The Hindu Business Line : Violence continues for second day at Gurgaon

WITH violence continuing for the second day on Tuesday at Gurgaon between protesting workers of Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India (HMSI) and the local police, the situation has gone beyond a mere labour dispute to assume wider political and economic ramifications.

The issue was raised vociferously by Opposition and Left party members in Parliament today, who condemned Monday's police action as "barbaric and brutal" and demanded that top officials responsible for mishandling the situation be removed from their posts.

There was a near-unanimous demand for a judicial probe into the incidents and allegations were made about the Gurgaon administration being in league with multinational companies to suppress workers' rights.

The Left party members were also severely critical of the functioning of multinational companies in India.

The Central Government, on the other hand, had to quickly react to concerns expressed by the Japanese Ambassador to India, Mr Y. Enoki, who said that the incident "is a disadvantage for India's image as a FDI destination and also a negative image on Japanese management."

This prompted a reaction from the spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry who said: "An isolated incident involving a labour dispute should not become a benchmark for judging investment climate in India. The country's democratic institutions and legal system provide an effective mechanism to deal with such incidents in a transparent manner."

He also gave an assurance that "the legal interest of foreign investors will be fully safeguarded."

The Left parties are, however, determined to continue their agitation and have called for an all-India protest on August 1.

This would be followed by a full-fledged prolonged agitation culminating in a countrywide general strike on September 29, the CPI leader, Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, announced after leading a demonstration outside Haryana Bhavan in the Capital.

In Gurgaon, sporadic violence broke out repeatedly and the police had to fire rubber bullets and lob teargas shells to disperse the agitating workers.

The police also had to resort to lathicharge on several occasions after some demonstrators pelted stones at them.

The Gurgaon police hinted that there could have been outsiders among the demonstrators on Monday who provoked the violence.

Reports quoting the Deputy Commissioner of the area said that of the 320 people arrested on Monday for apprehension of breach of peace, 44 were not workers of the Japanese company.

From HMSI, a spokesperson offered to reimburse the injured workers for their medical expenses.

"All our employees are covered under a cashless transaction scheme and we have already spoken to hospital authorities and doctors in this regard," the spokesperson said.

There were also reports that the company had offered to take back all the employees, except the four who had been sacked. Those who had been suspended would be taken back after an enquiry.

Meanwhile, the Haryana Government has ordered a judicial probe into the incidents to be conducted by Mr Justice G.C. Garg, retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The Commission has been asked to submit its report within three months.

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