CPI(M) Demands Suspension Of DC & SP

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on the issue of the Honda workers in Gurgaon on July 27, 2005:

BY his refusal to take action against the senior officials guilty of the barbaric attack on the Honda factory workers, the chief minister of Haryana who also holds the Home portfolio has defied the sentiments expressed in both houses of parliament for speedy action against those responsible. The reported terms of reference of the judicial enquiry which includes examination of the ‘role of outsiders” is highly objectionable and are framed to protect the officials concerned and must be suitably amended. It is clear that with the officials continuing in their posts, no impartial inquiry can be held. Teams of CPI(M) leaders and members of parliament who have visited the hospital, the jail and met workers and their families yesterday and today show that the crude bias of the administration against the workers continues with the incarceration of workers and their leaders. False cases have been foisted on workers. Workers have been kept in undisclosed places and not allowed to meet their relatives. The complete list of those in police custody has still not been released. Even today several workers are missing leading to growing anxiety of their whereabouts.

The CPI(M) reiterates its demand for immediate suspension and removal of the deputy commissioner, the SSP and other police officials against whom there is visual prima facie evidence. It demands that false cases against the workers be withdrawn and all the workers released. It demands compensation to those injured. The Haryana government must take action to ensure that the Honda management withdraws its illegal lockout, takes all workers back on duty with suitable compensation for the days of work illegally denied to them. The laws of the country apply to all owners, foreign and Indian. In this context the reported remarks of the Japanese Ambassador that political parties should stay out of the dispute are unwarranted and would have been better avoided.