Uniformed lawlessness

The Haryana police and the district administration of Gurgaon have only themselves to blame for the crisis that has visited the whole area. The potential fallout of what began as an industrial dispute now covers a much wider ambit, and efforts must be aimed at localising the damage and then fixing the underlying problem.

The Left and the opposition will seek to make hay. The government needs to get on the front foot instead of merely reacting to events. As an example, those responsible in the police and the administration for wreaking havoc on unarmed people should be suspended because lawlessness by those in uniform is simply not to be condoned. There may have been provocation from the striking Honda workers and others, but a uniformed force is meant to exercise discipline.

The judicial inquiry will run its course, but interim action is required. The administration should also be hauled up for failing to anticipate trouble, and for being caught unprepared by the processionists although the dispute at the Honda two-wheeler factory has been going on for some two months. Banning assembly by more than four people was no substitute.

The local administration must now make sure that all those injured in the police action get proper medical treatment and any immediate relief that they need. Public trust has to be earned again.

The dispute that has sparked off this situation has been presented in sharply contrasting light by the two opposing sides. The Honda management is reported to have already effected a 30 per cent pay hike earlier this year, and had worked out a "good conduct" arrangement with the workers; indeed, a week ago news reports had spoken of expectations that normal attendance and production would return to the factory at the industrial town of Manesar, near Gurgaon.

However, the management had said it would not take back five dismissed workers and about 25 people placed under suspension, pending inquiry, because they had been disrupting work and damaging factory equipment. Perhaps it is this position that unravelled the agreement on returning to normalcy.

The Left leaders have a different story. They talk of the workers asking for a wage hike and not getting it, of trying to form a union, and of union leaders being suspended or dismissed as soon as they were elected. They talk of the management trying to replace striking workers, of mistreating factory hands and declaring a lock-out without notice.

In short, the picture is of a management that does not want to be bothered by any agitationists, whatever the law might say about labour rights. Some reports speak of management insensitivity, while it is also possible that the Left has been trying to make inroads into the Honda factory and may have played a role in preventing normalcy from returning.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, it is important to see this as a specific issue, rather than a general problem about the factory environment in India-as the Japanese ambassador has mistakenly tried to portray. While India does have an unfortunate history of labour militancy and counter-productive trade unionism, recent years have seen the number and extent of strikes come down sharply.

Although labour laws remain impractical, the work environment in workplaces has become markedly less fractious and focused increasingly on issues like cost and productivity. It would be hasty to jump to the conclusion, from the Honda episode, that the clock will now be turned back, although that is what the Left will want.

Equally, it is important that the Honda dispute be settled without further delay.