation in the past, despite repeated provocations. Therefore, the July 18 happenings cannot be straightway blamed on workers. The party also asked the Haryana labour minister to give up his anti- worker attitude and play his due role in its stead.

 

The CPI(M) state committee has also demanded an end to the indiscriminate arrest of workers and the misuse of the happenings as a  pretext to suppress the workers and their union.

 

MANESAR WORKERS

ARE NOT ALONE

REACTING to the events of Manesar, Punjab CITU general secretary Raghunath Singh said this incident should not be seen in isolation from the policy of victimisation, coercion and repression, deceit, flagrant violation of labour laws and other unfair labour practices which the managements in the region are indulging in. Accusing the Maruti Suzuki management of mishandling the situation, Singh said it has become common practice in industrial units that musclemen, anti-social elements and bouncers are hired to terrorise the trade union leaders and crush the trade union struggles.

 

The Punjab CITU has also warned the management of the plant and the Haryana government that if the policy of repression and confrontation was not stopped, the working class of the country would not remain a mute spectator. He assured that the CITU would organise in Punjab solidarity actions with the Maruti Suzuki workers of Manesar if harassment of innocent workers were not stopped.