Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday expressed his solidarity and support for employees of the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), who have not received their salaries for 25 months.
Mr. Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and held him responsible for the injustice to the HEC’s employees.
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Around 3,000 employees of the HEC, including technicians and engineers who helped produce several equipment for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), including for the launch of Chandrayaan-3, have been forced to sell edibles and garments, find employment as part-time daily wage workers, and drive autorickshaws to make a living.
“I can see the people holding the posters of HEC and I know injustice is being done against HEC employees. I will urge you all to raise your voice so loudly that even the people in Delhi can hear. Slowly and gradually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government are strangulating public sector units. Why is HEC being strangled? It is being done to remove the name of HEC and put the board of Adani on the factory,” Mr. Gandhi said while addressing a public meeting at Ranchi’s Shaheed ground on the fourth day of the ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Jharkhand.
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Located in the Dhurwa area of Ranchi, HEC is India’s oldest public sector underaking. It supplies equipment to all major steel plants, akin to a mother plant that helped make way for the development of several major steel manufacturing units across India, including the factories in Bokaro, Bhilai, Rourkela, Vishakhapatnam, and Durgapur. HEC has three divisions — the Heavy Machine Tools Plant (HMTP), the Heavy Machines Building Plant (HMBP), and the Foundry Forge Plant (FFP) — which jointly manufacture equipment.
“Narendra Modi wants to make HEC employees unemployed but I must say to all HEC people that the Congress party will not allow him to do so. We will not allow Adani’s name plate on HEC because it is the country’s assets. It is not a free gift to any industrialist. I give my assurance. When we form the government, we will give you all possible support,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Hundreds of HEC employees gathered at the ground, holding posters and banners against the Central government.
Mr. Gandhi also said that the caste survey would be carried out in Telangana in accordance with the promise made during the Assembly election in that State. Earlier in the day, Telangana Chief Minister A. Ravanth Reddy landed in Ranchi and met Mr. Gandhi.
“Soon, we will come to know the exact numbers of OBC (Other Backward Classes), Dalits and tribals in Telangana. I am saying it because the HEC people who are being harassed are OBC, Dalits and tribals, and all attempts are being to privatise HEC. Privatisation means making OBC, Dalit, tribals and poor people unemployed,” Mr. Gandhi added.
He also congratulated the Champai Soren government for winning the trust vote. He claimed that the alliance partners in Jharkhand had not allowed the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to succeed in their conspiracy to dethrone the government in the State. Mr. Gandhi alleged that the BJP could not accept the fact that a tribal was the Chief Minister.
Before addressing the public meeting, Mr. Gandhi also met Kalpana Soren, wife of former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, at her residence in Ranchi.
Senior Congress leader and former MP Subodh Kant Sahay, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh, the party’s Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir, and State Congress chief Rajesh Thakur also shared the stage, along with Congress MLAs.
