SPEECH AT THE WEBINAR OF KERALA NFPE ON LAHORE SPEECH AND 26TH NOVEMBER, STRIKE.

            Following is the text of the speech given by Com.K.K.N. Kutty. Vice President, Confederation of CTE & Workers at the webinar organised by the NFPE Kerala Circle as a mobilisation campaign for the 26^th November, one day general strike for which the call has been given by the Central Trade Unions.  The webinar was also to commemorate the centenary year of the famous speech delivered by Com. Babu Tarapada Mukherjee at the Postal Employees Conference at Lahore on  9^th October,1921. A re-reading of the speech in the present context is not only germane but also apt and appropriate.  The speech gives an insight into the socio-politico situation of the country that was in existence a century back and the valiant attempt of the postal workers to organise the working class movement in the country and to bring to the centre stage of the most relevant point of the living wage which later became one of the directive principles of our Constitution.  In the days when every attempt is being made to wreck the very constitution from within, when the Government elected by the people work for the benefit of the corporates.  The webinar was inaugurated by Com. A.K. Padmanabhan, Vice President, CITU. Com. CC.Pillai, former Secretary General NFPE, Com. V.A. N. Namboodiri, former General Secretary of BSNL. Employees Union and many others spoke on the occasion.  The meeting was presided over by Com.P.V. Rajendran, President , NFPE and the General Secretary of the Co-ordination Committee of Central Government employees and workers, Kerala State.   

Com. President and comrades,

I am thankful to com. P.K. Muralidharan, for inviting me to part-take in this webinar.  That interalia has also given  me the opportunity to be a small partner in the working class effort to oppose the economic policies of the Government of India, which all of you are aware had been destroying our country as a sovereign nation.  There had been upheaval of great dimension in the socio-political scenario of the country ever since  the new policy was put into operation.  Despite the three decades of disaster to the vast millions of our countrymen, the Indian media still rolls out its eulogy unabated. Today our economy has nosedived to a negative growth rate.   The just concluded quarter has indicated a reduction in our growth rate of such a high dimension as big as minus 23.9%. It is during this period, Mukesh Ambani has become the fourth richest man in the world worth 80 Billion dollars.  There are only three persons ahead of him,  Jeff Bose of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zukerburg of Face book .  As on today, 44% of the Indian telecom sector especially the 4G spectrum is controlled by Ambani’s company.   It is now 4 years that the 4G spectrum has been allotted to the private companies. And  the facility denied to the Indian public sector undertaking BSNL.  During our younger days, the slogan against the two monopoly houses in our country viz. Birlas and Tatas was the rage. They have now been relegated.  Though the Ambani’s and Adani’s have taken over the reins of the economic administration through the crony capitalism the anger against the monopolisation of Indian business has not yet been  manifested.   Having said very many facets of the neo-liberal policies by my illustrious predecessor speakers  and the comrades who are participating in this webinar are well informed and knowledgeable,  I avoid the repetition.  My only appeal to all of you is to take the strike campaign seriously and make every effort to bring the pernicious impact of these policies to the young comrades.

Having denied the Dearness compensation for about 18 months, and having no certainty as to when it would be resurrected, let me caution you of the present decision taken by the Government to change the base year from 2001 to 2016 for the purpose of consumer price index computation.  Changing the base year periodically is no doubt what is recommended even by the international body.  But then why 2016. It is specifically ordained  that the base year must be a normal year without social, economic, or political upheaval.  You know 2016 would have been a normal year but for the grand  and surprise announcement  of the Prime Minister on 8^th Nov. night  that 86.4% of the currency notes in circulation would no longer be valid.  The demonetisation of such large number of currency had been unheard of in the history.  We were told that 4 lakh crores of black income in circulation would be recovered for the benefit of the exchequer. Leaving aside a small amount of money, almost the entire demonetised money came back calling the grand announcement of arresting the generation and proliferation of black income a hoax.  To the best of my information, the Reserve Bank of India is yet to release the final figure of the extent of money got recovered.  As you all know the success of demonetisation is gauged from the extent of the currencies not exchanged for the new notes.  Some time back we were told by the RBI that the information and data from Nepal and some other neighbouring countries are yet to be received and even without that more than 98% of the currency that was in circulation had been got exchanged.   The one and only impact of this grand foolishness idiosyncrozy was  that the economy got shattered and the poor people suffered.  I am not to elaborate this issue, as I am sure you must not have forgotten the travails of the common people  as we had been part of that bitter experience.  My point is as to why the Government has now chosen that disastrous year as the base year for the computation of CPI; One can perceive a method in the madness.   

2016 has another connotation.  Our last wage revision has been made effective from Ist January, 2016.  The minimum wage was fixed at Rs. 18000  It was an erroneous computation.  We wanted the Government to consider the submissions made by us in the matter. We pointed out that the minimum wage would come to Rs 26000 if the formula for the said computation is correctly applied.   The earlier  Pay Commissions, especially the 3^rd CPC had computed the minimum wage.  We had no quarrel with their computation.  However to deny it to the workers, they cited the deplorable state of the Indian economy then.  No such plea was made either by the 7^th CPC or later by the Government.  The Union cabinet simply took the stand that they would not budge and would go by what the Commission had recommended for the Commission was headed by a Supreme Court judge and is composed by men of high standing etc. etc. 

You know almost similar stand was taken by the first Government of the post independent India.  The first strike action of the civilian employees of the Government was the product of that ill-informed decision.  Thereafter, there had been discussions and negotiations with varying degree of success.  The best bargain we had was the post 5^th cpc negotiations.  We could not demonstrate our united strength in such a  sounding manner afterwards..  It had its disastrous impact.  One by one this Government was emboldened to take on us; be it outsourcing, privatisation; corporatisation; denying the hard earned benefits; the denial of an age old social security system of pension etc. etc.  So the 26^th November is an opportunity for those who believe struggle as the only and certain way of advancement.  The threat against the cost indexed wage system has now become real.  The Covid 19 situation has been taken advantage of to deny the DA due to the employees and pensioners.  The re-engineering of the commodity basket for CPI is the means to achieve that objective.  We should realise that our reaction has been unfortunately muted.  Our sliding down the path as a potent organisation commenced with the refusal to tread the path of struggle even against such an important issue like wage revision.  This is not to say that the Confederation and the affiliates like NFPE had not strived to bring about it.  We could not succeed to bring about the requisite unity is however a reality.  To our dismay we now find that a one man rule is being perpetrated in our country.  Democracy has been mutilated.  Disruption of the societal fabric has become the means to garner electoral support.  The one point demand, if one can reduce the whole of the charter of demands, is to bring about change in the governance of the country.  In other words, let us realise the politics behind the policies. 

We have seen over the years how the hard earned savings of the Central Government employees could be channelled to finance the private corporate entities in the country; to provide the catalyst for maximisation of their profit.  The very purpose of NPS was that.  The return from the NPS as we all know is now linked to the profits of the corporates. The recession in the economy on which we had no role at all, will affect the savings of our young comrades.  It is their money which will go into the drain. Once the corporate declares themselves as bankrupt they escapes from all criminal proceedings in the country, including cheating of the investors.  What we had been telling all along about the NPS, its ill-conceived objective, its incapacity to provide any assured decent return have now been bared by the Comptroller and Auditor General through their performance report.  Com.Sreekumar, President of Kerala COC has made a copy of the said report available for us to see.  They have questioned why not a minimum guarantee when many other countries could provide it. This is not an answer to our basic objection to the NPS itself.  It must go lock, stock and barrel.  Because it is an instrument to cheat the employees, take away their money with the help of a sovereign Government in a compulsory manner.  Our young comrades are naturally disturbed. They will fight and fight back this chicanery. The strike of 26^th November must further embolden them; provide them to feel optimistic  that the struggle will win ultimately provided it is sustained; carried on with conviction, courage and determination.

As you know this webinar has another objective too, though I personally do not consider it as another objective.  In fact the observance of the Centenary of the great speech delivered by Com. Babu Tarapada Mukherji at Lahore in 1921 is befitting to the occasion.  Anybody who makes a re-reading of the speech will realise as to how relevant it is today as it was in 1921.  I had read an extract of this speech for the first time somewhere in 1970 during my moulding days.  As you know every trade union worker, who wanted to rise to the level of leadership will consider oratory a pre-requisite.  Mark Antony, Winston Churchill and many of the Candidates for the American Presidents, back home, our own National and Regional leaders had been our icons.  The speech of Com. Babu Tarapada was on a different plane. Perhaps one of the speeches which received the world acclaim and could produce an instantaneous impact was the one delivered by William Jennings Byran at the democratic convention of US election in the year 1896.  That fetched him the nomination as the Presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in the US election.  In the preparation of this webinar I had a re-reading of the great speech delivered by Com. Tarapada Mukherji.  What a fantastic speech it was.  I think a circulation of the full text of the speech will have an exhilarating impact over the minds of all those who are associated with the trade union activities.  That I am sure will be a great campaign material to prepare our comrade to realise the importance of struggle, self respect and organisation.

When the country was in serfdom, he was the man who spoke in a trade union convention of the “emancipation from slavery economic or otherwise.” He wanted his comrades to fight against the Postal Committee’s report.  Are we not in the same position today in so far as the 7^th CPC report and the Government’s action thereon is concerned.  He characterises the suggestion made in the Committee’s report  as “grotesque in the extreme, absurd as absurd can be  and insulting to the dignity of labour.  Those who are doubtful thomases must read between the lines.  He asserts that labour has become self conscious  enough to contemplate taking “direct action” even in the affairs of the State.  He had no hesitation to refer to the age long silence as nothing but crime.  He asserts unambiguously that workers are the very people who produce wealth.  Those who do not work, according to him are parasites like vampires sucking the blood of the society, akin to what Karl Marx described the middle class in the society.   He told his brother comrades without mincing words, that they had a past akin to a somnambulist and exhorted them to come back to reality and real life.  In all the Commissions for wage revisions appointed by the Government of India, there had been a representative of labour.  But that was discontinued from the day of the 6^th CPC.  We had no labour representative in the 7^th CPC.  Our objection remained and got restricted to letter writing.  What Com. Tarapada says about such exclusion form the Committees and Commissions to go into the matters concerning the working class is worth noting. You cannot be bound by the findings of a committee with which you had nothing to do and who had nothing to do with you.

He goes on to say that comparison has been made by the Committee with commercial firms as if the Government are to follow instead of setting example to capitalist justification of denying what constitutes the real living wage in the present time.

When we were denied the minimum wage,  the barest minimum required for human existence, as the 1957  formula is of the need based minimum wage, not living wage as guaranteed under the  Constitution,  we ought to have remembered Com.Babu Tarapada.   What did he say one hundred years back.  What was his advice to his comrades at Lahore. He exhorts:

The burning question of the day is the bread and decent living.  Are we paid a living wage . Do we get sufficient wages to nourish our children with healthy and nutritious food, to clothe them decently, to house them in proper and ventilated quarters with sufficient  accommodation  for purposes of decency and health moral  development  to give  them education, to pay proper medical help, to meet the marriage expenses and various other social obligations and provide for the rainy day? As brothers we all know to what strait we have been reduced to. We do not live , we merely exist and drudge on to sustain life.   He continues:

Man is something more than an animal.  He cannot afford to pass his days  in mere animal existence. He cannot live confined only to his physical needs are satisfied.   His moral nature will rise in rebellion  if it is altogether neglected.   It is impossible to live the life of a moral being  who exists for a higher end to develop into fine manhood and bring into harmony with the universe and its author-unless  he has a mind free from anxiety and unless he has sufficient leisure for contemplation and introspection. 

            We must fight and fight streneouslsy to secure what alone can make life worth living. 

            Just listen to these words, how apt it is today in the background of our decision to fight against the continuing oppression.

Once we succeed in overcoming the mean terror and low selfishness  and abject submission the soul will manifest in all its glory and it will triumph even whatever obstacles may stand in our way. 

            His firm advice was:

take it from me brother, the petitions and memorials and supplications will count for nothing so long as you do not organise  yourself in a manner to convince the Govt. that you will no longer stand non-sense. 

            He very optimistically conclude : 

the ground is ready; only some daring spirits are wanted to sow the seeds and reap the abundant harvest.

            In his speech, he twice refers to the greatest qualities a union should possess:  He says :

we must fully develop class consciousness in one word we must feel strongly that we are for the union and union for us. 

            He had identified the following as cardinal weaknesses.  He use a particular word which is not in currency presently: Flunkeyism . Though it must have gone out of circulation, what it connotes is in abundance in our official parlour.

            Cowardice, selfishness, treachery, supineness, and insincerity all are for asphyxiate the soul. 

            The fifth pre requisite he has expressed as most important was the sense of discipline.  He has gone at length to explain this. 

We have been often old and being told even today is that the Pay Commission is composed of people of high stature, of great integrity, of the foremost judicial mind,  and the Government is thus duty bound to accept their recommendations.   Have the Government accepted all the recommendations made by this Commission.  Why did they change in so for as option No. 1  for pensioners are concerned?  Even the suggestion of the Staff side to accept it as the third option was rejected. Why?  Com. Tarapada said in 1921 that the Postal Committee was so great that they could call the workers beggars: The 7^th CPC could commit  such grievous error  in computation of the minimum wage.  According to Com. Tarapada Govt. must consult the employees before the suggestion from whichever exalted source it emanates .

            One can go on quoting from the speech to prove beyond an iota of doubt that how relevant the speech is today, even after one hundred years; how great was his thinking, how clear was his thought process and how unambiguous was his conclusions.  I am enamoured over the vocabulary employed, the symmetry of the presentation, the content, the force and confidence it conveys to the listener.   The everlasting impression it makes on the mind , the very essence of oratory and above all its permanency is beyond time.  I am certain that this speech must have made an everlasting contribution in building a powerful, strong, united and militant movement of the postal employees. Let me conclude by placing by admiration which I do not have the capacity to express in words.   Thank you comrades, once again, for giving me this opportunity to be a participant of this meeting convened for a great purpose and greater objectives.  I hope that it would be apt and appropriate If I quote Com. Babu Tarapada Mukherjee once again to conclude:

We beg no longer, we entreat no more, we petition no more, we defy them  and we must defy them :

K.K.N. KUTTY

Vice President, Confederation of CGE & Workers.

 

November 26th Strike -Serving Strike Notice To the SSPOs Palakkad Division on 27 Oct 2020

 

 

                                                    STRIKE NOTICE TO BE SERVED

ON 27.10.2020

************************ 

No.PF-12-C/2020                                                                   Dated: 27^th October—2020

To

            The Secretary / Director General,

            Department of Posts,

            Dak Bhawan,

 New Delhi – 110001

NOTICE

Sir,

            In accordance with the provisions of Sub Section (1) of section 22 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, we hereby notify that all Postal, RMS & GDS Employees will go on One Day Strike on 26th November-2020.

            The Charter of Demands is enclosed herewith

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Yours Sincerely                                    

                              CHARTER OF DEMANDS                               PART-A

1.   Scrap New Contributory Pension Scheme (NPS).  Restore old defined benefit Pension Scheme (OPS) to all employees.  Guarantee 50% of the last pay drawn as minimum pension.

2.      (a)     Scrap the draconian FR 56((j) & (i) and Rule 48 of CCS (Pension) Rules 1972.  Stop terrorizing and victimising employees.

          (b)     Withdraw the attack against the recognised status of Associations and Federations.

          (c)     Withdraw the anti-worker Wage/Labour codes and other anti-labour reforms.

          (d)     Stop attack on trade union rights.

3.      (a)     Withdraw the orders freezing the DA and DR of employees and Pensioners and impounding of arrears till 30-06-2021.

     (b)     Implement five year wage revision and Pension revision to Central Government employees and Pensioners.  Appoint 8th Central Pay Commission and revise the Pay, Allowances and Pensionary benefits of Central Government employees and Pensioners with effect from 01-01-2021.

         (c)     Honour the assurance given by Group of Ministers (GoM) to NJCA leaders on 30-06-2016.  Increase minimum pay and fitment formula recommended by 7th CPC.  Grant HRA arrears from 01-01-2016.

         (d)     Withdraw “Very Good” bench mark for MACP, grant promotional heirarchy and date of effect of MACP from 01-01-2006.

      (e)     Grant Option-1 parity recommended by 7th CPC to all Central Govt. Pensioners.  Grant one notional increment to those who retired on 30th June.

          (f)      Settle all anomalies arising out of 7th CPC implementation.

4.      Stop ban on creation of new posts.  Fill up all seven lakhs vacant  posts in Central Government departments in a time bound manner.  Scrap National Recruitment Agency and introduce Departmentwise recruitment and Regional recruitment for Group B and C posts.  Stop re-engaging retired personnel in Central Govt. services.

5.  Stop Corporatisation and privatisation of Railways, Defence and Postal Departments.  Withdraw closure/merger orders of Govt. of India Printing Presses and Postal Stores depots/Postal Stamp depots.  Stop proposed move to close down salt department.  Stop outsourcing and closure of Govt. establishments.s

6.    (a)     Regularisation of Gramin Dak Sevaks and grant of Civil Servants status.   Implement remaining positive recommendations of Kamalesh Chandra Committee Report.

         (b)     Regularise all casual and contract workers including those joined service on or after 01-09-1993.

7.   Settle all Covid-9 related issues pertaining to Central Govt. employees and Pensioners on top priority basis.  Treat the  period of absence during lock down as duty.  Grant full wages to casual, part-time, contingent and contract workers during the lock down period.

8.    Grant equal pay for equal work for all.  Remove disparity in pay scales between Central Secretariat staff and similarly placed staff working in field units of various departments.

9.      Implement 7th CPC wage revision and pension revision to remaining Autonomous body employees and pensioners.  Ensure payment of full arrears without further delay.  Grant Bonus to Autonomous body employees pending from 2016-17 onwards

10.    Remove arbitrary 5% ceiling imposed on compassionate appointments.  Grant appointment in all eligible cases.

11.    Grant five time-bound promotions to all Group B & C employees.  Complete cadre review in all departments in a time bound manner. 

12.    Ensure prompt functioning of various negotiating forums under the JCM Scheme at all levels.

        CHARTER OF DEMANDS                  PART-B

1. (a) Grant of Special Casual Leave to all the employees who could not attend due to Covid-19 related problems and issue of Uniform Guide Lines

(b)       Grant of Compensation of Rs. 10 Lakh to the family of deceased due to Covid-19 without any further delay.

(c)       Compassionate appointment to one ward of the deceased employee due to Covid-19.

(d)       Payment of wages to Casual/Part-time /Contingent /DRM & Out sourced Workers for the Lockdown period.

(e)       Continuance of Roaster till Covid-19 Problem persists.

2.         Stop Closure / Merger of PSDs/ CSDs/Post Offices/RMS Offices and Mail Motor Services. Stop Road Transport Network proposal.       

3.         Drop the idea of Decentralization of Postal Accounts offices and merger of Circle office and SBCO Cadre in PA Cadre.

4.         Stop harassment and allotment of unscientific targets to open IPPB accounts and Aadhar Enabled Payment Service and Aadhar Card Service.

5.         Stop Proposal of Common Service Centres in POs.

6.         Fill up all vacant posts in all Cadres and stop Recruitment of Outsourced Postal Agents particularly to run the Parcel Hubs in Department of Posts.

7.         Start Membership Verification for Regular and GDS Employees through Old Check-Off System, droop the idea of Online Verification.

8.         Implement remaining positive recommendations of Kamlesh Chandra9

9.       Finalize Cadre restructuring proposals of left out Categories of Department of Post.

10.       Implement 5 (Five) Days Week in all Post Offices and RMS Offices.

 SIGNIFICANCE  OF  BABU TARAPADA  MUKHERJEE’S  HISTORIC LAHORE  SPEECH - CENTENARY  LECTURE -

M.Krishnan

Ex-Secretary General, NFPE & Confederation.

BRIEF  LIFE  HISTORY  OF  BABU TARAPADA  MUKHERJEE:

                 Babu Tarapada Mukherjee, the pioneer of the Postal Employees movement in India was born in the year 1868 at a Village named Baikunthapur in the District of Burdwan in Bengal State.  He has completed his BA degree course and got married in the year 1891.  Tarapada started his service carreer firstly at Raj Treasury, Coochbehar and then as Headmaster of Jetkeen’s School prior to his appointment as a Postal Clerk in 1895.  He entered the service on 1st February 1895.

                 From the very beginning of his service carreer, he started his trade union activities amongst the Postal Employees.  In those days it was not easy to organise trade union activities and form unions in employees front.  British rulers were very much against such ideas.  But Tarapada found out a new device.  He contemplated to carry on the trade union work through Recreational Club.  Accordingly, the “Calcutta Postal Club” was formed in the month of May 1908.  British rules were ready to accept such recreational club with a view to engaging the employees in the recreational activities and divert their attention from trade union functions.  British Government was generous enough to allot a plot of land at 37, Ganesh Chandra Avenue at Calcutta for the purpose and a building was constructed there, which is now the Circle headquarters of National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) Postal and RMS Unions of West Bengal Circle.

                 Gradually this Postal Club became the nerve centre of trade union activities of the Postal as well as the Central Government employees movement.  Since formation of Postal Club numerous memoranda, petitions etc were submitted to the Postal Administration.  These organisers were often transferred to distant places, not only within Bengal but also Burma, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and even to Andaman Nicobar Islands as punitive measure.  But the employees could not be deterred from organising movement to realise their demands.  Babu Tarapada was always upright in giving them the leadership. The employees under the guidance of Babu Tarapada did not succumb to the vindictive measures of the administration but they finally succeeded in forming a trade union of Postal Employees viz; All India (including Burma) Post office and RMS Employees Union.

                 Under the auspices of this union, the Postal and RMS Employees 2nd Conference was held at Lahore on the 9th October 1921 of which Babu Tarapada was chosen to chair the occassion.  Babu Tarapada’s address as President of the Conference held two-way effect on the movement of the employees and on the outlook of the administration.  For the employees, the historic speech was a unique guidance as to how and which way the movement should be built and developed.  He roused in them the inherrent potentiality, capable of moving heaven and earth.  He taught the employees to organise themselves with a purpose which was bound to bring success to the movement.

                 On the other hand, the administration found on him the power of a tiger.  They were not ready to allow him to continue in service and remain a leader.  They, therefore, decided to remove him from service and brought charges against him.  In the memo, the administration said, “the Lahore speech was a public one.  It is calculated to bring Government and Postal Administration into contempt with their own employees.”  Babu Tarapada was asked to either make a public apology on their terms or submit resignation.  It means, in no way he can be retained in Government Service.  After his bold reply to the charges raised by the administration, while refusing to submit resignation, the administration’s axe fell on him and he was dismissed from service with effect from 20th November 1921.

                 It was a sad period in the life of Babu Tarapada.   His wife Smt. Sulakhanna Debi was in deathbed.  He was hesitating to go to Lahore to attend the Conference in such a condition of his wife.  But it was his wife who insisted that he must go.  After Tarapada’s return from Lahore, the condition of his wife became serious and the cruel hand of death snatched her on the 29th of November 1921, nine days after he was removed from service.  He has not informed her about his dismissal from service fearing that it may aggravate her health condition.

                 There is a saying, misfortune never comes alone.  This was true with Tarapada’s case.  He lost both his service and wife within one week.  He was a man who did not look into personal interest, courted sufferings for prosperity of others.  He remains as a guiding force of the movement of the Postal employees as well as the other Central Government employees.  Babu Tarapada breathed his last on the 29th September 1929.  Tarapada was a man of exceptional ability and energy, whatever work he undertook he crowned with success.

                 Tarapada was a studious man.  He studied many books on the Labour conditions of England and the method the British workers had adopted to improve their lot.  Once Postmaster General conducted surprise inspection of his Postoffice quarters where he lived with wife.  The Postmaster General was rather surprised to see that a petty Sub Postmaster had a fairly large collection of books on literature, philosophy, History and Economics.  Postmaster General enquired whether those books belonged to Tarapada and whether he read them all.  Tarapad replied in the affirmative.

                 Like a comet he trailed the blaze for a brief period of service of about 26 years and disappeared.  The pioneering history of Postal Trade Union movement is compressed in this period of his life.  Controversies did not deflect him from his resolve to meet the challenges of the time.  He met the adversaries with forbearance and calm.

HUMILIATING CONDITIONS OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES IN BRITISH INDIA AND THE BACKGROUND OF HISTORIC LAHORE SPEECH:

                 Tarapada Mukherjee in his reminiscences explained as follows:

                 “In 1895, I entered the Postal Department as a Clerk.  The initial pay at that time was Rs.15/-.  The staff position as a rule was quite inadequate on account of which clerks had generally to work for 12 hours a day.  The miseries of the clerks did not end there.  They used  to be very badly treated by the officers, severely punished for petty faults and personally abused by the Superintendent and other officers.  It is hardly possible to believe it now, but it is well known, that corruption was rampant even in Calcutta.  None could get leave without spending some money.  To get promotion from one grade to another, although by virtue of seniority, would cost at least Rs.60/- to satisfy the Superintendent. Juniors would often get promotion before their turn by means of bribes.

                 There was no printed gradation list at that time and it was not supplied to all offices.  In Calcutta two kinds of gradation lists were kept, one for show and the another being real.  Both these copies were written in pencil, so that the position of men could be altered at anytime, by erasing.  A man who was very junior in the grade would have been able to stand as senior in the gradation list by spending some money.  The result was that honest and god-fearing man has very little chance to get promotion to higher grade and had to rot in a grade for several years to come.

                 Another incident quoted by him in his reminiscences is cited below -

                 “A clerk of the Dharamtola Post office in Calcutta while on duty had an  attack of high fever.  His condition was such that he could not leave the office, so he had to lie down on the floor of the office on some bags which were spread for the purpose.  Mr. H.A.Sans, ICS, the then Postmaster General happened to visit Dharamtola Post office at that time.  He was so enraged at the sight that clerk misused the Post office bag and he was so unsympathetic that he dismissed the clerk then and there”.

                 In para-26 of his reply to the chargesheet, Tarapada narratted the following incident -

                 “I may mention only one instance that occurred in the Calcutta GPO to prove my contention.  An European lady came in the afternoon at the window of the Registration department and she asked the window clerk to accept a registered parcel.  The clerk explained to the lady that parcels were accepted in a different place and the one she had presented could not therefore be booked by him; and he requested her to go to the place where parcels were booked.  The lady got irritated and abused the clerk to her hearts content and came to the Asst. Postmaster in charge and complained against the window clerk.  The Asst. Postmaster called the widow clerk to know what had happened.  When the clerk was explaining to the Assistant Postmaster the real situation, the lady got more and more irritated and in the presence of the Assistant Postmaster slapped the clerk on the face.  What protection did the clerk get?  Absolutely none.  The Assistant Postmaster quietly told the clerk to go and work, and politely asked the European lady to go to the parcel window and gave his chaprasi to escort her to the proper place.”

                 The above instances, narrated by Tarapada Mukherjee will give an idea with what difficulty the postal workers had to work in those days.  There was no holiday to speak of, working hours were longer and above all, the treatment and behaviour of officers were inhuman.  Employees were naturally looking forward for a leader who could be able to remove their hardship.  Tarapada entered the Postal Department at such a juncture.

HISTORIC LAHORE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:

                 Babu Tarapada Mukherjee delivered his historic speech at the Lahore Conference of All India (including Burma) Post office and RMS Employees Union on 09th October 1921 - as President of the 2nd All India Conference.  First Conference was held in Delhi in the year 1920.

                 When we recall the famous Lahore Speech of Tarapada Mukherjee and read it again and again we could delve deep into his outlook and charactor.  His speech is full of exhortation to be bold, courageous, self-sacrificing and hard working.  He organised the employees into a mighty force so as to challenge the might of arrogant British rulers.

About the recommendations of Postal Enquiry Committee:

                 In his speech he spoke at length about the recommendations of Hazeltine Committee (Postal Enquiry Committee of 1920).  Quoting the following recommendations of the committee he furiously rejected the theory as placing the workers in the category of  beggars.

                 “Postal Committee starts with the very curious and insulting proposition that “all concession is of the nature of gift and this being so, it is for the donor to decide about what the measure of the gift shall be”.  This tantamounts to saying that the employers are donors and the workers are beggars and they must, therefore, be satisfied with beggar’s doles.”

                 Pointing out this comment of the committee, Tarapada exhorted the delegates -

                 “Workers are not beggars, they are the salt of the earth, they are the only  people who produce wealth.  Wealth consists of the Labour imprinted on material substance and in the absence of workers where is the labour to come from which is necessary to create wealth?  Those who do not work are parasites sucking like vampire the life blood of the society and are battening on the wealth produced by the workers.”

                 He further cautions that if workers stop work, all the bloated rich cannot have their glittering apparel, their bungalows and mansions and delicious food on their table.

About Discrimination in Pay Scales:

                 Tarapada rejected the Government’s argument that it is due to the financial crisis, better pay scales are not recommended to the Postal employees.  He recalled how the same committee has recommended better pay and working conditions to Telegraphists who at that time were Anglo-Indians or whites.

                 “The consideration of economy is, however cast to the four winds when question of raising the pay of the upper strata arises.  You will be surprised to learn that in the course of twelve months, more than one revision has been sanctioned for those who are paid by thousands instead of by tens, but when the poor underpaid, over worked subordinate staff is concerned, that is another matter.”

                 “Man is something more than an animal.  He cannot afford to pass his days in mere animal existence.  He cannot live contended if only his physical needs are satisfied.  His moral nature will rise in rebellion if it is altogether neglected.”  He rejected the plea of want of funds to pay better wages to postal workers and said that Postal department in India gave surplus when in England wages of Postal Workers were enhanced despite deficit.  He treated it as discriminatory.

About Insulting treatment meted out to Postal Workers and the threat of punishments:

                 Tarapada cited insulting treatment meted out to Postal Workers, long hours of work they have to perform and said that in every Director General’s circular the postal workers were terrorised into submission by adding the words -

                 “Mistake or failure to carryout instructions will be severely punished”.

                 He recalled how for every minor or unintended lapses, penalties, fine, stoppage at efficiency bars and debarring selection grades were imposed with heavy hand.

                 Through his speech he exudes high sense of learning as he quotes from Shakespeare and also form Greek Lawyer Draco, who promulgated harsh laws called Draconian laws.  He gave graphic details of the hard working conditions and the oppressive officers regime.

                 He exhorted the postal workers to revolt against such injustices -

                 “Brothers, we cannot afford to continue as we are, unless we belie our nature.  We must, therefore, determine to have our pay increased and working hours reduced.  We must fight and fight strenuously to secure what alone can make life worth living.  We must make up our minds in this Conference whether we shall continue to live as human cattle or “take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them”.        

                 “We have fallen from our high pedestral and we have lost consciousness of our true self.  We have forgotten that we have a soul which is the essence of God.  Once our hypnotism is gone and once we succeed in overcoming mean terror and low selfishness and abject submission to fate, the soul will manifest in all its glory and it will triumph over whatever obstacles may stand in our way”.

About Importance of Organisation:

                 In his speech Tarapara made the following exhortations emphasising the need to organise -

                 “If you are convinced in your heart that the recommendations of the Postal Committee are humiliating and unsatisfactory, if you feel you have been very shabbily treated and you deserved better, and if you are determined to obtain what you have a right to claim, only one course is open to you, and that is summed up in the one word "organise''.

Organise if you want real living wages,

Organise if you  want to have your working hours reduced,

Organise if you desire better treatment from your superior officers,

Organise if you want that the authorities should consult and consider  your opinion in all administrative measures affecting you.''

About the need that Memorandums should be backed up by the struggle of workers

                   Tarapada made it clear that mere submission of memorandum and petitions to the Government will not yield any positive result, unless we mobilise the workers and fight for the demands.

He said-

                   "Take it from me, brothers, that petitions and memorials and supplications will count for nothing so long as you do not organise yourselves in a manner to convince the Government that  you will no longer stand nonsense.''

About the feeling - We are for the Union and the Union is for us-

                   Through his speech Tarapada exhorted to be class consious and unite into a mighty centralised organisation  so as to free themselves from the shackles of slavish working conditions and low wages.

                   "Organisation to be effective must be centralised.  To make the All India Union a reality, demands a good deal from us.  We must rise superior to provincialism, we must broaden our outlook, we must cultivate a spirit of trust, we must be identified with the Union wherever it may be located, we  must fully develop class-conciousness, we must have implicit faith in the Union, in one word we must strongly feel that "we are for the Union and the Union is for us.'' so long as we cannot thus identify ourselves fully, the union will lack the full strength necessary for our salvation.''

About Six pre-requisites of an organisation-

                   For building a strong union he cited the five prescriptions presented by the Colonel Wedgwood, a labour leader of England, who visited and addressed meeting of Postal employees in Kolkata.

They included-

(i)      Feeling of class consciousness.  No organisation worth the name is possible, without class consciousness.

(ii)     Everyone should join the Union with heart and soul.

(iii)    Create substantive reserve fund for the functioning of the Union-without a strong financial backing union work cannot be conducted satisfactorily.

(iv)    Publicity of our grievances through media and journals.

(v)     Lobbying or influencing Parliamentarians to bring pressure on the Government.

                   To the above five prescriptions, Tarapada added a sixth one ie; (vi) "Discipline in the organisation.''

                   He said a decision taken by the Executive body of the Union after free expression of views and after hearing the opposing view, a majority decision on a particular proposition should be implemented by lower formations.

                   This is very much applicable today as there is a tendency to ignore or not implementing the decision of the apex body by the lower bodies.

                   He defined organisational discipline in one line as follows-

                   -"If my view does not find favour with the majority, I must subordinate my view to the views of the majority, and work loyally and whole heartedly for the common cause - This is discipline.''

About Maintaining Unity of organisation and to shun parochialism:

                   Tarapada in his speech gave call for steel-like unity in the organisation irrespective of province, language and exhorted to common brotherhood.  He said all workers are brothers and asked them to shun parochialism.

About Living wage for decent living:

                   Tarapada enlightened the audience on the question of living wage as follows:

                   The burning question of the day is question of bread and decent living.  Are we paid a living wage? 

                   Do we get sufficient wages to nourish our children with healthy and nutritious food, to clothe them decently, to house them in proper  and ventilated quarters with sufficient accomodation for purposes of decency and healthy moral development, to give them education, to pay for proper medical help, to meet their marriage expenses and various other social obligations, and provide for the rainy day?  Ah, brothers, we all know to what strait have we been reduced.  We do not live, but we merely exist, and drudge on to sustain life.”

About Four minimum requirements of Postal Workers:

                   Tarapada summed up the four  minimum demands of the Postal employees as below -

                   “We should consider what we actually want and determine what we should fight for.  To my mind four things are necessary to establish the subordinate service in the Postoffice on a correct basis.  The first thing we must have is adequate and decent wages; the second thing, curtailment of hours of duty, the third thing, good treatment from superior officers and moderation of punishment, and the last thing that we must have a voice in the administration in matters affecting the subordinate staff.”

Concluding the speech with an optimistic note

                   He concluded his speech saying, "Do try to make your Union strong and do not commit suicide folly of seeking recognition.  Recognition is bound to come from an unwilling Government as soon as you make your Union strong, he said.

                   Finally he gave the following clarion call on the workers-

                   "You are men and not dumb driven cattle; you have a soul which is the essence of God and which nothing can repress except your own folly, ignorance and supineness.  You have immense potentiality, capable of moving heaven and earth.  Organise this power, organise with a purpose, organise with determination and I promise you success will knock at your door.''

Historical importance of Lahore speech

                   It may be recalled that he lived in a period soon after 1917 world shaking Russion Revolution.  No doubt his views were very revolutionary for the period and his ideas robust and fresh.

                   The speech of Tarapada is a document worth reading again and again, Let us therefore treat his Lahore speech as a piece of permanent document acting as a beacon light to guide the path for trade union workers and leaders for all time to come.

The charge sheet and the reply

                   British Government took serious note of the contents of Lahore speech and they chargesheeted Tarapada Mukherjee.  The relevant portion of the chargesheet is reporduced below -

                   “There is no objection to reasonable criticism of any action, but public abuse of the Postal administration by a responsible officer belonging to it cannot be tolerated.  If you hold the views expressed in this address, you are disloyal to yourself by remaining in the Department.  Your whole speech is designed to stir up disaffection and disloyalty among the staff and it a matter for regret that any officer of this Department could be capable of such unseemly and disloyal conduct.

                   Ordinarily no officer who made a public address of this kind could be retained in Government service, but the Director General is willing to give you an opportunity of withdrawing your assertions and expressing regret.  I have been requested by the Director General to inform you that if you make a public apology on the terms set forth in the accompanying form he will ask the Government to overlook the matter upon this occassion, if you refuse to do so, you are given the option of resigning your appointment  or of being removed from Government service.  You are therefore, asked to submit your reply either in the form of apology sent herewith or to tender your resignation within one week from the date of 'issue of this letter''.

                   As soon  as the charge sheet was received, the leaders of the Postal club met together at a private meeting.  It was indeed a red letter day and the charge sheet may be regarded as an ephoc making document which forced the issue on the unionists.

                   Tarapada knew well that he could not depend on the possibility of union’s financial support, once he is dismissed from service.  Moreover Postal unions were not at all organised at that time and the idea of supporting Tarapada after his dismissal was not considered practical.  Tarapada would be doomed to lead a miserable life.  But then, he could not court dishonour.  The condition of his ailing wife was alarming and he was placed on the dangerous horns of dilemma.  Amongst all these worries, Tarapada maintained his spirit and decided ultimately to prefer self-respect to service.

                   Tarapada then submitted his detailed 40 paragraph reply denying all the allegations.  The concluding para of the reply statement is reproduced below

                   ''In these circumstances, I submit that I have done nothing unworthy of an officer of the Department, I would be false to myself if I were to apologise for doing what my conscience fully approves.  I would be false to myself and to the service, If I were to tender resignation for doing what I considered as the only honourable and sensible course conducive to the interest of both the Postal Administration and the workers in the subordinate service.''

                   Naturally, the British Government rejected the submissions made by Tarapada in his reply and dismissed him from service.

Long live Tarapada Mukherjee, Long live Lahore speech

                   Tarapada delivered the historic speech one hundered years back. He was dismissed from service one hundred years back.  He left this world almost 90 years back. But even now lakhs and lakhs of workers are remembering him and he will be living in our minds always and his historic Lahore speech will be reverberating in the minds of trade union leaders and activists in the years to come.

Long live Tarapada Mukherjee!

Long live historic Lahore speech!!