Kolkata: Bust of KG Bose, ‘Tallest’ Leader of Central Government Employees Unveiled

Kolkata: The winter morning of December 11, 2025, brought back a spring of memories for 93-year-old Madhusudan Chakraborty and Khounish Mitra, 83, and other Central government pensioners in Kolkata.

The bust of their “magnetic” leader, K G Bose, was unveiled in the city. Despite their infirmities, the two old men trudged all the way to Malanga Lane, where their “age old dream” was coming true.

Krishna Gopal Bose or KG-Da was among the tallest leaders of Central government workers across the country. He is said to have had unmatched oratory skills, writing acumen and a magnetic personality, say his contemporaries. He led a valiant fight of central government workers against pay disparity.

He played an important role in the formation of the Union of P & T Workers (UPTW) in 1947, uniting most of the existing various unions in the department and later National Federation of P & T Unions (NFPTE) on  November 24, 1954, with nine all-India unions affiliated to it. He worked as circle secretary of Engg. III and Postal III unions in West Bengal for a long time, and was president of the Postal Class Union.

KG Bose’s key role in organising historic strikes of Central government employees in 1960 and 1968 are still remembered. He was leader of the progressive section in NFPTE, along with N.J.Iyer, K.Adinarayana and others. He was elected as President of NFPTE in 1970.

Pradip Gupta, leader of the Pensioners Association of Central Government told Newsclick that the present-day emotions centered around Bose might be a haze for people unaware of KG Bose ‘s legacy, but for all Central government workers spread across postal , telecommunication, BSNL, ports, banks, insurance,  defence and railways, “his name still strikes a chord among employees”,  as he forged strikes against the mishandling of Central government employees by the then Union government, “transforming them from their middle class roots to militant foot soldiers of the workers and employees movement and imbibing in them socialist and progressive ideas.”

On December 11 morning, this spirit of struggle could be felt among hundreds of Central government employees, state government employees and pensioners, who had gathered in Malanga Lane for the unveiling of K G Bose’s bust by Arup Chatterjee, general secretary of the coordination committee of Central government employees’ unions, West Bengal. Later, progressive songs were sung at the venue.

Bose’s younger colleagues, now in their 90s, recalled his abrupt termination from service by the Union government in 1961. He was P&T employee.

Chakraborty, who joined Central government service in 1953 as a 21-year-old and was in service till 1993, remembered Bose for his “selfless devotion to the workers' cause and his magnetic personality.” He cited an incident in Kerala during a Congress of the Union in the 1960s, where there was a scuffle among the employees. “But once KG Bose entered the hall, everybody fell silent and adhered to the inner discipline of the union.”

 “He remembered every employee by their names, and used to enquire about their well-being. His baritone, his simple words still ring in our minds,” said Bose’s elderly comrade.

Dilip Das, 86,  another pensioner and former P&T leader, who was one of the drafting assistants to KG Bose for his union work in the late 1960s, recalled his “bold leadership during the historic 1968 strike of Central government employees, when there were about 13 deaths due to police firing and railway engines mauling down striking employees.”

Bose worked tirelessly to stop victimisation of the striking employees, but himself became a victim of the then Central government’s inhuman attitude to its workers, he said.

Veteran communist leader Van Namboodiri, who hailed KG Bose as a “legendary revolutionary leader” of India's Posts & Telegraph (P&T) and Central Government employees' trade union movement, who was known for “militant unionism, fighting revisionism, and inspiring workers for decades, particularly through the NFPTE union.”

KG Bose, was born on July 7, 1921, and entered the P&T Department in 1941 as a clerk in the divisional office in Calcutta at a salary of Rs. 45 per month. His father having passed away early, as the eldest son, he took care of the family. From the beginning, he was connected with the trade union movement and became an active worker of the then Indian Telegraph Association, formed by Henry Barton, one of the pioneers of the P & T trade union movement.

In the historic 1946 postmen strike, V.G.Dalvi, Dada Ghosh and K.G. Bose organised workers in Bengal and Assam making it a “complete success”. Bose was arrested and jailed for months in connection with the declared 1949 strike. He was later dismissed from service and was never taken back. His younger brother, Moni Bose, who was working in the same department was also terminated in connection with the same strike and never taken back.

His continuous struggle and hard work resulted in deterioration of his health. He was sent to London for better treatment and passed away there on December 11, 1974. The first building in his memory, “K.G.Bose Bhavan” was constructed in Calicut. He was also elected as a CPI(M) MLA and his wife, Parul Bose, was reportedly the “first woman victim” of Naxalite and Congress attacks (which reigned in the 1960s and 70s). She was reportedly stabbed in her lungs but survived.

The December 11 programme also saw the publication the life history of Bose where, in a letter written from London, he says: t “ I want to survive and continue my uncompromising fight against all injustices and in this struggle, I am not alone, thousands and thousands of comrades are all with me and they are my source of Inspiration”.