Agitated govt staff May sink Raje’s ship

Over 1.5 lakh Rajasthan govt employees from 23 departments were on a month-long strike recently to protest against ‘anti-worker’ policies of the Vasundhara Raje govt. The employees ended their agitation after the poll dates were announced but vowed to give a befitting reply to the BJP in the December 7 Assembly elections.

Jaipur: Soon after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced poll dates for the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, life returned to normal in the state. Roadways buses started moving and work resumed in government offices after a month-long strike of 1.5 lakh employees from 23 government departments.

The government looked the other way as the common man suffered during this time. Instead of engaging the employees in talks, the BJP government decided to act tough and issued orders of “No work, no pay”.

The employees would not have relented but for the election code of conduct that came into effect after the announcement of Assembly polls, which meant that the government was stripped of powers to decide on their demands. Hence, the employees ended their strike but not before taking an oath of making the state “BJP mukt”.

“This (BJP) government will be known as the most anti-employee government. The employees would give a befitting reply to the BJP in the upcoming elections for breaking promises and using oppressive tactics,” said Tej Singh Rathore, general secretary of All Rajasthan State Employees Joint Federation.

The state Congress president seized the opportunity by expressing solidarity with the striking employees and visiting them.

How real this threat is, can be understood from the fact that whenever the government employees went on a long strike, the party in power lost miserably. There are seven lakh regular employees in addition to those working in corporations, boards and on temporary basis.

And, not to forget they also have two or three voters in their families.

The first major agitation was 46 years ago when roadways employees remained on strike for 30 days in 1972, followed by teachers and other government employees who did not attend work for 37 days in 1973.

In the following state Assembly elections in 1977, the Congress slipped to 41 seats from 145. The Janata Party won 151 seats. Although this was also the election after the emergency, but a decade later the same story was repeated. Ministerial staff, teachers and roadways employees went on strike for 19, 46 and 71 days, respectively in 1989-90. The result: Congress tally came from 113 to 50 in 1990.

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje should know better as she was the beneficiary of government employees’ anger in 2003. The BJP, which had been reduced to 32 just five years ago, went on to register a historic win by forming the first majority government of its own. The Congress was reduced to 56 from 153. This was despite the clean image of Congress chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

What preceded it was the longest strike in 1999-2000. Just like the Raje government now, the Congress government at that time dealt strictly with the strike. Employee leaders were sent to jails. The strike was called off after 88 days.

However, the employees had taken a vow to teach the Congress a lesson. There were public appeals and advertisements by unions against the Congress.

In his second tenure from 2008-2013, Mr Gehlot kept them in good humour.

Now, Ms Raje has taken a tough stand against the staff and it would be interesting to see if they would be able to repeat their feat of 1977, 1990 and 2003 and script the BJP government’s defeat in December.