Another RSS affiliate slams NITI Aayog

Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh to pass a resolution to slam NITI Aayog

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has joined a growing list of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated outfits that have attacked the NITI Aayog.

The BMS, the largest trade union in the country, plans to discuss and pass a resolution at its forthcoming annual meeting criticising the NITI Aayog. The meeting is scheduled for May 22 to 24 in Kanpur.

BMS Organising Secretary Pawan Kumar told Business Standard that NITI Aayog has little understanding of the ground realities of India and has crossed the "lakshman rekha", or boundary, several times since its inception in January 2015.

"Niti Aayog never represented 'Bharat'. Now it has ceased to represent even 'India'. It has no representation of farmers, workers and the poor," Kumar said. The BMS is likely to suggest that the Aayog be dismantled and recast.

The BMS is set to object to NITI Aayog's suggestions for disinvestment of public sector undertakings, taxing of farm income and advocating that big trawlers be allowed for fishing. "They have no solutions for the five million small fishermen who would lose their livelihoods," Kumar said.

On Thursday, at a meeting of the standing committee on labour, the BMS leadership criticised NITI Aayog's suggestion to amend legal provisions that ensure 'equal work equal wage' to permanent and contract workers.

Recently, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) farmers' cell have also slammed NITI Aayog for its recommendations to tax farm income, its support to genetically modified or GM crops and its alleged attempt to scuttle Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to provide affordable medicines.

In a letter to the PM on May 1, the Manch had accused NITI Aayog of pursuing an agenda that is "against national interests and fundamentally anti-poor."