Strike, but at what cost?

One of the upsides of any democracy is the right to free speech and the right to protest. We in India tend to take the latter a bit too seriously as we have made it a national pastime to embark upon agitations, to get our way with things. A two day national strike called by a joint forum of central trade unions kicked off on Monday. Essential services such as mass transport and banking were thrown out of gear. In Chennai, serpentine queues were seen in Metro stations as MTC functioned with a skeletal staff. The strike was to protest against the Centre’s supposedly short-sighted policies that affect the farmers, people and workers. A bone of contention is the privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs) as envisioned in the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2021. The Bill was set to bring down the minimum government holding in PSBs from 51% to 26%. Having introduced the Bill in the winter session of the Parliament in December 2021, the Centre however, had to defer the same.

In the 2021-22 budget, the Finance Minister spoke about the Centre’s plan for PSBs, which is part of its disinvestment drive that should bring in, as per revised estimates, about Rs 78, 000 crore into the government’s kitty (down from Rs 1.75 lakh crore, which was the budget target). Stakeholders feared that while PSBs cater to every section of the society, private banks by nature, are beasts of burden for the commercial machinery and would focus their energies on HNIs and business conglomerates. The public fears that privatisation would push the economically weak sections of society to the fringes as there might no longer be a government safety net. The focus could even turn to profitable urban areas as opposed to rural markets that would be bereft of any modern advancements.

Several PSBs are already reeling under the impact of NPAs. And privatising banks at such a juncture could endanger the investments of the common citizens, who fear that they might be restricted from withdrawing their own money due to the potential limits placed by banks to protect their interests. On the flipside, privatisation might entail a slew of operational efficiencies that could help resurrect the status of PSBs. Reduced government intervention also means banks are at liberty of functioning sans political pressure. It would also lift a huge burden off the government as the onus of safeguarding the public’s money falls on the shoulders of the banks.

Privatisation of banks aside, there are other concerns that have inspired this bandh. Workers in sectors including coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, Income Tax, insurance, have raised demands for scrapping the proposed changes in labour laws and the four year national monetisation pipeline (NMP), along with increased allocation of wages under MNREGS and regularisation of contract workers.

Much of the furore surrounding the NMP is regarding how it will engage private enterprises to begin operating brownfield projects – completed assets that are either languishing, under-utilised, or non-monetised (via transfer of revenue rights, not ownership rights) to help the Centre net an estimated Rs 6 lakh cr. At 66%, roads, railways and the power sectors make up for the bulk of the value of assets to be monetised. Other sectors include mining, aviation, telecom, petroleum and natural gas pipelines, warehouses, stadiums. Going by the example of Air India and BPCL, these initiatives could be a long drawn process, and something the government must deliberate upon wisely. At a time, when the nation has emerged from the after-effects of a pandemic, an extended strike will result in further loss of productivity, with no productive outcome in sight.