NEW DELHI, India: More than two million workers struck state-run factories, ‘mines and national airlines to protest Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s economic policy.
It was the largest mass protest against the economic liberalization introduced by Mr. Gandhi’s two-year-old government and came a day after he criticized state-owned industries for inefficiency.
The strike, called by all national labor federations with the exception of one allied with Gandhi’s Congress Party, was held in violation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act, which bans strikes in vital industries.
In Bombay, strikers marched in procession, blocking traffic. In Hyderabad, the police reportedly beat strikers with canes and arrested 50 employees of three corporations.
United News of India said the police accused the strikers of deflating tires for city buses and preventing non-strikers from entering factories.
The unions accused the Prime Minister of reversing India’s traditional policy of self-reliance, bringing in multi-nationals and encouraging privatization of the public sector.
More than 60 percent of the industrial investment in India is in the public-sector. Government run banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions also own large stocks in private sector companies.
One of the Mr. Gandhi’s first economic decisions was to freeze investment in the public sector. The decision was later rescinded because of criticism.
Mr. Gandhi has liberalized the country’s export-import policy and invited foreign investment and collaboration in high-technology areas.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 30, 1987
