Waswo signs off his testament stating: "The unions are destroying business in Kerala." The artist's anger stems not from his concern of Kerala's poor business landscape but more from his confrontation with the labour unions and their demand of Rs 10,000 from him to move six of his boxes a distance of 10 feet. It is common knowledge that the wage demand of the labour unions in Kerala are exorbitant but this western expectation of cheap labour/sweat shops to be readily available in the Asian markets as exhibited by Waswo in his video comes across as strangely ludicrous. Perhaps, Waswo has always enjoyed hiring cheap labour in the northern states of Rajasthan, Bihar or West Bengal by paying as little as Rs 50 per day or completely wiggling it out. Does this prompt him to share with us over phone?: "Many people don't make Rs 10,000 in a month in this country." (The minimum wage back home in the US is $ 7.25/Rs 451.16 per hour and he is not complaining!)
Waswo was exhibiting as a collateral artist listed by the Kochi-Muziris Biennale that concluded on March 29. Officials of the Biennale Foundation say there were 25 collateral projects and Waswo had not sought the Foundation's help to sort the labour issues he faced. Bose Krishnamachari, president of the Foundation, says that initially when the biennale was launched in 2012 they did encounter problems with the labour unions. "But we sat down with the unions and arrived at a fixed rate for the biennale. We take care of the artists we invite." The major unions operating in the area both INTUC and the CITU deny any knowledge of this incident. "We hear Waswo did not want to pay anything at all and probably it was the local unions that tried to extort him," says a head load worker."