A declaration was made by the minister of labour that the government would not allow any activity on the part of the land sold by Hindustan Motors to the Shriram Group that in his view constitutes wetlands. He cannot have meant to ban activity by fish and birds resident in the swamp, for even if some ordinance, notification or subsection had thought it fit to bestow the powers upon him, he would not command the muscle power required to inactivate them. He obviously meant human activity, and specifically, activity by builders. There is no alternative to supporting him in principle, for environment is a modern-day god, and builders are regarded as vile profiteers. But Purnendu Bose handles the labour portfolio in the government; since when did the government decide to treat birds and fish as employees?

The official answer would presumably be that the statement was topical: that the minister had just given audience to a delegation from the Centre of Indian Trade Unions which included a representative of the Hindustan Motors Workers’ Union, who complained to him that the company had not paid its workers for months. He promised, as he should, that he would get the two sides together; since they differ on facts, that would be the first step. This is not the first time that the issue has arisen; Hindustan Motors’s financial condition has long been short of ideal, labour laws make adjustment of the labour force to work available difficult, and the company has had difficulty in meeting its obligations. If the government does not allow hire and fire, it must ensure that companies that are short of money pay wages to workers they cannot employ. The only way of doing so is to take the company into bankruptcy, sell off its assets — including wetlands if any — pay off creditors and use what remains, if anything, to pay workers. But that would also mean permanent loss of jobs, so governments in India have fought shy of it.

The government in Delhi first tried nationalization of bankrupt companies; after it discovered how bad it is at running business, it passed the Sick Industrial Companies Act in 1985 to compress bankruptcy proceedings, the Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act in 1993, and the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act in 2002. With these acts it managed to enable its banks to seize assets of some debtor companies without regard to other creditors’ rights. But Hindustan Motors withstood all those tricks, even through the years of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which had no doubts about whose side it was on — the company’s or the workers’. So the labour minister should stick to his knitting, and leave environment to his colleague, Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar; and both should focus on making long-term policy, instead of fishing in troubled wetland waters.