JAYALALITHA in her own notorious way has created a record of sorts by dismissing nearly two lakh government employees in a single stroke. There was no show cause memo. There is no enquiry. On 5 July 2003 they were all dismissed, just like that, in a most summary manner. Till date their appeals are pending.
Jayalalitha’s Govt. has launched an attack on the democratic rights and livelihood of the people of Tamil Nadu. Whether it be minorities’ rights, reputed newspapers or people’s struggles – all are being muzzled. It is in such a background that Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act (TN ESMA) was passed on 1 October 2002. Jayalalitha was planning a massive attack on government employees and teachers. Anticipating resistance she armed herself with draconian powers under TN ESMA. On 9 March 2003 the state government issued five Government Orders (GOs) adversely affecting earned leave, gratuity and pension. Out of Tamil Nadu’s 12 lakh government employees and teachers, 10 lakh with regular pay scale had payments denied or deferred to the tune of Rs.1.5 to 5 lakh each.
In April 2003, Jayalalitha prohibited the strikes of the government servents under TN ESMA. Left influenced federation of trade unions JACTO GEO, the apolitical/opportunist COTO GEO and the federations of trade unions representing employees and teachers called for an indefinite strike. The employees of the Secretariat took on the might of Jayalalitha at her own seat of power. The mass protest meeting near the Assembly Hall culminated in a strike from 1 July 21, 2003 which continued with total success throughout 2 and 3 July.
But then the Government began its crackdown. There were midnight arrests. Employees were not allowed anywhere near their office and were driven away. They became new targets of the police. 2211 employees including 74 women were arrested. On 3 July the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu issued letters to all District Collectors and heads of departments to freeze the attendance registers as on 3 July 21, 2003. The threat of ESMA dismissals loomed large from 3 July. They were directed to prevent employees who were absent on 3 July from resuming work on 4 July, and to hand over a list of those not attending duty to the police for necessary action.
Then came the deadly blow on 4 July. A retrospective amendment ordinance was promulgated on 4 July to be considered effective from 26 April (when the TN Assembly had been in session). The explanatory note stated that besides criminal prosecution, further powers are needed to deal with defiant persons in a manner that would effectively affect their service conditions. The ESMA amendment stated that absence from duty would be deemed as participation in the strike, that such absence would be deemed to be an admission of misconduct and for that, there could be punishment up to dismissal without enquiry.
On 4 July there was the sad spectacle of employees rushing to join duty and the Government turning them out and recruiting new employees throughout Tamil Nadu on a salary of Rs.4000 per month. Conveniently using the two days’ strike, the government dismissed nearly two lakh employees without any enquiry on 5 July 2003. After two rounds of legal battle they are still out on the streets till today.
Some employees and unions chose to challenge the arrests, dismissals and the amendment ordinance itself in the Madras High Court. On 5 July a residence motion was moved and a single judge of the Madras High Court gave the following directions: Give an undertaking to the police or jail authorities that you will not have anything to do with the strike. Then you can get out on bail. If you unconditionally withdraw the strike and resume duty forthwith, then the suspensions and dismissals will be put on hold for the time being and new recruitments will also be put on hold.
This order was stayed by a division bench on the very same evening within a few hours. All eyes were turned on the courts on the 7th, 8th, and 9th July, 2003. The bench posed several questions to the Advocate General which could easily be interpreted as its displeasure at the summary manner in which the dismissals had taken place. The print and electronic media and the gallery had a field day. But appearances can be quite deceptive. To the disappointment, dismay and shock of the thousands who thronged the courts every day, and the lakhs of government employees who were eagerly awaiting the judgment, the bench ruled on 11 July that there was no infraction of any fundamental rights. It closed its doors on them and asked them to go and knock at the doors of the state administrative tribunal. A hyper-technical, legalistic view was taken that service matters could not be decided by the High Court when the administrative tribunal existed.
The employees were shell shocked. The leaders said that there will not be any more struggle and that they would wait for the benign intervention and mercy of the Chief Minister. They said that they would not go to the Supreme Court and not seek any solidarity from political parties or central trade unions. If any one went to the Supreme Court or conducted any solidarity struggle, the employees’ federation would have nothing to do with them. One union even went to the extent of apologizing to the CM! All employees were directed to give departmental appeals and await the outcome. Now the autocratic CM is even refusing to give them an audience and the air is thick with speculations that there will be further attacks.
Not only that, the Supreme Court too reprimanded the employees for “holding the State to ransom”, however requesting the government to “show magnanimity and grace” by taking them back if they tender an unconditional apology for participating in the “illegal strike” and give an undertaking never to do so again.
The government and the court acting in tandem in a natural way gave an unceremonious burial to the issues and demands of the strike. Let us pause here for a moment and have a close look at a communist warning: “Like our political independence, parliamentary democracy in India, too, rests on a rather fragile foundation. At the slightest provocation of any popular unrest, the integrity of the institutions, the sanctity of the Constitution, the inviolability of the democratic rights are all reduced to empty phrases, and the essential reactionary, autocratic character of the Indian state comes out clearly into the open.”
The leadership did not make sufficient ideological, political and organizational preparations to meet the onslaught of the government. They failed to realise that the issues at stake were not only democratic rights. The significance of the globalisation process and the capitalist onslaught, (after all, the financial implication was worth Rs.25,000 crores), was not taken into account.
Also to be noted is the fact that even though the government machinery came to a standstill for many days, the common people showed no resentment, as in their eyes, it was useless, ineffective, corrupt and unresponsive. The campaign to reach out to the masses, though a step in the right direction, was very formal and ineffective because this approach has never been an integral part of government employees’ trade union practice. Their own history shows that their movement rested on fragile foundations and hence, no wonder, it collapsed at the first sign of attacks. Also, there was no effective solidarity from the central trade unions and the opposition parties. Furthermore, the Left in the employees’ movement paid too heavy and too high a price for practicing unity with the opportunistic and vacillating COTO GEO. Thus they lost their independence and initiative, which ultimately led to abject surrender.
For the time being the employees have lost and Jayalalitha has won. This is just round one. This is just a battle. In no way should this lost battle be taken as an obituary for struggles in the organized sector. Rather, it should serve to gear the workers of the organised sector for the urgent need to forge new strategies and broader unity with other struggling people, in order to face unprecedented challenges. The governments are getting more and more alienated from more and more sections of the people. There are many battles and a big war to be fought. The organized sector movements will have to purge themselves of their weaknesses, build bridges with other oppressed and toiling people, build their movement anew to face fresh challenges.
— S. Kumaraswamy