The usual throng at the AITUC office had started thinning late this evening when the doors had to be pushed open to welcome a VIP visitor — the new Labour Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The minister had come to meet Gurudas Dasgupta, the AITUC leader, partly to make up for his morning’s absence in the Lok Sabha. Dasgupta had noticed that the minister was not present and had spoken out loud in the House. The tone was hardly friendly.And in what turned out to be a pleasant surprise, Rao did not have to be requested twice to address the small, motley crowd of AITUC supporters. Rao pledged he ‘‘would have workers’ interests in mind’’ as he gradually settled down and made himself at home with the intricacies of the portfolio he had been entrusted with.Rao, according to AITUC leaders, said he would not, under any circumstances, head a ‘‘captive’’ ministry, a ministry dependent on the fiscal interests and decisions made by other more important ministries.With the minister pledging he would not turn his face away from the interests of the labour, the Left camp appeared buoyant. The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund met earlier today but restoration of the earlier EPF rate to 9.5 per cent was not on the agenda. Rao said his ministry would make an effort to raise the EPF rate to 9.5 per cent. He even made it clear he would take up the matter with both the PM and the Finance Minister.There was yet another political front which Rao attended to by meeting Dasgupta in his own den. A section of the Left, especially the CPI(M), has put its foot down on the demand for a separate state for Telangana. With Rao’s politics entirely hinged to the Telangana statehood issue, he has been trying desperately not to completely alienate the Left.
