SPEECH AT THE WEBINAR OF KERALA NFPE ON LAHORE SPEECH AND 26TH NOVEMBER, STRIKE.
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 8th 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 3rd 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 7th
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 5th
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 26th 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 26th
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 7th 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 6th CPC. We had no labour representative in the 7th 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 7th
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.
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