'Maruti violence was a planned conspiracy'

Training guns on his arch-rival Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala has said that the unrest at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd was a 'well planned conspiracy'.

The Indian National Lok Dal chief told Hindustan Times that the Hooda government not only failed miserably to bring the situation under control but also risked to lose foreign investors with its inept handling of the crisis.

Chautala rubbished suggestions that Maoists or naxals were involved in the July 18 violence at the Maruti's plant at Manesar.

'Those sitting in the corridors of power are responsible for the fiasco. It is the responsibility of the Haryana government to bring forth the truth and expose the people behind the violence at Maruti's Manesar plant,' he said.

A senior HR manager was killed and several others were wounded in the alleged assault by striking workers.

Explaining the importance of political interference in handling labour unrest, Chautala referred to the role his government had played during the three-month-long strike at the Maruti plant in 2001.

'I immediately spoke with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, seeking his intervention to check the local BJP leaders who along with their Congress and Communist party counterparts were addressing the gate meeting of the Maruti workers and instigating them,' said the Indian National Lok Dal chief.

'But the Hooda government did not do anything to control the situation in Manesar. He did not take his party top brass in confidence or show intention to tackle issue. It is a 100% failure of his government that it could not sense the trouble brewing at the plant. The violence was not the act of Naxals or Maoists but some of the rogue elements in the power corridors who want to shunt the Maruti plant out of Gurgaon,' Chautala added.

When asked as to why the Gurgaon police did not act allegedly in time when the violence struck the Manesar plant and managers and supervisors were being assaulted, Chautala said the police force was feeling demoralised.

'The police officers did not act as they feared action from the senior officers. There have been instances when the police officials were booked for taking action in such cases,' Chautala said.

The former CM feared that the Manesar incident would set a bad precedent for the industry in Haryana in general and in Gurgaon, in particular.

'The multinational companies setting up their ventures require basic amenities such as water, power, roads, airport connectivity and above all peaceful working conditions. However, the Hooda government has failed to provide all these in Gurgaon. During my tenure, I created economical boarding facilities for Japanese executives such as Japanese hostel,' Chautala added.

Chautala expressed the apprehension that the Manesar incident would affect foreign direct investment especially from Japanese firms.

'The immediate casualty could be the global corridor that the Haryana government has planned along the KMP Expressway where a dozen theme cities are proposed to come up,' he said.