History Resurrected
At Gurgaon
By Dr.K.Venugopal Reddy
18 August, 2005
Countercurrents.org
History
has been resurrected when the workers of Honda Motors in Gurgaon were
beaten black and blue by the police force during their demonstration.
The horrifying police action on the workers on 25 July in independent
India is in fact a reenactment of the police brutality on industrial
workers during their strikes in colonial India. The ruthless police
action continuing on the next day on thousands of the workers and their
family members also reminds one of the notorious and reprehensible savage
acts of British police on unarmed Indians during the course of the freedom
struggle.
The British police
resorting to the use of lathi charge or firing on workmen agitating
for higher wages and also for recognition of their organizations was
not uncommon in colonial India. It is paradoxical that even in 2005
the metaphor of police repression of workers struggles remains similar.
The colonial tradition of ruthless repression of people's agitations
needs to be abandoned.
Police Repression
in Gurgaon:
The workers of Honda
Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) in Gurgaon were agitated over
the suspension of their leaders, who were active in organizing them
into a union. They were also restive over the management's indifference
to the demand for enhancing their wages in light of improved company
performance. The unyielding attitude of the management forced the workers
to start their collective protest action from the first week of July
to get their suspended and sacked colleagues reinstated and for increased
wages. The worker's agitation continued for about two weeks. The company
management instead of going for conciliation chose the course of confrontation
and declared a temporary shutdown of the industry.
The workers perceived
the closure of the plant as "illegal lockout" and about 3500
of them staged a protest march on 25 July to the mini-secretariat. The
police confronted them in their march in the civil lines. The action
of the police to hold back the workers created a chaotic situation wherein
a deputy police superintendent was injured and a vehicle was set on
fire. This triggered the massive police repressive action. The workers
were beaten mercilessly and humiliated (They were made to hold their
ears and crouch while running). The clashes between the workers joined
by their families and the police also continued on the second day. Determined
battles were fought between the protesters and police, who fired rubber
bullets, lobbed tear gas shells and used batons to disperse the unyielding
crowd. Contingents from. Rewari, Rohtak, Faridabad and Gurgaon were
roped in toform columns of policemen, who acted with terrifyingferocity
against the workers. The injured workers were admitted to the Civil
Hospital in Gurgaon. Almost 300people were remanded in a day's police
custody. While the unofficial account of injured people was put at 500
people, the Home Ministry put the total injured figures at 92. It is
relevant to take note of what the Eyewitnesses had to say on the gory
events: 'the police was not so much interested in dispersing the mob,
as to thrash the workers black and blue by ringing them in from all
sides. It appears the initial violence was difficulty for the police
to stomach andit was determined to teach the workers a lesson.'
The Unwarranted
Reaction from the State police:
The company HMSI
meanwhile declared that it had nothing to do with the incident. Therefore
the muteand most intriguing aspect to be understood is the state police's
overreaction to safeguard the interests of the Honda Motors as against
the workers. Is it because they are MNCs? It perhaps seems that a foreign
investor in today's aggressively privatizing and investment hungry India
commands immeasurable deference, allegiance and compliance from law
enforcing authorities and the governments whether at the national or
regional level. Otherwise, the tragic incidents could have been avoided,
had the state police exercised the minimum extent of restraint. These
incidents on 25th and 26th July clearly expose the partisan attitude
of the state police vis a vis the workers as against the foreign capitalist.
It is thus a determined and ruthless suppression of the essential right
of the workers to express their legitimate grievances.
Lessons of Gurgaon
Saga:
The intransigent
attitude of the Hondas management to go in for agreement with the workers
demonstrates that it has no respect for a collective bargaining process
between the workers and the management. On the other, the determination
exhibited by the workers during the strike period and their confrontation
with the police symbolizes the fearlessness of the workers to preserve
their legitimate right to organization and strike.
The strike of the
Gurgaon workers dismisses the notion 'that the concept of class as social
category is becoming irrelevant'. The strike sends a signal to the MNCs
entering India with vision of making enormous profits through exploiting
the readily available raw material and the cheap Indian labour that
the Indian workers are not as mellowed as they expected to be. It also
makes it obvious to them that the support from the Indian government
to the MNCs is not perfunctory. The incidents and the aftermath send
out the message that the Indian government may not remain a mute witness
to the brutality and injustice to the Indian workers and it should don
the role of mediator in industrial disputes.
It also necessitates
an immediate introspection from the Indian government to reconsider
its unstringed invitation to the MNCs to invest in India. The Indian
government needs to make MNCs realize unambiguously that their participation
in the industrial progress of India would not be at the price of the
basic interests of Indian workers. The MNCs need to respect the legitimate
right of the workers to trade union action to protect their interests.
Any confusion in this sphere would lead to the creation of a space where
chaotic and horrendous situations would become the regular phenomenon
as witnessed in the site of Gurgaon. Most significantly, the callous
and cruel behaviour of the police and the absolute disregard it has
exhibited for human dignity begs for an urgent rethinking on the necessity
of humanizing the system of policing in India. Finally, this incident
would be used by the corporate business houses to press for "flexible"
laws, which aim at greater autonomy for the capitalists in respect of
employment, dismissals and the provision of decent working conditions
in their factories. Therefore, the working class organizations all over
India must become alert to the possible danger emanating from this quarter.
Dr.K.Venugopal Reddy is working as a Faculty Member, Dept of
History, The ICFAI University, Hyderabad. He can be reached [email protected]