Auto companies come out in support of Maruti

Support is pouring in for the Maruti management with employees and heads of Honda Motors and two other companies planning a protest on Wednesday to condemn last week's violence at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant. Maruti has claimed that the unrest was not a labour issue but a criminal act.

The Haryana government has already begun a probe into the matter but the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Tuesday demanded an inquiry by an independent agency into the violence in which one executive was killed last week.

Expressing 'shock and concern' at the incident, the CITU said it must be "inquired into by an independent agency instead of making a shortcut projecting it as a violence and arson by workers...".

In a statement, CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said "mass-scale indiscriminate arrests and detention of workers, rampaging the worker's colonies" were still continuing.

"CITU demands upon the government to stop such witch hunt and terror on workers and institute an independent inquiry into the incident including the antecedents to bring the truth to light and punish the guilty," Sen said.

The union said in last year's strike at Maruti "there had not been a single incident of violence from the worker's side, neither any report of damage despite many provocations...".

During the violence on July 18, a senior company executive was burnt alive and 100 others were injured. Maruti Suzuki has declared a lockout at the Manesar plant. Prohibitory orders were also clamped around the plant on Tuesday.