ICHALKARANJI/MUMBAI,SEPT 16: Fighting for minimum wages and a regular eight hour job in Ichalkaranji has extracted a heavy price from its 50,000 strong powerloom workers who were brutally beaten up, when on strike, by the local police on August 18. Their crime ostensibly was of unveiling an Annabhau Sathe statue - that had been in wraps since 1995 - in the Awale maidan at Kolhapur and garlanding it, before addressing a meeting. Word spread that the statue was desecreted, after which the police could apparantly not hold themselves back.At present, a settlement of sorts has been worked out between the loom owners and the workers where their monthly wages have been hiked by a measly Rs 150. While earlier their wages were around Rs 1,800, it will now be Rs 1,950, says CITU (Centre for Indian Trade Unions) General Secretary, Vivek Monteiro. None of their demands like an eight hour day, or minimum wages have been met with.Adding to this, is the injury. It was, say locals, a well-orchestrated operation where all leaders in the agitation against loom owners were systematically picked and bashed up. Workers at Ichalkaranji, the second biggest powerloom town in the state have been agitating for minimum wages and reduction of work hours from 12 to 8. Having failed to get state government intervention on the demands, the workers decided to go on an indefinite strike from August 14.Narrating the sequence of events, Suryaji Salunkhe told The Indian Express that at the maidan, ``After all the speakers had addressed the meeting - since Annabhau was a leader well-known to espouse causes dear to us I decided to garland the statue''. Accordingly, water was procured from neighbouring households and used to wash the statue whose wraps were then removed.``I put a garland and a tilak before addressing the meeting,'' he narrates. He categorically points out that Deputy Superintendent of Police Milind Bharambe, Police Inspector of the Rajwada police station Amar Ingle and a posse of policemen were present at the site. Local residents corroborate this. ``Why did the police stay mute witness if I was desecrating the statue right under their nose?'' he asks.What followed next was carnage. First the CITU office was ransacked by miscreants around 9 pm, and five workers were beaten. Salunkhe who had been threatened by the miscreants, called up Ingle for protection. Ingle told him to stay put as he was coming over. ``He asked me to accompany him to the police station saying I would be safer there and I went in good faith,'' remembers Salunkhe. But once in the police station, Bharambe started beating him.``He, Ingle and three other constables began kicking me around in the abdomen and repeatedly struck my feet with baton,'' Salunkhe recalls with horror. Soon Sada Malabude, Barma Kamble, Madhukar Chikale, Datta Rawle from the CITU General Kamgar Union, Madan Margude of the Sena's Rashtrawadi Kamgar Union, Shantaram Gotad of INTUC and Bajrang Lonare (who had been out attending a meeting 15 km away) of Shramshakti Kamgar Sanghtana were brought in, stripped and taken to the compound where Ingle and others began pounding them black and blue.``It was worse than what people do to mad dogs,'' says Bajrang Lonare whose right knee and leg have been broken and he is still going around in a cast. ``The nightmare was far from over,'' remembers Salunkhe, ``it was like the cops were possessed''. They next descended on Aasra Nagar, a settlement of loom workers and began beating up everyone in sight. ``People who tried to shut themselves found their doors being kicked open as the constables went around attacking women and children,'' says Shobha Nathuram Wakhe, a resident who still nurses scars from the beatings.The police though, refute the charges and claim they were in fact trying to stem a riot. SP R K Padmanabhan, while admitting that the police had to resort to lathi charge at Aasra Nagar, said that they had to quell a mob which was pelting stones. He says 11 constables suffered serious injuries and that a jeep was totally destroyed by miscreants in the area.Refuting allegations that the police had thrashed the Samiti leaders on the loom owners' behest, Padmanabhan argues that the issue of brutalisation by the police was brought up only after CPM leader Ahilya Rangnekar visited Ichalkaranji on August 20. ``Not only did they not raise the issue on 18th and 19th but they also categorically told the judge when presented in court that they were not ill-treated in any way by the police,'' he says.On 21st, though, a complaint alleging beating was made to the local judge following which an inquiry has been instituted, and Ingle has been asked to go on leave. CPM members under Rangnekar met the Chief Minister again, only two days back, and an enquiry has been promised. But that is about it. Meanwhile the loom owners dissociate themselves from the attack. ``The workers should know better than to start demanding implementation of the minimum wage package at a time when the looms are shutting down due to the slack market,'' said a loom owner.
