Laid-off Workers of the World, Unite!

First, the background:

Lalit Kishore Choudhary, the 47-year-old chief executive officer of Graziano Transmissioni India, died on Monday after sacked employees beat him up in the company's office, a senior officer said. [Reuters]

The sacked employees, all innocent-like:

"We were demonstrating peacefully to get our jobs back," one of the workers, Rajpal, told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

"Outsiders may have assaulted the CEO leading to his death. Firing by the guards agitated workers and they clashed with the staff," he said. [BBC]

Yeah, right. They were just demonstrating peacefully, caressing the CEO with iron rods. Poor guy couldn't take so much love and affection.

Nothing really weird about this, so far. Sacked employees got angry at some point during negotiations, and the angry mob beat up the CEO, resulting in his death. A criminal case that should be duly investigated and the culprits punished so as to serve as a warning to all those to think that mobs have the right to break laws. Right? Wrong.

Here is the real WTF stuff:

"This should serve as a warning for the managements. It is my appeal to the managements that the workers should be dealt with compassion," Union Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes told reporters at a press conference. [ToI]

I suppose it should be okay with the Government if its shareholders/workers (citizens of India) decide to implement a similar brand of justice on their management (Cabinet Ministers etc.).