General strike politics briefly gave way to courtesy as Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra and leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra greeted each other at an Assembly event where a portrait of Haridas Mitra, a former deputy Speaker and the father of Mitra, was unveiled. Haridas Mitra was deputy Speaker from March 24, 1972, to April 30, 1977. Picture by Biswarup Dutta

Calcutta, Feb. 24: The state has threatened to declare a break in service if government employees skip work on Tuesday, pulling out a rarely used but potent weapon from its anti-strike arsenal on a day the high court did not object to an earlier administrative order disallowing leave.

“If the employees don’t come to work, they can face a break in service. The employees will lose their seniority. A day’s salary will also be cut,” state transport minister Madan Mitra told a news conference this afternoon.

Trade unions have called an industrial strike on February 28. But in Bengal, Citu has converted it into a general strike and the CPM has threatened a total shutdown, although the party appeared somewhat restrained today.

Old-timers at Writers’ could not recall any instance when the break-in-service clause was invoked to thwart a general strike. Siddhartha Shankar Ray had also cracked the whip but he had confined himself to deducting the salaries of those who took part in a strike in 1975.

The Mamata Banerjee government has been talking tough against the general strike — or any other form of disruptive politics — from the beginning. Sources said the chief minister had instructed officials and ministers to ensure that the general strike was foiled.

Chief secretary Samar Ghosh has already issued a circular barring government employees, totalling 10 lakh, from taking leave on February 28. Under normal circumstances, it means that absent government employees will have to sacrifice a day’s salary.

The price of a break in service, however, will be much steeper. (See chart)

Citu state president and CPM MP Shyamal Chakraborty criticised the government. “Workers enjoy trade union rights and these include the right to strike. The government cannot say that there will be a break in service if an employee doesn’t report for duty on the day of the strike,” he said.

By then, Calcutta High Court had described as “enough” the measures taken by the state government.

Hearing a PIL against the general strike, the court said: “The measures taken by the state to keep the state normal on the said day is enough. So we are not interfering in the matter and are disposing of the PIL.”

The division bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice S.K. Chakrabarti said this after government lawyers produced a copy of the chief secretary’s circular that disallowed leave.

The court order in the morning preceded the transport minister’s media conference in the afternoon where he warned the employees of the break in service.

Besides barring government employees from taking leave on Tuesday, the circular also said that attempts at forcible closure of offices, shops, markets, educational institutions and industrial establishments should be firmly dealt with.

The CPM today saw “victory” in the court ruling, pointing out that the anti-strike petition had been disposed of. Opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra said: “Initially, the court had wanted to dismiss the petition. Later, it said the petition was being disposed of and that it was infructuous. So, our stand is correct.”

He conveniently overlooked the fact that the court had disposed of the petition after being satisfied that the government’s order disallowing leave on February 28 was enough to allow normality on that day.

Mamata today took stock of the preparations for February 28 during a meeting with state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, labour minister Purnendu Bose, Intuc state president Dola Sen and veteran trade union leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay.

“One person may fall sick on the day but if an entire department is found to have fallen sick on the same day, they will not be spared. If sanctioned leave turns into mass leave, action will be taken. We know what is what,” said Mukherjee.