Manesar: Haryana police detained several workers of the Maruti Suzuki plant over a peaceful protest at Manesar on January 30, and held The Wire’s reporters for almost an hour as they were speaking to protesters near the site.
Police also seized The Wire’s interview equipment, and the mobile phones of this reporter and an intern, Rishabh Sharma. The two of us were detained in a police van for nearly an hour.
A three-month protest
For more than three months, workers have been protesting under the banner of the ‘Maruti Suzuki Asthai Mazdoor Union.’ The main demands of the protesting workers are that they be given permanent jobs, temporary workers’ wages be increased, and workers who were suspended after the violence at the Manesar plant in 2012 be reinstated.
Employees from various states, including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand, have joined the movement.
On January 10, a massive gathering of current and former temporary employees of Maruti was organised in front of the labour department in Gurugram, Haryana. The workers submitted a demand letter to the management and the labour department, signed by more than 4,000 employees represented by Maruti Suzuki Asthai Majdoor Sangh, listing their key demands.
Haryana Police at the protest site outside Manesar Tehsil. Photo: The Wire.
Workers say court allowed protest
The protesting workers claim that the Gurugram civil court had permitted their protest on January 29 and 30, under some conditions. They were allowed to protest at least 500 metres away from the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar, ensuring the demonstrations remained peaceful. The court also made it clear that the company’s daily operations should not be hindered, and no property damage should occur during the protests.
But on January 29, the Manesar police forcibly cleared the protest site of Maruti Suzuki workers who had been staging a sit-in demonstration since September 18, 2024.
At around 11 am, the Manesar police dismantled the tent set up by the workers near the Manesar Tehsil office. The protesting workers were detained and later dropped off nearly 30 kilometres away from the protest site. But the crackdown did not stop there. According to the workers, the police used force and vandalised the protest site, damaging their belongings worth around Rs 2 lakh.
Early on January 30, former and current Maruti Suzuki workers again started gathering near the Manesar tehsil to continue their protest. However, police refused to allow them to demonstrate, citing Section 163 of the Bhartiya Nyay Suraksha Sanhita (erstwhile Section 144 of the CrPC) and began detaining the workers who had come to participate.
Throughout the day, as workers assembled near the Manesar tehsil, Delhi-Manesar Road, and IMT Chowk, the police used force to detain them.
Some of the workers protesting at the Manesar site. Photo: The Wire.
Section 163
When The Wire reached the protest site outside the Manesar tehsil, it was filled with police personnel and no protesting workers were visible.
About 500 metres away, near IMT Chowk, a small group of workers had gathered. While I was interviewing the workers and capturing their responses, at around 12:30 pm, the Haryana police intervened, citing Section 163 of the BNSS. Police detained all the protesting workers, seized The Wire’s camera and recording instrument, and our mobile phones. Cops also held me and The Wire’s intern in a police van for nearly an hour, preventing us from speaking to more protesters.
After nearly an hour, the officer returned all equipment including the camera, our phones, and the microphone. However, before giving my phone back to me, a police officer deleted a video I had shot of the protest from the mobile phone.
The workers participating in the protest condemned the imposition of Section 163 and raised questions about it. They argued that if this section was truly applicable in the tehsil area, then numerous companies operating there should also be affected. Thousands of other workers were commuting on the roads, ordinary people were moving around, and other groups of more than five people were gathering. However, the police was citing Section 163 only to detain the protesting workers, they alleged.
By 9 pm on January 30, the police had released all the 76 detained protesters.
Amit Chakravarty, a trade union activist based in Manesar, Gurgaon, said, “This protest has been peaceful for more than three months, and the court had even approved the protest on January 29 and 30, 2025. Workers from different states had come together in large numbers at the protest site in Manesar. Unfortunately, the Haryana police ignored the court’s order. Police damaged property at the protest site, and detained several workers. They have resorted to using force in an attempt to break up the protest.”
