In a sense, the proponents of the December 10 and 11 industrial strike cum Bharat bandh represent almost the entirety of the anti-liberalisation brigade.Aside from Congress and leftist trade unions, bank employees, small fishermen's groups, Medha Patkar and an assortment of freelance Luddites have come together. True, the country's largest trade union, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), has stayed away but that is only because it is an arm of the ruling BJP. The BMS' heart is with the cause - which, pared of verbiage, amounts to a demand that economic reforms be halted if not reversed. It would be futile to see the strike as just another example of political jockeying and complain about the damage to productivity indices. There is a larger point. Such recurring strikes only emphasise what a colossal public relations failure the reforms have been.Despite the unmistakable human trauma it may entail, much of what the unions are protesting against is actually quite logical.For instance, the recommendation that 10,000 uneconomic branches of state-owned banks be closed down is aimed at streamlining, to whatever extent, India's disjointed banking system. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}The picture is equally stark in almost any sector of commerce. Entry of private capital, employee retraining, a shift to an economic decision-making which stresses quality rather than quantity: all these are not going to be painless - but they are not going to be useless either.Obviously the government has failed to carry the liberalisation mantra to the worker on the shop floor. On their part unions have refused to accept that they can delay change, not deny it. For a start, they could do with curbing this urge to go on strike. It has already cost them public sympathy. Under a strong, retributive regime, it could cost them much more.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 21, 1998--- ENDS ---
