I attended meetings at Bangalore, Mysore and Hubli on 24th and 25th of January 2011 in connection with the Membership Verification programme. The meetings were attended by a large number of workers which indicated the growth of the organisation and the increase in the support base of BSNLEU and United Forum.

In addition, I am very happy that I could meet a lot of old comrades who are either  working or retired and still are actively connected with the organisation.  In Mysore, the original base of E.III(N) union (along with Mangalore), I could meet Coms. R.G.Bhandari, Mukundan, Gopalakrisnan and others, who worked hard  to strengthen our union. Now they are all retired, but is active in the All India BSNL-DOT Pensioners Association (AIBDPA). Even though the time was very short, at least I could meet them and exchange greetings and a few words. It was the same at Hubli. The AIBDPA had organised a meeting in which I, along with other leaders were felicited. The AIBDPA  under the leadership of  Comrades S.S.Patil, K.G.Deshpande, R.B.Patil and others are seriously working to strengthen the Association. But I missed one comrade, who not only filled Hubli with his activities but all of Karnataka for decades, but is no more. Com.M.Sadanand, who was the soul of our organisation in Karnataka and who was the first Circle Secretary of E.III (N) and BSNLEU was a comrade who sacrificed his entire life for protecting and safeguarding the interests of workers. I started my speech at Hubli remembering him and paying respectful homage.

While time passes away, many comrades also leaves us for ever. It is our duty to remember them and tread the path shown by them.

My Hearty and Revolutionary Greetings to all our comrades, friends and visitors on the 62nd Republic Day!

On this day, let us remember the thousands of martyrs who sacrificed their entire life and all for getting independance for the country. Let us remember the sacrifices of crore of our people who were part of the great independance struggle.

But the present rulers have forgotten all those sacrifices by the people. The recent scams of 2G, Adarsh, Commonwealth etc. as also the huge amount of black money slashed in the foreign banks indicate the way the ruling class is governing the country. The crony capitalism has  become more and more agressive. The issues of the people are forgotten. While the rich 10% control more than 80% of the assets of the country, the more than 80% of the people have only Rs.20 per  day to eke out their living. What huge disparity! What intolerable injustice!

Let us pledge and make all efforts to make a change so that all the people of the country is able to live a happy life!

The Supreme Court took  a serious view of  Communications Minister Kapil Sibal’s  comment on CAG report on 2G Scam as “erroneous” and commented that ” This is unfortunate. The Minister is supposed to behave with some sense of responsiblity”.  The SC also stated that the CBI is expected ” to carry on with the investigation without being influenced by any statement made by anybody in the press or otherwise”.

On the same day the PAC Chairman, Murli Manohar Joshi asked the Government whether the statement of Communications Minister Kapil Sibal was made “with the knowledge and permission of the Prime Minister?”.

The moot question now is, whether the Government will agree for a JPC to enquire in the matter as has been demanded by the Opposition parties ? If Kapil Sibal’s statement is with the knowledge of the Prime Minister, then the direction seems to be ‘No JPC’, which will have further problems for the government in the budget session. Can the government go to that extent?

The UPA II Government is steadily going on selling the PSU shares. NDA government’s motto that ” Business is not the business of the Government” is being loyally being implemented by the UPA II.  The Disinvestment Department is working over time to sell the nation’s valuable assets at cheap prices.

As per government reports, SAIL , ONGC  and Power Finance Corporation  (PFC) will be disinvested in the first quarter of 2011. IOC and Hindustan Copper will be disinvested in the next financial year, 2011-12. Other PSUs which are to be disinvested will be known later. The strong opposition from the Central Trade Unions including INTUC has not made any change in the governments’ privatisation policy. Strong and sustained struggles by the working class are necessary to stop this selling of family silver.

As such, it is most important that maximum workers participate in the Parliament March called by the Central Trade Unions and independent Federations to be organised on 23rd February 2011.

After the reshuffle of the Cabinet by the Prime Minister it has become clear that Shri Kapil Sibal will continue as Communications Minister.

We welcome and congratulate Shri Kapil Sibal on his appointment. We hope that he will try to reorganise and strengthen BSNL.

Unconfirmed reports have been received that the Cabinet in its meeting on 20th January has cleared the Pension Revision of pre-2007 BSNL retirees. As per the 20th April Strike agreement reached between  Joint Action Committee and Communications Minister, the Cabinet Note on this issue has been submitted to the Cabinet a few weeks earlier.

On contacting the Member (Services), Telecom Commission by Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, Joint Action Committee, he informed that the matter can be confirmed after getting the decision from the Communications Minister.

This is a great achievement for which BSNLEU and Joint Forum has been fighting  all along. The concered retirees will be getting the Pension Revision from 01-01-2007.

In the last membership verification T.Nadu and Chennai circles could not get majority despite very hard and sincere effort of our comrades. But the two meetings attended and addressed by All India President at Madurai (T.Nadu) and Chennai gave clear signal that in both circles BSNLEU/United Forum will win with convincing majority.

The meeting at Madurai was held in the evening of 18th January at the office premises. More than 500 comrades were present including a good number of  women comrades. Com. Veluchamy, Dist. President, BSNLEU presided. Com. Suryan, Dist. Secretary welcomed all. The All India and Circle leaders were honoured by garlanding and covering by shawls. Coms. R.Venkitaraman, President, TEPU, R.Ravindran, General Secretary, SEWA BSNL, Circle Secretaries Coms. S.Chellappa  ( BSNLEU), P.N.Perumal (SEWA BSNL), A.Chellapandyan (TEPU), Marimuthu, Circle President (BSNLEU) and other leaders addressed. The presence and address of Com. P.Andiappan, General Secretary of the newly formed FNTOBEA and Com,R.V.Jayaraman, Circle Secretary of the same union  and their support to the United Forum was very much welcomed by the house. This is a union formed by comrades of FNTO who differed with the wrong line taken by FNTO. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, United Forum and President BSNLEU congratulated the  workers for the massive participation and support to United Forum. He mentioned that T.Nadu will certainly win the election this time seeing the massive participation and enthusiasm of the workers. He focused on the need to save and strengthen BSNL and the responsibility of the workers in this respect. He also mentioned about the struggles organised against disinvestment, VRS etc, by the BSNL workers. He explained the next Charter of Demands which have to be fulfilled in the next two years. The meeting assured the All India leaders that T.Nadu will certainly rewrite the history and will ensure a good majority and win in the ensuing verification.

The meeting at Chennai was held at the Anna Road Exchange premises on 19th January 2011. A presidium  of Circle Presidents consisting of Coms. B.Subramaniam (BSNLEU), G.Y.Sekar (BSNLEU), A.Subramanyan (SEWA BSNL), V.Sudaram (AIOBC BSNL), A.Duraikannu (BSNLMS) and Rajendran (FNTOBEA) conducted the proceedings. The meeting was attended by moe than 1000 workers. A large number of women comrades were present as usual. Coms. V.A.N.Namboodiri, All India President, BSNLEU, R.Venkitaraman, President, TEPU, V.Subburaman, General Secretary, TEPU, R.Ravindran, General Secretary, SEWA BSNL, P.Andiappan, General Secretary, FNTOBEA, Beema Rao, GS NFTBE, Punitha Udayakumar, All India Vice-President, BSNLEUCircle Secretries K.Govinda Raj (BSNLEU), J.Vijayakumar (TEPU), Murugu Tamilarasu (SEWA BSNL) Kirubhandum (BSNLMS), E.Prabhakaran (AIOBC BSNL)R.Kothandan (FNTOBEA) Mouli. Co-ord, inator NFTBE and other leaders attended /addressed.

The meeting was a clear declaration that Chennai Circle will get a good majority in the verification and will strengthen United Forum and BSNLEU further.

Comrades of Punjab Circle under the leadership of Circle President Com. R.L.Moudgil and Circle Secretary Com. Balbir Singh are  fully prepared to face the verification and get a very good majority of the votes for BSNLEU. This is the message  that Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, All India President got when he along with th above two comrades attended and addressed meetings at Patiala and Chandigarh on 17th January 2011.

The first meeting was held at Patiala at about 11.00 hours presided over by Com. Raghubir Singh. Com.Narindra Pal Sharma, District Secretary welcomed all. All the leaders were garlanded and honoured by the District Union leaders. Coms. Balbir Singh, Circle Secretary, R.L.Moudgil, Circle President, Naveen Yadav, Dist. Secretary, SNATTA, Ludhiana, Sadiq Ahmad  and other leaders addressed. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri in his address mentioned about the grand achievements of the United Forum/BSNLEU in the last 6 years of recognition and also mentioned about the 40 points Charter of Demands adopted by the United Forum for settlement in the next two years. He also stated that BSNLEU had taken up the issues of all cadres in the past and will take the issues in the same way in future also. He stressed that the fight to save and strengthen BSNL will be taken as the foremost task by the union.

The next meeting was at Chandigarh, the capital city of Punjab. By the time the Circle and All India leaders reached, the meeting has started. Com.Namboodiri, All India President and other leaders were greeted by garlanding and shouting of slogans. The massive meeting participated by more than 700 workers and a large number of women employees was presided over by Com. Bhaglal. Coms. H.S.Dhillon  and Karan Chander, District Secretaries of Chandigarh SSA and CGM(O) respectively welcomed.  The meeting was addressed by Coms. R.L.Moudgil, Asst. General Secretary, Balbir Singh, Circle Secretary and other leaders. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri in his detailed address spoke about the great achievements of the United Forum/BSNLEU in the last two years. The discrimination meted out to the non-executives in wage revision, Promotion Policy etc. in the past have been removed to a big extent. He explained the Charter of Demands adopted by the UF for the next two years. The largely attended meeting assured the leaders that the comrades of Punjab are fully with BSNLEU and will give a huge majority to it in the coming verification. In both the meetings a good number of DRTTAs attended and supported BSNLEU.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) will be introduced all over India from 20th January 2011 and the same will be announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as per reports in the press. As already indicated earlier, it will be a churning which will result in many big companies losing their subscribers if the services are not up to the mark. BSNL is one such company which has got to gear up its services to ensure that its subscribers do not shift for lack of better services. Each and every worker in addition to the management has to ensure a very good service so that subscribers do not shift away.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated on 19th January that there is no instant solution to bring back the black money stashed away in the foreign banks. He also told that the information with the government in this connection can not be made public due to treaty obligations.

This iv very surprising! When the government has got information about the black money put in the foreign banks why is it that it is not made public and the amount confiscated by the Government? It means that the Government is not prepared to take any action against these big people; probably many of its own supporters are there.

At the same time, the Supreme Court has expressed its serious alarm over this plunder of the Nation and termed it as ” pure and simple theft of national money.” Supreme Court asked the Government why the list can not be published.  Of course, there are many skeletons in the cup-board for the government to hide.