During the thirteen months' rule of the BJP-led coalition and the extended rule for several months as a caretaker government after its defeat in the Lok Sabha in April 1999, the country has witnessed further speeding up of its so-called economic reforms, or, in plain words, privatisation, retrenchment and opening up the market to the foreign multinationals. In fact, during this extended period of functioning as a caretaker government, the BJP-led coalition government has become more desparate in attacking the working class and in selling out the valuable assets of the country to the indigenous and foreign capitalists violating all norms of functioning and limitations of a caretaker government. Really, it wants to fulfill its anti-worker and anti-national commitments to the World Bank, IMF and WTO before the elections, hence its unseemly hurry violating all norms of propriety.

During its rule, the government has desperately tried to privatise the nationalised banking sector by taking a number of steps to implement the notorious recommendations of the Narasimham Committee. The government has desperately sought to open up the nationalised insurance sector to faithfully serve their WTO masters. Against all these attempts, banking and insurance employees have repeatedly risen in protest strikes. The All India Insurance Employees' Association collected more than 1.5 crores of mass signatures from all over the country opposing the conspiracy for opening up the insurance sector. A record performance for a union! Even then the government is refusing to listen. It may be added that new recruitment in banks and insurance sector has been totally stopped.

In the Central government sector, the government has already decided to corporatise the telecom industry, the inevitable result of which will be drastic reduction of staff. Already they have permitted private telecom companies to operate cutting into the area of performance of the government telecom sector. Moreover, in many of the departmental activities of the Central government, including the postal, are being gradually privatised again threatening the jobs of the existing employees.

During the period of operation of the new economic policy, at least 8 per cent of the posts in the Central government departments have been abolished and the BJP-led government has further speeded up the process of reduction of staff. Till now, more than 5 lakh posts in the Central government departments are lying vacant or being abolished in phases and the government has no intention to fill any portion of the vacancies.

In the Railways, the BJP-led government is playing havoc with jobs of the workers. The process of reduction of jobs which started in 1991, has now alarmingly speeded up and at least 87,000 posts have been abolished.

In privatising various departments of the railways and thereby throwing out the existing employees, what disastrous steps the government is going to take is revealed by a news item published in Economic Times of 29 March, 1999. This has sent shock waves to the railway workers. According to that report, the government is considering to `organisationally spilt its six manufacturing units into independent profit centres, thereafter corporatise and finally privatise them'. If the proposal materialise, the country's pride of the railway production units like Chittaranjan Locomotive, Banaras Diesel Locomotive factories and other production units would be sold out. Already the Railway Ministry is handing over the railway catering system to a corporation, thereby threatening the jobs of several thousand catering staff of the railways. Some other activities of the railways are also been privatised, the net result of which will be throwing the existing workers on to the streets.

As far as the state government employees are concerned, privitisation of the state public sector undertakings and state government departments has assumed a new dimension. Particularly in those states where state governments have transacted direct loans from the World Bank -- as has been done by BJP-ally TDP government in Andhra Pradesh or BJP government in Uttar Pradesh -- a very serious situation has been created by way of rapid privatisation. To cap it all, the TDP government in Andhra Pradesh, a BJP ally, decided to sell as many as six important government departments to a Singapore consortium, the notorious APVAN care threatening to retrench thousands of employees. When the state government employees' unions threatened an indefinite strike against this insane step and when under the leadership of CITU, a big trade union resistance was planned, the TDP government retraced temporarily. But the privatisation spree in that state continues, seriously jeopardising the job security of the existing employees. In UP, the BJP government has closed down a number of state public sector units and is thoroughly downsizing the government departments. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition, decided to seriously downsize the administrative apparatus by drastically reducing the staff through rapid and indiscriminate computerisation. The Maharashtra government also decided to privatise the entire milk production and supply scheme, but this could not be implemented due to stiff trade union resistance. Similar situation exists in many other states, except the states led by Left Front and Left Democratic Front like West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala.

The Telegraph of 19 March, 1999 published a worrisome news that the Central government has asked the state governments `to set a legal binding on the number of the employees', `Alternatively the Centre has suggested that the states set a ceiling on their total wage bill. This is a clear mandate to the state governments to downsize the administration by reducing the number of employees. A severe offensive on the existing state government employees of the country!

Decimating Public Sector

The BJP-led government has taken a number of ruinous steps to privatize or simply close down a number of Central public sector industries and enterprises. The public sector Indian Airlines has already been subjected to disinvestment.

The Central government has also decided to close down 64 coal mines of the Eastern Coalfields Ltd, thus throwing out 72,000 coal workers with their families into starvation. Against this totally anti-national move, the coal workers have built up stiff resistance, as a result of which the government could not yet implement this disastrous decision.

The last Central budget announced a target of Rs 10,000 crore from PSU disinvestment. The privatisation of IPCL and Engineers India Limited, two very important public sector undertakings, are on the hit list. According to government's announcement, 43 more PSUs are to be disinvested.

The Union Finance Minister, while announcing privatisation of 43 more PSUs, stated: "Government has been providing budgetory support to central PSEs for rationalising man power under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS)". Not simply privatising or closing down the sick units, about profit-making PSEs the Finance Minister announced, "There are a number of enterprises which are marginally profit making which need to reduce man power to remain viable..." So even the profit-making PSEs and their workers have no escape. Already among the sick units, the public sector pharmaceutical giant IDPL or the smaller ones like Bengal Immunity Ltd or Smith Stanstreet of West Bengal are sought to be closed down any moment as production in these units has been stopped by the government. Condition of the workers engaged in these industries can easily be imagined.

Moreover, there is no attempt by this government to revive the NTC Mills or the crucial capital goods and other manufacturing industries like MMC or the Cycle Corporation of India, different sick fertilizer units or even the very important ophthalmic glass manufacturing unit of Durgapur. Several public sector shipyards are also on the verge of closing down. Even the Wagon building industries are not fed with orders from the railways ruining the prospect of these units and the jobs of the workers. Likewise, BJP government has totally ignored the urgent necessity of reviving the giant sick steel industry, IISCO.

The women workers are the worst sufferers of this privatisation drive. They are the first targets of retrenchment. In coal industry, the authorities have stopped recruitment of women workers.

Coal and steel production is declining due to drastic reduction in customs duty and coal import has gone upto 20 million tonnes after this reduction. As nearly 1300 essential commodities have been brought under open general licence, small and traditional industries are facing closure throwing out the workers of those industries. And, due to Exit Policy, no notice is required for closing down of industrial units.