When I think of comrade OPG my thoughts automatically goes back to 1976 when I first met him along with Mrs. Janak Gupta at the Tamil Nadu Joint Circle Conference of E3 & E4 Unions in Kumbakonam. Then I was a branch secretary and was attending the said E3 conference as a delegate from Chenglepattu branch
union. Frankly speaking I was in the anti-Gupta camp at that time because I was fed with wrong and false information about him by several comrades ever since I entered the RMS Union during 1972. But after hearing his inspiring speech for the first time at Kumbakonam I was completely swayed and begin to rethink about all the things fed in to my mind against Comrade OPG. Since then for the last 36 years. I am a proud follower of com.Gupta. I beleived he had paralleled leadership Qualities and long term solutions for the challenges faced by the working people. Although on some occasions I differed with Comrade Gupta mainly on political issues I always kept him in high esteem and respect till last. Our relationship was one of the father and son. He did not like my political ideas and naturally criticized me for that but yet he was generous to openly appreciate my organizing capacity.
Com.Gupta was a original thinker and always put the interest of the worker on the top of his mind. He was very very frank and open. He led a simple life throughout and was a shining example for Public Service with humility. At one time I requested him to come to a hotel for lunch since it was too late and we could not
reach well in time the venue of a conference. But he stubbosuly refused and told me that we should take food only at the conference venue and that too along with all our delegates. He jokingly told me that “Rich men eats when he wants but poor man eats when he gets food” Com Gupta is a builder of P & T trade union movement brick by brick. No other leader is taller than comrade Gupta in leading the mass of workers for struggles. He was the most “abused” and “misunderstood” trade union leader in the country. There is no recreationor any other activities for him except the trade union activities. He loved every human being. He was the only leader in the country who had to spend 13 long months in Prison just for signing the strike notice. He was also the only leader who was ousted by his own comrades from the Union Post while in prison for “not discharging the responsibilities and duties of the secretary” He donated his plot in Patel Nagar to the E III Union and on it Dadagosh Bhavan was built in New Delhi. But some unleashed false Propaganda that the said property was in the name of Mrs. Janak Gupta. Now everyone knows that the Dadagosh Bhavan property is only in the name of the Union and not in the name of any individual. I consider the following three achievements of Com.Gupta as the most important landmarks in his six decades of Union service
1. Ensured Government Pension to all 3.5 lac employees who were transferred to BSNL on corporatisation of DTS in October 2000.
2. Despite ‘ban on recruitment’ more than one lakh casual and part-time employees were regularized on the eve of the corporatisation in Sep 2000.
3. He understood the inevitability of very fast technological advancement in the Telecom sector and wanted to offset the adverse impact of modern technology and hence demanded implementation of “Restructuring” of cadres which has resulted in the creation of Telecom Mechanic,/ Sr TOA and TTA Cadres. Due to the Cadre restructing a casual lation previously longing for a group ‘D’ post on regularisation was not only made regular but also got the promotion to a group ‘C’ Cadre straight away. Com.Gupta was a sumbol of unity and struggle. Even after relinquishing the post of secretary general of NFTE-BSNL at ‘Saharanpur’ All India conference he never stopped worrying about the workers. His last unfinished job is to get the government Pension to the employees of MTNL for which he travelled all the way to Mumbai at the old age and filed a court case. His family is made of the employees of BSNL in particular and working class in general.He fought the ‘Verbose’and sectarians’ tooth and Nail throughout his trade Union career. Had he accepted the theory of “No promotions; only running scale” advanced by com K.G.Bose and others what would have happend to our workers? In BSNL a casual labour could become JTO. Similarly if “No modernisation; No computarisation” theory of comrades Morni Bose and Namboodri was accepted what would have happened to the BSNL to-day? When private telecom companies had already introduced state of the art technologies Can BSNL lag behind any more?. On both the “Promotions” and “Modernisation” Com. Gupta stood firm despite nasty propaganda against him by the so called resolutionaries (?). He boldly bagained with the management for initially “ 20% Promotions” and then “Time bound Promotions” as in the case of ITS/IPS cadre officers in Central Goverment Service. He is immortal in true sense. His memory will last long among the working people of our country. Let us pledge to move forward to
strengthen the NFTE-BSNL which was built and protected by comrade OPG for long. May be that is the fittest tribute to his devoted and sincere service to all of us in Telecom Sector.
C.K.Mathivanan
Dy.General Secretary,
NFTE-BSNL
-courtesy Chennai Telephones
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