Black Thursday

Chief of National Commission for Women in India Mamta Sharma has advised females to dress carefully, in light of the Assam molestation incident. Disgusting! Is this the reaction that you expect from someone who is holding such an important portfolio and over and above is a woman herself? So the fault lies with females & their way of dressing not in the prying & lustful eyes of the men who engage in such dastardly acts! In effect what Mamta Sharma is trying to suggest probably is that the girl who was molested in Assam was at fault not the assailants, who are still at large. Insensitivity appears to be an understatement!


Nothing can justify a crime. Yesterday’s incident at the Manesar plant at Maruti is again a grim reminder of the spreading tentacles of workplace violence. Yesterday the violent workers at the plant engaged in armed arson and rioting and killed the GM (HR) of the company. Awanish Kumar Dev, HR GM, was burnt beyond recognition while 100 others were injured. The rioting workers seem to have broken both the legs of the Awanish and he choked to death. He received 100% burnt injuries.

Workplace violence disengages everyone. Some very prominent incidents in India in the recent times are:

2008 – Place: Greater Noida - the CEO and Managing Director of Cerlikon-Graziano Transmission India Pvt Ltd was killed by a agitating workers.

2009 – Place: Near Coimbatore – Roy Geroge, the Vice President (HR) of an auto manufacturing company was killed by a group of sacked workers in his cabin in the company's unit about 20 km from Coimbatore.

2011 – Place: Bolangir (Orissa) - the DGM (operations) of Graphite India Ltd – Powermax Steel division, was killed when some suspended workers staging ‘dharna' outside the plant stopped his car and allegedly set it on fire.

These are the ones which made headlines. But if one understands the entire gamut of workplace violence, as defined by ILO,  then hundreds others go unreported every year, in India, and all over the world. Only some countries like Canada have strong and comprehensive legislation to deal with all forms of workplace violence.

Coming back to Maruti incident, workers have every right to protest & demand but no one has the right to engage in violence or to kill somebody. The slain GM (HR) has a family with a 10 year old son. Besides a young life being snuffed- away cruelly, the trauma that his family will face throughout their lives is unimaginable. Those responsible should be prosecuted and punished in the toughest manner possible to be a lesson for others.

Although the Maruti issue is complex, if one has followed the trail of strikes and incidents since last year. The company’s management and HR failed to assess right from the beginning the enormity of the HR problem and finally things seem to have exploded. However even this cannot justify what happened in the Maruti plant on Thursday. It is unfortunate, tragic and gruesome and calls for stringent actions. Maruti may even not see any reason to keep the Manesar plant running in the future!

Mamta and Maruti workers made yesterday a black Thursday for humanity!