Prime Minister Narendra Modi "thinks that labourers are dishonest" and that weakened labour unions would force them to work harder, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday.
"The prime minister thinks that labourers of India are dishonest, weak and they can be made to work through the use of force. He thinks... that there is a need to discipline labourers so that they are forced to work," he said at the 31st plenary session of the Indian National Trade Union Congress here.
Gandhi slammed the labour laws being formulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party governments in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana and said Modi wants that labourers bend on their knees.
"If you look at the laws being made in Rajasthan, Gujarat and now in Haryana then it is very clear that Narendra Modi ji has started a big attack on labourers.
"He thinks that 'hire and fire' and weakening the unions will make the labourers work. The government should be neutral but the government has left the labourers alone," he said.
