A nationwide strike called by central trade unions saw a mixed response across India, impacting various sectors and states differently, with some areas experiencing disruptions while others remained largely unaffected.
BMS allies with breakaway faction of Congress-affiliated INTUC. This marks a new chapter in India's trade union movement
Ten central trade unions on Tuesday said they are going ahead with their planned nationwide general strike on November 26 and also announced their support to a two-day farmers' agitation next week. The meeting of the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and Sectoral Independent Federations and Associations was held virtually on November 16, 2020. Unions expressed satisfaction over the tremendous response being received from workers and the people at large throughout the country to the ongoing campaign for the countrywide general strike on November 26, 2020, a joint forum statement said.
All India Trade Union Congress General Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said the Common Minimun Programme was 'inadequate' and not 'acceptable'.
Finding that the draft common minimum programme was "inadequate", the central trade unions on Monday said it was not "acceptable" to them and laid out over a dozen demands to the new government headed by Prime Minster Manmohan Singh.
The trade unions would jointly carry out demonstrations, sit-ins and other forms of protests on October 28 to focus on the government's economic policies which were leading to job losses and hiking the prices of essential commodities.
'Workers are the people who create all the wealth in this country. How can you call them anti-national?'
The Congress attacked the Modi government, saying it now seems to be routine that India learns about its government's actions only from Trump or his appointees.
Rising living expenses, fear of contract hiring cast shadow on real gains.
Talking to PTI Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), said, "The two-day nationwide strike by the joint forum of central trade unions has begun this morning". About the impact of the agitation, she said that the entire coal belt (mining area) is affected in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. She also said that there is a good response in industrial areas of Assam, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The AITUC official noted that the banks and insurance sectors are affected all over India, while steel and oil sectors are also seeing partial impact due to the strike. Kaur said that she has got preliminary reports that markets are closed in Odisha.
BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said, "There are many anomalies in the draft rules on Code on Wages which need to be amended. The new rules are silent about many provisions clearly provided in the four Acts subsumed in the code."
The BJP and the Opposition have engaged in a war of words over the implementation of the women's reservation bill, which aims to reserve seats for women in legislatures. The bill was defeated in the Lower House, leading to accusations and counter-accusations between the parties.
The unions would give the notice for strike to the Government on August 4, All India Trade Union Congress' Andhra Pradesh unit General Secretary P J Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters in Vijayawada on Wednesday. Prior to that, the union representatives would meet here on July 21 to finalise their stragegy for the stir, he said. The strike call has been given by 56 unions and their affiliated units which have prepared a seven-point charter of demands, Rao said.
The two-day nationwide strike called by central trade unions to protest the Centre's alleged anti-worker policies evoked mixed response all over country on Tuesday.
'Workers are being pushed into 12- to 14-hour shifts under poor conditions. These largely leaderless protests are likely to continue.'
The deal shifts the US posture towards India from hostile to neutral, and that matters for growth, points out T T Ram Mohan.
Trade unions said Jaitley's minimum wage announcement is completely inadequate
'The BJP and its allies can decide the fate of many candidates.'
Employees and workers will meet on November 27 to protest against the recommendations
Small parties have the capacity to play both ends against the middle. Puducherry could be heading that way, points out Aditi Phadnis.
The first leg of the Budget session concluded with debates over the India-US trade deal and a former army chief's memoir, and will reassemble on March 9.
Rijiju, however, did not specify when and who will give notice for privilege motion against Gandhi. It is believed that someone from treasury benches in the Lok Sabha will do so.
More than 25 crore workers engaged in sectors ranging from banking, insurance, postal to coal mining, highway and construction are expected to go on a nationwide general strike on Wednesday, potentially disrupting services across the country. A forum of 10 central trade unions and their associates has called for a general strike or 'Bharat Bandh' to "oppose the anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national pro-corporate policies of the government".
'No, India and China were not about to go to all-out war over a few rocks of Galwan.' 'The full picture of what went on at the highest level between two heads of State will not be known for a very, very long time and rightly so,' points out Colonel Anil A Athale, former head of the history division, ministry of defence.
'The prime minister didn't come to Parliament.' 'But the BJP MP is charging that you wanted to assault the prime minister.' 'Only a person who has the intellect and ideology of the BJP can come up with such bizarre charges.'
The core issues to be settled -- access to Hormuz, Israel's aggression in Lebanon, the question of Iran's nuclear programme, sanctions relief and compensation -- are thorny enough to require weeks of patient negotiation. The most likely outcome of the opening sessions is that both sides take the measure of each other, establish what is and is not negotiable, and return home without having broken anything. That would count as progress.
In a culture where children take up the profession of their father, her becoming a politician was seen as natural and acceptable.
The Winter session of Parliament will be held from December 1 to 19, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju announced on Saturday, in what the opposition has described as an 'unusually delayed' and truncated session.
'Gandhi had given the call 'Do or Die'. And with all the leaders arrested, you had to be your own leader.'
Air services may be disrupted on August 20 as airport employees have decided to join the major trade unions in their general strike against the "anti-people" policies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The unions term the introduction of fixed-term employment as a 'modern labour slavery system' introduced through the 'back door'.
The debate over working hours flared up after Infosys Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy called for 14-hour workdays.
'India's farmers will be unable to compete with the US, given the subsidies that the latter provides its farmers.'
Ten central trade unions except Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh are observing one-day general strike on Thursday to protest against various government policies.
Luckily for us, a Russia that is desperate to stay relevant in an emerging multipolar world finds in India a reliable geostrategic partner. The Russian proximity to India also keeps China from exploiting its economic dominance vis a vis Russia, points out Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
India-US relations, like Rome, were not built in a day, nor can they be demolished in a day.
All said and done, when the new global order emerges, India can only remain with the democracies, asserts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Mrs Gandhi's power ebbed and peaked with the times. Mr Modi's has almost been constant, barring the few months of hard dip after the 240 seats of 2024, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress party has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of GST reforms, calling them inadequate and demanding an apology for the tax imposed on essential items. They argue that the reforms are merely a 'band-aid' solution and that the government should address the states' demand for extended compensation.
With United States President Donald Trump reiterating his claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, the Congress on Wednesday asked what do the 'typically loquacious' Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar have to say about this revelation and did they 'mortgage' India's security interests in the face of US 'pressure'.
The strike notices were given by workers' unions of various sectors such as coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, income tax, copper, banks and insurance.
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