New Delhi: Upping the ante against the Centre's disinvestment plans, RSS-affiliate BMS (Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh) reiterated on Saturday that it is going to take to the streets across India on January 3 to protest against the government's anti-labour policies. On January 3, protests will take place across district headquarters in the country against the Centre's disinvestment plans and a number of other issues which the BMS views as being against the country's workforce. The RSS-affiliate has said that after the January 3 protests, it will adopt a "wait and watch" approach to see if the government has softened its stance in the upcoming Union Budget. Vrijesh Upadhyay, General Secretary of BMS, said at a press conference, "We are going to wait until the Budget to see if the government has eased its stance on the issue of privatisation of public sector companies. If not, we will decide what the future course should be."
While asserting that BMS is not against privatisation, Upadhyay said, "We are not against privatisation. We welcome private entrepreneurs. But if we look at history, privatisation of PSUs has not served the sector well. The government will have to yield to our demands." Urging the government to stop the disinvestment, strategic sale, corporatisation and privatisation of PSUs, a statement released by BMS said, "The PSUs are the backbone of the Indian industrial structure and the government must stop policy-driven disinvestment/ privatisation of the same. FDI must be stopped. FDI/ Corporatisation of defence sector is a matter of national security."
Apart from disinvestment, the charter of demands released by BMS includes removal of anti-labour provisions in the labour law codes, a raise in threshold of income tax limit from the current Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, abolishment of contract labour as well as "fixed term employment" and absorption of all workers into permanent employment, implementation of the code on Wages-2019, re-enactment of the previous pension scheme, among others.