Political and Economic Notes:
BJP-NDA Government for an out and out authoritarian rule!
A few days ago Adi Godrej, one
of the corporate chieftains of our
country while congratulating Prime
Minister on his recently proclaimed
grand vision of India as a $ 5 trillion
economy had this to say that “with
the growth vision and dreams firing
away, it is all not a rosy picture.
Impoverishment still massively
plagues our nation. Rising
intolerance, social instability, hate
crimes, violence against women,
moral policing, caste and religion
based violence and many others
sorts of intolerance are rampant
across the country”. Thus he
accurately described the gloomy
conditions pervasive is our country.
But instead of tackling these
shameful conditions and bettering
the overall conditions of the people
and their welfare, the B.J.P-NDA
rulers are so determined to make
our ruling-system
in to an
authoritarian regime.
When we see at the bulldozing
of certain important bills that
adversely affect the lives and
freedoms of people in the
parliament with the tyranny of their
brutal majority in the parliament,
their brutal method of passing the
bills, and the anti-people, anti-
democratic content of those bills
passed-all point out at the attempts
of establishing their authoritarian
regime in our country.
They shed all the democratic
pretentions, abandoned the so-
called parliamentary procedures
and conventions. They blatantly
pushed the bills in parliament and
passed them in to acts. By doing
this they have exposed the ugly
side of parliamentary democracy
and the hypocracy involved in
portraying members of these
legislature bodies as the
representatives of the people and
their aspirations.
The right to information Act
2005 (RTI), which is believed to be
“a weapon against arbitrariness,
privilege and corrupt governance”
by its architects like Arun Roy was
the result of struggle by activists. It
is whittled down in to pale shadow
through an amendment claiming
that its aim is to ‘rationalise’ the
status of authorities. The
amendments modified the status,
tenure, and conditions of the R.T.I
commissioner’s as government
servants. Their freedom and
autonomy are removed. Now they
cannot
be
impartial
and
independent information commi-
ssioners. This is a retrograde step
to benefit the vested interests
J
Ford Workers Are Fighting In Gujarat
On 20th June 2019, a Ford
India worker in Sanand, Gujarat
was sacked. In the last year, the
workers of Ford formed an
organization called Karmavati
Kamdar Ekta Sangh (KKES). The
organization consists of nine
hundred workers to put forward
their very own demands. The
sacked worker is a member of this
worker’s body. The worker said that
he had been sacked without any
legal evidence. Around thousands
of workers had entered an
indefinite strike to protest against
this incidence on 21st June. They
demanded the reappointment of
the sacked worker immediately.
Nine hundred workers walked off
the job for six days (21-27 June),
demanding two rounds:-
1)The company has to stop the
conspiracy of KKES constituting
16
workers and reappoint the sacked
worker promptly.
2) Ford Motors has to pay the
full wages of the walked off days.
Eventually, Ford management
feels the pressure of the movement
and refers the case to the industrial
tribunal. A member of KKES tells
the correspondent of ‘Ei Muhurte’,
they are demanding the reappoint-
ment of the discharged worker,
especially and wages of walking off
days is a secondary purpose. If
Ford Motors does not allow the
sacked worker, the rest of the
workers of this organization do not
hesitate to walk off again. The
member commented that Ford has
to appoint the worker who was
sacked on a false lawsuit
immediately.
The fighting workers were on
hunger strike demanding increment
of the salary. They boycotted all the
foods and drinks given by the
management for longer than three
weeks in February. Sanand workers
get the lowest wages amongst
these automobile industries
(Average monthly salary is around
ten thousand rupees). Some of
them have working experience
of 9-10 years. But wages are not
keeping up accordingly. On the
other hand, Chennai Ford workers
receive many times the salary their
Gujarat counterparts receive. This
exploitation of workers is daily
indignity. The proceeding workers
of Sanand Ford united to protect
their rights and various demands
through KKES in the last year. The
sacked labour accuses the
management of the conspiracy to
ruin the endeavour.
Class Struggle