Citing national security as one of the major reasons behind the two-day general strike beginning January 8, leaders of the ten central trade unions that have jointly given a call for the countrywide bandh said the “historical hartal” was as much intended to protect the national security as the interests of farmers, labourers, youth and all categories of workers.
The estimated participation of more than 20 crore people, despite of some state governments imposing Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to prohibit specific sections of employees from participating in the strike, would be bigger than any in the past, the trade unions claimed.
“There is no sector that will not participate—electricity, road transport, taxi, banks, insurance, education etc. It is going to be bigger than other strikes held so far,” said Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).
Kaur and other leaders representing various trade unions in the country accused the government of selling institutions of national interest including the country's security to foreign capitalists by outsourcing defence manufacturing, by “finishing off” Indian employment through outsourcing under the garb of privatisation.
These unions have also extended support to the three-day strike call, from January 23 to 25, by the All India Defence Employees Federation comprising employees working in 41 ordnance factories, workshops of the Army, Navy and Air Force and other defence production units. They are protesting the privatisation of defence production, and say it is fraught with risk for the country's defence.
Employment has reduced, and jobs have been halved. “Every sector including security is threatened. Government wants to finish everything,” said Ashok Singh of INTUC. According to him,“What Prime Minister Modi says is make in India, invest in India, make profit in India and finish India”.
The trade union leaders made no bones about the fact that the strike was politically motivated. “It is politically motivated. It is motivated in favour of farmers, workers, and in favour of saving the country from being sold to foreign capitalists,” Kaur said. Kaur pointed out that the 'Modi graph' is on the decline, everyone is questioning the prime minister's performance, and the general mood in the country is against him, and it is “for the very same reasons because of which we have called the strike.”
The trade unions lamented that there was no expansion in the capacity of manufacturing units, many of which in fact had shut down. There was no social security, and the “performance of this government has been exactly the opposite of what they promised”.
Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, general secretary of Hind Mazdoor Sabha referred to the 44 laws that the government wanted to amend in order to make them capitalist-friendly were stalled after prolonged struggle by the trade unions. “If inspection raj is finished, it is because the capitalists want a free run. They did not get the mandate to do this, they have converted workers into bonded labour,” Sidhu said.
The All India Kisan Council president Ashok Dhawale, and its general secretary Hannan Mollah, said they would hold protest demonstrations, rail roko, road roko and warned that they would “bring rural India to a standstill against the anti-peasant, anti-worker BJP government”. “The last four-and-a-half years of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government have witnessed an aggressive pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies and mounting burdens on the peasantry as well as the toiling masses. Attacks on the hard won rights of the workers have been accompanied by increasing casualisation, cuts in social security measures as well as ever-increasing burden of price rise, increase in health and education expenses. The agrarian crisis has also intensified leading to increased farm suicides, indebtedness and migration,” they said.
The trade unionists said the government had not tried to reach out to them. “On the contrary, their 'dalal' unions are trying to confuse people by saying that some of our demands are in the process of being implemented”.