New Delhi, Feb. 21: The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh seems to have made up its mind to part ways with the rest of the trade union fraternity, particularly those backed by the Left.

A delegation of the Sangh parivar-backed union today met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his residence and congratulated him on his government’s decision to merge part of dearness allowance with basic salary even as the Left-supported unions were busy preparing for Tuesday’s all-India general strike. The strike has been called to protest the Supreme Court’s ban on strikes.

The Prime Minister took the opportunity to convince the delegation from the BMS, once a fierce critic of the National Democratic Alliance government’s liberalisation policy, of his regime’s economic achievements. “Our growth rate has surprised the world but the Opposition appears to be confused and, therefore, it is criticising us,” Vajpayee said, referring to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s dig at him.

Sonia had described the Prime Minister’s claims as “Mungeri Lal ke haseen sapne (The fantastic dreams of Mungeri Lal)”.

Not so long ago, the BMS had described Vajpayee and the finance minister as ‘Mir Jafar’ and ‘Mir Qasim’ for pushing through policies which, it said, will hurt the workers. But soon it began singing a different tune.

According to M.K. Pandhe, president of the CPM-backed Citu, the BMS has done a volte-face to please the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “At a meeting with the RSS, its leaders extracted a promise from the trade union that it would not embarrass the government by raising discomfiting issues in public,” Pandhe said.

Till a year ago, the BMS was marching in tandem with the Left unions and using the Left’s acerbic language against the government’s economic policies. Since the about-turn, the BMS has moved away from the other trade unions and refused to be party to any joint action against the Vajpayee dispensation.

On the BMS delegation’s meeting with the Prime Minister, Pandhe said: “The decision to implement the Fifth Pay Commission’s recommendation on merging DA with the basic salary is yet again another election sop.”

The Citu leader reminded that six months ago, the Joint Consultative Machinery that negotiates on behalf of government employees on wages had petitioned the finance ministry to implement the pay commission’s recommendation on DA. “The ministry clearly told the JCM that it would not be able to give in to this demand,” Pandhe said.

It changed its mind later only because it felt the decision would enhance the BJP’s popularity, the Citu leader added.

There are 52 lakh central and 70 lakh state government employees.