By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: In a bid to intensify the struggle and meet their demands, workers of Manesar Plant of Maruti Suzuki in Gurgaon of Haryana approached Delhi on January 29 towards the culmination of their 15 days ‘Jan Jagran Padyatra’ from Kaithal , a district of Haryana, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Gurgaon to Jantar Mantar of Delhi which spans 15-31 January.
On the way of Padyatra they got rousing support from the students, teachers and workers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on 29th January as JNU Students Union organized a cultural evening in solidarity with the workers with speeches, songs, plays and performances by many organizations such as Revolutionary Cultural Front (RCF), Dastak, A group of JNU Workers and Staff and of course JNUSU.
Addressing the gathering JNUSU President Akbar Choudhry vehemently criticized the corporate class of country. Referring the example of Narandr Modi he asked, “Do you know why corporate fascism is keen to present Gujarat as model of development and to make the whole country as the same because Modi providing the space and resources of the country to them to oppress the poor that is why he is champion in their eyes.”
Criticizing the policies of Aam Admi Parti’s Government he elaborated, “There are quite a number of poor and workers who came in the trap of new fascism of AAP, but still there are some, in front of us, who will lead the struggle and provide befitted response to all kind of fascism” Choudhry added.
Struggle of the workers has started on 4th June 2011 for the demand of constitutionally guaranteed right to unionize that traversed through many a terminations, suspensions and brutal assault by police when they tried to protest by imposition of 144 to disallow gatherings in the entire industrial belt. Speaking to the audience Anjani Kumar, Editor of Bhor Magazine applauded the sprite and struggle of Maruti Workers but also warned how the corporate are on agenda to split the movement, “there is black law in Haryana that the worker who hails around 80 km of the factory will not be given the naukri. Because of this there is always a tussle between local and employees,” he said.
The movement took another turn after 18th of July 2012 when a Human Resource Manager Avneesh Kumar Dev of Jharkhand killed in an assault by workers as claimed by Police which resulted about 55 named and 600 unnamed workers were booked,546 workers were terminated and 148 are still behind the bar.
Chanting the slogans to release 148 jailed workers and withdraw all false cases and to give their constitutional rights workers of Maruti also complained about media blackout after the incident of 18th July. When asked about the future of the struggle, a terminated worker, Ram Nivas of 29 said “we do not care about the future. By this Padyatra we started our journey of struggle, now how much oppression we have to face we will continue to fight,” Ram told TCN.
“This is not just our fight rather it is fight of all workers being oppressed in this country,” added Niavs. Pointing the finger over the judgment of Special investigation Team (SIT) Haryana MR. K.G Mukharji, Professor of JNU said, “it is so strange that the person who often use to talk about the rights of workers how could he being killed by workers, rather he was killed by police. Oppression over workers and violation of their rights actually tell us how independent and democratic we are,” Mr. Mukharji said.
Singing the resistance songs ‘mang rahe ham adhilar,bangle nahi chahiye’ a group of women workers and parents show their solidarity. Almost brimming with tears the mother of a worker, Darshan who hails from Sonipat District of Haryana, whose son is right now in jail said “my son is languishing in jail, he has a wife and a daughter along with two younger brothers, there is no one who could make butter and bread for us, we are in very horrifying condition”. She told TCN. “My husband started facing hysteria and faced many diseases because of the painful news of our son’s arresting” she added.
Since 18 months there are 148 workers are still behind the bars because of the murder of hr manager. After this incident corporate media presented workers as a criminals and the faced the wrath and anger of the masses because of misconception created by media. “By this Padyatra we tried to wash out the confusions and misconceptions, now janta is again with us, I am sure now we can win the battle,” Said Jitandre Kumar, who started working in Manesar Plant of Maruti in 2005. When asked who is to be blamed for this longest movement and still in the midway of struggle he said “first of all Haryana Government to be blamed for not providing any assistance and secondly Media black outing our whole movement,” Mr. Kumar told TCN.
“Forced to work for more than eight hours a day without minimal lunch/tea breaks and sometimes even without toilet breaks, the workers are forced to meet the target of 1 car every 42 seconds,” read a leaflet issued by Democratic Student union (DSU).
“Even as profits of the company were soaring and the consumer price index rose by 50%, the real wages of Maruti workers rose by just 5.5% between 2007 and 2011.while the annual remuneration of Maruti’s CEOs increased by 419% the share of the workers’ wages in the net sales of the company dropped from 2.24% in 2007 to 1.94% in 2011,” added the pamphlet.
A large gathering of students, teachers, workers and other staff turned up to show their solidarity with those workers. And pledge to continue their support to fight the battle to its natural end that is to meet the demands.
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