Avis Inde : protest

Nationwide Strike On 2nd September 2015 - A Platform That Unites Mamata And Modi Against Workers And Employees

The ranting of the Mamata led Trinamool Congress against the nationwide strike called by eleven Central Trade Unions on the 2nd of September 2015 is clearly an indication of the new political alignment, a bonhomie growing between the Trinamool Congress and its erstwhile patron BJP.

Whilst in the earlier sessions of the parliament, since the BJP took power last year, Mamata Banerjee’s party created ruckus in the parliament sessions opposing the Modi government, especially when the Central Government started breathing on the West Bengal government led by the Trinamool using the CBI to unearth the Saradha scam. However, since the meeting between Mamata and Modi earlier this year, and their joint session during the inauguration of the SAIL IISCO Steel Plant in Burnpur this year, there had been closeness between the two parties which were allies until 2008.

Mamata was the pioneer force in West Bengal to dig the canal through which a crocodile like the BJP entered the province nearly seventeen years back. She was rewarded by the BJP with central cabinet berth for her service to the saffron camp in the late 1990’s and the beginning of the 2000’s. During this period the BJP made its fortune in Bengal by building up an organisation, using the support of the Trinamool extended towards it and the RSS. Mamata officially left the NDA camp only in 2009 to join the UPA government led by the Congress in promise of central cabinet berths. Her opportunist swindles in the provincial and national political arena was well known to the progressive and democratic forces of the country. However, due to the utmost bankruptcy of the so-called ‘left front’ government led by the opportunist CPI(M), Mamata got an opportunity to usurp power of West Bengal with Congress support, whom she booted out very soon after assuming office.

Mamata only raised her critical voice against the Modi government to negotiate better deals with the Central Government, and her fear mongering political propaganda among the Muslim communities of West Bengal regarding Modi cleverly concealed her own act of sending bouquet congratulating Narendra Modi, soon after the latter won the elections of Gujarat legislative assembly after the 2002 planned genocide of Muslims in the province. She never considered that act as a betrayal to her so called secular credentials. However, to display herself among the rural poor, especially the Muslims of West Bengal, Mamata created a fake anti-BJP image in the last one year to hoodwink the minority community.

Some section of critiques also see an angle connecting Mamata’s anti-Tata agitation in Singur as a move to assist Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, win the Nano car project for his home turf. The agitation against the anti-peasant policies of the West Bengal government led by the opportunist ‘left front’ helped Mamata to improve her political fortune since 2007, whilst she suffered the worst defeat in the legislative polls of 2006 and parliamentary polls of 2004.

Though the unity between the BJP and the Trinamool is kept under the wrap by Mamata Banerjee to protect the erosion of her Muslim vote bank in Bengal, especially in view of the 2016 legislative polls in the province, but Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress has scaled down its pitch of criticism of the BJP regime. As the party holds significant numbers in the parliament and is a key to get many of the bills passed, Venkaiah Naidu, the BJP minister involved in brokering deals between all right wing parties, is deeply engaged in bringing the Trinamool on a common dock of interest. These activities have, however, revealed to some extent the deal brokered between Mamata and Modi, the ‘bad’ and ‘good’ ‘M’ of Ratan Tata.

The strike called by the eleven Central Trade Unions on 2^nd September against the policies of corporate appeasement of the Modi regime is a big blow, if not lethal, to the BJP rule, and it is trying all possible options to turn the strike ineffective. During this fiasco, the BJP managed to have Mamata Banerjee working as their outpost in West Bengal, who is determined to crack the strike using hoodlums of the Trinamool Congress, and the administration.

In recent meetings with her party men and in her press meets, the Chief Minister is spitting venom against the trade unions and the working class and accusing them on baseless charges. Supported by the publicity campaign by the corporate media against the strike of the working class, Mamata and her team of ministers are instilling fear in the mind of the working class and the employees regarding their participation in the strike struggle. Following the footsteps of the BJP government led by Modi, Mamata has also issued circulars to intimidate the government employees to refrain them from joining the fray of the striking workers and employees.

The age old justification raised by the corporate media against the strike is, strikes are not any solution to the problems and strikes are against the economic development of the nation. However, they do not tell us what will be the proper way to have the problems of the working class like minimum wages, maximum working hours, overtime, inflation, job security, etc resolved. They do not inform the people that the strikes are against the economic development of which section of the society, as the working class, the employees of government and non government sectors, and the broad masses of peasantry, unorganised workers and unemployed youth do not see any trace of economic development in their lives, but observe only a gloomy situation surrounding their lives.

Inflation is skyrocketing, especially price of vegetables including onion, staples like rice, pulses, etc are shooting up faster than a rocket launched from Sriharikota. There is no common and uniform pattern to raise the minimum income slab of the unorganised workers, the outsourced workers, the unskilled workers, low level employees of private sectors, who all form the broad masses of our urban society. There is no proper policy to protect the interest of the peasantry of the country which has an agrarian economy with depreciating rate of agriculture contribution to the national GDP. The neo liberal policies of the government, like land acquisition, no subsidy on fertilisers, decrease of subsidy in diesel, lack of land reform measures, lack of proper public sector purchase of crops, etc has made the peasantry more vulnerable and are throwing greater proportion of the peasantry of this semi-feudal agrarian economy to the stage of semi-pauperisation and utmost destitution. These factors are again leading to increased tally of peasant suicides across the nation.

The country is at the verge of a deep economic crisis, the dark shadow of murky future is looming large on the lives of the majority of the people, ie the peasants and workers. At this stage the working class and the peasantry has no time to lend an ear to the gospel of neo-liberal economic policies preached by the corporate media like Times Group and others. It is a high time for them to launch a strong struggle for consolidating their rights, won by tough struggles against the tyranny of big foreign monopoly-finance capital over years, and to win further victories to secure and protect its own class interest against the stake of the capitalists and feudal lords of the country.

Our media industry is owned and controlled by the corporate sector, which also controls and designs government policies, irrespective of which party holds the baton in New Delhi. For the protection of their own interests these groups, which often has business competitions but are united to farther their class demands, the media houses will keep on building mass opinion in favour of their policies and target the vacillating middle class to win it in its favour through extensive propaganda. Indian middle class, alike their counterparts in the undeveloped countries of Asia-Africa and South America, have a dual character. On one hand, one section of the middle class has a tendency to imitate the richer sections, it aspires to reach those socio-economic strata, whilst on the other hand, another other section of the middle class is experiencing its fast deterioration in its socio-economic condition and is reaching the strata of the proletariat and semi proletariat in this society. The first section which is growing affluent due to the neo-liberal economy forms the miniscule part of the Indian middle class, while the section which is growing poor is the major part of the middle class. The corporate media targets to influence the first group of aspiring affluent section and through them they want to win over the degrading section of the middle class by implanting fake hope of better economic future among them.

The media houses will never uncover the true story of the poverty stricken country and how the neo liberal policies of the government, especially the naked corporate appeasement by the Modi regime is turning a huge section of the people towards utmost poverty, transforming working class into primitive slaves, turning peasants into bonded labours of feudal lords. They will rather engage in painting rosy pictures of the economy and the nation, divert attention of the people towards Pakistan border whenever the people will feel the pinch of inflation, and help the communal fascist elements of the Sangh family to create troubles in the country to drive a wedge between the majority Hindus and the minority Christians and Muslims.

The formula of the British engineered ‘divide and rule’ is still paying dividend to the Sangh outfits, which won the BJP 31% of the polls in 2014 to form a majority government in New Delhi. Since the Modi government started functioning, the social atmosphere of the country turned more vicious than ever before, with the Sangh outfits ramping campaigns to polarise people on communal lines, incite mob against the members of the minority communities, raise communal tensions, spread hatred against minority communities like Muslims and Christians to create a reign of terror and disunity on a national scale, so that their policies of corporate appeasement and official selling of national resources to the foreign monopoly and finance capital goes unopposed and unchallenged.

Despite all these issues, which are now hurting the cause of the people extremely, Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress is shamelessly supporting the bid of the Modi government to break the strike with force. The Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool is doing so under the immense pressure exerted by the foreign big monopoly and finance capital through their media houses and alike other political parties of all hues participating in the legislative process of the Indian state, the Trinamool will also keep on serving and protecting the interest of the big foreign monopoly capital and its Indian lackeys. They will normally express vehement opposition to the cause of the people and working class, and will try to brutally suppress all genuine mass struggles against the government policies.

However, as Modi once quoted the Third Law of Motion of Sir Isaac Newton during the 2002 Gujarat massacre of Muslims, it is high time for the working class and the peasantry to echo the same this time loudly to Narendra Modi and his coterie, including Trinamool, that all your actions to cause disunity and disharmony among the people will soon backfire by a huge tidal wave of mass movements and political struggles across the nation which will oust you and your masters from the helm of the country.