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Tamil Nadu parties did little to prevent Nokia shutdown [Tech News] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) CHENNAI: There is all-round criticism against Tamil Nadu political parties and their failure to take up the cause of 34,000 workers who lost jobs due to the closure of the factory of handset maker Nokia. While political leaders have been vocal on the Sri Lanka Tamil welfare and the fishermen issues, there has been no attempt to engage the Centre or lobby with the Union government on the Nokia crisis, say industry experts. While they took credit when Nokia decided to set up its factory in Sriperumbudur, the ruling AIADMK and the DMK failed to pressure the Centre when crisis hit the factory. Former Union minister and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran had pushed Nokia to invest in Sriperumbudur and an earlier AIADMK regime had also lured the company into setting up shop in the state. But, when the company decided to shut down its factory here, both parties did precious little to safeguard workers' interest. The DMK's labour wing LPF had been staging protests to oppose Nokia's decision to suspend production from November 1. While announcing a recent demonstration, DMK chief Karunanidhi in a statement wondered what steps the ruling AIADMK had taken in the matter even as the shutdown plan was being discussed for about two years. The government could take over the operations of the plant, he suggested. But the DMK union was the first to strike work at the Nokia plant. This affected the production for 10 hours in 2010. Nokia India also found itself battling with tax authorities after it received 2,400-crore claim from the Tamil Nadu government alleging that the mobile handset maker avoided taxes on devices sold within India by masking them as exports. Lack of political support and grassroots level problems created by local politicians have had a debilitating effect on the industrial scenario in Tamil Nadu. The state has always been seen as being pro-industry, whichever party was in power, an industrialist pointed out. "We have been facing lot of issues at the ground level, from local politicians, but, we have been unable to take them to the top leadership," he said. V Bharathkumar, an employee in Nokia expressed his displeasure over the silence of state and central governments. "We believed that the governments would intervene and do something to safeguard the factory and our lives," said Bharath. Barring one or two political parties, many of them have not even issued statements. "These people have been writing letters to the Prime Minister and conducting mass protests for other issues," Bharat said. Only a few parties, like the CPM, DMK and PMK have issued statements on the issue. Employees point to the prolonged struggle by parties against NLC's disinvestment. "When the Centre decided to sell shares of NLC, the TN government came forward to buy the disinvested shares. We also see a lot of political support for the ongoing NLC contract employees struggle for higher wages and regularisation. But, we saw no such effort for us," said Nokia employee K Rajan. Political analyst Gnani Sankaran said the state government should have got directly involved in the issue. As a ruling party, the AIADMK had more responsibility, he added. Economist and columnist M R Venkatesh said the closure of Nokia plant would send out wrong signals to the corporate world. "The closure of Nokia plant is an example of how the state is becoming unfriendly towards investors. The work culture of our state also would be questioned," Venkatesh said. CITU general secretary and CPM floor leader in the assembly A Soundararajan said most of the parties supported the new liberalisation policy and did not seem worried about jobless employees. "The centre and state are concerned only about mopping up taxes ," he said . Former chief minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa has not publicly reacted to the issue. "When I had addressed the issue in the assembly, the state government simply passed the buck on to the Centre," he added. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited |