By Atul – Rama - Syndicate Features
When a mob lynched Lalit Kishore Chaudhary, chief executive officer of an Italian company in Greater Noida, it not only committed a horrible and unjustified act of murder but also left a deep dent on the reputation of the fledging industrial town of UP situated at the eastern door of Delhi. All the worst features of an aspiring industrial town were on view when that tragedy happened.
It was a reflection of the sorry state of law and order in the area. Only recently agitation by farmers of the area demanding higher compensation for their land acquired by the government had turned violent, resulting in the death of at least six of them in police firing. But many will still associate the Noida area with the way police had bungled investigation into the Arushi murder case and the police reputation of being casual in attending to complaints from harassed and fearful citizens after the cannibalistic orgies in a house in Greater Noida came to light early this year.
Chaudhary’s brutal murder also shows how poor has been the management of labour relations by both the government as well as trade unions, which are affiliated to different political parties. The association of political parties means that vote bank politics takes precedence over everything else.
That consideration of vote bank politics can stoop to shocking levels was reminded by the union minister of labour, Oscar Fernandes, who all but condoned the act of lynching of Chaudhary when he said that the incident should serve as a ‘warning’ for all managements that workers are not pushed so hard that ‘they resort to whatever had happened at Greater Noida.’ The honourable minister’s statement was all the more shocking considering how mobs were targeting institution of his community in his native Karnataka and he could obviously not have viewed those acts a ‘warning’ signal.
It hardly matters that after his remarks shocked the nation and evoked widespread protests and condemnation he offered his regrets. But that will not carry much conviction because the political class on the whole was rather mute in registering its protest against the daylight murder of a company executive, whatever be the cause of the grievances of the workers. In normal case an egregious statement made by a Congress minister would have drawn instant barrage of condemnation by both the BJP and the Left. In fact, a Left leader, CPI’s Gurudas Das Gupta, also said words that did not suggest that he felt the workers had committed a grave crime. The BJP’s silence was all the more surprising because it would have given it another handle to beat the BSP government in UP. Or could it be that the trade union in the car parts manufacturing unit that Chaudhary headed was affiliated to the BJP?
While it will not be right to say that law and order is a problem peculiar to the Noida and Greater Noida area alone when things are no different in the rest of state, the situation in what is part of Greater Delhi or the National Capital Region assumes a graver tone. Places like Noida and Gurgaon, south of Delhi were developed to take the load off Delhi for industrial expansion and for easing the housing problem. But these new extensions of the national capital show many of the symptoms associated with poor governance, apathy and a thriving culture of corruption. The police in these towns continue to function—or not function—as inefficiently and indifferently as in the rest of the two states.
At the Italian company’s factory incident, for instance, the police took three hours to arrive after some of the senior officials were contacted and told about the grim situation that was building up when a mob of workers descended there with iron rods and hammer in their hands.
In fact, trouble at the factory was simmering for many months; certainly since July. The district authorities were well aware of the problem but that did not make them arrange presence of extra police force when the mobs entered the factory premises. A cynical analysis for the reason of this apathy would be that the police had not received its ‘hafta’ and hence refused to take any pre-emptive measure.
A belief among the residents of the Noida area, if true, tells the story about the corrupt ways of the police there. In recent days many trucks and dumpers have been spotted parked idly on the spanking new toll bridge that connects Delhi and Noida. The grapevine is that the drivers have to leave their vehicles idle on the road—often in the wrong lane—in order to pay their ‘dues’ to the cops!
The cops, in turn, have perhaps a reason to receive ‘dues’ from transporters and a whole lot of others in the area, including factory owners, businessmen and builders; they have to keep the coffers of the politicians bloating. It is no secret that policemen posted in ‘lucrative’ areas are under pressure to bring in hefty contributions that the politicians expect. Of course, a part of it disappears before it reaches the final destination.
The point is that tragedies like the one that befell the Chaudhary family or earlier the family of dentist Rajesh Talwar or the perverse activities reported from a house owned by a Chandigarh-based businessman do appear to have something to do with the inefficiency and corruption prevalent in the police force in the Noida belt. The politicians who rule from Lucknow have shown no determination to fight this evil.
A more shocking thing is that the politicians do not seem to be concerned about its serious repercussions: it is Noida that is being lynched. There can be no doubt that the murder of L.K.Chaudhary has certainly driven away many prospective investors from Noida/Greater Noida. The news was instantly flashed across the world—surely a worrying negative publicity. The factory that Chaudhary headed, owned by Italian Grazio Transmissioni, seems to have decided against expansion plans at Greater Noida—for the moment at least.
A disincentive for prospective investors is already there because the government of UP has not been able to improve the power supply situation in the Noida belt, not to mention several other civic services and facilities including intra-city transport. But the poor law and order situation coupled with government disinterest in handling labour related problems will be an even factor to keep the big investors off the Noida/Grater Noida area. It hardly needs to be emphasised that there are many other parts of the country which are always ready to lure the investors—with the exception of post-Singur (and Nano) West Bengal.
- Asian Tribune -
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