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Birth centenary of Com D Gnaniah (DG), a
veteran Trade Union Leader.
.......
P. Sermuga Pandian Senior Accounts Officer( Retired)
D. Gnaniah
is one of the legendary leader of P&T Trade Union movement .He was born
on 07.01.1921 in Nadukkottai village in Madurai District of Tamilnadu .The year-long birth-centenary celebrations of the
great leader has started on 07.01.2021 in all over India . He had been a
very close associate of Com O.P Gupta another veteran Trade union leader
in P&T wing of central
Government for more than 50 years.
Born
in pro-German Lutheran Christian family, com DG was attracted towards Marxist
philosophy even before his entry into the postal services. He was associated
with the student movement and local kisan sabha. He got his graduation in
the famous American college, Madurai where many ‘later day leaders of communist
movement’ were educated
.
He joined as Postal clerk in Karur Post office in Oct 1941. He was very much
annoyed at “keeping of two separate
mud-pots in post office” on caste basis . His fighting spirit against such
discrimination made him to break the
drinking pot kept for upper caste employees. The postal administration
compelled him to join Army Postal Service (APS)
to keep him away from the civil side.
But
his deputation to APS became blessings
in disguise .It helped him to broaden his vision. He was just 21 when the world
opened its door for him. He served in various countries during his tenure in APS.
It was terrible period of Second World war.
He had to undertake journey to various places like the Suez, Haifa (Israel)
, other Palestinian regions, Egypt , Tobruk (Libya), Syria and so many other places during 1942-46 to fulfill
his War duties of British India in APS . He was in Cyprus for a long time.
As
he was a voracious reader of books, the Central Library in Cairo, the Capital
city of Egypt was his favorite place. It
became a meeting place of various people with revolutionary thoughts. He
read books of various authors in the
Library and held discussion with all friends of socialist ideas. While
serving in APS he befriended another stalwart of P&T movement com. Pramanathan.
These friends were seriously watching the advancement Indian freedom struggle
and people’s war slogan of Soviet Union. When he was at Karachi, he heard the
news of Royal Indian Navy (RIN )struggle for freedom and other demands.
On
his return from APS , he was posted at Tiruchirappalli
where he developed contacts with the
local union leaders. On hearing com Gupta’s efforts for the unification
of P&T movement, he stood solidly with him. He started his union
service as Assistant secretary in that area.
When the employees of the Central Government called for strike from the midnight
on 11-12 July 1960 with 6-point charter
of demands having main demand “Need-based
minimum wage for central Government employees” , Com DG organized the strike in
Tiruchirappalli area in a powerful manner
. He was arrested and released after the
trail of 7 months. He got his suspension order and then dismissed from service.
The great NFPTE union was derecognized. Com DG did his yeoman service by
collecting relief materials and money from various personalities in Tamilnadu
including MGR and dispatched to the
needy. The former Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, and a veteran leader of DMK
party, then a postal employee Shri
G Lakshmanan also received the relief.
With
his sincere and dedicated work with fighting fervor , he rose to the level of
Secretary General of NFPTE , the mighty organization in the P&T . He served
as Secretary General of NFPTE during 1965 to 1970. Com DG had played a major
role in the discussion and formation of Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) a negotiating
forum and Compulsory arbitration in favour of CG Employees. He fought against
Government’s stand of placing condition of proscribing strike for acceptance
and formation of JCM. His speech on the inaugural day of JCM was much
appreciated by various shades of leaders of CG Movement. Various
trade unions of CG Employees should remain thankful to him for his major contribution of this
greatest achievement for bringing a permanent negotiating forum for CGEs. Com DG
had gone England to study the
functioning of whitely council based on its analogy the JCM was constituted in India for Central
staff.
Com
D Gnomish led the historic strike
of entire CG Employees on September 19, 1968 with great valour and vigor. He was arrested one day earlier to
the strike and imprisoned at Tihar jail. He guided the movement and enthused
the workers through his fire-emitting write-ups from Tihar, even though he was
behind the bars. NFPTE was derecognized. Along with all other
leaders, he stood the ground and fought for complete restoration of recognition
from Branch level to higher federation level. He had undergone indefinite
fast along with all the leaders. The fast by the leaders received serious political attention and got
support from veteran leaders of various parties. Leaders like A.B
Vajpayee, S.A Dange, Chandra Shekhar, Mohan
Dharia, Aruna Asaf Ali came to the spot
and greeted the fasting leaders. Mohan Dharia and Aruna Asaf Ali mediated with
the Government and the fast ended after 8 hectic days with success by getting
full-fledged recognition of NFPTE.
At
that time , P&T labour was the organ
of NFPTE . Com DG, as the editor
of P&T labour , wrote many educative articles and exposed the policies of
then Government. During the time of emergency in 1975 , union journals were
censored, seized and not allowed to reach the branches. Many leaders were
victimized including DG . Com DG submitted a detailed memorandum to the Shah
Commission which was constituted to enquire the excesses during the Emergency.
In it he narrated minute details of victimization endured by the P&T
workers and leaders. He met Shri George Fernandez, Minister of
Communications of Janata Government and
narrated the problems of victimization . Fernandez personally went
through the files that rejected DG’s re-admission to Postal service. He
overturned the orders of former Minister Sankar Dayal Sharma and made way for DG to re-entry into the services
With his all out efforts with the Govt , all the victimization meted out to the
P&T workers were successfully vacated .
Earlier
the P&T workers were denied Bonus by the Government .As a leader of the
Staff-side JCM (National Council) he was instrumental in signing the historic
Bonus Agreement for Postal and Telecom Employees with Mr Swaminathan Member(PO)
.Now lakhs of workers in both the wings are getting Productivity Linked
Bonus(PLB) thanks to the agreement reached by him with the Government .
DG had attained his superannuation in January
1979. This was his 5th time of his re-entry in to the services
after courageously facing three arrests
three suspensions , one dismissal, one compulsory retirement etc for his strong and
firm trade union activities for the cause of P&T workers. Even after his
retirement, he served as a member of Board of Arbitration representing the
staff side of CGEs for nearly 8 years.
After
his retirement, com Gnaniah focused his attention to educate the workers on
Marxism, the philosophy of working class. He had become a known CPI and
AITUC leader within a short span of 10 years since 1979. He had been in the
National Council, Control Commission of CPI. As Vice president of AITUC, he had
ably conducted education camp to workers which was appreciated by many. He
had his close association with senior leaders and shaped the policies of CPI by
discussing with them .His closeness with leaders in Tamilnadu
helped to shape up the political line of Tamilnadu CPI.
He
had powerful oratory skills in Hindi, English and Tamil. He was the builder of
the educational institutions like “Workers Education Centre” for the working
class of Tamilnadu. He conducted many educational camps for rationalizing and
making them understand the importance of struggle of
working class in our society. He ably taught them to understand the caste
question and the importance of the movement for social justice. Whenever he had
the chance of meeting CPI, CPM leaders, he expressed his longing for the left
unity. He never failed to criticize the left whenever he felt the shortcomings.
He had taken many efforts to understand India, its history, social inequality,
the dimension of Hindu- Muslim strife and Unity .He never minced words to narrate the contribution
of Islam and the role of leaders from that community for the advancement of
progressive movement.
He
was versatile and prolific writer both
English and Tamil . He had authored more than 30 books on social and historical
issues .He released hundreds of pamphlets and short write-ups on current
political/social issues that concerned the people . His books in English such
as “Islam and India", “Terrorism
sources and solutions” , “Obamas of America and Dalits of India” have received much attention of the intellectuals
and got appreciation and accolades from
the critics and historians. His bio
sketch was captioned as ‘ I ALSO RAN’. His narratives on the history of P&T
movement – Glimpses of a unique Trade Union ’ were well received by the
workers. He was very fond of receiving comrades for intellectual discussion and
for proper updating of current development in the Marxian movement. It was
awesome to see a comrade even at the age of 97 reading and writing daily for hours together. Com DG a tireless
personality with the thirst of learning and taking the learnt-things
with great responsibility to the younger generation would live with
all of us through his memories and
write-ups.
His
memory power was so amazing. He could recall minute details even about the
ground-level local leaders of the movement . He was a role model for union
leaders for he insisted and adopted democratic way of functioning in the trade
unions in hearing all the viewpoints before
taking a joint-decision.
He
passed away on 08.07.2017 in Coimbatore at the ripe age 97. He lived a long and
purposeful life with a firm conviction
and served the working class. We have to learn from his life and rededicate ourselves for the cause to
which he stood all these years.
Let
every worker of P& T, and a member of Indian working
class be proud of this great leader .Let us remember and salute him for his valuable
contribution to the Indian Trade Union Movement during this year-long birth centenary celebrations
staring from 07.01.2021
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