IANS
Bangalore Oct 6: A day after India's IT hub Bangalore came to a grinding halt because of protests over a boundary dispute with Maharashtra state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that is part of the ruling coalition in Karnataka, on Thursday washed its hands off the entire affair.
Even the main software industry lobby in India refused comment on the fallout of the 12-hour strike though Bangalore is home to some 1,700 firms including Intel Corp., Microsoft and IBM and numerous 24/7 outsourcing operations.
But another industry body for the IT sector, the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT), said when enormous investments and the country's image as a IT hub are at stake, politics should be kept away from business.
"True, India is a democracy where everyone has the right to protest and express concerns. But that should not disrupt economic activities. Now that India is on the global map, such developments are bound to have negative reactions," said Vinnie Mehta, executive director of MAIT.
"The BJP had not given a call for this strike so it can not be held responsible for these problem," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told IANS, even as the party agreed that such strikes do cause losses to both the industry and economy.
"Bu sometimes public issues take precedence over rest of the issues," he said when asked whether his party - as a partner in the ruling coalition in Karnataka - had tried to intervene to stop this strike or limit its effect.
"Strikes are an expression of solidarity for certain causes and they are part of the political process. There is no harm if they are spontaneous and not too frequent."
"This is a state issue and not a national one," said a spokesperson for the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), which is the main representative body for the software industry in India.
"We decline to comment. The strike was a pre-decided thing so the call centres must have taken necessary precautions, they did whatever they thought was appropriate," a Nasscom spokesperson said.
Hundreds of tech firms including global software majors had to logout in view of the shutdown across Karnataka - spearheaded by the Karnataka Gadi Horata Samithi that claimed support of the ruling coalition.
The strike was to protest Maharashtra government's decision to take up the 50-year inter-state boundary dispute and staking claim to the northern district of Belgaum, which is with Karnataka.
They also said the central government was vacillating on properly implementing the Mahajan Commission report of 1967 that favoured Belgaum remaining within the jurisdiction of Karnataka.