Singh: Pearls of wisdom

New Delhi, May 16: Bengal and Haryana are the two states Japanese investors are zeroing in on.

This is what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today told a trade union delegation led by CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta. The delegation had gone to him to complain against the alleged violation of labour laws by Japanese automobile makers Honda and Suzuki.

Singh apparently told Dasgupta that while “you complain”, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is inviting investment.

Trade union leaders were, however, quick to retort that they were all in favour of foreign investment. What they wanted was investors ? domestic or foreign ? should abide by the labour laws.

Investors, especially Japanese companies in the highly industrialised Delhi-Gurgaon belt, have been wary ever since a strike in the Honda motorcycle factory snowballed into a full-scale riot last year with police beating up about 250 workers. Though it was the Honda workers who suffered most, industrial relations in the belt took a beating, creating ripples of worries among investors that more militant trade unionism may be in the offing.

Dasgupta, who led the Honda strike and was roughed up by police, said he had told Singh that “we too are in favour of FDI”, but stuck to his demand that the law of the land should be upheld in all matters, including labour disputes with multinationals.

Though Singh appreciated the veteran trade union leader’s concern, the message to the Left was clear ? do not go on the warpath.

The government wants the trade union leaders to restrain themselves, operate within the law and avoid production loss through industrial unrest as these would be counter-productive.

The Left, of course, is trying to implement this philosophy in Bengal where it rules and in the steel belt of Orissa-Jharkhand-Chattisgarh.

After years of militant trade unionism through the 1960s and 1970s, the Left unions have reviewed their stance and now work to help industry remain healthy in the belt while expanding their base and wrenching benefits for workers through negotiations.

All the steel giants in the east ? Tata, SAIL and Vizag Steel ? have had cosy relations with the Left-led unions. The Tatas have never faced a strike since independence, while SAIL has experienced one strike in one unit ? the Durgapur-based Alloys Steel Plant ? that was resolved quickly.