Manesar violence: Govt should act ruthlessly, says Premji

Also says that Manmohan Singh as FM should be given a fair chance to make reforms

Strongly condemning the violence at Maruti Suzuki's plant at Manesar in which a senior executive was killed, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji today said Government should act "ruthlessly" against such social unrest.

"I don’t understand the details of the incident that caused the precipitation. It was pretty extreme, ruthless and very unfortunate.

"It is important that individuals and associations take up the cause and government should act ruthlessly," he told reporters here when asked about the Manesar violence.

Premji said government should act strongly otherwise these instances could repeat."You have to appreciate that when growth slows down even job creation slows and unemployed and idle people can generate social unrest," he said.

Premji said he thought the government was taking serious view of the incident as it is going to be watched by business and trade associations.

Premji also said the issue at stake was "sensitive and represents social unrest, which is building up within the country and among the trade unions".

"The incident at Manesar plant is representative of the social unrest in the zone because of various issues."

Premji also commented on political reforms in the pipeline. He said, it was difficult to say how the reform process would roll out, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has taken over the finance portfolio, should be a given a fair chance in this regard.

Premji said, more than policy initiatives, the government should systematically execute on issues which are part of the existing policy.

"The government should focus on large areas that need to be executed or decided upon, be it on infrastructure projects or government projects, which are on stream and which need to be accelerated. Only that is going to happen because it is the key responsibility of the... (government)," he said.