Parties rush to reap political harvest

Days after the police attack on workers of the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India in Gurgaon, the politics of the issue is slowly gaining centre stage.

While Left parties are engaged in a race to gain political mileage out of the incident, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda faces a threat to his job from rivals within the Congress.

The government caught between supporting a Congress chief minister and meeting the Left demand, has now asked the Gurgaon district collector and the senior superintendent of police to go on leave. This has, however, not satisfied the Left parties who have stuck to their demand for their suspension.

Sources said despite what the CPI and the CPI(M) were demanding openly, they were trying to outbid each other to be seen as protectors of workers. The CPI(M)has a marginal presence among worker in the area, whereas the CPI-affiliated All-India Trade Union Congress (Aituc) controls the Honda worker's union.

While CPI leaders were present on the spot when violence broke out and continued to press this advantage with the media, the CPI(M) arrived a little late on the scene and tried to make up through the presence of its star campaigner Brinda Karat.

The Left has, however, steered clear of the BJP line. The BJP has sought Hooda's resignation.

"We also do not want the issue to become one of Hooda's resignation. Our objective is to see that all the retrenched workers are reinstated. If the workers are not taken back then Hooda will have to go," said a CPI leader.

Hooda is facing threat not from the Left, but from rival camps within the Congress also.