india

Updated: Oct 07, 2017 22:50 IST

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, will march to the Parliament on November 17 against the Narendra Modi government’s anti-economic and anti-farmer policies.

The BMS central working committee met at the RSS headquarters here on October 6 and 7 and chalked out a strategy for the success of the proposed march.

The BMS general secretary Vrijesh Upadhyay said the organization would attempt at bringing together all trade unions, including the Left-affiliated ones, to join the march.

Earlier, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat came out openly against the Modi government’s economic policy in his annual Dussehra address in Nagpur. Although he tempered criticism with praise for demonetisation and GST, Bhagwat made no bones about his concern over the impact of these policies on the Sangh’s core support base of small traders, small businessmen and small farmers.

After the two-day meeting, Upadhyay asserted that the Modi government and finance minister Arun Jaitley miserably failed to improve the economy and instead continued with the previous government’s anti-people policies.

He squarely criticized the government for its several reform policies, including labour law reforms, which he claimed were detrimental to the interests of the labour class. The existing labour rights were obtained after a prolonged labour movement in India. “Curtailing rights of workers will create friction at the floor level and will destroy industrial peace. We will not tolerate corporate-sponsored labour reforms philosophy,” he asserted.

According to him, it is a misguided perception to say that the so-called “labour reforms” will create employment. It will only create cheap and below par jobs. For job creation government must rectify other basic flaws affecting the economy. It is a huge mistake to put all failures on the shoulders of workers and then curtail their rights.

He blamed all the advisors to the Modi government, particularly the Niti Ayog members, for being unaware about the ground reality of the country. “We can’t expect better outcome from these Harvard educated so-called experts,” he said and demanded that the stakeholders in different fields should be involved in the decision-making process.

Answering a question, he said that the BMS had a talked with all trade union organizations to support the proposed march. “The concerns of labour reforms are common to all of us, so Left or Right affiliation does not matter,” he added.

Upadhyay demanded that there should be legal provision for accountability of management and punishment for mismanagement on a complaint from workers for industrial failures and losses. Though they welcome the attempt to simplify and codify multiple labour laws.