Reform First, Hindutava Later

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

'Can't Hindutva wait?" This was the headline to my column in this space last week. Hindutva should wait, so I argued, and development must get priority.

The good news is, this is what has started happening. And the table has begun to turn in favour of reform and better governance, away from the socio-economic ideas that some wings of the RSS, revel in. With the winter session of Parliament just on, the tug-of-war between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS' Hindutva warriors is at its climax. Modi, it seems, is poised to get some leeway, particularly on economic and labour reforms, though the Hindutva forces maintain their salience on cultural issues, including education. The round one, therefore, is predominantly Modi's.

A few months after his government had come to power, the Supreme Court gave order canceling 214 coal blocks. It could lead to a disaster as coal accounts for 60 per cent of India's entire energy generation. The government sought to overcome the problem with an ordinance, the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, in October. However, the government's long-term plan is to make ground for e-auction of coal mines, and sell stake of the state-controlled Coal India Limited.

It is an irony of fate that the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, labour union wing of the RSS, which is also India's largest central trade union organization, has now become an advocate of the Indira Gandhi laws. BMS is opposed to coal e-auction on nebulous grounds, like it may lead to proxy bidding by large players so that big cartels end up owning most of the mines. But it is clearly driven by the fear of losing domination in the collieries. In that way, it is no different from other trade unions dominated by the Congress or the left parties.

Modi joined RSS as a child and knows

how the system works at Nagpur

BMS, with other trade unions, were planning to go on strike but something happened-pressure of Modi on RSS, as it is being said-as a result of which the trade union leaders, including BMS, withdrew the strike threat following a meeting with Coal Minister Piyush Goyal. With coal line e-auction scheduled for February 2015, there is room for optimism about India soon becoming an energy-sufficient economy.

In yet another and more sensitive area, field trial of Genetically Modified (GM) crops, Modi again showed courage under fire against intense lobbying by Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, both RSS outfits. As in the case of coal mines privatization, the Hindutva warriors' central argument being a xenophobic apathy to everything foreign, including plant seeds. A team led by Ashwini Mahajan, SJM Co-Convenor, repeatedly met Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and had almost secured a governmental nod to ban on field trial of GM crops when Modi reportedly intervened. Javadekar declared in Parliament that field trials will go on. Interestingly, the SJM-BKS ideologues showed scant respect for Modi's argument that making India compliant to GM crop was a way of making inviting foreign investors respond to his call of 'Make-in-India', as genetic modification of crop is expected to boost yield many times over.

BMS was founded by RSS leader Dattopant Thengadi who, during the first NDA government's rule, turned it into a tool to embarrass the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whom he regarded as his rival. BMS appears to be continuing with the same tradition. It is opposed to the Modi government's proposed changes in Apprentices Act, 1961, Factories Act, 1948, and Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Register by Certain Establishments) Act, 1988. The proposed amendments are actually long overdue, considering that drastic changes that have taken place in industrial ecosystem over the decades. The intended changes in the Factories Act aim at improving safety and health of workers, allow women to be employed for night shifts in factories and also increase the limit of overtime hours for workers. These are modern, forward-looking amendments. But, for reasons that are not clear, BMS, with other labour unions in tow, had deliberations with Birendra Singh, BJP MP and head of the House Panel, following which the ministry developed cold feet.  But the government is determined pushing through the labour law amendments, so there may be more "Modi magic" in store.  The end result is that in the first week of Parliament's session saw Lok Sabha passing the Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Records and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) Amendment Bill and Rajya Sabha clearing  the Apprentices Act(Amendment) Bill without any problem.

Modi's reforms are focused on enhancing the ease of doing business in India. BMS, it seems, wants the voice of the union to prevail over other stakeholders. It is anything but a modern attitude. Modi had to swallow the bitter pill of SJM opposition to WTO deal in Bali without showing defeat but by giving the impression that it was his own decision. In reality, though, the SJM team had gone to Bali in December last year and staged demonstration against UPA's ex-commerce minister Anand Sharma.

On the issue of amending the thoroughly anti-business land acquisition law of the UPA, SJM has flooded Land Reforms Minister Nitin Gadkari's office with petitions demanding that the minimum farmers' consent for acquisition be left unchanged at 80 per cent. But the new Rural Development Minister Birender Singh who originally hails from Congress will have to ensure smooth amendments in the Act. But as expected, such same-side goal by SJM is giving further encouragement to die-hard anti-Modi parties, including Congress, Trinamool Congress and the Left, to stop the bill at all cost.

It seems Modi is game for a trade-off with the RSS outfits, giving freedom to Hindutva Warriors like Dinanath Batra and ex-chiarman of NCERT J. S. Rajput to have their way in 'saffronising' school text books, but leaving the field of economic reform free. But it is not easy to cut deals with zealots.

It may help them to recall that as Chief Minister of Gujarat Modi gave them little space in his state. When Vidya Bharati, a Sangh outfit, objected to his making English compulsory in the primary classes, he not only disregarded the objection but got the government to withdraw the land allocated to it. He forced BKS to vacate their state-level office in Gandhinagar. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal workers were beaten up and arrested when they took to the streets.

Modi joined RSS as a child and knows how the system works at Nagpur Which is why he knows the art of getting things done.

(The author is

National Editor,

Lokmat group)