That Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is staunchly against such a move and that an overwhelming majority of those working in the IT sector do not want unions to spoil the IT environment, did not seem to matter for Chakraborty.

“People think that these men in coat-and-tie are a happy lot. But they don’t know the tremendous amount of exploitation they face,” said Chakraborty. “Their guardians spent lakhs of rupees for their education, but they end up earning a paltry sum of Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 per month,” he added.

Chakraborty’s statement today came as a shot in the arm for the West Bengal Information Technology Services Association (WBITSA), that is being launched by the CITU — the labour arm of the CPI(M).

The target of Chakraborty’s ire may have been the indigenous small call centres with a 50-100 staff strength, often run by fly-by-night operators. These type of firms are mainly into servicing financial companies — from marketing credit cards on behalf of private banks to calling credit card defaulters for payment.

Obviously, the premium BPO segments, servicing foreign clients from India on behalf of large Indian BPO companies, could not have been his focus since the salary structure, perks and work schedules are totally different from what Chakraborty mentioned.

A senior bureaucrat, while requesting anonymity, pointed out that Chakraborty’s outburst only queers the pitch that Buddhadeb has prepared over the years. Especially at a time when the State has earned the confidence of major Indian BPOs and IT companies as well as some global players in the field.

With Genpact, one of the largest BPO and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) companies, planning to recruit a large number of graduates and post-graduates from the State’s colleges and universities, the talk of “exploitation” may send the wrong signals. Genpact is also planning to set up an international training centre — the second after Hyderabad — at Salt Lake Electronics complex.

Meanwhile, The IT Minister in the LF Government, Debesh Das, today clarified that the government would never support any bandh in the IT sector.

The CM himself steered clear of the controversy today, preferring to remain silent when the media asked him about teh CITU’s bid to set up associations in the IT sector.