To,
All Presidents, General Secretaries of the State Units, Working Committee Members & Special Invitees,
Dear comrade,
I am sorry for not having communicated for quite long time. The delay certainly needs to be explained. After the so-called Mathura meeting when I reached Delhi on 1st December I had to rush to the Court. While I was still in the court premises, the IFWJ Office Secretary, Shribhagwan Bhardwaj telephoned me that he and Shri K. Vikram Rao along with his wife and son are at the office. Shri Rao had already sounded Shri R.P. Yadav and Shri Vipin Dhuliya to be at the office at 4 o’clock. Shri Rao had also telephoned to the AIRF Secretary General, Shri Shiv Gopal Mishra and requested him to come to the office. Shri Shiv Gopal Mishra, a seasoned and the top ranking trade union leader of the country was busy in some meeting and therefore, expressed his inability to come to the office but instructed the Divisional Secretary of the New Delhi Shri T.S. Rana to be at the office to find out as to what was the matter.
Shri Rana was also of unaware anything and before he could comprehend the situation the family members of Shri Rao put up two big locks on the grill-door of the office. They had also brought along a locksmith to break open the locks of the office. After putting two locks they also bought a piece of cloth and some wax to seal it. In this entire drama the railway union had no role to play. Thus the office is locked since then and no work could be done from December 1st onward. Most of my court files and some other personal belongings are in the office. Thereafter a circular written in the name of the Shri Vipin Dhulia was also issued but there was no mention of this development.
Brief story about the IFWJ office
Shri Shiv Gopal Mishra is a towering leader of the All-India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF). Shri S.K. Tyagi is the General Secretary of the Northern Railwaymen’s Union (NRMU).They have been kind enough in providing shelter to the IFWJ for the last nearly two decades. When the IFWJ was driven out from the DUJ office, Comrade Vikram Rao made a tall claim that he would have a new swanky office for the IFWJ in Delhi but they all proved to be false. In his latest circular he has written that the IFWJ office will be renovated after Karnataka Session. Perhaps in the name of the renovation he may again start a collection drive for a hefty amount but rest assured not even a penny would be spent on it.
Earlier in the name of renovating and upgrading the office, he must have taken lakhs of rupees from nobody knows how many people but nothing was done. So much so, last time when the computer of the IFWJ office, was stolen, he refused to send even an old computer from his press of Lucknow, which incidentally is also the IFWJ property. It was Mr. K.M. Jha, the Secretary (Central), who was benevolent enough to send a computer and printer to Delhi from Bhopal.
Thus the IFWJ office is closed from 1st December because Shri Vikram Rao wanted to paralyse its functioning. I have been also rendering some legal assistance to Railway Union from the same office. Thus the IFWJ office was doubling up for my legal profession also, although I have my independent chamber and office, which I have started using again. I used the Federation’s office for the legal profession only to save time and work more for the union. I must also explain it that I have been taking up only the cases of the workers and the criminal cases of the poor people, who cannot afford to engage the lawyers. Thus in a way the aim of Shri Vikram Rao by getting the office locked was to capitulate my functioning and weaken the cause of workers and the poor. It is also to be noted that hundreds of newspaper employees are fighting for the Majithia Award implementation through me and therefore they can obviously smell rot and see the hands of the newspaper owners in getting the office locked.
Our friends, who have waged the fight against the proprietors of the newspapers, say that there is an obvious link between one of the top newspaper proprietors of Uttar Pradesh and some of the office bearers of the IFWJ. The proprietors of that newspaper clearly instructed these self styled leaders of the IFWJ to cripple my functioning because I have become the biggest sore in their eyes. Look at the temerity of Shri Vikram Rao and his family in locking as if it was his personal property.
I am eternally grateful to Shri Shiv Gopal Mishra and Shri S.K. Tyagi, who commiserated with my plight and offered another place to me to open the office. It is a different matter altogether that I most politely declined their offer and started working from my chamber with greater vigour and zeal for the cause of the poor, down trodden and working class. It may take some more time to come to the rails.
It may not be out of place to mention here what a very prominent journalist of Lucknow has been asking that how come any trade unionist in any newspaper has not been able to survive even for a few years in their respective organizations but Com. Rao retired from the Times of India without working in the organization for years together and availed all retiral benefits?
Therefore, now the time has come when the wolf has to be unmasked to safe guard the interests of the media employees. The office of the IFWJ is still lying closed and the interests of the employees are suffering but Vikram Rao is chuckling and deflecting the attention in the name of holding some conference somewhere in South India with the sole aim of collecting money to fill his own coffers.
Kingdoms may rise and fall but pimps and touts always flourish, so goes a saying. Now it is for you to take a decision whether IFWJ’s glory is to be restored to make it a vanguard of a movement or a vehicle of vested interests?
Thanking you,
Yours comradely,
Parmanand Pandey
Secretary General- IFWJ
प्रेषक: कृष्णमोहन झा. संपर्क: [email protected]
