The First War of Indpendance, or the Sepoy Mutiny as the Britishers called it started on 10 May 1857 at Meerut. The fight continued for months. Delhi fell at the advance of the Indian Sepoys. The fight continued for months. Rani Lakshmi Bai, Tandia Topi and all the great leaders of the war of Independance fell one after another. They could not match the highly developed armaments of the British.And there were traitors.
But this 1857 war gave waves through out the world that the Indian people have raised their swords against the Britishers. Within another 100 years, India got independance.

The young generation of Central Govt./BSNL employees may not know how and when they started getting bonus. Many employees may be thinking that the Bonus was being paid since independance. But the facts are entirely different. it was due to the historic 22 days strike of the Railway workers and a section of Central Government employees in 1974.

As in the present times the Congress government in the 1970s ( no alliance government) were bringing anti-worker acts and rules one after another. Continuous agitations were organised by the working class. It was at this time, on 8th May 1974 that the Railway workers and a section of the Confederation of Central Govt. Employees & workers (O.P.Gupta & company opposed the strike and did not participate.)went on an indefinite strike demanding that bonus shpould be paid. Till that time bonus was not being paid to CG and Railway employees. Condeferation under the leadership of SK Vyas, NJ Iyer, Adi and others gave call for the strike which was participated by many including the entire circles of Kerala, W.Bengal etc. The strike continued for 22 days by the Railway workers. Thousand were arrested, jailed, dismissed, suspended etc. At last the strike was called off in the face of the brutal repression.

But no strike is in vain. When the Congrees was defeated in 1977 and the Janatha Government came, orders were issued granting for the first time, bonus to the Railway workers. Confederation gave a call for strike and the Government gave orders for payment of bonus to CG employees also. It is how the Railways & other CG Employees achieved bonus.

In the 1974 strike many comrades like me were also arrested, suspended and charge sheets issued. It is through such sustained struggles that we got bonus.

Press Conference was organised by the Kerala Circle Joint Committee of Action at Calicut Press club on 9th May 2011. In addition to myself as the Convener, National JAC, K.Mohanan, Circle Secretary BSNLEU & Circle Convener JAC, Purushothaman, District Convener, JAC and Circle & District Secretaries of SNEA, AIBSNLEA, BSNLEU, BSNLMS and others were present.

I presented in the Press Conference a background of the formation of BSNL as also the reasons for the present situation of loss to company, like anti-PSU policy of the government, the inept management and the casual attitude of the workers to the service and the development. JAC had discussed all these issues and has decided to observe May 2011 as “Customer Delight Month” by improving the services as also increasing the mobile and landline connections. The entire target of the programme was explained. The questions raised by the media persons were answered effectively.

In all the English and Malayalam papers, the news have been published in a very effective way. The media appreciated the initiative taken by the JAC. It is also significant that Kerala Circle has been in the front position with regard to development etc. The people are also in support of the PSUs.

I met the Shri Muraleedharan GM Calicut District along with the leaders of the state & District JAC and discussed the issues of development and service problems and discussed the same. The discussion was very positive. He assured all support.

In Kerala the the JAC call is being implemented effectively.

Kerala Circle, as usual, is in the forefront in implementing the call for implementation of the “Customer Delight Month” called by the JAC.

I had personally seen the active preparation of the JAC in this respect. On 6th May, a meeting of the executive members of the unions of the JAC was held at Ernakulam KG Bose Mandiram. The Circle Presidents and Circle secretaries of the JAC affiliates were in the dais. I was given the opportunity to inaugurate the meeting. I spoke about the background of the JAC decision to improve the services and improve the financial position of the company.The anti-PSU policy of the government has to be changed, the management should take responsibility to effectively run the commpany and the executives and non-executives will have to go extra mile to give services to the people, I told the meeting. The methood of successfully implementing the month was also explained.K.Mohanan, Convener, Circle JAC and other leaders spoke.There were some doubts which were also cleared.

Already Kerala JAC had met the CGM and others and committees involving both management and JAC have also been formed to implement and monitor the progress. I appreciated the work done by the comrades on behalf of the National JAC

Mangalore has always been a strong hold of the BSNLEU. In fact, it was one of the centres of the progressive forces in the union in NFPTE and NFTE. The Divisional Conference of the Mangalore SSA was held on 4th May at Managalore with the District Executive committee meeting on 3rd May. The conference was well attended and new office bearers were elected unanimously with Venugopalan Nambiar and Balakrishnan Nair as President and Dist. Secretary respectively. There was a very good seminar on ‘Financial viability of BSNL’ adressed by the union leaders and officers.
Inaugurating the seminar CK Gundanna, Circle Secretary and myself spoke about the need to revitalise the services and our tasks on that front. This was appreciated by everybody. The administration representatives also echoed the same opinions. It was a good seminar.

Today, on 4th May, 212 years back, Tippu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore fell down in the battle of Srirangapatam, his last battle against the British. Tippu Sultan was the arch enemy and obstruction for the British in increasing their territory. Many battles were won by Tippu Sultan with and without the help of the French. And the British with their superior arms and striking power defeated and killed Sultan in the last encounter. His family including children were taken captive and killed. The treasures and all valuables were looted by the victors and taken to Britain. You can see a lot of these in the British Museum.

The history is written by the victor. And here it was the British. They twisted the history and put the sultan in bad light. BUt now every Indian has understood how this great ruler fought to keep his domain free with out surrendering to the foreigners.

India should demand to the UK government to send back all the items of Tippu Sultan they have looted from India. It is part of the historic fight of the Indian people for independance of their country.

Today I got an opportunity to meet an old comrade who has been sick and confined to his home. I am really happy that I could meet him and talk for some time.

I reached Mangalore today (4th Many 2011) morning from Banagalore. I was invited to participate and inaugurate the District Conference of BSNLEU at Managalore. After the morning session was over I got the opportunity to go and meet P.Appaji, who was the Asst. General Secretary of AITEE Union Class III(N) and is now retired from service. He was suffering from some rare disease and was hospitalised for a few months. He had to take many very costly injections ( one injection costing more than one lakh rupee) and is now at his home about 80 kms from Mangalore. Along with my wife and GB Salakki, AGS BSNLEU and P.Mukundan, Circle Org. Secretary, we went to this place near Brahmavaram after Udupi, about eighty kms from Mangalore. The place was forest earlier and now people have started staying clearing the forest.

We reached the residence of Appaji after enquiring to many people. Appaji aftr retirement has purchased some land with the retirement money and has shifted there. He is interested in agriculture and has started a small rubber plantation, some arecanuts, coconuts etc. When we reached there he was sitting in a chair outside the house. He was lean and pale due to illness. He was so happy to see all of us. His wife and elder son was also there. After the injection course and treatment he is better, but still very weak. He wanted to know about many things connected with union activities. We talked for a long time and had tea and idly. I honourd him by putting a shawl on his shoulders. And we came back quickly.

I was happy to meet him after a very long time. He had worked in HQ and sacrificed much for the organisation. Even now he wants to know about union matters and other developments. Many of our comrades are dedicated like that. They love the union above all things. This is the stregth of our union. Thousands of such dedicated workers and leaders we have got. I thank them and greet them for their concern for the union and their selfless service in the cause of the workers.

As desired by the JAC, a meeting was held between the JAC leaders and the R.K.Upadhyay, new CMD BSNL along with other Directors and top management. The JAC programme of “Customer Delight Month” was much appreciated by the management and the CMD assured full co-operation with the JAC in improving the services. Details of the discussion will be published in BSNLEU website: http://www.bsnleuchq.com

The Air India Management, instead of discussing and coming to an understanding with their own employees, the pilots, who are on strike has approached the court and has proceeded for contempt of court against the pilots for not withdrawing the strike. The present pathetic condition of the Air India has arisen only due to the pro-private favouritism of the government and the management as also corruption at high levels. Instead of sorting those issues as also discussion with the unions, proceeding with contempt proceedings is a shameful act to divert the attention of the public.

Today it may be the Air India management; tomorrow any management can go to the court and try for contempt of court. The UPA government is repeating the mistake the congress government had done in 1968 and 1974 to suppress the Central Government and Railway strike respectively. They had to pay the price for their anti-democratic and dictactorial actions.