The election heat is over. But what the results indicate? Is it a himalayan victory as claimed by the winners? Of course, for the purposes of records, winning the fourth time consecutively it is great. But, the result clearly shows that almost an equal number of the non- executives are against BSNLEU. That the ordinary member is unable to tolerate the injustices done to him/her is the main reason for the decline in per centage of votes for those who have come first. They have lost nearly 3% on all India and in Tamilnadu alone the loss is around 1%. Contrary to the tall claims of some their newly found allies that they would win by a very huge margin than that of the 4th verification election, the winning margin of votes also reduced to 26,000., much less than the 4th verification. An equal number of non-executives who wanted a change have voted against them.
While almost the other two unions were able to retain their membership, FNTO has lost considerable votes. But they are not because of their distrust on FNTO. Perhaps they would have thought casting their votes in favour of NFTE may help to send BSNLEU out. This writer’s interaction with many also confirm to this. For example, in Karaikkudi SSA, the 30+ votes we lost went to NFTE (They have gained 30+ votes over their paid membership). If the 4th and 5th membership verification results are compared, it can be easily found that in almost every SSA on all states, NFTE has gained more votes. This does not mean that the FNTO membership is eroded. There can be no reason either for BSNLEU assuming that their failures have been accepted as achievements by those voted for it or for NFTE imagining that their support is increasing.
As far as FNTO is concerned, this is time for serious introspection. Right from the day of our reverred leader Sri K.R., there is no dearth of intellectuals who most dedicatedly work for the welfare of the employees. Any conscious leader/member will accept all the achievements in DOT and during formation of BSNL were all only and only due to FNTO. But right from the time of “Ramans” (whose achievements we still remember with gratitude) till now, FNTO concentrates more on settling common problems than strengthening the organisation. For example, when , due to the efforts of FNTO alone, all the erstwhile 380 cadres were upgraded to JTO, they did not worry that action would considerably affect their membership, but instead preferred the welfare of the employees. At that time, the other union in which the present BSNLEU was also a part of it, was insisting competitive examinations and opposing the upgradation. This failure of not properly strengthening the organisation by FNTO, resulted in its achievements not reaching the employees and NFTE while in DOT claimed all as that of theirs and their false propaganda mechanism was powerful to reach everybody. Inspite of the fact that FNTO remained in alliance for nearly 10 years, still a considerable number of employees are with it. Atleast from now onwards, FNTO must find ways for strengthening the organisation at base levels.
But for FNTO, there is another reason to rejoice. Without realising the fact that even that most talented “Ramans” could not make much breakaway when they quit the organisation to form a new one and despite their enjoyment of affection with many of the active workers of FNTO, nearly all decided to remain with FNTO thereby showing organisation is more important than individuals, some “Ramappans” made much noise when they came out and formed a new union (association). Even those great leaders did never say they split FNTO. But these andis claimed that FNTO is split and flashed all the while that they have made inroads in so many SSAs in Tamilnadu. They shouted that the whole Tanjore and Cuddalore SSA went with them. They “cornered” some selfish but voteless persons here and there to create confusions among the FNTO members. But actually they have only “helped” BSNLEU losing votes in almost all the SSAs. For example, in Karaikkudi BSNLEU lost 6 votes and in Tanjore 14 votes were lost. BSNLEU will definitely consider this and show them their place. It is the practice of BSNLEU to make use of others for their purpose and then throw them away.
