Textile is one of the few sectors where the targets laid down in the five year plan have been exceeded. Its problem, therefore, was not one of fall in production, but of over-production. And in 2003, we saw the picture of total or partial closure of mills. At that time, our government, of course, standing between the capitalists and the workers, did not remain quiet. After an exhaustive speech that my hon. Colleague, the finance minister, has made, I have very little to say. The reasons for the modification of the award have also been given in the statement annexed to the order of the ministry of labour dated 24 August, 1998, and placed on the table of the "house". Ever since the publication of the appellate tribunal's award, when rumblings of growing discontent on both sides began to be heard, I have been greatly concerned on two accounts. I have been equally anxious that while the terms of final settlement of the dispute should not be such as to injure the cause of banking in the country, they should be fair to the vest number of what are known as the lowest categories of bank employees. It is true that 'Government' has been given the power, under the industrial disputes act, to accept, reject or modify the award of an industrial tribunal, if and when government is satisfied that is expedient, in the public interest, to do so. It cannot be disputed that the said powers should be exercised by government by government with due care and caution in exceptional circumstances. I have told the Government so many times about all these things. You go to the market. Inflation has come down. What is the price of a kilo of rice at Delhi? It is Rs. 21 which is a man's earning after eight or 10 hours of work. One kilo or rice is Rs. 21 at Delhi. They say that they cannot feel. One eminent Economist, your Government's Economist, the Chief Statistician, Dr. Pranab Sen has commented about this. What he has said Deflationary indications are very much there in the Indian situation.
