Rediff On The NeT: Samant's rivals recall the fallen leader

'Datta Samant was a waning star. He was a threat to no one '

Savera R Someshwar and Suparn Vermain Bombay

Datta Samant's assassination on Friday shocked labour activists and has forged a temporary truce among various trade unions in Bombay.

At a condolence meeting organised at the Lal Nishan office, most trade union leaders -- R G Karnik (Kamgar Sanghatana Samyukt Kruti Samiti), Yashwant and Jayant Chavan (Sarva Shramik Sangh), Madhu Mohite (Municipal Kamgar Sangh), Dr Shivrao Wagle (Government Employees' Union), K L Bajaj (Congress of Indian Trade Unions), Prakash Reddy (All-India Trade Unions Congress), Franklin D'Souza (Hindustan Lever Union), Damodar Tandel (Machimar Kruti Samiti), Pushpa Mehta (UTUC), Shankar Salvi and Mahabal Shetty (Hind Mazdoor Kisan Panchayat) -- condoled Samant's murder.

"We have called for an industrial bandh on Friday," said Jayant Chavan. "All workers will join the funeral procession." Textile workers in the city had originally demanded that the funeral procession pass through their area in the commercial end of Bombay city and that Samant be cremated there, but it has been agreed that he will be cremated at the Rajawadi crematorium in the suburbs.

"The beauty of it is that despite the fact that various industrial workers lost the battle under him, they loved him," one trade union leader said.

On hearing the news, Vasantrao Hoshing, former leader of the Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh, the textile workers's union, was stunned. "Datta Samant has been murdered?" he asked.

Throughout the conversation, Hoshing could not get over the dastardly -- and, according to him, totally unnecessary -- killing of the medical practitioner-turned-trade union leader.

"There was no reason for him to be murdered now," he kept repeating. "There was no immediate cause. Datta Samant was a waning star. He did not have the kind of power that he once wielded. He was not a threat to anyone."

His view was seconded by Vasant Khanolkar, chairman of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha. "His strike were failures; too many of his factories had closed down. He was deserted by his key aides: first Ratan Mhatre left him, and then when he was facing a crisis at National Rayon, T S Borade too deserted him."

That his charisma was fading was obvious to one and all, including Samant, to whom the truth was painfully brought home by two major defeats -- the Premier Automobiles Limited strike a few months ago; and, in May 1996, the Lok Sabha election from the Bombay South Central constituency, where most of the residents are the working class people, to Mohan Rawle of the Shiv Sena by a margin of over 55,000 votes.

Samant began his career as a trade unionist as a representative of the quarry workers who toiled in the stone mines of Chandivili. "He began as a socialist," recalls Hoshing, "but it soon became a profession with him. He became very self-centered and was a man without principles. He forgot all about the labour movement. His concern was devoted only to those workers who were affiliated to his union."

Khanolkar adds, "In order to promote the Kamgar Aghadi, he resorted to unfair means and violence to oust the existing unions at that time."

Trade unionists admit that Samant's killing is a setback to the movement. "The movement will go on," says Govindrao Adik of the Congress union, INTUC, "but there is no doubt that this is an unfortunate development. We might have had ideological differences, we may have used different methods, but there is no denying the fact that he increased the bargaining power of the trade unions. He made the movement stronger."

R G Karnik adds, "The movement will not be frustrated because of the loss of one man. But there is no denying the fact that he lent a militant touch to the labour movement. He united the workers and gave them confidence by teaching them the advantage of collective bargaining."

The reference is to Samant's historical role in the Bombay textile mill strike of 1982. It was the one strike that made people believe Samant could deliver; it made him one of the most feared trade union leaders in the country. "As a matter of fact," says Khanolkar, "the textile affair was not a strike at all, it was a revolt."

The workers, who were discontented with their representative union, the RMMS, approached Samant to lead them. Legally, under the Industrial Relations Act, it was impossible to remove a recognised union. "If Samant had refused, he would have lost all his power. The workers were going against the system, the management and the union," recalls Khanolkar.

Not everyone, however, shares the same opinion. "That strike crippled the textile industry," says Hoshing of the RMMS. "The government did not take a stand, the employers were not keen on reopening the mills. And eventually, the workers suffered. Today that strike is the reason why the textile mills have been nationalised."

Meanwhile, speculation is rife about the cause for the murder.

Sharad Rao, general secretary of the Samata Party and the Hind Mazdoor Kisan Panchayat, and Karnik believe it is a contract killing.

Vivek Monteiro of the CPI-M union, CITU, says, "This murder is the direct result of the government's policy of shutting down factories and selling the mill land. As a result, underworld interference in union affairs has increased dramatically. They do not want to let go of such a lucrative source of income. Datta Samant was virulently opposed to the sale of mill land."

But Monteiro also suspects that trade union rivalry -- either between unions or within Samant's union itself -- could be the cause.