In brief, the farmers and workers unions in India are thus seen the entire fortnight preparing for a bigger fight ahead in 2023 since PM Narendra Modi led Union Government is all set to implement the four controversial labour codes and next leg of farm and public sector reforms. And the second phase of the farmers’ and workers’ agitation would likely to be fiercer than the first phase beginning in August 2020, if Modi government continue pursuing its agenda, which the farmers and workers allege pro-corporate and anti-people, trying to bring corporates to the farms, putting the public sector, banking and insurance into some private pockets.
The agitation is likely to be fiercer also on account of the changing stand of the RSS-BJP supported Bharatiya Mazdor Sangh (BMS), which also gets support from the BJP governments at the Centre and across the country. For example, BMS, which did not participate in all India two-days strike action on March 28-29 called by the joint front of 10 CTUs, and which participated in the pre-budget consultations as against the boycott decision of the joint front, has now decided to participate in nationwide strike in coal industry on December 2. It shows either something is going wrong in the equation in the RSS-BJP family vis-à-vis PM Narendra Modi and HM Amit Shah duo, or the BMS is in urgent need of saving their face among workers, which they cannot do without supporting the workers or else they lose their support base which has made it the largest trade union in the country. Nevertheless, the change in BMS leaderships attitude is significant.

An additional factor is also noteworthy, as far as BMS is concerned. BMS accepts only two labour codes - Code on Wages and the Code on Social Security – and their demand for review of the two others – the Code on Industrial Relations and the Code on Occupational Safety – is still intact but unmet since Modi government is still pursuing to implement all the four labour codes in 2023. The countrywide protest of workers on December 2 in the coal industry is against the four labour codes in which BMS is participating is something to be taken note of.

As for the joint front of 10 CTUs are concerned, they have reiterated their demand of scraping the four controversial labour codes along with stopping the big ticket privatisation of the Public Sector in the letter submitted to the Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman while boycotting the pre-budget consultation for the Union Budget 2023-24. They were angry over the deplorable attitude of the ministry towards the CTUs in allotting only about “3 minutes” time each to express their concerns and suggestion for the budget, a time found insufficient by them for any meaningful talk.

It was in the backdrop of a failed meeting between the CTUs and the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment recently, in which no agreement was achieved on any of the outstanding issues. CTUs are also not happy with the attitude of the government has not even called any meeting of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) since 2015, though it is the highest tripartite body of the country on labour issues. ILC in 2013 has recommended for a National Employment Policy, which Modi government does not have in its agenda, as the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has informed the Parliament of India. Modi government got the four labour codes enacted even without consulting ILC and ignoring all objections of the opposition in the Parliament of India in 2020 where such an important reform was not thoroughly discussed. The latest example of how the government ignored the CTUs is that the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment did not even inform them about the 17 ILO Asia and the Pacific Regional Labour Conference to be held in Singapore from December 6 to 9. CTUs had to write a letter to Union Labour Minister asking him to ensure that trade unions from the country are represented in the event.

As for the farmers are concerned, they are feeling cheated by the Modi government. After a year long agitation against the three controversial farm sector legislations brought by Modi government, they have called off their agitation in December last year. PM Narendra Modi had given them assurance to not only withdraw the three laws but also address their all genuine demands. However, even after a year, barring the scraping of the three farm laws most of their demands including a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) are unmet. The memorandum submitted to Governors during their March on November 26, which marked the beginning of the first phase of their agitation in 2020, has included three new important demands other than the outstanding demand on MSP – loan waiver for farmers, pension for farmers above 60 years, and crop insurance. The other demands included cancellation of all cases registered against the farmers during their year long agitation in which over 750 farmers were died. They have also been demanding compensation for their dependents which has fallen in deaf ears. Samyukta Kisan Morcha has called a meeting of all farmers’ unions on December 8 to chalk out the next phase of agitation.

The issues concerning farmers and workers of India are likely to be echoed in the coming winter session of the Parliament. Since 2023 is the penultimate year of the second term of PM Narendra Modi before the general election 2024, he has a very high stake. Alienation of farmers and workers would be politically counterproductive for him, but he is also not willing to lose the last chance to implement financial, public, and farm sector reforms.