Opinions and Editorials

Why Modi cannot shake off 2002 – By Javed Anand (Aug 10, 2012, Indian Express)

In his latest column for The Sunday Express (‘Modi and Muslims’, IE, August 5) BJP spokesperson and the Sangh Parivar’s moral face, Sudheendra Kulkarni, has a sad story to tell: Narendra Modi loves Muslims, but alas, Muslims love him not. And, as usual, the real villains are secularists who stand in the way of Muslims embracing Modi and Hindutva’s majoritarianism. How does Kulkarni know of Modi’s love for Muslims? Why, isn’t that “crystal clear” from the “honesty, clarity, candour, courage and transparency” that shines through Modi’s interview to Shahid Siddiqui, editor of the Urdu weekly, Nai Duniya? When he penned the words, “the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting,” celebrated Czech writer Milan Kundera clearly had in mind the communist regime in the erstwhile Soviet Union. In the context of India, were you to replace “man” with “Muslims” and “power” with “Modi”, you might begin to understand why Gujarat’s and India’s Muslims are unwilling to forget. Kulkarni, who counts many Muslims among his friends, has yet to realise that a community that was so far content with rushing relief to co-religionists following communal carnages has woken up to the need for justice and the punishment of the guilty. If the prevailing culture of impunity is to be challenged, to remember is critical.

Siddiqui still insists that he has not forgiven Modi. But if you read his three-page interview with Modi, it is apparent there is much that he has forgotten, or chosen to forget. Thanks only to the intervention of the Supreme Court, victim-survivor Zakia Jafri’s complaint accusing Modi and 62 other top politicians, civil servants and police officers of criminal conspiracy for mass murder was investigated by a specially appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). The case is now before a magistrate’s court in Ahmedabad awaiting judicial scrutiny. So let’s leave the criminal conspiracy and mass murder charges to the courts and recall a few telling instances of Modi’s attitude to Muslims since 2002 right up to his Sadbhavana circus in 2011. Observations of the preliminary report of the SC-appointed SIT on Modi’s “action-reaction” theory on the targeting of Gujarat’s Muslims: “His [Modi’s] implied justification of the killings of innocent members of the minority community and an absence of a strong condemnation of the violence that followed Godhra suggest a partisan stance when the state had been badly disturbed by communal violence”.

While Modi announced Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the family members of those who had died in the Godhra train tragedy, family members of those killed in the subsequent carnage were offered only Rs 1 lakh. Following a national outrage against such naked discrimination, Modi did make amends. Not by raising the amount to Rs 2 lakh in both cases but by reducing it to Rs 1 lakh for all. In mid-March 2002, the Modi government was forced to provide relief material to relief camps run by the Muslim community only after directions from the Gujarat high court in response to a petition by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). By March-end, following allegations that his government had started threatening Muslims running relief camps with arrest unless they wound up the camps immediately, CJP again had to appeal to the court, which ruled that the relief camps were not to be shut down till their residents found some place to go back to. To ensure compliance, the division bench granted a supervisory role to CJP.

Though forced to comply with the high court’s orders, Modi could not restrain himself from hurling the “hum paanch, hamare pachees” (polygamous Muslim men producing 20 children per family) canard against the community and asking at a public meeting why his government should finance “baby producing factories”. Asked for his comments on such an obnoxious remark, the then BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, responded with “the issue is closed”. In September 2002, the then VHP president, Ashok Singhal, declared he was “proud” of the fact that entire villages had been “emptied of Islam” and whole communities of Muslims had been “dispatched” to refugee camps. Chief Minister Modi saw no need to question such shocking hate speech, forget directing the registration of a criminal complaint.

Modi’s electoral campaign for the 2002 polls suggested he was pitted not against other national parties but the then Pakistan president “Mian Musharraf”. As one political commentator observed, for the Sangh Parivar, Pakistan and Mian Musharraf are often a euphemism implying Indian Muslims, questioning their loyalty to the country. All this was in 2002. For reasons of space, fast forward to Modi’s Sadbhavana in October 2011 where, before TV cameras on two separate occasions, he responded with a flat no to Muslims who offered him a skull cap on one occasion and a keffiyah on the other. Modi claims to have done an awful lot for Gujarat’s Muslims during his tenure. A quick web search will lead you to a recent well-researched paper by Abusaleh Shariff (a member-secretary of the Sachar Committee) to explode this myth. Need more be said on Modi’s love for Muslims?

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/986180/

SEE ALSO:

• His cup of woes runneth over – By Rana Ayyub (Aug 18, 2012,Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ne180812Cup.asp
• Uphill task for Modi in polls? – Editorial (Aug 12, 2012, Deccan Chronicle)
  http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/uphill-task-modi-polls-662
• The State of Muslims in Gujarat Today – By J S Bandukwala (Aug 18, 2012,Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/commentary/state-muslims-gujarat-today.html
• BJP’S Flights of Fantasy – Editorial (Aug 12, 2012, Peoples Democracy)
  http://pd.cpim.org/2012/0812_pd/08122012_7.html

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Beyond the “Darbhanga Module” of terror – By Mohammad Sajjad (Aug 12, 2012, Twocircles.net)

Of late the India’s security and investigative agencies through the Indian media have started conveying us that there is a “Darbhanga Module” of “Indian Mujahideen” which is alleged to have carried out some terrorist activities in certain cities of India. There have been few arrests of some educated professionals, some of them working in the Gulf countries. The real truth will come to us after a long haul of slow-paced judicial trial (even in TADA the conviction rate was as low as below two per cent). There has been allegations against the agencies of procedural lapses in the modes of arrests made thus far (I have dealt with few other aspects of this in my essay in the Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu daily, Sunday Dastaawez, 25 May 2008; for more comprehensive, powerful, and nuanced analysis, see Irfan Ahmad, “The (In)visible Indian Terrorism”, 16 September 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/2011912104910716820… 16 Sept 2011).

Nonetheless, just for the sake of pushing my argument, ahead if we believe, only for a moment, that the allegations against the detained Muslim youths are true, and if this has something to do with “alienation”, and marginalization from the structures and processes of power, and with state discrimination against them in socio-economic uplift then we need to ponder this: Darbhanga-Madhubani is a region from where among a particular social class of Muslims, relatively speaking, there is fairly good proportion of educated youth. The Constitution’s provision under the Articles 29 and 30 have been made better use of by the Darbhanga Muslims; the educational entrepreneurs among the Darbhanga Muslims have been running minority institutes of teachers’ training (B.Ed.), the Katihar Medical College, etc. In Bihar, during the Laloo-Rabri regime, doors to B. Ed courses were closed except these Muslim minority institutions. It must have been a source of envy for the Maithil Brahmans and other Hindus.

Darbhanga has been gifted by the Union Government with the off-campus of a Central University, the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), which offers professional courses like Diploma in Engineering and Technology in Urdu medium to ensure greater inclusion of Muslims. Since long, this region has been sending Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha, on occasions, simultaneously two MPs). In 1990-91, Darbhanga’s Muslim MP, Prof. Shakilur Rahman (former VC, Mithila University, Darbhanga, and Bihar University, Muzaffarpur) was the Union Health Minister in 1990-91. He had won the 1989 Lok Sabha against all odds put by the powerful caste group of Darbhanga, and his onslaught against vested interests deeply entrenched into the Mithila University had earned him great popularity which ensured his victory. Darbhanga’s [several times] MP, Mr. Fatmi, an engineer from AMU, was the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, 2004-09; the Madhubani’s several times MP, Dr Shakil Ahmad, an MBBS from Muzaffarpur, was the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, 2004-09; earlier he was minister of health in the Bihar Government; his father was the Deputy Speaker, Bihar Assembly. Presently Dr. Shakil is the national spokesperson of the biggest political party, ruling over India and also in large number of provinces, the Congress. Ghulam Sarwar (1926-2004) represented a segment of Darbhanga in the Bihar Assembly; he was minister of education, 1977-79, then he held several portfolios including Speaker Bihar Assembly during 1990-2004. Abdul Bari, an MLA from Darbhanga, is an important leader of the RJD which ruled over Bihar for 15 years, and throughout this period he has been minister; at the moment he is the leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly. Among the Muslims qualifying for the Civil Services, there is hardly any list which is not represented by a Darbhanga Muslim.

Secondly, certain fallacies apart, the Indian state and its democratic processes are responsive enough. Once you assert your demand in a concerted and sustained manner, it stands conceded and fulfilled by the state. The National Council for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) has been empowered to do the needful towards educational uplift; it has declared the Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University, as a Muslim minority institution, reserving fifty per cent of the enrolment intake for the Muslim students. The government/UGC offers certain fund to the Hamdard University. One can multiply such instances. The recent legislative piece of the fundamental right to education is a wonderful revolutionary weapon of uplift and empowerment more particularly for the weaker and oppressed sections. We ought to launch a campaign to make full use of it. Invest in education for a turnaround.

The point I am trying to make is: Among the Muslim educated youth and the middle classes there should not be any feeling of alienation; rather than falling prey to any hard-headed, right-wing, foreign-inspired chauvinistic radicalism (if any), they should organize themselves to pressurize the democratic institutions and processes to press their demands, pertaining to education, employment, health, security of life and property, religio-cultural freedom, and all such things. India’s secular democracy offers a lot to all of us, we must strengthen it. All of us should unitedly force out any hard-headed tendency of resorting to blasts. Meanwhile, the struggle for justice to the detained youths must also continue. Needless to add, the Muslim youths are neither meant for being hired by any ISI nor are they meant for being fired by their own security agencies.

http://twocircles.net/2012aug12/beyond_%E2%80%9Cdarbhanga_module%E2%80%9D_terror.html

SEE ALSO:

• Media’s manipulation – By T.K. Rajalakshmi (Aug 11, 2012, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl2916/stories/20120824291602400.htm

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Riots & the bogey of Bangladeshis – By Banajit Hussain (Aug 8, 2012, The Hindu)

During the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded in Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Chirang districts of the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) and the adjoining Dhubri district, we have witnessed the tragedy of nearly 400,000 people belonging to the Bodo and Muslim communities being forced to move to 273 temporary refugee camps. These people will stand internally displaced, scarred and traumatised for months to come, if not years. So far, it is estimated that 65 persons have lost their lives and around 500 villages have been torched to the ground. The magnitude of this human tragedy is overwhelming considering the short span of two weeks in which it occurred. It poses a serious threat to the already fragile state of secularism in the region whose demography has always been so diverse. It urgently calls for a restoration of trust and confidence amongst all the people affected by the riots. What is surprising is that rather than focussing on the immediate need for a humanitarian call to stop the killings and the violence on the part of community leaders and the administration, an atmosphere of extreme polarisation has been brought about, with leaders of both the Bodo and the Muslim communities hurling allegations and counter allegations at each other.

To make matters worse, leaders of the Bodo community, large sections of mainstream Assamese society, and a section of the media and the political class took it upon themselves to allege and prove that the responsibility for this human tragedy lies squarely on “illegal Bangladeshi migrants” and that the undifferentiated Muslim masses inhabiting western Assam are “Bangladeshis”. The social media was also chock-a-block with rumours – like the one about boats laden with guns and bombs being sent from Bangladesh to arm the illegal migrants in their alleged bit to take over Kokrajhar district. It cannot be simply assumed that the BTAD leadership and the mainstream Assamese society are innocently mistaken in believing that all Muslims inhabiting this area are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Rather it is a conscious “mistake” laced with communal undertones. The rhetoric of “illegal” migrants flooding the region that appears to be fuelling the attacks is backed largely by what seems to be paranoia about the perceived growing numbers of Muslims in the area, all of whom are assumed to be “illegal” migrants. It is a well documented historical fact that a large number of peasants from erstwhile East Bengal migrated and settled in Assam in the early decades of the 20th century. However, in the prevailing atmosphere of jingoism and xenophobia, it is not enough to just state that migration of East Bengali Muslim peasants in the early decades of the 20th century is a well documented historical fact.

This historical fact needs to be reiterated today, especially when a constitutional authority like the Election Commissioner of India, Harishankar Brahma, in his overzealous attempt to prove that illegal Bangladeshis are behind the violence, claims that this stream of migration into Assam started during the late 1960s and early 1970s (“How to share Assam,” Indian Express, 28th July, 2012). However, if one looks at the census data, his claims appear unsubstantiated and historically flawed. One wishes that a constitutional authority like him would be careful about and be aware of the country’s official demographic records. Hypothetically, if we take the entire population of 33 lakhs in Assam in 1901 to be “indigenous”, and we apply the all-India rate of population increase of 74.82 per cent between 1901 and 1941, then the population of Assam in 1941 should have been 57.69 lakhs instead of 67 lakhs. That means approximately 9.31 lakh people had migrated into Assam in this period. Applying the same all-India rate of population increase during this period, the Muslim population in 1941 should have been 8.8 lakhs, instead of the 16.9 lakhs it actually was. From this, it can be inferred that the increase was due to the settling of migrants in the State and that the majority of these Muslim peasant migrants who settled in Assam during this period were East Bengali Muslim peasants. It is worth mentioning that Muslim East Bengali peasants first settled in undivided Goalpara district (which included Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Chirang and Dhubri till the 1980s), before they spanned out to other parts of lower and central Assam. From 1901 to 1931, 4.98 lakh East Bengali Muslim peasants are recorded in Goalpara district alone.

If one is to believe the assertions of the Election Commissioner, then the question that immediately arises is – where are the descendants of the lakhs of East Bengali Muslim peasants who settled in this area before Partition? In all probability, many of them today are languishing in the relief camps with the imminent threat of being identified as Bangladeshis. It has also been claimed by various people, including the Bodo leadership, that the Bangladeshi population in Kokrajhar district – where the violence erupted first and which is also the political seat of power in BTAD – has increased by leaps and bounds in the last decades. Contrary to what popular perception might hold, even a cursory glance at the census data gives a different picture. There has been no alarming increase in Kokrajhar district of the Muslim population in decades. In 1971, the Muslim population in Kokrajhar (then it was a sub-division of undivided Goalpara district) stood at 17 per cent, with no census being conducted in 1981. It stood at 19.3 per cent in 1991 and, in 2001, it stood at 20.4 per cent. Even though the religion-wise census figures for 2011 are not yet available, provisional results from the 2011 census show that the decadal growth rate of population between 2001-2011 for Kokrajhar district is 5.19 per cent, interestingly, marking a decline of 9 per cent as compared to the decadal growth rate of 14.49 per cent between 1991 to 2001. (The decadal growth rate for Assam between 1991 to 2001 was 18.92 per cent and 16.93 per cent between 2001-2011.) There can only be two plausible reasons for this 9 per cent decline in population growth between 2001-2011. One possibility, though highly unlikely, is that the population growth rate has remained more or less the same as it was between 1991 and 2001, but the death rate has shot up by 9 per cent. The other possibility, which seems more plausible, is that there has been a considerable out-migration from Kokrajhar, especially after the formation of the BTAD in 2003.

Since the Bodos (who constitute 20 per cent of the population in the BTAD area) hold a monopoly over political power in the area, it is unlikely that there has been any significant out-migration of the Bodo population from Kokrajhar district. The Koch Rajbangsis, who constitute roughly 17 per cent of the total population of the BTAD, have been campaigning for and demanding a separate homeland – Kamtapur – which territorially overlaps the BTAD, thus making it unlikely that they would out-migrate, abdicating their political claim over the territory. In all probability, the out-migration involves other non-Bodo communities, including Muslims. By now it should be clear that simplistic propositions like ‘Bangladeshi illegal migrants are the root cause of the violence’ not only prevent us from understanding the complex reality of the situation but also reek of communal propaganda. The demographic reality of western Assam is a mosaic of different ethnicities with their own claims of identity and territorial aspirations. In the light of this, some glaring questions stare us in the face. What informs this fear of the growing number of Muslims? How are these fears of the swamping of the ethnic and cultural identity of the Bodos being fuelled, and by whom? How and when did all Muslims in the area get classified in the public mind as “illegal migrants from Bangladesh?” Looking for answers to questions like these, rather than raising the bogey of numbers and formulaic xenophobic explanations might make the difference, literally, between life and death in this region today.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3738939.ece

SEE ALSO:

• Bodoland violence: Some unanswered questions – By Dr. Prasenjit Biswas (Aug 10, 2012, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2012aug10/bodoland_violence_some_unanswered_questions.html
• Assam’s Sorrow – By Sushanta Talukdar (Aug 11, 2012, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl2916/stories/20120824291600400.htm

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Spare the rod, free the media – Editorial (Aug 13, 2012, Mid Day)

Things spiralled out of control on Saturday afternoon in the city, as protests about ethnic violence in Assam and Myanmar got ugly and violent. The city press was present at the Maidan, venue for frequent protests and demonstrations. This one, too, seemed to be on track with the press taking pictures, OB vans present, reporters getting their quotes or sound bytes, when, the crowd suddenly got violent.

The police presence was quickly upped as the city seemed to be on the brink of a communal riot. While one appreciates how difficult and sensitive such situations are, one cannot understand why the police beat this paper’s senior photographer Atul Kamble who was at the site. Kamble told the police that he was a press photographer and was taking pictures as that was his job. Still he was lathi charged. It is shocking that police personnel hit a journalist who was simply recording the event.

What does one do when protectors turn aggressors? Why was Kamble targeted for doing his job? Who is going to provide answers? Of late, one has seen the media at the receiving end of people’s ire. Often this anger turns violent and the press becomes a victim of violence. Whether it is the price for bold and fair reporting or simply being in the place they have to be at dangerous times, they pay a heavy price.

That the police have unleashed this violence is simply unforgivable and till somebody is held accountable and punished one fears that we will see repeats of such incidents, where for some reason or the other, a media person may have to bear the brunt for doing his job.

As a vibrant democracy, we need a free and fearless press. That the press needs to watch out for the very people who are supposed to be protectors is a sad commentary on the current state of affairs.

http://www.mid-day.com/columnists/2012/aug/130812-opinion-Spare-the-rod-free-the-media.htm

SEE ALSO:

• Don’t resort to violence – Editorial (Aug 13, 2012, Asian Age)
  http://www.asianage.com/editorial/don-t-resort-violence-357
• Deja vu in Mumbai – Editorial (Aug 13, 2012, The Hindu)
  http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article3758393.ece

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Throwing in the Towel – Editorial (Aug 18, 2012,Economic & Political Weekly)

The recent fast-unto-death by members of “Team Anna” (a self-proclaimed name which has always sounded pompous even if loved by a media looking for a catchy title) thankfully ended without any calamity on the advice of a group of “eminent” citizens and with a promise to carry on the “movement” in the political sphere. Many commentators have, rightly, seen in this denouement a clear sign of defeat or at the very least, a public acknowledgement of a dead end for the anti-corruption movement which exploded on all of us through the good offices of the electronic media in April last year.

While the uncritical support that this movement received from the media and its savvy use of the media (especially the hyperventilating 24-hour news channels) helped beam its message to homes across the country, a large part of the support it had garnered was based on widespread anger and disgust with the venality in state institutions and among the personnel who man them. The pervasiveness of corruption, nepotism and abuse of power leaves almost none unaffected. The poorer and more marginalised a person, the greater the oppression. However, the anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare and his group did not target this daily tyranny faced by millions of nameless citizens, it instead targeted the big-ticket instances of corruption by top politicians and government functionaries. Further, the proposal of Anna Hazare’s group – a gargantuan Jan Lokpal bureaucracy accountable to none and one that would centralise the powers and functions of investigator, judge, and prosecutor – was a solution as bad as the disease that it sought to cure.

Given the public anger against top-level corruption and the incompetence of the government, the group was able to paper over these and various other contradictions in its agenda as well as within its social base. From groups aligned to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who found in this an opportunity to put the ruling Congress-led government on the mat, to those who claimed lineage from socialist politics, representatives of social movements, to funded non-governmental organisations, and to political parties from the Naxalite tradition, the anti-corruption movement had managed to build a large political alliance. If one looks at the political spectrum which was gathered together, it surely was impressive and harked back to the major cross-class alliances of the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) movement. Single-point agendas like corruption have often provided a fertile ground for building such cross-class alliances. However, there is a crucial difference between these older movements and that led by Anna Hazare. Behind the wide collection of political brands, there was little evidence of a political alliance of social classes. The only social class which seemed visible was the urban middle class, itself an amorphous category and difficult to identify, mobilise or retain. The self-proclamation of the Anna Hazare group of being non-political was perhaps as much “Newspeak” as it was an unwitting recognition of its inability to mobilise mass-based political support.

Despite this absence of a political anchor, it was clear that this anti-corruption movement was political from its inception, not just in the more indirect sense but in the manner in which it attacked the government and campaigned in elections to target the Congress and benefit its opponents. The eventual announcement of a formal political identity for the anti-corruption movement was presaged by its demand for probes against the president, prime minister and leading cabinet ministers. While the move to take on a more formal political role was expected for some time, it is still not clear whether there is any unanimity among those who constituted the core group about what this role will be. Would it be a separate political party as indicated by Arvind Kejriwal, the primus inter pares of the group, or would it be an effort to identify and support “honest” candidates in elections, as announced by Anna Hazare? Further, there are voices from within the core group itself – Akhil Gogoi and Santosh Hegde among others – who object to this openly political role. It is also unclear how the new political formation is going to mediate between the polar positions among the group members on issues like Kashmir, industrialisation, land acquisition and the role of the security agencies.

These are not easy issues to address and will take time and much effort to tackle. However, the very initiation of the political turn has meant that the group’s one abiding support base – the BJP-tilted urban middle class – has already been alienated. Whatever electoral success they manage in this context is likely to hurt the BJP and thus help the Congress. While a political force independent of the established players and free from corruption and abuse is welcome, there is nothing at present to suggest that the proposed new politics will either be free of these vices or will be successful. All that can be said at present is that this incarnation of the anti-corruption movement has been a failure. However, by raising the issue of corruption – an important one by all accounts – in the manner in which they did, pushing all other opinions aside, then playing politics with it and finally throwing in the towel, Anna Hazare and his group have closed the space and made it that much more difficult for the various anti-corruption, accountability and transparency movements all over India. In that “Team Anna” has, albeit indirectly, given a free pass to corruption and abuse of power.

http://www.epw.in/editorials/throwing-towel.html

SEE ALSO:

• The Kejriwal Conundrum – By Revati Laul (Aug 18, 2012,Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ne180812Coverstory.asp

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Learning from Maruti – Editorial (Aug 11, 2012, Economic& Political Weekly)

The killing of a Maruti Suzuki manager in the violence at its factory in Manesar, Haryana last month is a tragic denouement of a long-standing industrial dispute at the plant. As has been written and reported extensively, including in the columns of EPW, the workers at Maruti’s Manesar plant have been agitating for long to get their union recognised, the contract workers regularised and the wages increased. Till the violence in July, all the strikes and agitations by the workers were peaceful and the only violence was that by the police and the factory’s security who often beat up and corralled workers who were protesting. Unfortunately, for over a year, the management of Maruti Suzuki has done everything in its power to deny the workers their demands. In this they have received fulsome support from the Government of Haryana whose police personnel have worked as the private goons of the management to terrorise and beat up the workers, and whose labour department has worked to hide and support every infringement of labour rights. With the workers denied every possibility of peaceful and honourable redress, their union not recognised and their leaders broken and bribed, it was only a matter of time before the pent-up anger and frustration exploded. It is unfortunate that this led to the loss of a life.

Much has been written in the mainstream press and the alternate media about the conditions of work at Maruti’s Manesar plant and what led to the violence. Some of it bears repetition. First, the workers’ nominal wages have risen by a mere 5% over the past five years while the consumer price index has gone up by 50%. Other data shows that over the past decade, Maruti Suzuki’s profits have increased 22 times and the salaries of its managers have also increased manifold. In fact, the India operations of Suzuki have been the only real bright spot in a sea of red ink on Suzuki’s global accounts. In this context, the continued exploitation of the workers, both by increasing the amount of cars produced in the same unit of time as well as by increasing the casualisation of the workforce (two-thirds of the workforce is now contract labour) indicates that Maruti is sure making its cars on the cheap!

However, the events at Maruti over the past year, especially the violence in July, point to some other issues which need comment. The first is the changing face of media and communication. While the mainstream media has broadly given out the management version of a murderous mad mob of workers attacking peaceful management officials, it has also given a surprising amount of space to accounts which are sympathetic to the workers and expose Maruti’s abysmal treatment of its workforce. This is fairly unprecedented. It is not only daily newspapers like the Times of India, Hindu, Indian Express and DNA which have carried reports and analysis from the workers’ perspective. Even the financial press, long considered the voice of the corporate world, has given space to strong critiques of the Maruti management. In fact, last year during the peak of the strike a group of institutional investors in Maruti stock had organised a video conference with the striking workers to “understand” their point of view. There is a shift in the way the media and sections among those considered pro-capital have viewed and portrayed the industrial dispute at Maruti. While this should not be over-stated, it would also be unwise to ignore it.

Perhaps this space which has opened up is partially the result of a growing realisation among a section of the managerial and capitalist class that extant working conditions – forms of exploitation and oppression which are as old as modern industry in this country – are perhaps not sustainable and that there is a limit to increasing productivity only by raising the rate of -exploitation of labour power. Perhaps it is partly due to the diffusion of media in its social and mobile forms, partly a function of increased literacy and education, and thus awareness, of the worker, or a bit of conscience among the opinion-makers. Whatever the origin or basis of this political space – albeit small and contested – which has emerged to talk about labour rights and management wrongs, it needs to be grasped with both hands.

Unfortunately, the organised movement of the working class is in a shambles. The trade unions are in no way able to seize this moment and push it. This is the time to come up with an alternative labour law. Indian capital has bemoaned the “rigidity” of labour laws and called for “reforms”. Given the actual conditions in which capital treats labour, with 16-hour and even 20-hour shifts in this very belt of Gurgaon-Manesar, reforms according to capital mean only a removal of whatever little restraint that exists on exploitation. The present labour law has not protected workers; it has only provided a legal maze that employers can exploit. A new labour law is needed which lays down clear rights of the workers and duties of the management, while providing the flexibility for labour processes that are required in modern manufacturing. The old trade unions seem unable to take the initiative. New unions and organisations are springing up from among the workers. They need political and legal cover to grow and mature. If that remains unavailable, if working conditions are not improved, and if the government continues to behave as if it is on the payroll of exploitative industrialists, it will only lead to greater industrial unrest and even violence.

http://www.epw.in/editorials/learning-maruti.html

SEE ALSO:

• For a just deal – By Praful Bidwai (Aug 11, 2012, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl2916/stories/20120824291611200.htm
• ‘Manesar Workers are the Villains’: Truth or Prejudice? – By Rakhi Sehgal (Aug 11, 2012, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/web-exclusives/manesar-workers-are-villains-truth-or-prejudice.html

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