TIRUPUR is a bustling boom town in Coimbatore and owes its fame entirely to its knitwear industry (banians, T shirts) which earns a foreign exchange of atleast Rs 4000 crore every year for the country.

On June 21, life in Tirupur came to a standstill owing to the total success of the dawn to dusk bandh called by an all party meeting (excluding the BJP) in protest against the NDA government’s textile policy. On June 1 the central government decided to cut the ‘duty drawback’ on the knitwear goods from a flat 15 per cent upto a ceiling of Rs 54 to segmented lows of 9 per cent,8 per cent etc upto varying ceilings like Rs 15, Rs 10. (The Duty Drawback (DDB) is the method adopted by the central government to return the excise duty levied by it on the raw material used and which was borne by the manufacturer. This was originally an incentive for export.)

The success of the bandh and the complete isolation of the BJP forced the central government to partially reverse it’s ruinous decision. It was thus a partial victory for the people of Tirupur.

The all party meeting held at the Tirupur CPI(M) office on June 19was attended by representatives from CPI, AIADMK, PMK, and significantly, also by the NDA partners - DMK and MDMK. The meeting noted that in today’s extremely competitive export market where the exporters had to contend with virtually non existent margins, it was only this ‘incentive’ which enabled them to run the units. But the government’s drastic decision would make the industry unviable and lead to the unemployment of an estimated two lakh workers dependant on this knitwear industry. Tirupur was in danger of becoming a ghost town.

The BJP was not invited to the meeting with the full concurrence of those who attended as they were directly seen as reponsible for the decision. This inspite of the fact that both in 1998 and 1999 LokSabha elections the BJP candidate C P Radhakrishnan, who himself owns a fairly large sized knitwear unit in Tirupur, won the Coimbatore seat as the NDA alliance candidate. CPI(M) Coimbatore (East) district secretary, C Govindasamy says that the BJP MP played a duplicitous role. He, influenced the manufacturers to plead with the CPI(M) to not go ahead with the bandh programme posing as if he was not party to the government’s decision.

On June 21 which was the bandh day, CPI(M) district secretary issued a statement saying that if the government did not restore the old rates the workers would intensify their stir and resort to road and rail roko agitation. On June 22, a day after the bandh, the government announced that the drawback would be raised to 12.5 per cent and the ceiling on various products was raised to figures like Rs 35, Rs 30. The secretary of the Banian workers association (CITU) Chandran says that the new rates though still less, would help to keep the industry afloat at least temporarily.

The CITU has taken up a campaign to explain to the people in Tirupur that the original decision was a deliberate move by the central government in keeping with its record of targeting soft areas for resource mobilisation. And the June 22 reversal was only a partial victory for the people of Tirupur.

Further, while the DDB on garments has been reduced, the DDB on yarn has been increased by 50 per cent recently. This has the effect of discouraging value addition and encouraging raw material export. Some exporters in Tirupur have already started doing that. This clearly shows that the NDA government which has accepted globalisation lock, stock and barrel is intent on creating conditions which would destroy the manufacturing base of the country. Incidentally prime minister Vajpayee had recently inaugurated an exhibition on ‘Swadeshi Industry’ in Coimbatore.

But the manufacturers association does not see these actions of the government as deliberate and part of a larger policy. They only go as far as attributing ‘mindlessness’ as the motive for the decisions. They also talk of some cases of malpractices by manufacturers who over invoiced their product to get the enhanced DDB.

But the CITU has taken the stand that none of these reasons warrants the decision taken by the government. It has explained to the workers that its aim was to first save the industry. And simultaneously fight for their rights. CPI(M) leader Govindasamy points out that when the MP’s sub committee on textiles visited Tirupur, CITU had given a detailed report to them about the lack of proper housing and water for the workers. Nothing materialised from it. Interestingly, the BJP MP Radhakrishnan is a member of the committee.

Close on the heels of the Tirupur town bandh, an all party (excluding the BJP) meeting was held on June 28 at Avinasi, Coimbatore. It decided to hold a bandh on July 9 in the Palladam, Avinasi, Tirupur, Somanur taluks of Coimbatore in protest against the recent decision of the government to increase the excise duty on garments to 16 per cent. As the goods remain unsold at the garment factories, the twenty thousand powerlooms in Coimbatore, manufacturing the cloth for them, have stopped work. Meanwhile the the merchants have stopped the supply of yarn to the powerlooms because of the 16 per cent duty on dyeing and processing units. It is estimated that on the garments the total duty component is 49 per cent! An estimated 2 lakh families who are dependant on the powerloom industry are on the streets because of this.