Com. SK Dhar-The great leader with incredible skill

The Great leader with incredible skill.

C.Sunish, General Secretary, AILRSA. SWR

Com. Saroj Kumar Dhar (SK Dhar), Secretary General All India Loco Running Staff Association is no more. Our great beloved leader has demised on 15^th September 2008 morning 9.15 hours at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) New Delhi.

He spends his entire life for the cause of working class .He is the icon of sacrifice. He died at the age of 72. At this juncture we have to discus what is the distinction of Com. Dhar from many other loco running staff leaders. To recognize it we have to go through the history of Indian Railway Trade union where his name will be marked in silver letters.

History of Railway Trade unions in India

Two private British Companies namely the East Indian Railway Company and the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Company founded in London in 1845 started the construction of the Indian Railways. The first Trade Union formed in Indian Railway was Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in India (ASRSI) in 1874. Later the name was changed as United Service and Railway Servants Association in India (USRSAI). In 1920 All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed. Around 18 Railway Trade Unions participated in the conference. In 1924 All India Railway Men's Federation (AIRF) was formed. Initially it was affiliated with AITUC. AIRF got recognition by Railway Board in 1929. But unfortunately the Federation and its leadership failed to meet the growing needs of the working class movement. They never tried to meet the fighting needs to organize the mass action and give a permanent militant basis of workers unity. In 1947 the Indian National Congress succeeded in dividing the working class by creating Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), a rival national centre of the working class fully under the organizational control of Indian National Congress. Slowly they organized National Federation of Indian Railway Men (NFIR), which is born with recognition. In 1948 Hind Mazdur Sabha was born as an organ for reaching the working class with the amorphous political outlook of the socialists who professed to uphold the constructive aspect of trade union work, which in plain words meant abandoning class struggle and practicing reformism. AIRF got affiliated with HMS.

FORMATION OF FIREMEN COUNCIL:

In 1960 onwards Firemen of the railways started vigorous agitation programs against the harsh working condition, discrimination and harassments from the Anglo Indian drivers etc. Both the recognized federation’s fails to protect the interest of the working class in general and the running staff in particular. So unrest and resentment grew among the running staff. Com. Dhar started organizing the Firemen from 1965 at Anara, South Eastern Railway where he was working as Assistant Driver.

In 1968, the Firemen of Southern and South Central Railways struck work for 21 days demanding 8 hours of duty. While Com. K. Anandan Nambiar MP was negotiating with the Deputy Railway Minister for solution of this demand the Railway Board entered into an agreement with the AIRF and NFIR leadership for a 14 hours duty from signing ON to signing OFF. The leaders of the both federations propagated against strike. This organized strike breaking resulted in the victimization of the workers and the struggle had to be withdrawn. This however, left a long trail of bitterness among the Loco Running Staff about the AIRF and NFIR leadership.

FORMATION OF AILRSA:

In August 1970 at Vijayawada, ALL INDIA LOCO RUNNING STAFF ASSOCIATION was formed by organizing a number of Firemen Councils and other running staff unions existing in the country. Com. Dhar has taken a significant role in organizing and developing AILRSA along with other leaders like Com. MR Sabhapathy, He was elected as Assistant Secretary General of AILRSA. The main dissimilarity of Com. Dhar with other leaders of AILRSA was, he was having a political outlook and clear vision. As a running staff we have to fight for running men rights, as a railway worker we should join with other railway employees to fight against the adamant bureaucracy, as a worker we have to join with other working class of the country and fight against the anti working class policies of the Government which pave way to all the issues. We should not live like a frog in the well.

AGITATION OF LOCO RUNNING STAFF

1973 - ALL INDIA STRIKE BY LOCOMEN:

Against the pathetic working conditions and unlimited working hours the agitated loco running staff organized All India strike from 1973 August 2^nd .The historic importance of this strike was that it was an all India strike and not a local struggle as earlier years. The Railway Minister was forced to call the leaders for conciliation through Labour Minister. After 4 days of negotiation some accepted formula could be worked out and the Labour Minister has to sign the agreement after which the strike was called off. 10 hours duty was declared in Indian Parliament. But both the recognized Federations opposed any settlement with AILRSA, the Railway Board was also opposed it. They tried to sabotage the agreement. This victory had given a big boost to the self confidence of the railway man, and had greatly influenced the subsequent formation of NCCRS and historic strike of railway men in May 1974.

The success of the struggle of the Loco men had given rise to formation of a number of Craft /Category wise associations. These masses on their anger against the leadership of AIRF failed to see that there was a large chunk of Railway men still in AIRF who equally desired unity with category wise associations for the struggle of basic demands of the railway men. They also failed to realize the fact that the category wise associations are best suited to propagate and fight for their category demands. But they cannot and have not been doing justice to the basic demands of the railway men in general. AILRSA however realize these deficiencies and made strenuous efforts to move together with the movement oriented working class struggle. Com. Dhar led the union in right path. Recently one Category Association (Revolutionary!) in Bangalore division loses their reputation by deputing their Ex. Divisional Secretary as an office bearer post of BMS union.

1974 -HISTORIC STRIKE BY RAILWAY MEN:

National Co-ordination Committee of Railway Men's struggle (NCCRS) formed under the leader ship of Sri George Fernandez, President AIRF and Com. Dhar played a key role in organizing it .He was the steering committee member of NCCRS. AIRF, AILRSA, AIREC, AITUC, CITU, BRMS and around 125 Railway Trade Unions joined hands with the biggest Labour strike ever seen by the country, since the leaders called for conciliation were arrested strike pre-opened from 8^th to 2^nd May 1974. 14 lakh employees participated and entire Railway traffic came to a grinding halt. Around 1 lakh employees were removed from service under 14(ii) /149. 50,000 casual labourers were terminated without any notice, 30,000 employees kept under suspension – various type of harassment. The Railway Bureaucracy was able to mobilize a section of reformist leadership of AIRF and weaken the struggle. Finally the strike ended on May 28^th, making a number of "alive martyrs'' contributed by one or other. The leadership was under the illusion that successful strike even for 7 days would force the Government to come to a settlement. They never took into account the fact that the authorities were equally prepared for holding out in any strike for about 3 weeks or even more. Later in June 1975 internal emergency was declared by Smt. Indira Gandhi and the political scenario was changed. Com Dhar was also arrested during Internal Emergency and kept in Thihar Jail. He was imprisoned for 2 years. Later in 1978 he was elected as Secretary General AILRSA at 7^th BGM at Kota, Western Railway, and continued in that post till his death.

1981 -STRIKE BY LOCO RUNNING STAFF:

Agitations started from SER for local issues later in Western and Southern Railways in the month of Dec, 1980. In the background of bursting out of struggles at various places, the All India leadership of AILRSA given a national call without any preparation.
Around 950 workers were removed from service by 14/2 and article 311, ie without enquiry, 500 were compulsory retired, around 1000 reverted, break in service was imposed on 7000 Loco men. This strike was failed due to poor preparation and leg pulling by a section of leadership. For every victory hundred number of claiming will be there but for defeat no one will take responsibility. All the leaders blame Com. Dhar for the failure of strike.

Some revisionist leaders left the organization blaming Dhar and it was com. Dhar’s responsibility to bring back the removed employees back to service. He left with empty cash balance, abandoned trade union and fearing work force. He then approached Com. Somnath Chatterjee, CPI (M) leader and present Speaker of Lok sabha and request for help. With Somnath”s letter he met leading Supreme Court Advocate KK Venugopal. At that time his consulting fee was Rs.35000/-. But Sri Venugopal told “my consulting fee is Sri. Somnath’s letter”. His case fee was 105000/- . But Dhar was only able to collect 47000/- in many installments. Even then Adv. Venugopal fought the case and succeeded the case. The Railway authorities not utilized the 14/2 and article 311 after that incident. This was an unique achievement.

Later he traveled entire country to build up the organization. He succeeded in making 13 zonal bodies for AILRSA out of 16 zonal railways. He was a simple man in personal life. He developed unity among the railway trade unions, where the BIG B”s, ie AIRF and NFIR were maintaining domination. He along with Com. NS Bangoo worked hard to organize All India Railway Employees Coordination Committee (AIREC) as a challenge to the recognized federations. He was Assistant Secretary General of AIREC. Unfortunately AIREC faced a spit. He brought All India Guards Council (AIGC) even though they were associated with the other faction of AIREC to fight against RAC 2002 and maintained joined platform until his last breath.

His demise is a huge loss to the working class movement as a whole and running staff category in particular. Now we have to take a pledge to carry forward the struggles lead by Com. Dhar to the up liftment of loco men in particular and working class in general.