A
set of photographs taken when I arrived at the Bombay regional office
of United News of India in July 1973 after the agency's management
revoked the order terminating my services following a five-day strike.
The pictures above show Madhu V Shettye, President of the UNI Employees
Union, Bombay, and colleagues welcoming me. (Madhu was a veteran
journalist of Free Press Journal.)
Inside
the Bureau. On my right is S B Kolpe, President of the Indian
Federation of Working Journalists, and on my left is K K Duggal, who
replaced me as Regional Manager at Bombay.
In
December 1972 the management of UNI transferred me from New Delhi to
Bombay. The UNI Employees Union, Delhi, was agitating for wage revision
at the time. I did not involve myself in the Union’s work since, as News
Editor, I was functioning in a supervisory capacity. However, as
Vice-President of the Delhi Union of Journalists, I was active in the
campaigns of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists.
UNI
journalists got MPs to raise the wage revision issue in the two houses
of Parliament. Based on information provided by the UNI management,
Information and Btoadcasting Minister I K Gujral told Parliament the
Union’s demand was unjustified as the news agency had implemented the
Wage Board proposals the previous year. Under the law, the Union cannot
raise a fresh wage demand for three years. The government’s response
demoralized my colleagues at the Desk,who were looking forward to an
improvement in their emoluments. I told them to challenge the minister’s
statement which was not entirely correct. UNI had not implemented the
Wage Board proposals fully. The agreement the management signed with the
Union only provided for implementation of the pay scales proposed by
the Board. The dearness allowance rates proposed by the Board were not
being paid. Since the Wage Board proposals had not been fully
implemented the UNI management could not invoke the clause about
three-year bar. In the agreement signed with the management, the Union
had, of course, agreed not to raise any new wage demand for three years.
On its part, the management had agreed to revise the emoluments if the
agency’s finances improved. Its finances had improved, and the
management had an obligation to revise the emoluments in terms of this
commitment.
Gujral was furious when he got the Union’s
rejoinder to his statement. He blasted the General Manager for
misleading him and rendering him liable to be hauled up for misleading
Parliament. The General Manager knew he could no longer get the
government to back his stand. He was aware that I had helped the Union
to save the situation and decided to get me out of the way. The Union
offered to raise the issue of my transfer. I advised them against it. I
told the Secretary, George Mathew, that the management could not now
avoid wage revision and the Union should not provide it an opportunity
to bargain by taking up the issue of my transfer.
Having
worked closely with the General Manager for more than four years, I had a
fair idea of how his mind worked. I knew he was sending me to Bombay
since there was a rival UNI Employees Union there. I was ready to face
more trouble from the management. When I asked for a week’s leave to
visit my family, which was still in Delhi, the management decided to
strike. Within an hour of arrival at my Delhi residence, a UNI messenger
delivered the sack order. It simply said “it has been decided to
terminate your services, which is done herewith”. An hour later T. P.
Alexander, a reporter of the Bombay bureau, telephoned me and said
K.K.Duggal had come from Delhi and taken charge of the office. Duggal,
who had been News Editor before me, was flown to Bombay the previous
night for the purpose.
“What happens to you?” asked Alex. “I have got a letter saying my services have been terminated,” I said.
“We
are going on strike,” Alex said immediately. I told him I did not want
colleagues in Bombay to stick their necks out. I would consult the Delhi
union and the IFWJ, and there should be no precipitate action in the
meantime, I said.
IFWJ Secretary General B R Vats and I
met M K Ramamurthi, former IFWJ Secretary General who had left
journalism and was practising at the Supreme Court. He told us: “If the
UNI union is capable of action, this is the time for it.”
The
Delhi Union called an emergency general body meeting. Vats and Santosh
Kumar, General Secretary, DUJ, conveyed Ramamurthi’s advice to the staff
in spirited speeches in Hindi. While the meeting was still on, the
Bombay Union announced it was going on strike immediately. The Delhi
Union followed suit.
Santosh Kumar, in a report covering
DUJ’s activities during the period May 1973 to January 1976, recorded as
follows: “In July 1973,we faced another attack. This time, it was the
management of the UNI which most arbitrarily terminated the services of
another active trade unionist and a former vice-president of our Union,
Shri B R P Bhaskar. The attack was met with confidence and strength. The
executive held an emergency meeting and congratulated the employees of
UNI –both journalists and non-journalists – who had gone on a lightning
strike to protest against the medieval and despotic action of the UNI
management. Our Union fully supported the strike and also organized a
protest demonstration outside the UNI premises. At our request, the
journalists and non-journalists of many establishments participated in
the daily demonstration held outside the agency offices. The employees
of the banks situated in the area also participated in the demonstration
one evening, when it was heavily raining and we take the opportunity to
specially thank the bank employees and their local organization, the
Delhi State Bank EmployeesFederation, for the splendid demonstration of
solidarity with us in time of need. Shri Rangarajan, Spl Correspondent
of the UNI, played a notable role in this agitation.
“Ultimately, the UNI management relented and revoked the dismissal order served on Bhaskar.”
When
the Delhi Union initially decided on a 24-hour strike, the management
felt it could weather the storm. The following day the Union extended
the strike by 48 hours and then by 72 hours.
On the very
first day IFWJ President S B Kolpe and All India Newspaper Employees
Federation General Secretary S Y Kolhatkar in a joint statement
described the UNI management’s action as one of victimization for trade
union activity and demanded that it be withdrawn. Shashi Bhushan, MP
from Madhya Pradesh, who happened to be in Bombay on that day, also
issued a press statement. So did a host of local politicians including
Muslim League MLA G M Banatwala.
Bombay PCC President
Rajani Patel sent a telegram to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asking her
to intervene in the issue. Blitz Editor RK Karanjia visited the UNI
Bombay bureau to express solidarity and dealt with the issue in his
column in the next issue of the weekly.
While the strike
was on, the Maharashtra Union of Journalist met at Pune for its annual
conference. Chief Minister V P Naik, who inaugurated the conference,
condemned the UNI management’s action and said the state government
would not let the agency get away with it. State Minister for
Information Sharad Pawar who was the chief guest on the second day also
made a similar declaration. The MUJ designated the following Friday as
UNI Day and held out threat of a statewide newspaper strike. The
newspapers which are owners of the agency rarely take interest in its
affairs. They were forced to sit up and take notice when S R Kulkarni,
President of the All India Port and Dock Workers Federation, said dock
workers would refuse to handle newspaper consignments of the newspapers
which are on the board of directors of UNI if the sack order was not
withdrawn.
On the fifth day the UNI management contacted
Vats and sought IFWJ’s help to settle the issue. It offered to withdraw
the sack order but wanted me to accept transfer to another centre. The
management gave me a list of six centres to choose from. They were all
in states where the chief ministers were displeased with UNI
correspondents for one reason or another. From the list I picked
Srinagar after making sure that N S Malik, who was then posted there,
was ready to move. “If Iam going to get into trouble,” I told myself,
“let it be in Jammu and Kashmir.”
What infuriated the
trade union movement was the arbitrary nature of the management’s
action. The termination notice mentioned no charges. Union Labour
Minister K V Raghunatha Reddy asked the General Manager what was cause
for action. He replied that the management had lost trust in me. He
explained that the agency’s lawyer had advised against mentioning any
charges since that would cast upon the management an obligation to hold
an inquiry into the charges. Air India had dismissed a senior executive
without citing any reason and the Supreme Court had upheld the airline
management’s stand that it could not keep a person whom it did not trust
in a key position.
In UNI, there was also a third Union
-- in Kerala. It did not join the strike. Its President was Vayalar
Ravi, MP. When I met Ravi later I asked why his union had stayed away.
He said he was told by a senior UNI journalist that the issue had been
resolved.
I had been with UNI for seven years at that ime,
and that was more than I had spent in any institution previously. After
my reinstatement I believed I had an obligation to stay on as a large
number of colleagues, both journalists and non-journalists, had stuck
their necks out for me. In the event I remained with the agency for a
total of 18 years, nearly half of my working life. Since I enjoyed
considerable professional freedom in the agency, the strained
relationship with the management was not much of a problem.
