Nasiruddin Patwary, senior joint convener of the National Citizen Party (NCP), said the country has had enough political games and should now ensure fair wages for workers. “Feed them, clothe them and provide safe housing for their families,” he wrote.
Patwary made the remarks in a post on his verified Facebook account on Monday, November 2.
He said a country cannot achieve sustainable development if its national politics, state policy and economy do not protect workers’ dignity, rights and livelihoods. No prosperous economy can be built by depriving workers, he said. Such deprivation creates a predatory economy, widens inequality, weakens the economic foundations and eventually turns the state itself into an instrument of oppression.
Patwary said that even if, for the sake of argument, Aslam was encouraging the workers’ movement, the question remained why other political parties had failed over the past 54 years to give adequate priority to this vital sector. He asked why fair wages, safe workplaces, housing, health care, education and social security had not become political priorities.
He said dismissing workers’ hunger, demand for fair wages and desire to feed their families twice a day as political agitation was not responsible political behaviour.
Calling workers the driving force of the economy and the people who keep production moving, Patwary said they were not anyone’s ladder to power but “our brothers and sisters, our children”.
He said workers’ lives would be more dignified if they had food, clothing, a safe roof and education and health care for their children. That would leave less room for turning their legitimate demands into stories about political provocation.
“Enough of political games,” Patwary wrote. “Ensure fair wages for workers. Feed them, clothe them and provide safe housing for their families. Establish their dignity as human beings, not merely as instruments of production.”
He said the hope that one’s children would live with food and milk should apply to every working family in Bengal. Workers’ rights are not a political favour but their due, he wrote, calling for an end to exploitation, inequality and oppression.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report