Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of weakening labour laws creating dissatisfaction among the workers and labourers. Alleging that Modi has launched a “big assault” on the workers, Rahul 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 would not retreat an inch. We will fight BJP, Modi and RSS,” Rahul said at the 31st Plenary Session of INTUC, the trade union wing of the Congress.
“I do not agree that our worker is either shirker or indiscipline... 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,” said the Gandhi scion.
Insisting that the Government should become “judge” between the labourers and the industry and “not advocate” of industry, Rahul told the Prime Minister that if he is able to remove fear from the mind of the workers then India would be able to surpass China in no time.
Addressing the gathering, former Prime Minister 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 the country on September 2.
Singh also said that in the name of structural labour reforms, attempts are being made to reduce the scope for secure industrial jobs in favour of contract labour and ‘hire and fire’ approach. “It is generally agreed that we need at least 500 million skilled workers by 2022. The actual pace on the ground is only a fraction of this target,” he said.
The INTUC chief G Sanjeeva Reddy accused the government of launching an assault on interests of the labourers in various ways and alleged that the government was not recognising INTUC as the largest trade union organisation in the country with 3.31 crore members despite “submission of all documents for verification”.
Rahul assured the INTUC leadership that he would accommodate their representatives in lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and State Assemblies as also in the ministries so that the issues of labour get their due attention.