The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governmment’s disinvestment plan may hit rough weather as the Congress-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) today joined hands with other trade unions supported by the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Left parties to oppose it.
INTUC boss and Congress MP from the Rajya Sabha, G Sanjeeva Reddy, today pledged to participate in an anti-UPA demonstration next month on five issues, including strong opposition to the sale of government stake in profit-making public sector undertakings, or PSUs.
Participating in an umbrella “National Convention of Workers” that aims at bringing nine central trade unions after a long gap, Reddy said: “There is no logic in selling PSUs that are earning profits. Industries which are chronically making losses or have no chance of revival can be sold, but we oppose the government’s move to disinvest profitable PSUs.”
All these trade unions have decided to jointly conduct conventions in the coming days and finally hold an “All India Protest Day” on October 28 in the national capital, timing it with the winter session of the Lok Sabha. While it is unclear how long this ‘rainbow coalition’ of the trade unions will last, the Left and the other Opposition parties today tried their best to woo INTUC.
All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary and CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta quoted Jawaharlal Nehru and said “PSUs are the temple of Indian democracy”. On the other hand, M K Pandhe, president of the CPI(M)-backed Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said “Indira Gandhi nationalised the coal mines, banks and oil companies as she felt that private investors would not think about national interest.” Most of these leaders repeatedly said that their own political outlook should not come in the way of this unity.
Lakshman Reddy, president of the BJP’s trade union arm BMS, termed today’s meeting as a “historic day because after a long gap we have again come together”. He also questioned the merit in disinvestment: “The government can tax the rich and generate more revenue.”
Dasgupta also claimed that there was no difference between his speech and what Reddy had said, but a more cautious CITU chief Pandhe added: “We need to build this unity at the grassroots level after we achieved it today at the top level.”
