Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of making deliberate attempts to weaken labour-related laws and, consequently,
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of making deliberate attempts to weaken labour-related laws and, consequently, creating dissatisfaction among the workers.
Alleging that Mr Modi has launched a “big assault” on workers, a combative Mr Gandhi vowed to fight their battle like the Congress did for the farmers on the land acquisition bill.
“Like we fought for the rights of farmers, we will fight for the cause of the workers and stand with them and will not retreat an inch. We will fight BJP, Modi and RSS,” he said amid applause at the 31st Plenary Session of INTUC, the trade union wing of the Congress.
Mr Gandhi said although he agreed with the Prime Minister’s idea of turning India into a global manufacturing centre to make it more competitive than China, the unanimity ends there. This, he claimed, was because the PM considers Indian worker as “dishonest, shirkers and one who can be made to work only by wielding the stick”, and that is why the labour laws are being diluted — to bring the workers to their knees. “If you look at the new laws being made in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana, you will see that Modi has started a big assault on workers,” he said.
He claimed the PM feels there is a need to weaken the labour laws and “discipline” the workers so that they can be forced to work because he feels that with a “hire and fire” policy and weakening of unions, the workers will be made to work, Mr Gandhi claimed.
“I do not agree that our worker is either a shirker or indisciplined... Our worker is scared. He is scared of his future, the future of his children. The worker is scared whether the job he has today will be there tomorrow. Will the factory gate open for him tomorrow,” the Congress leader said.
Insisting that the government should become a “judge” between labourers and industry, and “not the advocate” of industry, he told the PM that if he is able to remove fear from the minds of the workers then India would be able to surpass China in no time.
Addressing the gathering, former PM Manmohan Singh said the “dissatisfaction” of workers with the “anti-labour and unimaginative” economic policies of the NDA government was obvious from the one-day general strike observed in India on September 2. He said that attempts are being made in the name of structural labour reforms to reduce the scope for secure industrial jobs in favour of contract labour and a hire-and-fire approach.
