Kharge disagrees with L&T head's 90-hour work advice

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who easily clocks more than 15 hours of work daily during election time, on Wednesday disagreed with L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan's suggestion of a 90-hour workweek and recalled Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar's view that workers should not be made to work more than eight hours a day.

Kharge made the remark while addressing party leaders after the inauguration of the party’s new headquarters at 9A, Kotla Road, Delhi, construction of which was undertaken by L&T. The Congress president thanked the company for building the new party building .

“Some dues are also left from our side,” Kharge said much to the amusement of Congress leaders sitting in the audience. "I would like to thank L&T construction, architects, labourers involved in the construction. While I thank the company, the company's CEO has made a remark of working 90 hours in a week. I don't agree with that”, Kharge said, recalling Nehru and Ambedkar's stance while formulating the Factories Act that workers should not be made to do more than eight hours of work a day.

The Congress leader also recalled previous calls for a 70-hour work week by former Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy. “After that someone said nine hours, but he (L&T chief) is now talking of 12 hours, 14 hours, he should give up that view,” Kharge said.

The new building has several board rooms on all its six floors and a large skylight covered place. The building has glimpses from history capturing the Congress’s journey since 1885, including rare photographs and quotes from its stalwarts, adorning the walls.

The ground floor has a library, named after Manmohan Singh, a media briefing room and a cafeteria. According to an insider, every wall is covered with historic photographs with one period depicted on each floor – from a picture of Womesh Chunder Bonnerji, who presided over the first session of Congress party in Mumbai (Bombay back then) in 1885 to Jawaharlal Nehru year after the Independence, Indira Gandhi’s tenure, the Rajiv Gandhi era, the governments of PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh and the “yatras” by Rahul Gandhi.