Osamu Suzuki’s priorities are clear-cut. The 89-year-old Suzuki Motor Corporation chairman landed in Delhi this evening for a week-long India trip but is in no hurry to visit the violence-tarnished Maruti Suzuki unit in Manesar. The unit, in fact, does not figure in his Gujarat-centric itinerary.
The Suzuki Motor boss is slated to meet Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda only after he comes back from Gujarat — a reflection of his fond association with the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whom he hosted in Japan a few weeks ago.
Suzuki is scheduled to meet Modi on Friday and would also travel to Gujarat’s Mehsana district. Maruti Suzuki has committed investments to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore to set up its third unit on a 700-acre site in the district.
The itinerary includes a visit to Rohtak in Haryana, where the company’s two-wheeler arm Suzuki Motorcycle India is setting up a second manufacturing unit. Maruti Suzuki has announced an investment of Rs 2,400 crore to set up a world-class R&D centre in Rohtak. But, the violence-hit Manesar unit is nowhere in the picture. So much so, the supervisors injured in the Manesar violence will be tended to by the chairman in Gurgaon itself.
But, Suzuki is expected to face the heat from workers at the Gurgaon facility tomorrow over the reinstatement of about 500 permanent workers sacked at the Manesar unit. Even as wage negotiations were on at the Gurgaon unit, senior representatives of the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU) said wage increments and improvement of working conditions would not feature in the employees’ meeting with Suzuki. “We will raise issues about the way the company is being run with the chairman. We will discuss the dispute at Manesar and the mass dismissal of permanent workers at the unit,” said an office-bearer of MUKU.
Modi had met Suzuki in Hamamatsu a few weeks back to attract Japanese investments into the state. Suzuki had assured Modi he would bring more Japanese industrialists to invest in Gujarat. Modi had condemned the violence at Manesar during his Japan visit, stating such incidents should not occur anywhere in the world.
Suzuki is expected to meet vendors on August 27 and will conclude his visit with Maruti Suzuki’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.