Coming out in support of the striking airport employees, major Left trade unions on Thursday lashed out at Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel accusing him of 'selling the country' and threatened the government that its survival could be at stake.
CITU president M K Pandhe and AITUC general secretary Gurudas Das Gupta addressed the striking workers at the airport in New Delhi and announced that they would 'confront' the government in Parliament and force it to reverse the decision to 'privatise' the Mumbai and Delhi airports.
"Left parties have 61 members in Parliament and the government is dependent on us. If it wants to survive it should not be doing what it is doing now," Gupta said amid cheers from the workers.
He said the striking workers would intensify their agitation in the coming days and take all possible steps to reverse the government decision and indicated that Left trade union leaders may also begin a hunger strike in support of the AAI employees' stir.
"We will raise the issue in Parliament. We shall not allow Praful Patel to continue, whatever may be the consequences. We will not allow him to have his way," Gupta said.
"Praful Patel is bringing foreign people, foreign water, foreign food and casinos to our airports. He wants to sell our country. He is privatising the airports on one hand and taking money on the other," he alleged.
Pandhe urged all trade unions irrespective of their party affiliations, including INTUC and BMS, to come forward and extend their support to the workers. "It is not Patel, but the workers who are running the country."
Left to meet PM
The Left parties, key allies of the ruling UPA coalition, asked the Central government to call a meeting of striking airport employees to find a solution to the agitation against 'privatisation' of airports and decided to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday to take up the issue with him.
This was announced after a meeting of Left parties in New Delhi, which also called upon trade unions, irrespective of party affiliations, to extend support to the agitation against the 'privatisation' of the Delhi and Mumbai airports.