Bata MD assaulted

CALCUTTA, July 23: For Jyoti Basu who has been wooing investors to West Bengal, often at the risk of giving his party and the CITU the sh...

CALCUTTA, July 23: For Jyoti Basu who has been wooing investors to West Bengal, often at the risk of giving his party and the CITU the short shrift, the assault on the managing director of Bata India could not have come at a worse time. For yesterday8217;s incident at Bata has jolted the Left Front Government8217;s desperate moves to put an industry-friendly face.

No wonder Basu called the attack on the Bata MD W K Weston quot;barbaricquot;. The CPIM and the CITU, too, rushed in to try and repair the damage. Even Opposition Congress and BJP leaders wondered aloud if the incident would not send wrong signals to potential State investors. Industry circles were simply shocked and argued that even an isolated incident like this could send a big, bad signal.

Basu8217;s response actually related to the scenario beyond the Batanagar fracas. Over the past few months, several major industrial units in the State like Dunlop and Shaw Wallace have either closed shop or faced massive problems, not necessarily because of labourtrouble.

There have been others like multinational Philips and Siemens which backtracked after making some investments and shifted units from here to other States. With Basu scheduled to leave for London on Saturday for a medical check-up, the assault on the Bata boss has revived memories of militant trade unionism in Bengal. The Chief Minister and his party, the CPIM, have largely been able to persuade the workers against militancy. But some of it remained and that was enough to scare away investors feel many in industry circles here.

Meanwhile, workers of Bata India Limited resorted to a wildcat strike today in protest against the dismissal of three employees involved in a 1996 case of physically assaulting an officer.

Incidentally, the dismissal issue led to a section of union leaders assaulting the managing director, Weston, yesterday.

A section of the Bata Mazdoor Union, which has both INTUC and CITU members, were led into Weston8217;s room yesterday to demand withdrawal of the dismissal order. Theheated exchange between Weston and the union leaders led to chaos and Weston was assaulted by the leaders.

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While the workers feel the union leaders would be blamed for any unfortunate turn of events, the State government has taken a serious view of the incident and asked the police and administration to stop hooliganism of the union leaders.