S Veeraiah
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POWER looms, the heartbeat of Telangana’s Siricilla, have stopped working due to the decisions of the central government and the previous BRS-led Telangana government, leaving more than 30,000 weavers’ families high and dry.
But the weavers, after putting up united struggles for 48 days, emerged victorious, and the power looms have started to beat rhythmically.
The working class has proved that Siricilla is not a ‘place of suicides’ but a ‘place of struggles’.
Even though the grief of losing two people to the struggle is never-ending, the victory at the end of the struggle has increased the workers’ confidence in their struggles. It proves that struggle is the only path to protect the looms, the wealth of ‘Siricilla’.
The weavers' prolonged movement under the CITU leadership turned into a united struggle after 42 days. The Joint Action Committee was shaped with the cooperation of investors and owners of power looms. Naturally, owners and investors believed in the past and present rulers. Initially, they hesitated to join with workers in view of the agitation on wage revision demand by the workers against them. They tried to solve their issues by taking the help of the then-ruling party BRS and Congress.
As the issues got worse, it was inevitable that they would join in the joint action after 42 days. The determined struggle of weavers encouraged them to join the joint action.
The previous BRS-led government failed to pay the dues of Rs 273 crore towards Batukamma sarees and grant weavers a direct subsidy of Rs 18 crore for yarn/thread. A matching grant of weavers' savings and electricity subsidy was also pending during this period.
Under the Modi led central government, the National Handloom Board and National Textile Boards were abolished, the House-cum-Workshop scheme, Mahatma Gandhi Bunaker Bima Yojana and ICICI Lombard health insurance schemes, which have been running since the UPA regime, were also abolished.
Moreover, 12 per cent GST was imposed on handlooms, power loom textiles, and raw materials. The BJP government's wicked acts resulted in the crisis of the weaving industry in Siricilla.
The present Telangana government, led by Congress, also does not act responsibly. The Congress government failed to initiate any measures in time to support weavers. Meanwhile, the electricity department pressurised the weavers to pay Rs 8 per unit instead of Rs 2 and disconnected the meters, claiming that the owners of looms or the investors, had due bills of more than Rs 3 to 4 lakh per head.
The government did not place new orders for cloth. Investors and owners stopped production. Weavers' lives became miserable with the policies of Modi led BJP government in the centre and BRS government in the state. A movement began, during which parliament elections were announced. There was no other way except to continue the struggle to not let the weavers' heartbeat stop.
It is by now well established that the BJP government at the centre is totally in favour of the corporate sector and multinational companies and to ensure more profits for the big corporates, it is pushing the handlooms and power looms towards extinction. As part of that, the Modi-led BJP government has abolished all the supporting schemes for weavers.
BJP introduced the ‘PM Mitra Scheme’, popular as ‘5F Vision’ on March 17, 2023. A total of 2,000 acres of land was acquired in Warangal, and infrastructure development was at a fast pace to help Mega Kakatiya Textile Park reap benefits from big branded companies. It seems the PM felt that the textile industry was unorganised and became a burden. Hence, he offered a big chair for corporate profits, as was announced by central minister Piyush Goel.
The former chief minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekar Rao was no different in this aspect.
Can a common, independent power loom owner survive and build a future in such a system? The last government designed a scheme where the ‘worker is the owner’ and constructed worksheds. However, it failed to arrange bank loans for power looms per worker with a 50 per cent subsidy. Those sheds are in a dilapidated condition now.
This is the repercussion of the state government's acceptance of the mega textile park proposed by the central BJP government. Now, Siricilla town is in no position to offer alternative employment to 30,000 weavers' families. The crisis has also impacted other businesses.
The ruling parties did not consider the weavers and their families, who were left on the roads, as citizens and workers who were selling their labour for life. They were ignored. There was no other way out for the weavers except to wage struggles in the form of dharnas, rallies, cooking on roads, beggary, padayatra, etc.
Civil society had shown solidarity with the weavers. Vegetable vendors responded very positively in support of weavers and offered large quantities of vegetables for food supply (annadanam), as they felt that without weavers, they too could not survive in Siricilla.
Never seen during the 48 days of the weavers' struggle, the BJP and BRS leaders tried to enter the struggle during the last days and use it in elections. Bandi Sanjay, ex-state president of the BJP and a member of parliament, did not oppose Modi’s wrong policies in the parliament or at Siricilla or even urge his leader to change his policy on the issue all these days. But as the struggle was about to yield results, he announced one day’s fast in support of the cause.
The problem was laid in KCR’s ruling when KTR was minister but did not intervene and try to resolve the issue. Now, KCR suggests the workers fight, and KTR is writing pages and pages to the current chief minister. They have started campaigning on social media, claiming that their advocacy resolved the issue.
The JAC strongly warned both BRS and BJP that this is the victory of their united struggle and not to use it for their political benefits. Weavers were surprised by BRS leaders, who opposed any sort of struggles in their rule, making an effort to take part in weavers public meeting on April 6, 2024. The JAC, however, refused to allow them.
The Sircilla public saw Bandi Sanjay's real nature, as he hid his face from the weavers for 48 days and made hype on the last day.
CITU leaders and a team of weavers’ representatives met the concerned minister six times and requested that the issue be resolved. They held discussions with the commissioner and met the CM with the help of A Narsi Reddy, teachers MLC.
State Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Tummala Nageswara Rao had shouldered the responsibility to resolve the problem after a lengthy discussion with the CITU delegation and CPI(M) Central Committee member Cherupalli Seetharamulu.
The same was announced to thousands of weavers in the meeting from the dais on April 6. Again, on April 8, CITU and CPI(M) leaders met finance minister Batti Vikramarka and BC welfare minister Ponnam Prabhakar.
After the discussions, Ponnam Prabhakar came to Siricilla and made a public announcement that the government has agreed to release yarn subsidy and other dues within two to three days, and he announced that the government would pay electricity subsidy and grant the orders for cloth production. Hence, weavers declared to run the power looms from April 10 and their families are happy.
This struggle proved again that weaving cannot be linked to a caste. Over 95 per cent of weavers, investors and owners of looms were from the same caste. Those who belonged to the same caste but settled in other businesses had not even cared about this long struggle. The caste leaders had sailed with the ruling party leaders but did not support the struggle. That is why it has to be considered a victory of the working class. This struggle gathered many experiences for the future working-class movement.
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