Narendra Sharma, perhaps the last of Indias specialist Labour reporters passed away in New Delh on Oct 20 at the age of 90 without attracting much media attention .The sad news reached me only today on the birth centenary of Nikhil Chakravarty who had spotted Narendra Sharma talent as a writer and his abiding interest in and empathy for the working class and trade union movement and groomed him into a roving all India correspondent for the Delhi based news agency IPA , Mainstream , Samvad and host of TU journals. Like Nkhilda , Sharmaji was a communist from his student days in Lahore . He was a trade union worker in the undivided AITUC in Punjab before Nikhilda drew him to Delhi around 1962. As a trainee reporter with the IPA I had the privilege of working closely with him and learning from him in the early1970s. The labour and trade union and industrial relations scene in India has changed beyond recognition in the wake of liberalization , privatization and globalization unleashed by the forces of Global Capital . Along with it , the mainstream media attention on labour struggles , trade union demands ,industrial action , vestiges of the once proud public sector in the country.These dont make news any more Also the growing struggles of contract labor , precarious labor in sectors like services and IT , or daily wage earners or piece rate workers get scant notice in the mainstream media. If at all they are treated as a nuisance to growth. But Narendra Sharma remained steadfast to he last in his informed support for all just struggles of working , wealth creating working people who are no more in the radar of commercialized mainstream media . RIP Sharmji.You leave behind a proud legacy which the future will recognize and reclaim as the logic of Capital breaks down under the weight of its own manifold crises.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 14:00:22 +0000