By Tirthankar Mitra
The Trinamool Congress-run West Bengal government seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place over the ongoing agitation by state government employees demanding dearness allowance at par with their central government counterparts. The month-long hunger strike by agitating state government employees at the foot of the iconic Shahid Minar seems to have become a port of call for the Opposition leaders of the state, cutting across ideological barriers. The DA agitation seems to be the last thing that the ruling dispensation was expecting to deal with.
Strikes and disruption of work almost at the drop of a hat marked the 34-year-long CPI(M)-led Left Front regime. It has been one of the claims of Trinamool Congress government headed by Mamata Banerjee that it has put an end to “bandh and strike Raj”.
The strike by the state government employees on 10 March puts an end to such claims. This was the first strike by state government employees ever since the Trinamool swept to power in 2011.
Empty corridors and unmanned desktops greeted officials in the various state government offices, when a large section of employees stayed away from work. They had responded to a strike call by the Joint Forum of State Government Employees.
Conservative estimates put the percentage of striking employees at about 50 percent. The strike sponsors put this percentage at a much higher level.
The immediate success of the strike, in terms of sheer participation, apart, it seems to have provided a divided Opposition a much-needed forum to come together before the crucial rural polls. The supporters of the DA strike include the Left-oriented Coordination Committee, Congress-affiliated Confederation of State Government Employees and the BJP-run Employees’ Council.
The timing of the strike appears to be a combination of chance and design. The issue had been hanging fire for months in courtroom battles and it has been called back in the wake of the victory of Left-backed Congress candidate Bayran Biswas at Sagardighi by-poll.
The BJP is stated to have played a significant role in the Biswas victory. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee claiming that the victory was the outcome of an “immoral alliance” seemed to give recognition to the joining of forces of all her political opponents.
The strike by the state government employees was the second occasion after Sagardighi by-polls, when the three Opposition outfits have made common cause on one issue. The ruling dispensation found itself challenged from a quarter it least expected.
Small wonder, differences have cropped up in the Trinamool leadership on the issue of paying government employees at par with the central government counterparts. Taking on the Opposition in two fronts is not an acceptable proposition to those who are unwilling to go on rubbing the state employees the wrong way.
But these leaders are chary of voicing their opinion in the open. For it would mean exiting from the good books of party supremo Mamata Banerjee. A dressing-down and subsequent downsizing in the party would follow. But another group towing the official line cite the grim state of the state’s finances and feel that the employees’ demand for a hiked dearness allowance should not be conceded.
The latter group feel that giving dearness allowance at an enhanced rate would mean slashing the funds for the public welfare schemes like Lakshmir Bhander and Kanyasree, to name a few. Continuing to allocate funds to public welfare schemes would yield higher electoral dividend in the panchayat polls and next year’s Lok Sabha elections, than paying more dearness allowance to about 10 lakh state government employees, a vocal section in the TMC has pointed out.
While chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said that her government cannot pay more even if she is “beheaded”, state legislative affairs minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhayay, has put the official stand in a loud and clear manner. Chattopadhayay said: “Those holding protests seeking DA hike can afford fish and rice every day, which most of the people on the state cannot. What should be the government’s policy in such a situation then?”
“When Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011, the state employees’ due DA was 90 per cent, compared to 125 per cent cleared by the Centre for its employees. DA is calculated as per All India Consumer Price Index. 90 per cent due DA was given by this government after clearing 25 per cent due DA on January 1, 2019. Meanwhile, the Centre implemented the 7th Pay Commission and announced 12 per cent DA at a new higher rate,” said Moloy Mukhopadhayay, general secretary of the Confederation of State Government Employees Association.
Even as the stand of the state government remains unchanged, not being a “state-sponsored” staying away from work, the strikers were in for an unpleasant surprise. Some of the supporters of the ruling dispensation blocked their way to their place of work the day after the strike.
But the most intriguing part of the DA stir yet is Governor CV Anand Bose, asking the hunger strikers to give up their fast. It seemed almost a repeat of the Singur issue when a delegation of employees met the governor at Raj Bhavan and sought his mediation and a tripartite meeting.
An amicable solution does not seem to be in sight with the government preparing to send showcause notices to those who participated in the statewide strike. Both sides having taken what appears to be Inflexible stands, it remains to be seen who gives in first. (IPA Service)
