The board hanging in front of the shed reads: ``AITUC, BMS, CITU, INTUC(I) Loading and Unloading Union Office''.

One cannot be faulted for wondering how people representing diametrically opposite political ideologies could cohabit and carry on their trade union activities under one roof. Incredible, but true.

The loading and unloading workers in Binanipuram have a history of maintaining close co-operation and personal rapport, unbounded by political ideologies they believe in.

The Bharat Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), trade union wing of the Sangh parivar, may be daggers drawn with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist, and the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) of the Congress elsewhere in the country, but not in Binanipuram.

Since the past 16 years, theoffices of all the four trade unions are housed under one roof in Binanipuram. Not once, say locals, were there any skirmishes between the inmates of this office.

``When we opened our office here 16 years ago, there was only one industrial unit here. Now there are 85-odd units, big and small,'' recalled CM Siddiq, a member of the INTUC. The loading and unloading work in the majority of these units is handled by the labourers enrolled in this office. They are helped by the senior leaders of their respective trade unions in wage negotiations with the managements.

There is a gentleman's agreement between the members of different trade unions using this office that they would not let their political differences to mar the smooth functioning of the office or break the bonds of camaraderie between the members. And they have always remained true to this solemn resolve.

``We live like the children of one mother. Any dispute that may arise between us is amicably resolved through free and frank discussion,'' saidKuhju Mohammed of the CITU.

The members are given unfettered freedom to pursue their own political line. The CITU men are free to subscribe to Desabhimani, the official organ of the CPM, while the BMS people may opt for their mouthpiece Janmabhoomi and INTUC men may go in for Veekshanam, the Congress newspaper. During spare time, they remain engrossed in reading the day's newspapers under a portrait of the Father of the Nation, which, incidentally, is the only portrait of a political leader allowed inside the union office.

Of course, political discussions among the members do generate heat at times, but provocative and unparliamentary words are carefully avoided while attacking political opponents, lest it would create bad blood among the members.

The unpretentious headload workers of Binanipuram unmistakably deliver a timely message to the nation, riven by political animosities and obnoxious power plays. The message is: politics should serve as a unifying rather than as a divisiveforce. Belief in different political ideologies should not negate, but abet, peaceful and harmonious co-existence.