Congress chief Nana Patole says Modi govt finishing off labour movement with employer-specific laws

Maharashtra state Congress chief Nana Patole said that the  Narendra Modi government was enacting laws to benefit employers and ending the existence of the labour movement.

The Modi government has ended the labour movement and labour system by bringing in employer-specific laws. It even brought three black laws to alienate farmers but the agitation by citizens forced the Centre to scrap these legislations, Patole said at the state level session of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in Panvel near here.

He said India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took several welfare steps after Independence and the Congress made the country powerful with the help of workers, whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government was working to finish off these gains.

Laws that gave various rights and privileges to workers have been changed by bringing in legislations that serve the interest of employers and enslaves workers. Important projects of the country are being given to a few industrialists who are friendly to the Centre, Patole alleged.

He said the Modi government’s promises to give two crore jobs per year, Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of people as well as doubling of farm income, riding on which the BJP came to power in 2014 and 2019, remain unfulfilled.

The Modi government has waived off loans worth Rs 10.50 lakh crore of industrialist friends but has done nothing for workers. INTUC is the most important trade union of the country. People and the labour force must unite behind the Congress to bring it to power in Maharashtra and the Centre, Patole claimed.