With Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) joining hands with the Left trade unions, all sectors including the Information Technolgy (IT) hub in Kolkata are likely to be crippled in the state's favourite sports - strike.
Except that it is going to be an all-india strike - yet again, on 7 September.
After calling for a nation-wide workers' strike on September 7, a decision taken at the national convention of Central Trade Unions, CITU president A K Padmanabhan told Business Standard , “a few months ago there was a strike in Bangalore and IT companies including Infosys couldn’t operate. If this can happen in Bangalore, why it can’t be repeated in other parts of the country?”
Gurudas Dasgupta, another strike-specialist and the general secretary of the CPI-affiliated AITUC said with connfidence: “except essential services, no sector will be left out from the strike including the IT sector in West Bengal.”
For West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee—once upon a time the poster boy of Marxist governance— this will be another litmus test within three months. Bhattacharjee wanted his state to be exempt from the nationwide strike called by the Left parties on July 5. He failed even as Tripura CM managed an expemtion from his party on that hartal. The chief minister, who had openly showed his disapproval of the bandh culture of his comrades a couple of years ago, will need to muster courage and tactics to save the treasured IT sector from the Red blockade.
For CITU secretary Dipankar Mukherjee, Bhattacharjee seems to be a "no problem" area. When asked if the Bengal CM will support this strike, Mukherjee said, “that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is opposed to our protest programmes is only in the imagination of the media .”
Dasgupta claimed, “our strike will be much bigger than the hartal of the political parties on 5 July . Millions and millions of workers will come out on the streets to send a message to the Central government. This UPA government is not listening to the voice of the people. It is not paying attention to our problems. During the last few months, the situation has further deteriorated. So we are compelled to call a bandh.”
A K Padmanabhan pointed out, “this is not a stand-alone strike. This is a part of our ongoing struggle against the policies of the government.”
BMS, the trade union wing of the Sangh Parivar, has opted out of this strike as it wanted it to be called in November. But the Left hardliners didn’t have the patience to wait for the winter and wants to carry forward the current momentum.
The saffron brigade of BMS is out. Congress’ INTUC is in. Still the likes of Gurudas Dasgupta are yet to come out of the hangover of the Left-BJP unity that paralysed large parts of the country on July 5 bandh.
