People's Democracy

S K Grover

HARYANA witnessed a state-level convention of various trade unions, associations, federations and mass organisations, organised by the state unit of the National Platform of Mass Organisations (NPMO) recently. Held in the Community Hall, Panipat, the convention reaffirmed its staunch opposition to the new economic policies being pursued by the NDA government at the centre as well as by the state government. The policies of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation, being pursued at the behest of World Bank, International Fund and World Trade Organisation, have adversely affected the central and state government employees, bank and insurance employees, students, farmers, women, agricultural and industrial workers and the middle classes. Nay more, these policies have even put our economic sovereignty to jeopardy. That is the reason various classes and sections of the Indian people are today agitating more unitedly.

The convention observed that the government’s decision to reduce the nationalised banks’ equity from 51 to 33 per cent would further harm the interests of farmers, small-scale industries and common people. It was the nationalised banks who played a pivotal role in bringing about the green and white revolutions in the country, paving the way for our self-sufficiency in food production and milk production, etc. Now that very self-sufficiency is under threat and the spectre of imperialist blackmail is looming large.

The convention unanimously resolved to intensify the struggle against the government’s decision to allow foreign and Indian private companies into the field of insurance, thus exposing the Indian masses to predatory interests. The track record of many foreign insurance companies, particularly of the USA, is very bad as more than 100 such companies have gone insolvent there. The track record of Indian private companies that were operating before the nationalisation of the insurance business, was also far from satisfactory; that is why the insurance business had had to be nationalised. Yet, in spite of this, private companies, both Indian and foreign, are being allowed to come to loot and plunder the small savings of the poor people of this country. As a matter of record, after nationalisation of life insurance business in September 1956, the LIC has contributed a big sum to each and every five-year plan though the government had initially invested only a meagre amount of Rs 5 crore at the time of its nationalisation. Since its inception, the LIC has significantly contributed to the cause of national reconstruction in the post-independence era and laudably fulfilled the objectives that were laid down before it.

The convention further resolved to oppose the government’s move to scrap the quantitative restrictions on import of 1475 items of agricultural produce. The convention was of the considered opinion that the move would completely ruin the peasants of the country. Peasants are already committing suicide in large numbers in many parts of the country due to the financial crisis they have been subjected to. The reduction in subsidy on fertilisers has played havoc with their occupation and made agriculture unremunerative. This reduction in subsidy is a result of the imperialist-dominated WTO-World Bank-IMF trio’s diktat to the government of India, though the USA, Canada, Australia and the European Union countries are giving heavy subsidies to their own farmers.

The convention noted with concern that during the course of last ten years since this policy began to be implemented, unemployment in every sector has increased manifold, and even the employed are facing a threat to their job security. The manner in which the government is out to weaken and dismantle the public sector and is hastily proceeding to sell even its profit-making units to private hands at throw-away prices, indicates that there is something fishy at the bottom. Moreover, it also indicates the extent of imperialist pressure to which we as a nation are succumbing. The discount sale of the Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) to the private sector Sterlite is the latest example in the series. The convention felt that the agitation of the BALCO workers was a patriotic one and wholeheartedly extended support to it, congratulating the striking workers for the powerful resistance movement they had built up.

The convention also viewed with seriousness the scandalous exposure of corruption in high places under the NDA government, as demonstrated by Tehelka.com. It is really unfortunate that these things are happening with scant concern even for the security of the country. With the exposure of such a grave nature, the convention said the NDA government has virtually lost its moral right to continue in office.

The convention took a serious note of the drastic changes the NDA regime is bent upon bringing about in the labour laws, with a view to helping the employers and reducing the existing, though already inadequate, protection available to the workers. While presenting the union budget in the parliament, even the finance minister declared that retrenchments, lay-offs, lock-outs and closures would be made easier and that the Contract Labour Abolition Act would be amended to enable the industries and other establishments to hire contract labour. It was for the first time in the history of India that labour law amendments were announced in the budget speech by the finance minister himself, thereby encroaching upon the portfolio of the labour minister. It has put a question mark on the very working of the National Labour Commission (NCL) that is yet to give its recommendations. In the given situation, it would have been in the fitness of things if the NCL chairman and members had resigned in protest.

All this is happening at a time when the trade union movement of the country is demanding that the right to employment be made a fundamental right. Instead of providing more employment, as promised by it in its election manifesto, the NDA government has announced that 10 per cent of staff will be reduced in a phased manner. Already, 1,26,000 employees have been rolled out of employment through the "voluntary" or compulsory retirement schemes in the banking industry. The rights the working class had achieved through its struggles over the years, are being snatched away. The public sector, that constitutes the backbone of the country’s economy and was rightly called temples of modern of India by none other than Jawaharlal Nehru, is being sought to be dismantled and sold at throw-away prices to private monopoly houses.

The convention endorsed the decisions taken by the NPMO in its all-India convention held at Delhi on February 19.

The convention also criticised the Haryana government’s policy to dismantle its Electricity Board, its policy on irrigation and imposition of a heavy doze of taxes on common people, unprecedented hike in electricity tariffs and closure of various public sector units in the state. These moves have led to mass-scale retrenchment and accentuation of the people’s sufferings.

The convention also demanded the following among other things:

1. Revision of minimum wages for industrial workers in Haryana.
2. Restoration of the state’s Labour Welfare Board.
3. Strict implementation of labour laws in Haryana.
4. Compulsory registration of names of workers in Haryana.
5. Allowing the workers to mark their attendance registers in the state.
6. No police interference in labour disputes in Haryana.

The convention resolved to carry out the struggle by mobilising all sections of society in the state. It decided to hold district level conventions throughout Haryana so as to involve the suffering people at the grass-roots level, build up unity of the toiling people and develop a consensus among them on the vital issues involved. This is absolutely essential to compel the powers-that-be to rescind their reckless and indiscriminate LPG policies which they are pursuing at the cost of the self-reliant growth of our economy and without any regard to the concept of a welfare state enshrined in the constitution of India.

The convention resolved to send the copies of its resolution to the president and the prime minister, the ministers for finance, industries and agriculture, as also to the governor and chief minister of Haryana for their attention and necessary action.

Representatives of the AITUC, CITU, UTUC (LS), AIKKMS, HMS, Haryana Kisan Sabha, Janwadi Mahila Samiti, Mahila Sanskritik Sangathan, All India Democratic Youth Organisation, Haryana Bank Employees Federation, Northern Zone Insurance Employees Association, Sarva Karmachari Sangh, Bank Employees Federation of India, and several other organisations attended the convention and detailed the problems and issues facing the respective sections they represent.