BJP finds itself in knots over Surat weavers’ unrest

If the Government does not help the Surat weavers, who form the common class in the textile city, the latter’s anger may well rub off adversely on the BJP’s electoral prospects in the forthcoming elections to the municipal corporations in the State. Almost all the corporation seats, all the four MLAs and the MP in Surat are with the BJP, besides a Rajya Sabha MP.

If the Government does help the weavers, as it is inclined to do at the moment, it may not only have to cough up over Rs 350 crore, but also set an unhealthy precedent for other industrial sectors to follow. Already, the traditional jari and diamond units in Surat are in the throes of recession and need support. Once they also ask for sops from the Government, it would overturn the State’s attempts at power-sector reforms, whose basic tenet is a drastic reduction in subsidies and increase in power-tariff.

Already, wage-cuts in the diamond industry, which are restricted to areas in Saurashtra, are likely to be effected in Surat which cuts and polishes as much as 60 per cent of the diamonds exported from India. There are three lakh workers in diamond units. If there were incidents of violence by the weavers in Surat, incidents were also reported from Bhavnagar district involving diamond workers.

While the GERC is likely to hike the tariff, the Gujarat Government would have only one choice if it wishes to help the weavers: take upon itself the burden between the increased tariff and the lower rates the weavers are asking for. This means at least Rs 350 crore.

Caught thus between politics and economics, the Government does not know which to choose. Already the party is facing a great deal of embarrassment with the weavers, led by the Surat Grey Cloth Manufacturers’ Association, resorting to violence and staging rowdy demonstrations against the BJP leaders. There are as many as eight SRP companies stationed in Surat, with a brief to be soft on the agitators and avoid arrests as far as possible.

Right from parading donkeys and holding abusive demonstrations in front of Union Textiles Minister and Surat MP Kashiram Rana’s residence in Surat, to throwing muck and stones at the houses of local party leaders and government buses, the agitators are virtually on the rampage. Their strike has lasted a week.

During a marathon eight-hour meeting at the Chief Minister’s bungalow on Saturday, angry representatives of the Association were in no mood to see reason.

The office-bearers of the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who understood the Government’s predicament, were virtually disallowed to speak by the angry Association members, which is dominated by people from Saurashtra. The Chamber has already petitioned the GERC to consider a special tariff for the powerloom sector, which has engaged nearly three lakh workers in Surat.

During the meeting, Industries Minister Suresh Mehta offered a subsidy of 15 per cent on their power-bills, but when they called upon “Keshabapa tame kaik karo (Keshubhai, you do something),” Keshubhai agreed to hike it to 25 per cent till the GERC announced the new tariff structure.

He assured them that even after the GERC revised its tariff, the Government would create a level playing-field for them with Bhiwandi. Keshubhai also said that the Government would, on August 5, file an affidavit before the GERC explaining the predicament of the weavers and advocate a special low tariff for them.

Despite this, the Association members who had converged by the dozens in Gandhinagar, left the Chief Minister’s bungalow around 1.30 am, with a threat to work against the BJP in the coming municipal elections. They wanted 40 per cent subsidy, plus unmetered power, like in Bhiwandi. The Chief Minister has refused both.