Haryana police beat striking workers of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) with lathis on the lawns of Gurgaon's Mini-Secretariat on 25 July 2005. Four days later, after uproar in Parliament, the Hooda government brokered a deal in which Honda took back the 54 workers whose suspension or dismissal had started the dispute.
A union at the Manesar scooter plant
HMSI, Honda's Indian two-wheeler company, made scooters at Manesar in Gurgaon district, 2,000 a day at the plant's peak Tribune.
The Labour Department had been mediating since February. According to Principal Secretary (Labour) Promilla Issar, the company had terminated four workers and suspended 50 others "for unsatisfactory conduct" Tribune. Claim · Workers Workers told the left journal Revolutionary Democracy a different story: the four were sacked for stepping in when a Japanese manager allegedly kicked a worker in December 2004. Their union, backed by the CPI's trade union wing AITUC, was registered on 29 May 2005 Revolutionary Democracy.
The same account says that on 27 June the company told workers to sign a good-conduct undertaking before entering the plant, and kept out those who would not. The two sides "came close to a reconciliation a number of times but backed out at the last minute every time", a Labour Department spokesperson said Tribune.
From ITI chowk to the Mini-Secretariat lawns
About 3,000 workers marched out of Kamla Nehru Park on the morning of Monday, 25 July. Near the ITI crossing the Gurgaon SDM and DSP (Headquarters) Jag Parvez Dahiya stopped to talk to them, and the encounter went wrong. Someone set the SDM's Gypsy and a police outrider on fire, police fired shots in the air, and the DSP was dragged down and hit with lathis and stones, leaving him in critical condition. About 20 police personnel and the SDM were also hurt Tribune.
The workers said the two officers had provoked them by trying to break up the procession, which went on round the city for about four hours as shops shut Tribune.
In the afternoon, with reinforcements from the Haryana Reserved Police Force and the Rapid Action Force, police surrounded the workers who had sat down on the Mini-Secretariat lawns and charged. "Few were the lucky ones who were not cane-charged," The Tribune's reporter wrote. Workers said the administration had told them to gather there for talks Tribune. Amnesty International's account matches: protesters waiting for the Deputy Commissioner were "surrounded by some hundred police officers who then beat them with lathis" Amnesty International.
The next day the fighting moved to the Civil Hospital where the injured lay. Stone-throwing, tear gas and lathi charges hurt at least four civilians and four police personnel, and officers blamed INLD activists for egging on the crowd Tribune.
Five counts of the injured
No figure was ever settled.
- 65 workers, 15 seriously: Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Sudhir Rajpal, on the evening of 25 July Tribune.
- 92 injured, 42 discharged, plus 35 police: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in the Lok Sabha on 26 July, citing Hooda. He dismissed a figure of 700 as trumped-up Tribune.
- 93 protesters and 30 police: Chief Minister Hooda on 27 July, with nine workers and three policemen still in hospital Tribune.
- About 250 seriously injured, at least one dead: Amnesty International, citing "reliable reports", with head injuries and fractures Amnesty International. No death was confirmed in the official accounts or the Tribune reports reviewed here. No evidence
- 700: the figure Opposition members put to Patil in both Houses Tribune.
320 rounded up, 60 named
The Deputy Commissioner said 320 people were rounded up under preventive provisions after the violence, of whom only 40 were identified as Honda workers. Two FIRs named 60 people, workers among them, under IPC sections 148, 149, 332 and 353 (rioting with weapons, and assaulting or obstructing public servants) Tribune. Amnesty counted 500 arrests, with about 60 still in jail Amnesty International.
Rajendra Pathak, the Gurgaon advocate representing the workers, was arrested on a charge of instigating them, and Delhi lawyers struck work in protest Tribune.
Workers and police
Workers' account
Workers in Gurgaon Civil Hospital said they went "as a peaceful group to petition" the Deputy Commissioner, were made to sit in a compound, and were beaten from behind. "If we had caused the violence as the police claims, then why were we not armed," one asked Tribune. At the factory gate on 30 July workers said they had "nothing to do with" the attack on police and did not know who in the procession had done it Tribune. Claim · Workers
Police and government account
Patil told the Lok Sabha that police used batons only after the situation went out of control, in an area under Section 144 orders. "When the situation went out of order, cane-charge was done," he said Tribune. The DC said marchers planned to burn a Honda showroom on the highway Tribune. Hooda said 72 of the protesters were not Honda workers and that political adversaries had a hand in the trouble Tribune. Government's position
Hooda said on 26 July that there had been excesses on both sides. On 27 July he said he had asked the DGP to identify policemen who hit protesters on the head in breach of cane-charge rules, and announced Rs 20,000 in aid for each injured worker Tribune Tribune. The DC and SP were told to go on leave Tribune. Later Hooda accused some TV channels of exaggerating casualty figures Tribune.
HMSI said after the violence that it would "continue to look at negotiating with the workmen until a mutually agreeable solution is reached upon". It promised medical help and asked workers to return while talks went on Tribune. PTI reported the company had lost about Rs 125 crore over a month of unrest Tribune/PTI. Until the deal, Hooda said, management was still refusing to re-employ any of the dismissed workers Tribune.
Jallianwala Bagh in the Lok Sabha
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed "deep anguish and concern" on the night of 25 July and asked Haryana to act against all those responsible, police included Tribune. In the Lok Sabha next morning the Speaker said, "We are sorry that so many workers have been injured," while calling it a state matter Lok Sabha debates. That day the National Human Rights Commission asked Haryana for an independent probe, "preferably by the CBI" NHRC.
BJP deputy leader V.K. Malhotra compared the beating to Jallianwala Bagh and demanded the Hooda government's dismissal, and Sushma Swaraj led a walkout in the Rajya Sabha over Patil's figures Tribune. The CPI(M) Politburo, whose party propped up the UPA from outside, called it "an outrageous example of the police acting as an agent of a multi-national company". Central trade unions called a Haryana bandh for 28 July and a protest day on 1 August Tribune.
The deal at Sajjan Kumar's house
Agreement came on the night of 29 July at the residence of Congress MP Sajjan Kumar. Hooda gave its terms Tribune:
- The suspension of 50 workers and dismissal of four was revoked, and all locked-out workers could return.
- Full wages would be paid for May and June, with no pay for the period after 27 June.
- Injured workers unfit for duty would get paid leave.
- The four dismissed workers would move out of manufacturing. The inquiry into the 50 would go on, and anyone found guilty would also be moved.
- Workers would make no wage demand for a year, withdraw their demand notices and keep discipline.
Workers went back on 30 July after Hooda spoke to them at the plant. On the criminal cases against 62 workers, he said the law would take its own course, while union president Suresh Gaur said the workers had been assured the cases would be withdrawn Tribune. Dasgupta called it "only a partial victory" and said the unions would fight for the jailed workers' release Tribune. On 3 August DC Sudhir Rajpal and SP Yoginder Singh Nehra were replaced Tribune.
The Garg commission
On 25 July Hooda had ordered a 15-day magisterial inquiry by Divisional Commissioner Avtar Singh Tribune. A day later he promised a judicial one, which took its place. Justice G.C. Garg, a retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, was given three months. The INLD questioned his independence and wanted a sitting Supreme Court judge Tribune.
The commission ran far past its deadline. By January 2007 it had held more than 50 hearings and was ready to report before a 31 January deadline. The workers' union stayed away, arguing that the terms of reference left out police excesses and instead "described the workers as an unruly mob". The state would not change them Tribune. This page could not find any published findings, or a record of the report being tabled. Nor could it find whether any policeman was disciplined for breaking cane-charge rules, or what became of the criminal cases against about 60 workers.
Tapukara in 2016, Manesar again in 2019
HMSI's labour troubles did not end in 2005. In February 2016 a fight over a union broke out at its second plant, at Tapukara in Rajasthan. The company said four sacked workers and outsiders staged an illegal strike on 16 February, held about 1,000 workers inside and damaged machinery, and that police used "mild force" Rushlane. Workers said it began when a supervisor assaulted a contract worker. The global union IndustriALL said 44 workers, including union president Naresh Kumar Mehta, were jailed and later bailed by the Rajasthan High Court IndustriALL.
Manesar stopped again in November 2019 over the retrenchment of contract workers, and HMSI resumed work with permanent staff from 25 November PTI via Business Standard. A union leader told PTI the company had "sacked the entire 2,500 contractual staff". About 5,000 workers then marched to the same Gurugram Mini-Secretariat where the 2005 beating happened, the union said PTI via Business Standard. The reporting reviewed for this page turned up no major HMSI labour dispute from 2024 to 2026.
Sources
- The Tribune: DSP among hundreds hurt; PM anguished, Hooda orders probe, 26 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: Gurgaon rocks Parliament; Lathis continue to rain on mobs, 27 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: Hooda assures judicial probe; Honda urges workers to join work, 27 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: India rebuts Japanese envoy on Honda plant stir, 27 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: DC, SP told to go on leave, 28 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: They are a living picture of brutality, 28 Jul 2005
- The Tribune/PTI: Honda resumes production, 28 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: Lawyers strike, 29 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: Injured workers meet Sonia; Honda showroom attacked, 30 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: Honda employees resume work, 31 Jul 2005
- The Tribune: Gurgaon incident coverage superficial, says Hooda, 1 Aug 2005
- The Tribune: Reinstatement of workers a partial victory: Dasgupta, 2 Aug 2005
- The Tribune: Gurgaon DC, SP shifted, 4 Aug 2005
- The Tribune: Report on Gurgaon violence ready, 23 Jan 2007
- NHRC: Recommends independent investigation into assault by Gurgaon police, 26 Jul 2005
- Amnesty International: India: Excessive force used against protesting factory workers by police, 2005
- Lok Sabha debates: Regarding lathi charge on workers of Honda Motors at Gurgaon, 26 Jul 2005
- Revolutionary Democracy: Police crack-down on the Honda workers of Gurgaon, 2005
- Rushlane: Proposed union is being politicised says Honda Two Wheelers, 22 Feb 2016
- IndustriALL: Honda India workers face police violence in struggle for union rights, 4 Mar 2016
- PTI via Business Standard: Honda Motorcycle resumes work at Manesar plant with permanent staff, 26 Nov 2019
- PTI via Business Standard: HMSI Manesar workers protest against sacking of contractual staff, 27 Nov 2019