There was a meeting organised in Delhi CTO Hall today,15th January 2013, to pay homage to Comrade Om Prakash Gupta, veteran CGE and P and T Union leader, who passed away on 6th January. The meeting was organised under the auspices of NFTE, whose top leader he was for more than 6 decades.
The meeting was presided over by Comrade Islam Ahmed, President of NFTE. Com. C.Singh, GS NFTE welcomed all the participants. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President, BSNLEU and Convener of Joint Forum of BSNL/MTNL Unions/Associations was invited to speak first. Com.Namboodiri paid flower tributes at the photo of com.O.P.Gupta placed on a table and initiated his speech. He paid high tribute to the dedicated and determined service of Com.O.P.Gupta for the benefit of the Central Government and Pand T workers. There may be differences and disputes over his certain actions, but his commitment and sincerity to the cause was never questioned. Com. Namboodiri remembered his long association with OPG. He paid respectful homage and expressed his deep condolence to the family members. Coms. Prahlad Rai, GS AIBSNLEA, K.Sebastian, GS SNEA, G.L.Dhar, Secretary, AITUC, P.Abhimanyu, GS BSNLEU, S.P.Sharma, GS, BSNLWRU, Giriaj Singh, GS R.III (NFPE), Suresh Kumar, GS BSNLMS, Vasisht, FNTO, R.K.Kohli, GS NFTBE, Hari Singh, BTU Shri Jain GM(Mtce)and many other leaders paid high tributes and homage to Com. OPG. A large number of workers and leaders were present. Salil Gupta, son and Sapnil, grandson of OPG were present and the latter addressed also.
At the end of the meeting all the participants stood in silence for two minutes and paid homage to the departed leader. From BSNLEU in addition to President and General Secretary, Coms. Swapan Chakroborty, AGS,R.S.Chauhan Organising Secretary, John Verghese, Organising Secretry and many other comrades participated.
The Pioneers of the P and T trade union movement were Babu Tarapada, Henry Barton and Dada Ghosh. The leaders who led the movement mainly just before independence and afterwards included comrades K.G.Bose, O.P.Gupta, N.J.Iyer, K.Adinarayana, Moni Bose and others who have all left us. Of course, senior leaders like Coms. Sisir Bhattacharjee and A.K.Bhattacharjee are still with us.
The P and T movement has a great history and past and also present. It is high time to completely assess the growth of the movement and get inspiration to move forward in the present period when attack after attacks are coming on the working class movement.