REMEMBERING
COM. RAJA
K.K.N.Kutty
Vice
President, Confederation of CGE & Workers.
On 14th July, evening at about
7.00 PM my telephone rang. The voice on the other side was of Com.
Pijush Roy from Kolkata. He phoned to know whether what has been
conveyed to him about Raja was fact or not. It was totally
unbelievable and terribly sorrowful when Raja’s death was confirmed by Com. Sreekumar,
President of the All India Audit and Accounts Association. Only a few days back
I had a telephonic talk with him.. He appeared to be keeping
fine. On 14th he had to go to the hospital for he
was having some discomfiture. He suffered a massive heart attack and
collapsed at the hospital itself. He could not be saved despite the
best efforts of the Doctor.
During his long stay at Delhi, he had not
suffered any ailments warranting hospitalization. He was
however in constant difficulties of back-pain and got some relief
from the massaging treatment he took from the Ayurvedic hospital at
Trissur. He had no known cardiac problem so long as he was at
Delhi. His untimely death was very sorrowful to his friends and his
family members. It was really sad that neither his wife nor his son
could be near him when he met the death on 14th July, evening..
Com.M.S.Raja took voluntary retirement in
November, 2019, a few months before the end of his service career on
superannuation. From 2004 to 2019, he was on foreign service on
deputation to work as the Secretary General of the All India Audit and Accounts
Association, New Delhi, to which position he had been
elected continuously in all the triennial conferences held since
2004. He had been staying alone at the Audit Association’s Head quarters at
Ghaziabad. Only when his son, on completion of his education
and having received employment at Gurgaon, Com. Raja had some solace
and company.
Com.Raja came forward to take over the post of
Secretary General of AIAAA in 2004 pretty well knowing that he will have to
leave his family, (his wife and son )at Mumbai. Ms.Nandini was
employed at the Custom Department, Mumbai and she was not able to go
over to Delhi, having the responsibility of looking after her aged
father. Com.Raja was the natural choice of all the delegates
of the all India Conference of the Association.
Com. Raja was fully aware that the position of
the Secretary General of AIAAA was a seat of thorns. By
2004, the AIAAA which had been one of the mighty, militant and
united organization of the CGEs had begun to slide down . It was a herculean
task even for a leader like Com.Raja who had the highest level of
conviction, courage, dedication, mass appeal, sense of sacrifice and the
capacity to work hard to bring it back to its past glory.
I came in intimate contact with comrade Raja only
after his election to the position of the Secretary General of AIAAA, though on
many occasions earlier, I had the opportunity to meet and interact
with him at Mumbai . He was an extremely straight forward
person, a quality perhaps not in demand in the present day
world. He never minced words. He had the
capacity to tell what he felt without any sophistication, rather
bluntly. The very fact that such admirable character will
fetch few friends and more foes did not daunt him at all. Nor did he
make any attempt to change it. There were many factors that led to
the organizational weakness of AIAAA. Some of them were consequences
of earlier decisions. But the most important was that the Government
and the C & AG administration played an
extremely pro-active role to ensure its units are either made defunct or
weakened. Its chequered history was full of the life and struggle of
quite a number of eminent persons, to be emulated by all those who
are connected with the trade union movement.
Maharashtra unit of AIAAA was at
Mumbai. It had played a sterling role in the building up of the
organization. It is from this unit the leaders like com. E.X. Joseph
rose to the eminence. He was one of the founding members of the all India
Association. When Com.Raja took over the leadership of the Mumbai
Unit, it was a pale shadow of its glorious past. It was
the sagacity, courage and leadership qualities of Com.Raja that changed the
scenario.. He could bring the movement of the Audit and Accounts
employees of Mumbai to its premier position. It emerged under his
leadership as one of the best performing units of AIAAA. His
sterling personality and unique position made him the natural choice for the
post of the General Secretary of the Co-ordination Committee of CGEs, the state
unit of the Confederation of CGE & W. Perhaps next to
Delhi and Kolkata, Mumbai had the largest number of Central Government
employees as most of the GOI departments had their offices at
Mumbai. This apart, the biggest unit of Atomic Energy Commission,
BARC was located in Mumbai. Being the biggest urban agglomeration in
the country, Mumbai had its peculiar problems. In the united
struggle of the working class, initially against the LPG and later against the
neo-liberal economic policies, the Audit Employees movement under
the leadership of Com. Raja had played a vital role. He was
closely associated with all the Central Trade Union Centres at
Mumbai and had a warm relationship with the movement of State Government
employees and Railway workers. He was a well known figure
amongst the leaders of all organizations of Mumbai.
It was with that rich experience he landed at
Delhi. Within no time, however, he could realize that
working from the CHQ , divourced from the exhilarating crowd
support, that are ever present at the work spots in the field
formations, was a different cup of tea. The demonstration
of the sheer strength of the movement often opens the doors of even
unwilling authorities at the field formations for a meaningful
negotiation. The discussions with an adamant bureaucracy at the apex
level were mostly procrastinating and fruitless. As an astute
person, he realized that unless the units which are varied both in size and
attitude are brought into a minimum level of functioning,
insurmountable though, it was difficult to bring the organization to its past
glory. It was to accomplish this daunting task he spent most of his
time as the Secretary General of the All India Association. He undertook
extensive tours to know the reality of the situation obtaining in various Units
and mobilize them to ensure that the collective decisions are uniformly carried
out. He succeeded to a great extent is borne out of the extensive
participation of the employees and officers in the mass casual leave
programme organized in 2010.
His tenure as the Secretary General of the
Association had been turbulent. The C&AG administration
unleashed the worst form of victimization. It appeared that the
Govt. and the C& AG Administration had jointly decided to wipe out the
organization. Even peaceful demonstration to express resentment of
the employees was met with stern, strong and unheard of
reprisals. The extensive victimization giving charge sheet to about
12,000 employees must have been an unprecedented action. The utter
un-tenabilty of many of the
vindictive actions could be seen from the
way these cases were got quashed by the courts in the
country. But the purpose ostensibly was to create a fear psychosis
and terror in the minds of the ordinary employees and thereby weaken the
organized functioning of the Association. It must be said to his
credit that he could and did withstand the onslaught with
conviction, courage and determination. Pretty well knowing that the response
from the members and units in the given situation might not be
good, he thought it right and need of the hour
to commit the organization to the path of struggles while
endorsing the call of the Central Trade Unions for strike action against the
neo- liberal economic policies of the Government. On a quite
number of occasions I was witness to the sheer lack of appreciation
for his efforts both from his colleagues and undoubtedly from his
permanent critics. That however, did not dither him nor did he waver
from the chosen path. The organizational weakness which
surfaced especially after the heavy doze of victimization unleashed by the
authorities had its adverse impact on the financial stability too.
His stay at Delhi leaving his family behind was also beset with financial
difficulties and he had not been able to draw his salary every
month. That had been the nagging problem till his retirement.
He had been a tower of strength for all of us,
especially for me, in the day to day functioning of the
confederation. Beset with innumerable problems and financial
difficulties, he found time to work for the confederation. The place
Com.Vyas was living, some time at Mandir Marg, then at North Avenue and lastly
at Feroze Shah Road, was the centre for all of us to meet and
discuss the issues concerning the CGE movement. Com.Raja
unlike others had to travel quite a distance to reach the city as he was living
in Ghaziabad. It used to take not less than 2 hours to traverse the
distance. It was only when the Metro was extended to
Vaishali, his travel problems eased to some
extent. Despite all these problems he used to attend the meetings
and contribute immensely to the decision making process.
At the time of preparation of the memorandum to
the 7th CPC, the centre of activities was shifted to
Manishinath Bhawan, Rajouri Garden, where the ITEF
CHQ had been located . Com.Raja stayed there on a number
of days as most of the discussions had to be conducted during night
sessions. After the death of Com . Vyas, Com.Raja
succeeded him to the Standing committee of the Staff Side in the JCM., National
Council. His contribution during the preparation and formulation
of issues, while tendering evidence before the Commission and later at the
negotiation with the Government had all been praiseworthy.
One of the special and sterling qualities, I
could notice in him and wanted to imbibe but failed miserably, was his ability
to tell what he felt without any sophistication and follow it up with a
wonderful laugh to make the ambience normal and
jovial. Like his mentor Com.Vyas, Com.Raja was also fond
of preparing good food. I do not know whether it was by compulsion of
circumstances or really he enjoyed it. I had on innumerable
occasions stayed with him at his residence in Ghaziabad. In fact I
had found solace in his company and those were really unforgettable
days. It is during those days, I could get a fair picture of
his life, his family and the ambience in which he spent his
childhood. Having born in a feudal landlord family of Kerala,
he was supposed to have a wonderful and joyful
childhood. That was not the case was the
truth. He was a very active participant in student
movement of Kerala. From St. Thomas College,
Trissur, he was elected as a councillor to the Calicut
University. He was also a member of the District Committee of
SFI during his college days. His commitment to the ideology,
which he realized to be the best for the humanity, had been his
forte. He never dithered at any point of time, and
also had no hesitation to express his differing opinions and views on
contemporary issues quite bluntly.
He had often expressed his wish to settle down at
his native village, construct a house on the plot which he had
inherited, to be in the midst of his old friends and spend the
evening of his life away from the maddening crowd of cities and
towns. He was to begin the construction of that dream house. He went over to
Trissur with that in mind but got bogged down due to corona Virus
. Those remained as mere wishes.
His death has saddened all those with whom he had come in contact and established friendship. It is quite impossible for them to obliterate his image from their minds as he had such a strong and pleasing personality. His immortal and inimitable style of loud laughter to dispel the smog of despair in the ambiance shall linger on as an indelible impression of his personality, perhaps without death. It is only with sorrowful tears I can bid adieu to you, comrade.
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