New Delhi, July 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):In another step towards Chauvinism, Modi-led fascist Indian government is planning to bring the Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021, this week to ban strikes at defence related factories and workplaces, forcing 41 ordnance factories across India to go for an indefinite strike from today. The Rajya Sabha business advisory committee (BAC) held on Thursday discussed the bill to come up for passing this week.

“The Narendra Modi-led BJP government has decided to corporatize the 246-year-old Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), an umbrella body that oversees the 41 ordnance factories across India. But around 80,000 employees and four lakh defence civilian employees associated with the factories are opposing the decision,” said C Srikumar, general secretary, All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF). “Even though the Modi government was not concerned about the nation’s security and workers’ plight, they would oppose the government’s plan of privatising the defence factories at any cost,” Srikumar added.

Interestingly, Trinamool Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha, Sukehndu Sekhar Roy tweeted on Sunday in support of the strike called by the ordnance factory employees. The new Bill that seeks to prevent the workers of establishments that are engaged in “essential defence services” from going on strikes or lockouts, was introduced in Lok Sabha earlier last week.

The Bill that empowers the government to prohibit agitation or strikes among workers of defence related establishments, comes in less than a month since the government brought an Ordinance on June 30. The strike was proposed after the government decided to corporatise the ordnance factories across India into seven 100 per cent government-owned corporate entities, registered under the Companies Act 2013.

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