On 29th March 1857, Mangal Pandey, the 29th year old sepoy of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI), Regiment of British East India Company, Barrackpore, Calcuttta   shot the British Officers for their bad treatment of the sepoys including  compelling them to use the beef/pig fat for greasing the gun catridges.  This incident is stated to be the starting point of the ‘First War of Independence’ or the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ as the British historians called it.

Mangal Pandey was captured and he was hanged on 8th April 1857. He is considered as the first martyr of the First Was of Independence. The above photo show the memorial erected for him at Barrackpore where he was hanged and cremated.

How many valuable lives of the people of India have been sacrificed at the altar of independence! We remember Mangal Pandey on his 159th Martyrdom Day!

I am happy that many comrades, friends and well- wishers are sending comments and opinions supporting and appreciating the views expressed or opposing and having a different view. Both appreciations and criticisms are welcome and I am much thankful to all of them. I reply to their points in addition to publishing their comments.
But in some rare cases, the comments are full of abuses and unfounded accusations, which are neither suitable nor appropriate for being published or answered in social media. Hence those friends should excuse me for not publishing them and answering them. It is once again pointed out I am not averse to any criticism but it should be in a publishable form.
V.A.N.Namboodiri

3rd April 2016 is the 336 death anniversary of Chhatrapathi Shivaji, who died on the same date in 1680. His exploits and wars against the Mughals to keep the freedom of his kingdom are legends which are still remembered. The Mumbai Railway Station is named in his memory.

Government of India has declared Holiday for Ambedkar Jayanti on 14th April 2016. This holiday should have been declared along with other holidays well before the start of the year.

Despite many requests for the same, neither the UPA government nor the NDA government is declaring the holiday for Ambedkar Jayanti well in advance. It is not understood why the government is delaying the announcement till very late.

There should be strong demand from all sections of people on the government for the declaration of April 14, the birthday of the Architect of Indian Constitution and one of the greatest leaders of the downtrodden, Bharat Ratna, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar, as a regular Holiday.

As per the call of BSNLEU CHQ, demonstration was organisd at Corporate Office BSNL New Delhi protesting against the meagre amount of Bonus offered and demanding that at least a minimum bonus of Rs. 7,000. Though organised at very short notice, many comrades participated. Coms.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Patron BSNLEU, Kuldeep Singh, Asst.Treasurer, CHQ, R.S.Chouhan, Circle Secretary, Gautam, Asst. General Secretary SNATTA, Bisht, Circle Secretary C.O.and others attended and addressed. The next phase of agitation is Dharna on 07-04-2016.

The National Convention of Workers held at Mavlankar Hall, New Delhi, today, 30 March 2016, has called upon the entire workers to go on one day strike on 2 September 2016 on the demands raised by the Central Trade Unions and on which a strike has already been organised on 2 September last year.
The hall was packed to capacity and many delegates were sitting on the floor or standing. Convention was presided over by a presidium consisting of the President/Senior leader of all the central trade unions, including Coms. A.K.Padmanabhan ( CITU), Amarjeet Kaur (AITUC) and others. Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy (INTUC), Harbhajan Singh (HMS), Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), Tapan Sen(CITU) and other leaders addressed. All the speakers condemned the anti-worker policies of the central government and called upon the workers to unitedly to campaign against the same.
The Declaration adopted by the convention decided to organise similar conventions at state/District levels in June- July and Mass Dharna on 9th August 2016. It called upon the workers to organise a massive strike on 2 September 2016 with full participation.
Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Patron, Com.P.Abhimanyu, General Secretary and Com.Kuldeep Singh, Asst. Treasurer participated from BSNLEU.

The EPFO has decided to restore interest on inoperative EPF accounts w.e.f April 2016. UPA government had taken an unjustified decision to stop giving intetest on EPF accounts from April 2011 for which no further contributions were made.
While the present decision is welcome, that is not sufficient. Interest from April 2011 retrospectively should be granted. Then only justice will be meted out to the account holders.
Out of about a total of 15 crore EPF accounts, 9.23 crore are stated to be inoperative according to Labour Secretary.

The employees of IDBI struck work on 28th March 2016 as per the call of the United Forum of the IDBI Officers and Employees against the anti-worker, anti-Bank attitude of the government. They went on a successful strike against the proposal for privatisation of the public sector banks.

Kerala Circle is one of the strongest Circle of BSNLEU with a high  % of membership among the BSNL employees.

The CHQ has allotted Com. P.Asoka Babu, CHQ Vice-President to tour the circle on election campaign. Com.P.Abhimanyu, General Secretary, BSNLEU attended and addressed a mammoth circle level Convention of BSNL workers at Ernakulam on which was attended by more than 650 employees. Considering that Kerala is a small circle with only 11 SSAs and less employees, the number was significant. General Secretary spoke for about one and half hours and his speech in English was ably translated by Com.K.Mohanan, Circle Secretary. The Malayalam translation of the verification campaign book published by CHQ was released in the convention which was printed 10,000 copies, sufficient to supply to all the employees of Kerala, irrespective of their membership.

Continuing the campaign, Coms. V.A.N.Nambbodiri, Patron and P.Asoka Babu Vice-President, BSNLEU along with CHQ Asst. General Secretary Com. S.Pratap Kumar, CHQ Org. Secretary, Com.M.Vijaya Kumar, Circle President Com. A.V.Kuriakose and Circle Secretary Com.K.Mohanan attended SSA level conventions in all the SSAs, except Ernakulam, where the Circle level Convention has already been held. Coms. P.V.Chandrasekharan, veteran leader and Patron AIBDPA, R.Muralidharan Nair, former Asst. General Secretary, BSNLEU and other senior leaders attended a few of the SSA conventions and addressed. The District President and District Secretary  of the SSA along with other office-bearers organised the convention effectively. All the conventions were attended by large number of employees including some from other unions.

The Conventions were held from 18th to 24th March  2016 as follows: Alappuzha (18-03-2016), Malappuram (19-03-2016), Thiruvananthapuram ( 21-03-2016), Kollam (21-03-2016), Thiruvalla (22-03-2016), Kottayam (22-03-2016), Palakkad (23-03-2016), Thrissur (23-03-2016), Kozhikode (24-03-2016) and Kannur (24-03-2016). A total of more than 1,500 workers might have attended these conventions.

While Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, Patron and Founder General Secretary BSNLEU attended all the conventions and inaugurated most of them, Com.P.Asoka Babu, Vice-President gave the key-note address in all the eight conventions he attended. He spoke in detail about the achievements of BSNLEU, the struggles it has organised, its initiative in bringing all unions under a Joint Forum for the revival of BSNL and on common issues etc. He also mentioned about the new demands that have been raised by BSNLEU both inside and out side National Council. Circle Secretary Com.K.Mohanan translated the speech of Com.Asoka Babu in most of the centres, while Com. S.Pratap Kumar, AGS translated in one centre.

Since the election to the Kerala State assembly is taking place in May 2016, the issue also came for discussion. The speakers called upon the employees to support LDF, which always has supported the workers and fought for them.

These district level conventions have created confidence among the BSNL workers about their future. They have once again realised that it is only BSNLEU which can ensure the revival of BSNL and achieve the demands of the workers. The workers, irrespective of union, are inspired and will certainly vote for BSNLEU to stregnthen BSNL and to strengthen the working class movement.

The tour was an excellent opportunity to meet the workers at the ground level and discuss their issues. I could meet a lot of old comrades and functionaries since members of AIBDPA and CCLU attended in good numbers in addition to BSNLEU comrades.

The BSNLEU Membership verification meeting at Kozhikode was held on 24 March 2016 presided over by Com.K.Surendran District President. Com.Jayaraj, Dist.Secretary welcomed. Com.P.Asoka Babu, Vice-President inaugurated. He spoke in detail about the achievements of BSNLEU and the new demands placed before administration. Coms.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Patron, A.V.Kuriakose, Circle President, K.Mohanan, Circle Secretary, M.Vijaya Kumar, CHQ Org. Secretary, K.Sudheer, SNEA, V.Bhagyalakshmi, Convener, Mahila Committee, T.T
Asokan CCLU, K.C.Balan, K.G.Sanjeevan, K.Damodaran AIBDPA and others attended and addressed.
It is clear that Calicut will go ahead and get good majority for BSNLEI