PICTURE SPEAK

CAPITAL GAINS: Bhattacharjee is wooing foreign investment

When West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's wife Meera chose to ignore the nationwide trade union strike on September 29 and attended office unlike six crore workers in public and private sectors, she caused a furore. Enraged members of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) blocked roads in Kolkata and it took the chief minister's intervention to pacify them.

"It is unfortunate that she went to work that day. She could have joined the strike," says M.K. Pandhe, president of the CPI(M)-affiliated CITU and the chief minister's Politburo colleague. Pandhe and his friends in the CITU and the CPI trade union, All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), had spent last month arguing with Bhattacharjee on the right to strike, especially in the new economy sectors like information technology (IT).

Bhattacharjee sees the resumption of the strike culture in West Bengal as a blow to his dream of making the state a technology hub. But Pandhe and another powerful Politburo member, Chittabrata Mazumdhar, who is also the CITU general secretary, forced a debate on the issue in the Politburo last week. At a brief meeting in Delhi, Pandhe and Mazumdhar opposed the chief minister's proposal to exempt the it sector from trade union activities and managed to have a resolution passed endorsing the right to form unions in the new service segments. "Buddhadeb has his own perspective because he wants private investment in the state. But he has to work within the party framework," says Pandhe, reinforcing what he thinks is the Central leadership's stand.

PICTURE SPEAK

STREET SMART: CPI(M) workers demanding their right to strike

However, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat provided a new twist to the duo's victory over the reforms-oriented Bhattacharjee when he said that in future if strikes are organised in a state, it would be the state government's prerogative to handle the unions. So even though the Politburo allowed the right to strike in the IT sector, Bhattacharjee remains unaffected due to the backing of Karat and central leaders like Sitaram Yechury. Despite the Politburo's "unanimous" resolution in favour of collective bargaining in the IT sector, it may not provide long-term gains for the unions because Bhattacharjee won't let his reforms agenda be sabotaged by them.

Since his FDI marketing trip to Indonesia in August this year, the chief minister has pushed reforms with such assiduity that even hardliners like Karat have stood behind him, telling the media that investment is needed in West Bengal for creating employment opportunities and improving the infrastructure. The earlier criticism of the CPI(M) Central leadership regarding Bhattacharjee's version of capitalism has turned to extreme caution. So Karat says that he knows about the Indonesian Salem Group's investment plans in West Bengal only through media reports and also feigns ignorance about the chief minister's meeting with Wal-Mart President Carter Cast in Kolkata last month.

STATE VS UNIONS

FIRST STRIKE: The Bhattacharjee Government cracks down on trade union offices in February 2004 to free hospitals from union activities. IT PLANS: Early this year, Microsoft, IBM and Wipro convey their wariness of unions to the chief minister. He assures help. WAR ON LABOUR: By mid-2005, Bhattacharjee wages war against "labour militancy", saying, "harmful trade union activities will not be tolerated". UNITED STAND: AITUC and CITU allege Bhattacharjee is allowing concessions to IT sector only to attract investment.

The trade unions cannot accept the fact that a senior leader is putting Marxism at par with the markets. Worse, the Politburo isn't condemning Bhattacharjee for his initiatives. Caught in their own uncertainties, the unions also believe that as their political patrons support the Central Government, the Left leadership in Delhi would at least be interested in projecting a pro-union image. The Left leaders know better. This perception may be leading the unions to seek assistance from the UPA Government. "If the Centre changes the existing labour laws like the Indian Trade Unions Act of 1926 or the Shops and Establishments Act of 1945, which regulate the it sector, then the state governments will not have independent policies on keeping investors happy at the cost of workers' rights," says AITUC Secretary D.L. Sachdev.

The UPA Government, though, is not too union-friendly and intends to amend the Contract Labour Act 1970, Foreign Trade Act 1992, and Industrial Disputes Act 1947. It has broadbased its agenda for next month's Indian Labour Conference to introduce flexibility in labour markets. If it succeeds in its endeavour, it could end up helping Bhattacharjee. On October 5, Labour Secretary K.M. Sahni presented a note on the proposed changes at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Labour. Expectedly, it was rejected by eight central trade unions, including the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.

Back at the CITU office, members are awaiting a CPI(M) document on the it sector which is expected to be presented at the next Central Committee meeting on December 14. However, it is clear that the paper will only be an academic inquiry, not a political statement. At the moment, Bhattacharjee is on his way to becoming India's first McMarxist

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