Workers dismissed from Haryana’s Maruti plant in 2012 pin hope on polls – but will they get justice?

As Haryana goes to the polls on October 5, election campaigns have begun in right earnest. News reports have focused on candidates and electoral alliances, seldom on the content of the campaigns. Campaigning itself has devolved into a competition in attacking rivals.

Leading the Congress campaign is fourth-generation politician and former Haryana chief minister Deepender Hooda, who accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of 10 years of misrule. Kicking off the party’s campaign on July 15 in Karnal, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s constituency, Hooda accused the BJP of being involved in over “50 scams” and said the state’s unemployment is the highest in the country. Drugs and alcohol have reached every home along with the high inflation rates, alleged Hooda. Countering the Congress’s claims, Saini, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and a fierce supporter of cow protection, accused the party of spreading “misinformation”.

But in between accusations and counter-accusations, how far do ordinary voters actually believe in poll promises and do these promises even get votes? This question came to my mind after a worker dismissed from the Maruti Suzuki factory at Manesar in Haryana forwarded a clip from the BJP’s campaign mentioning the events of July 2012 .

The BJP election video is titled: “Hooda Saheb, Log Bhule Kodya”, the people have not forgotten. The bit on the Maruti plant workers says that people have not forgotten how “Hooda lathicharged Maruti workers and allowed a manager to be burnt alive”. Congress leader Bhupinder Hooda was chief minister when violence broke out at the Maruti plant. His son Deepender Hooda is leading the Congress’s election campaign.

On July 18, a long-running protest by workers over increased pay and better conditions devolved into violence as the Maruti Suzuki factory in Manesar was set on fire while more than 90 managers were beaten up. One manager died in the blaze. The police and security forces stood by without intervening effectively.

Why had the BJP had brought up the Maruti matter after so many years? What did it hope to gain?

I soon found out from the Struggle Committee of the Maruti Suzuki workers fighting for justice for those who had been summarily dismissed by the management.

My acquaintance with the workers began while writing a book with Anjali Deshpande on the events that took place at the factory in July 2012. The book, Japanese Management, Indian Resistance: The Struggles of Maruti Suzuki Workers (2023), focuses on why workers expressed their rage in such extreme ways that day.

Since 2012, the workers had been attending proceedings at the Labour Court where their cases are pending. When they got desperate, they tried to get appointments with politicians in the hope of a political solution and getting their jobs back.

They had been to all political parties: the Congress, BJP and two factions of the Aam Aadmi Party. All the parties said they could not do much since the matter was pending in the court. Suddenly, on August 21, the Struggle Committee members had got a letter from the Office of the Labour Commissioner inviting them for tripartite talks in Chandigarh.

Some of the members of the Struggle Committee came home to ask for my legal advice.

One of them, Satish Kumar, said his name was not in the first information report and he was not even arrested. But like many others, he got an identically-worded letter on August 16, 2012 that said he was being dismissed because the management had “lost confidence” in him. Like the other workers, Kumar had also filed a case before the Labour Court and had been attending the hearings since 2012.

He was pleasantly surprised to receive the letter dated August 21 from the office of the Labour Commissioner in Chandigarh inviting the committee for tripartite talks to settle the wrongful dismissal of the workers. The five members of the Struggle Committee arrived at the Office of the Labour Commissioner a little before the appointed time of 11 am on August 30.

Present at the meeting were five members of the Struggle Committee, Labour Commissioner Maniram Sharma, Joint Labour Commissioner Paramjit Dhul, and representatives of the Maruti Suzuki management, Human Resources Head Saurabh Kumar and Assistant Manager Bhoopinder Sharma. However, members of the factory union were delayed.

Nothing much came out of the meeting since the union representatives were not present. Once they arrived, the meeting was reconvened. The dismissed workers were happy to watch the management get a dressing down from the Labour Commissioner.

But the company management stood its ground and said that it has no provision for taking back workers, except according to law.

Satish Kumar pointed out that the Maruti Suzuki management did not respect the law. He said that back in 2012, the Maruti Suzuki management had filed an application before the Labour Court, as per labour law, for permission to dismiss workers without a domestic enquiry. But in 2015, the company withdrew its petition and told the Labour Court that the company’s standing orders allowed them to dismiss workers without any domestic enquiry. The Court directed the company to pay the workers Rs 1 lakh each but till date, these orders have not been obeyed.

Kattar, another dismissed worker and a member of the Struggle Committee, said he felt that the BJP might be able to find a solution to the matter this time. Otherwise, why mention it in the party’s election video?

I asked him why he thought so. He said that one of the dismissed workers was from the Saini community and had contact with the office chief minister’s office. Kattar said the members of the Struggle Committee had gone to Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s home several times – they had never spoken to him directly but the Officer on Special Duty had assured them that the chief minister knew of their case and would resolve the matter. The official told the dismissed workers that the Saini had given them “a green flag”, which meant he would do something concrete for them.

The Struggle Committee wrote a formal letter to the Labour Commissioner, as they had been told to do so. But they continued to follow up on the matter with BJP leaders.

On August 31, members of the Struggle Committee went to Sonipet where Krishna Gehlot was campaigning for the BJP. Gehlot’s sister is the wife of former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda. In 2005, Gehlot contested as a Congress candidate and then switched to the BJP in 2014.

In the afternoon, members of the Struggle Committee met her and she promised them that the BJP would settle the matter. She even called Saini and put the phone on speaker mode so the workers could hear the chief minister say that the matter would be settled whether or not he remains chief minister.

Satish Kumar said the case of workers who had joining letters should be settled. When the workers filed their case before the Labour Court, the lawyer for company management said the joining letters were sent because of a clerical mistake. The management claimed that since the workers were in jail, they were guilty. When they were released without a chargesheet being filed, they still did not get their jobs back.

Now, the big question before the workers is who they should vote for. They agreed on one thing: they will vote for any party that gives them their jobs back. Kattar said his financial position was so precarious that he had contemplated going to Israel, which is recruiting Indian workers due to a shortage of labourers in the country following its 11-month assault on the Gaza Strip.

At one time, these men were strong and willing workers, happy to have got jobs at the modern automobile factory run by the Japanese.

Now, they have no jobs or future.

As I see these men sitting in my living room, I do not see anger – instead, it is despondency that is writ large on every muscle of their face. To lighten the mood, I ask how they felt about wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s decision to join the Congress.

There is silence. Then, one of the committee workers, who I knew is an unabashed wrestling fan and had followed Phogat’s every move at the Paris Olympics, spoke up. He had gone to Jantar Mantar several times last year when the wrestlers were on a protest demanding the resignation of President of Wrestling Foundation of India, BJP parliamentarian and strongman Brij Bhushan Singh for sexually harassing wrestlers. A court framed charges of sexual harassment against Singh in May.

“She has let us down,” he said, no spark in his eyes, no enthusiasm in his words.

A discussion amongst them followed. They felt Phogat had taken revenge on the BJP for not heeding the wrestlers’ months-long protest nor their demands. Others felt it might lower Phogat’s status as an icon, having gained national and international accolades for her gutsy protest and sporting excellence.

One of the workers said wrestler Bajrang Punia, who had also joined protests, had not been given a seat to contest because he would not win. Sports was one thing but the political maidan was quite another. Besides, what was the guarantee that the Congress would do better for women wrestlers?

He is right.

An analysis by the nonprofit Association of Democratic Reforms found that 251, or 46% of the 543 new MPs, elected to Lok Sabha after 2024 elections, face criminal cases – 27 of them have been convicted. This is an increase from 43% MPs in 2019 with declared criminal cases against them, 34% in 2014, 30% in 2009 and 23% in 2004.

Of the 251 new Lok Sabha MPs facing criminal cases, 170 have been booked for crimes including rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, and crimes against women.

With 240 members, the BJP is the largest party in Lok Sabha. Of its total MPs in Lok Sabha, 94, or 39%, have declared criminal cases against them. Of the Congress’s 99 MPs, 49 have criminal cases, as do 21 of the Samajwadi Party’s 37 MPs. The case is the same for all parties that have sent MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Phogat is going to be disappointed.

Satish Kumar asked, no one in particular: so, what is the way forward? Another worker said: The only way is to keep up our struggles and compel them to concede.

Kattar then turned to me and asked: “Why have they mentioned Maruti workers in their BJP video? Why did the chief minister make promises if he did not mean to keep them?”

Before I could say anything, another worker said, “It is because they know if we unite, together we can make life difficult for the corporations.”

Kattar asked if I would help them draft the next letter to the Labour Commissioner.

My lawyer’s heart silently wondered: how relevant was the Constitution for these workers? How could the government protect them from these corporations?

Kattar looked at me and asked: “Will you? This time before the elections is the only time they may settle the matter?”

Nandita Haksar is a human rights lawyer and award-winning author.

Also read:

A decade after Maruti Suzuki factory violence: How the media undermined the workers’ protest