New Delhi: India’s largest workers union, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (Hindi, translates to Indian Labour Union), today said it will protest Jan. 3 the proposed corporatisation and disinvestment of the defence Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and state-owned industries, and has called for a stop to Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

After holding a major convention of workers from the Indian public sector enterprises in New Delhi on Dec. 19, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) said the Narendra Modi government “must stop disinvestment, strategic sale, corporatisation and privatisation of public sector undertakings.”

BMS, along with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is ideologically inspired by India’s largest social organisation Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (Hindi, translates to National Volunteer Organisation).

“The PSUs are the backbone of the Indian industrial structure and (the) government must stop policy-driven disinvestment/privatisation of the same. FDI must be stopped. FDI/corporatisation of (the) defence sector is a matter of national security.”

The Modi government has proposed corporatisation of the state-run Kolkata-headquartered Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) that produces weapons and military systems for the Indian armed forces, enraging workers, who went on a protest against the move.

In recent months, the state-owned Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) faced trouble after workers went on an indefinite strike over wage-related differences with the management, which was resolved earlier this month.

The BMS also opposed the contract-based employment and fixed-term employment that is being practised by corporate and industries in the country, apart from seeking a worker-friendly labour code that has been proposed by the government.