Volume 43 No. 14 Organ of the SOCIALIST UNITY CENTRE OF INDIA (COMMUNIST)March 15, 2010 Founder Editor-in-Chief : COMRADE SHIBDAS GHOSH Price : Rs. 4.00

They streamed in, all, toconverge upon. Not in gaggles, notin flocks — banded in groups andrallies they came with grief-ladenhearts glimpsed in their silent,heavy steps, mingled with resolve ingait firm and erect. You could see,you could feel, the whole beingglimmered a stuff different. Theirmovement, all their conduct spokeout what they are pledged to :transforming their selves to equalwhat history behoves them to do,and to elevate themselves toproletarian characters throughcollective activity, collective living,collective thinking; be ceaselesswithout flinch, waver, deviance inthis struggle on the revolutionarypolitical line. A struggle which iswithin and without at once. For,capitalism never sleeps, neverceases to worm its way in anddegrade and debase character. Evenhunger and humiliation that itinflicts comes nowhere near to thislethal power in its armour. In thedarkness and thorns in people’slives the ray that shines, trulyshines, is the beacon of thoughts theGreat Leader bequeathed —Comrade Shibdas Ghosh. He it iswho showed the road to honour, thelife that gleams in dignity, thefountain-head of strength to powerthe struggle, the unbending resolvefor revolution and cherishedemancipation.

The great Marxist thinker, ourleader, teacher and guide, who gavea new meaning to the nobility ofcommunism and held it high afterMarx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, andMao-Zedong, taught us theunwavering commitment of acommunist even when a greattragedy might befall.

Comrade Nihar MukherjeeRemembered with tears and resolve

The great tragedy that has comedown on our life in the passingaway of Comrade Nihar Mukherjee,our beloved General Secretary and agreat life-long revolutionary wholed the Party onward in correctpursuit of the teachings of ComradeShibdas Ghosh, has been the test forthe leaders, the Party rank and fileto assess how far have theyadvanced in this struggle.

It was the 3rd of March, the dayof Memorial Meeting, on which theParty paid tribute to Comrade NiharMukherjee and took the vow anewto carry ahead the task of struggle on

all fronts, individual and collective,to materialize the anti-capitalistsocialist revolution on this soil. Atthe call of the Central Committee ofthe SUCI (Communist), theMemorial Meeting was held at theNetaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata.

The Stadium and its precinctswere decorated in solemn dignity,wrapped around in red flags and redbanners. By the side of the mainentrance, a photographicpresentation of many moments inComrade Nihar Mukherjee’s lifewas arranged for comrades andpeople who flocked there daylong to

draw deep inspiration. Next to it wasset up a Party book stall wherecomrades thronged to eagerlycollect works of Comrade ShibdasGhosh, books containing hisinvaluable speeches, publications ofwritings of Comrade NiharMukherjee, and also other partyliterature. And then there was a hugeportrait of the departed leader. TheMemorial Meeting was scheduled tobegin at 3 p.m. But from around 12noon people started to pour in, offerfloral tributes at the huge portraitand enter the stadium. The stateleaders, organizers, workers andsympathizers, masses of the toilingpeople came from all corners of thecountry, from Assam to Gujarat,from Punjab to Kerala. By 2-30pm,the venue was full and a biggathering of people, who could notenter inside for lack of space,

Contd. on page 8

Comrade Provash Ghoshelected General Secretary

In the meeting of the Central Committee of the SUCI(Communist) held at the Salt Lake commune of the Party in

the morning of 4 March, 2010, Comrade Provash Ghosh, Member,Polit Bureau, was elected the General Secretary of the Party.

PAGE TWO MARCH 15, 2010 PROLETARIAN ERA

Contd. on page 3

Homageof the Central Committee, SUCI (Communist)

to Comrade Nihar MukherjeeComrade Nihar Mukherjee,

General Secretary of the SocialistUnity Centre of India(Communist), lifelong comrade-in-arms of the great leader of theproletariat, Comrade ShibdasGhosh, passed away on 18thFebruary last at Calcutta HeartClinic & Hospital. He wassuffering from multiple seriousailments for which he had beenunder prolonged treatment. Whenhe passed away, he was ninety.The Central Committee expressesits profound grief at his demise.

While paying its deep respect,the Central Committee recalls thatComrade Nihar Mukherjee at atender age of 13 plunged into thevortex of revolutionary current ofthe Indian freedom movement. Hejoined the revolutionaryorganization Anushilan Samity asan activist. In course of hisrevolutionary activities he leftbehind his family, gave up hisacademic career and became a fulltime revolutionary. During thisperiod he came in contact withComrade Shibdas Ghosh who alsohad joined Anushilan Samity in hisearly teens. Both ComradeShibdas Ghosh and ComradeNihar Mukherjee were arrestedand sent to jail during the ‘QuitIndia’ movement for takingimportant role. While in AnushilanSamity, Comrade NiharMukherjee was attracted towardsMarxism-Leninism. Later, heembraced this noble ideology asthe philosophy of life. As the CPIdid not grow as a true communistparty and as there was no othercommunist party worthy of itsname, in order to fulfill theindispensable precondition forrevolution, Comrade ShibdasGhosh took upon himself thearduous task of building up SUCIas a genuine communist party onthe Leninist model by concretizingMarxism-Leninism on the Indiansoil. Comrade Nihar Mukherjee, asa close comrade-in-arms of theGreat Leader Comrade ShibdasGhosh, put heart and soul in thishistoric struggle and played aunique role.

In the early years of this

audacious, indomitable struggle ofbuilding the genuine communistparty in the vast stretch of this landwithout social identity any to nameand means of any kind to fall backupon for food and shelter, spurredon alone by an unwaveringcommitment to the ideology ofMarxism-Leninism and a deeplyentrenched resolve to accomplishthe task of proletarian revolution,it was a daunting a task to conductrevolutionary activities or even toarrange the minimum necessitiesfor the sustenance of the lives ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh and othercomrades. It was Comrade NiharMukherjee who with immensepatience and endurance shoulderedthe responsibility of arranging thenecessary resources to continue

those united Left-democraticmovements Comrade NiharMukherjee was imprisoned severaltimes. In course, he emerged as afront-ranking leader of Left-democratic movement. Inremembrance of this exemplaryrole of his, the Central Committeepays its deep respect.

The sudden and prematuredemise of Comrade ShibdasGhosh, our most beloved leader,teacher and guide, on 5th ofAugust 1976 struck the Party likea thunderbolt plunging the wholeof the Party into unplumbed grief.A deep sense of void cast itselfover. At this crucial hour, theCentral Committee of the Partyelected Comrade NiharMukherjee, who by dint of his

unfulfilled dream of our greatleader Comrade Shibdas Ghosh.The Central Committee recognizesthis role of Comrade NiharMukherjee with deep admiration.

The Central Committeeconsiders it to be its honour-boundduty to record that from thenonwards, Comrade NiharMukherjee waged a relentless andexemplary struggle thatheightened and deepened hisrealization of the thoughts andteachings of Comrade ShibdasGhosh. He at the same time, forthe upliftment of the ideologicaland cultural level of the entireParty, took different measures toinvolve all the leaders and cadresof the party in this struggle. Withthis very objective, he establishedthe Study Centre of Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thoughtat Ghatshila.

Being mired in election-oriented politics when other Leftparties abandoned the course ofdemocratic mass movement,Comrade Shibdas Ghosh calledupon Party leaders and workers in1975, to build up democratic massmovements single-handedly, i fnecessary, in order to advancepeople’s cause. On his demise, theparty under the leadership ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee rose tocarry out the behest of the GreatLeader of the Proletariat. Not onlyin West Bengal, in other states too,the party, under his leadership,developed class and massstruggles conducive to anti-capitalist socialist revolution. Inthis process of defending people’sinterest, the SUCI (Communist)earned a coveted space in people’shearts as the only trustworthyforce of left-democraticmovement. Also, under his ableleadership, the mass and classfronts of the party in various statescontinued to grow in strength andspread. Comrade Nihar Mukherjeealso took bold steps instrengthening, both ideologicallyand organizationally, Komsomol,which Comrade Shibdas Ghoshinitiated, reared and steered withgreat care to function under direct

struggle had already emerged asthe worthy successor of ComradeShibdas Ghosh, as the GeneralSecretary of the Party. ComradeNihar Mukherjee also readilyresponded to this need of the Partyand the wishes of its members andshouldered this most difficultresponsibility unhesitatingly. Incourse of his life-long historicstruggle, Comrade Shibdas Ghoshorganized the party as ‘one man’on the Leninist principle ofdemocratic centralism byconcretizing Marxism-Leninismon Indian soil. In his absence,Comrade Nihar Mukherjee notonly protected and strengthenedthe unity of the Party but alsotransformed the grief and surge ofemotion into strength, and led theParty forward by rousing andimbibing the comrades on thepledge of accomplishing the

the party activities and save thelives of the comrades, particularlyof Comrade Shibdas Ghosh. Withprofound reverence and gratitude,the Central Committee recognizesthis unexcelled role of ComradeNihar Mukherjee in building upthe party.

A historic necessity and socialurge developed, afterindependence, for uniting the leftand democratic parties and forces,including the then undivided CPI,on the platform of joint struggleagainst the anti-people rule of theCongress. At the behest ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh,Comrade Nihar Mukherjee playeda leading role in giving shape tosuch a Left-democratic front. Thenonward, powerful united Left-democratic movement startedsurging forth and spreading allover West Bengal. While leading

Central Committee members offering Red Salute to the departed leader

PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 15, 2010 PAGE THREE

guidance of the Party.In profound regard the Central

Committee records that theorganizational structure which ourGreat Leader Comrade ShibdasGhosh shaped out for the Party atits Founding Convention, on theLeninist principle oforganizational centralism based onideological centralism, took itsconstitutional form at the FirstParty Congress held in 1988 underthe able leadership of ComradeNihar Mukherjee. It was thesteadfast and all-encompassingleadership and effort of ComradeNihar Mukherjee that brought all-out success of the First PartyCongress.

It was Comrade ShibdasGhosh who in course of hispenetrating analysis showed that‘the 20th Congress of the CPSUunder the leadership ofKhrushchev opened the flood-gates of revisionism’. In the lightof the historic analysis ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh,Comrade Nihar Mukherjeecorrectly labeled Gorbachev’sprogrammes of Perestroika andGlasnost as the blue-print ofcounter-revolution for restorationof capitalism and emphasized theutmost urgency of intensifying arelentless ideological struggleagainst every shade ofrevisionism-reformism. Thiscorrect characterization andanalysis provided by ComradeNihar Mukherjee helped removingconfusions that prevailed amongstmany progressive people and evenamong in a section of honestcommunists home and abroad. Itgoes without saying that thecounter-revolution engineered byGorbachev-Yeltsin clique in 1989vindicated this forewarning ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee. Atthat juncture, the CentralCommittee under the leadership ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee calledupon the people of the formerSoviet Union to assimilate theessence of the teachings ofMarxism-Leninism as well as thethoughts of Comrade Stalin andoverthrow the ruling bourgeoisiefrom power by organizing anewanti-capitalist socialist revolution.In profound regard the CentralCommittee remembers thisinvaluable contribution of

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee.After the demise of Comrade

Mao Zedong, the great leader andteacher of world communistmovement, when Deng Xiaoping,the epitome of modernrevisionism, and his cohortsusurped the leadership of theCommunist Party of China and theState and nakedly pursuedrevisionist policies in all fields, theCentral Committee of our partyunder the leadership of ComradeNihar Mukherjee, on the basis ofthe invaluable analysis of theCultural Revolution of China byComrade Shibdas Ghosh, soundedcaution of the impending danger ofestablishment of capitalism there.Unfortunately, no formidableresistance against this revisionistsweep developed in China. Finally,in 2004 counter-revolution wascompleted in China through grantof constitutional right to privateproperty and capitalism gotestablished. The CentralCommittee of the SUCI (C), underthe leadership of Comrade NiharMukherjee, called upon theworking class and working massesof China to draw appropriatelesson from this tragic turn and tocome forward and initiate, on thebasis of Marxism-Leninism-MaoZedong Thoughts, the struggle toaccomplish victory of socialistrevolution in capitalist China byoverthrowing the bourgeoisie fromstate power.

With the dismantling of SovietUnion and the socialist camp in1990, the deterrent role that theworld socialist camp led by theUSSR had been playing againstimperialist aggression came to anend. To make a correct assessmentof the changed internationalsituation and to chart out thecourse of action for the worldproletariat and other exploitedmasses, a Party Plenum was heldin 1994 under the leadership ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee. TheCentral Committee recalls that thePlenum held under his guidance,decided to give shape to broad-based anti-imperialist fora indifferent countries as instrumentsof intensifying the anti-imperialiststruggles and militant peacemovements, with the genuinecommunists acting as their core.Accordingly, under the directsupervision and direction of

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee, theSUCI (C), based on the realizationof the necessity to rally togetherthe anti-imperialist forces ofdifferent countries, initiated movesto give concrete shape to suchfora. As a result, first the All-IndiaAnti-imperialist Forum, and, incourse the International Anti-imperialist and People’s SolidarityCoordinating Committee havebeen formed. This historic step,which created the ground forinteraction, coordination andmutual exchange of views amongthe genuine communistsworldwide, is the result of thefarsightedness of Comrade NiharMukherjee. This also has pavedthe way for dissemination of thethoughts of Comrade ShibdasGhosh all over the world.Following this, there is increasingattraction round the globe towardshis revolutionary thoughts. This,in turn, has strengthened the worldcommunist movement giving afirmer ground to proletarianinternationalism. The CentralCommittee is of the firm opinionthat this bold and timely initiativeby Comrade Nihar Mukherjee willleave its indelible mark in history.

In this changed internationaland national situations, history hasbestowed an enormousresponsibility on our party - theSUCI (Communist). Dischargingthis responsibility warrants correctadherence to the course chartedout by Great Leader ComradeShibdas Ghosh which calls forfreeing the leaders and cadresfrom all sorts of bourgeois ideas,culture, influence of vulgarindividualism, and ensuringcollective thinking, collectiveaction, and proper body-functioning at all levels of theParty on the basis of democraticcentralism. To bring this intopractice, the Central Committeerecalls with profound respect howComrade Nihar Mukherjeereleased and conducted an intenseideological struggle within theParty with his resounding call for‘Revitalization and Consolidationof the Party and its Mass Fronts’.It is in continuation of thisstruggle that the Second PartyCongress has been held in 2009under his leadership and directionwith thunderous success, thoughsevere ailment prevented him

from being present in person at theCongress.

The Central Committee alsoremembers with deep respect thatin the process of correctly leadingthe Party on the basis of Marxism-Leninism Shibdas Ghosh Thought,Comrade Nihar Mukherjee in hisspeeches and writings madecorrect analyses and providedcorrect understanding of variousimportant national andinternational questions whichcropped up after the demise ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh. TheCentral Committee is of firmopinion that these works ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee will beof immense value to the treasure-house of knowledge of the Party.

In profound reverence, theCentral Committee records that inhis struggle to attain highercommunist character by applyingMarxism-Leninism in each andevery sphere of his life in the lightof the teachings and directguidance of Comrade ShibdasGhosh, Comrade Nihar Mukherjeeleft unparalleled mark ofimpersonal attitude and conducton all questions till he breathed hislast — this ever burning instanceof embodiment of ComradeShibdas Ghosh’s teachings willshed light for us all. Precisely inthis course, Comrade NiharMukherjee attained the level of aheightened communist characterby identifying his self with thecause of the Class, Revolution andParty and emerged as a greatrevolutionary leader.

The lesson that ComradeNihar Mukherjee left us to attainhigher communist character freefrom all vile influence ofindividualism, to conduct theParty on collective decision andcollective action, to protect andpreserve the unity of the Party asthe apple of the eye, we vow, weshall spare no effort till the lastdrop of blood to be equal to it.

Long Live RevolutionLong Live SUCI (Communist)

Long LiveProletarian Internationalism

Red Salute, Great Leader ofthe Proletariat

Comrade Shibdas Ghosh

Red Salute,Great Revolutionary

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee

Homage of the Central Committee, SUCI (Communist)Contd. from page 2

PAGE FOUR MARCH 15, 2010 PROLETARIAN ERA

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee a great characterin proletarian struggle for emancipation

— Comrade Provash Ghosh in Memorial MeetingWith deep pain and grief-

stricken heart we have assembledhere to pay our tribute to ComradeNihar Mukherjee, the departedGeneral Secretary of our party anda great leader in the struggle foremancipation of the proletariat inthe present era, as well as to recallsome memorable chapters of hisunique revolutionary struggles, soas to take lesson and inspiration forthe struggles in the days to come.All of us who are now sitting on thedais, have joined this party inspiredby the ideology and thoughts ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh, the greatMarxist thinker. In the same manneras we had the intimate proximity,revolutionary teachings and love ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh, we werenurtured at the same time in thewarmth of intimate affection ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee. In sucha situation, naturally it is verydifficult for us to find words in hismemorial meeting ( voice chokedwith tears). You all know that ourparty is like a family. Not on anyblood relation; it is on thefoundation of Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought that thisfamily with unfathomable love andaffection, has grown up with somany revolutionaries of differentstates of India as its members. Afterthe demise of Comrade ShibdasGhosh, Comrade Nihar Mukherjeewas the most revered guardian ofthis very family. So, his absence,his demise is a great blow to us.(he choked again with tears).

You are aware that faced withthe crisis arising from the absenceof a genuine communist party inIndia, the great leader ComradeShibdas Ghosh, with a view tofulfilling the historic necessity ofthe proletarian struggle foremancipation, founded this partythrough an arduous struggle ofcorrectly concretizing Marxism inthe soil of this country. In thatstruggle, Comrade Nihar Mukherjeewas his closest and most trustedcomrade, his finest follower. It wasComrade Nihar Mukherjee, whowas the first man on this soil ofIndia to realize the historic roleComrade Shibdas Ghosh was goingto play, his nobility, the vastness ofhis knowledge and broadness of hischaracter, his greatness; he was the

first man who, on this realization,stood by his side. In the history ofrevolutionary movement this role ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee willremain unforgettable. That is why,Comrade Nihar Mukherjee cannotbe judged separated from thethoughts, teachings and life struggleof Comrade Shibdas Ghosh. Anincident of the fifties of the lastcentury comes to mind. All of usused to have frank discussions withComrade Shibdas Ghosh; in this,there was no formality in our party.One day, I was telling him myopinion about some of the leaders ofthe party; he was guiding me withhis judgement. He asked me: Whatis your opinion about ComradeNihar Mukherjee? I told him, hecannot be viewed separated fromyou. He said: You are still immature.You have said something verycorrect, though without realizingproperly. When you will becomemore mature and realize the truesignificance of your words, youwill be able to correctly understandthis party also at that time. Yes, Icould understand later whatComrade Shibdas Ghosh meant. Inreality, Comrade Nihar Mukherjeewas identified with the teachingsand revolutionary struggles ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh, with theparty he had founded. I recollectanother comment of ComradeShibdas Ghosh on Comrade NiharMukherjee made later. ComradeMukherjee had Parkinson’s disease.Referring to that, Comrade ShibdasGhosh once said that usually he hasa trembling hand; but it won’ttremble if required to put it on firein the interest of hisrevolutionary party. These few

words clearly reveal what a greatrespect even Comrade ShibdasGhosh had about Comrade NiharMukherjee.

The revolutionary life ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh andComrade Nihar Mukherjee had itsbeginning in a glorious chapter ofIndian independence struggle, whena massive surge for service to thecountry, of patriotism, cultivationof knowledge, science, literature,culture swept through the country.Though in the ideological-culturalmovements within society theinfluence of compromisinghumanist trend was greater in themain, side by side with it thealternative trend of humanism freedfrom the religious influence upheldby Vidyasagar and whose bannerSaratchandra subsequently heldhigh, also had its impact. In thepolitical field too, as opposed to thecompromising reformist trend ofGandhism, there prevailed aninfluence of petty bourgeoisrevolutionism. This revolutionismattracted teenagers and youth ofdifferent states of the country,particularly of the undividedBengal, to rush out to join it. It wasthe time when Saratchandra hadsaid that serving one’s country isnot empty words; it is the noblestmission of human life. A patriot ishe and only he, who can sacrificeeverything for the sake of hiscountry. Only he can be a patriotwho does not have any personalinterest, nor any craving for money,name and fame, to whom there wasnothing in between the country onone side and patriotism on theother. Those days, such ideals andslogans, the appeal of sacrifice ofmartyrs like Kshudiram and others,the reverberating call from NetajiSubhaschandra — all these awakethe youth of Bengal from theirslumber. Comrade Shibdas Ghoshand Comrade Nihar Mukherjee,both at the tender age of 13 yearsand almost at the same time,Comrade Mukherjee in 1933 andComrade Ghosh in 1936 joined theindependence movement asvolunteers of the Anushilan Samity,a revolutionary organization. Theywere introduced to and gotacquainted with each other in theAnushilan Samity itself. And that

too was a historic event. ComradeNihar Mukherjee used to work inthe city of Dhaka; Comrade ShibdasGhosh in a nearby village ofPaschimdih. We learnt fromComrade Nihar Mukherjee that aparticular trait of behavior ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh attractedComrade Mukherjee to him. In anincident of conflict with anopponent group, a member of theAnushilan Samity made an indecentremark about that group. ComradeNihar Mukherjee told that it did notstrike them at all, since they wereused to hear such language fromthe Kutty community of the city.But Comrade Shibdas Ghoshprotested instantaneously and saidthat being revolutionaries theycannot make such indecentcomments even about theopponents. This very tune of cultureof Shibdas Ghosh at such a youngage was what first attractedComrade Nihar Mukherjee to him.Here in the party, at the outset ofour political life, we found a loftycultural tuning in Comrade ShibdasGhosh; in Comrade NiharMukherjee too we could note amental make-up deeply attached tothat tuning. In later days, ComradeShibdas Ghosh said in many of hisvaluable discussions that theessence of revolutionary politics liesin the lofty standard of character.He said that the kernel of any nobleideology lies in the lofty standard ofculture and character it upholds.Marxism is the noblest ideologyof this era. The kernel of thisideology, too, lies in its higherculture. He also said that had he notfound the high culture Marxismupheld, he might not have joinedMarxist movement. You all know,based on this teaching of ComradeShibdas Ghosh that we layparticular emphasis on character andmorality and we carry on itscultivation as a living strugglewithin the party.

In any case, this way theyworked separately at that time,Comrade Shibdas Ghosh mainly invillages and Comrade NiharMukherjee in the city of Dhaka. Inrallies and processions held inDhaka or in the workers’ strike atDhakeswari Mills, both of them

Contd. on page 5

PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 15, 2010 PAGE FIVE

used to join and help withvolunteers accompanying them. Onone occasion, when Subhas Bosecame to Dhaka, they both attendedhim with their volunteers. In courseof these different programmes, theygot more and more close to other.Though a very meritorious student,Comrade Shibdas Ghosh did notcontinue his studies after his school;he forsook his academic career forthe sake of his country. He had alsoleft his family, a needy familythough it was. But he had deeprespect and emotion for his parents.He used to say: parents are wailingin one family after another; I am achild of all of them; my mission isto wipe tears from all their eyes.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh used tointently study different branches ofknowledge and science, biographiesof great personalities, beingparticularly fond of the works ofSaratchandra. He used to take lessonfrom the characters Saratchandrahad created in his works, speciallyfrom the character of Sabyasachi inthe novel Pather Dabi . ComradeNihar Mukherjee had taken note ofall these aspects of ComradeShibdas Ghosh’s life and characteras well as of his sincerity anddevotion, his relentless struggle toknow truth and apply his realizationof truth in his life, and also hisorganizational ability. Throughthese, attraction towards ComradeShibdas Ghosh gradually becamedeeper in Comrade NiharMukherjee. In the meantime,Comrade Nihar Mukherjee hadreached the forefront as a studentleader in Dhaka. When he had beenthe General Secretary in theStudents’ Union of the DhakaIntermediate College, he wasexpelled from the College in 1940for organizing movements againstthe British government and ondifferent demands of students. Inprotest, there was a massivestudents’ movement in the entirecity of Dhaka that paralyzed theroads and traffic for several days.Ultimately to find a solution, theCongress leaders called for SaratBose, the elder brother of Netaji,himself an eminent leader of thefreedom movement. At hisintervention, the expulsion order onComrade Nihar Mukherjee waswithdrawn.

By that time in 1940, the leaders

of the Anushilan Samity had sentComrade Shibdas Ghosh to Calcuttato look after the organizationalactivities. Thereafter in 1941, theysent Comrade Nihar Mukherjee toCalcutta to assist Comrade ShibdasGhosh. They became closer to eachother in course of their workingtogether. Back in 1938 when thetwo were in Dhaka, a section of theAnushilan Samity had started a cultof Marxism; they used to holdclasses at the Northbrook Hall inDhaka with a number of selectedactivists, among whom there wereboth Comrade Shibdas Ghosh andComrade Nihar Mukherjee. Duringtheir stay in Calcutta, Dr. NiharenduDatta Majumder had entrustedComrade Shibdas Ghosh with a taskof organizing an uprising in Calcuttaso as to capture some places likeWriters’ Buildings, Lalbazar etc.,linking it with the Quit Indiamovement of 1942. He hadpromised all help including supplyof arms. With the permission of theAnushilan Samity, Comrade ShibdasGhosh accepted the assignment andentrusted Comrade NiharMukherjee with the responsibility oforganizing students. Duringpreparation, in 1942, both of themwere arrested. A case entitled “WardStreet Conspiracy” was lodgedagainst them with charge ofconspiring to overthrow the Britishrule through armed uprising.However, during the hearing, apatriotic lawyer deftly andcompetently pleaded for them andcould save them successfully fromthe charges. They were served witha term of three years’ imprisonmentin place of a death sentence.

To them, the period between1942 and 1945 was very significant,during which, held in prison,Comrade Shibdas Ghosh engagedhimself in still more thoroughstudies of the independencemovement of India, the worldcommunist movement, Marxismand such others. A few questionsthat disturbed Comrade ShibdasGhosh terribly was why could notthe Communist Party of India orother big parties known as Marxistslead the independence movement;how could the Gandhites,representatives of the big bourgeoisclass usurp the leadership, whilechildren of common people foughtfor independence staking everythingthey had, even their life. He had

respect for the erudition of theleaders of these parties, theirscholasticism on Marxism, theirhonesty, dedication and sacrifice.He did not put these into question.But why, in spite of these, could ithappen like that? Why could not aproletarian leadership as analternative to the bourgeoisleadership grow in India? Whycould not a genuine communistparty come up in the country? Whilesearching for answers to thesequestions during his prison life, itdawned upon Comrade ShibdasGhosh that though these leadershad studied a lot on Marxistliterature, they could not follow thecorrect Marxist- Leninistmethodology of founding acommunist party. It was becausethey could not grasp the correctunderstanding of Marxism. Heobserved that whereas Marxism wasnot a mere economic-politicaldoctrine, but a philosophy of life, aphilosophy to apply in every aspectof life, from private or family lifeto love- affection, these leaders whohad taken initiative to build upMarxist movement in the country,took Marxism largely as aneconomic-political doctrine and nota philosophy of life in reality. Thegreat leader Lenin had said thatwithout a revolutionary theory therecannot be any revolutionary party,nor revolution. Comrade ShibdasGhosh realized that the significanceof this Leninist teaching lay in thefact that such a revolutionary theoryis not simply a political doctrine,nor a political programme of theparty. It is a comprehensive conceptthat integrates all the knowledge ofepistemology and science coveringall aspects of life with a Marxistapproach. When there was a debateraging inside the RSDLP of Russiaon how should the revolutionaryparty be built up, Lenin pointed outthat a party could not be formedwith a few delegates sitting togetherand taking a resolution, nor couldthe party be formed with adeclaration. What is needed at firstis the unity of idea, an ideologicalstruggle to reach at the unity ofthoughts. Lenin added that theremust develop unity of thoughtsthrough ideological struggle findingout what differences existed, andwith whom, and sorting them out.There cannot be a communist partywithout this. Further elaborating

this Leninist teaching ComradeShibdas Ghosh termed it asideological centralism, which meantbuilding up unity of thoughtsattained by guiding every aspect oflife on the basis of Marxism. Leninsaid that unity in organizations of aproletarian party should bedeveloped and protected on thebasis of democratic centralism.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, in hiselaboration of this teaching, pointedout that the primary condition ofdeveloping democratic centralism isto build up ideological centralismand organizational centralism mustbe developed on its basis. He thusexplained, elaborated and developedLeninist teachings. Lenin had saidfusion of proletarian democracy andcentralism is democratic centralism.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh showedthat proletarian democracy emergesin course of developing ideologicalcentralism. Proletarian democracymay be said to be operating onlywhen ideological centralism isestablished. Lenin had said thatcollective leadership is thecollective knowledge of leaders andcadres of the party. ComradeShibdas Ghosh showed thatestablishing collective leadership isessential in a communist party; itcan be said to have been establishedonly when collective thinking ispersonified through a leader of thehighest rank in the party emergingin course of an ideological strugglecovering all aspects of life andconducted on the basis ofdialectical methodology, and when aleader emerges in that process he isaccepted as the leader of all leaders,the authority in the party. Onproletarian democracy, ComradeShibdas Ghosh said that theconcept of democracy in a classdivided society is of two types. Oneis the bourgeois democracy basedon private property, privateownership of production andbourgeois way of living, that iswhich reflects individualism.Though there is a formal aspect ofdemocracy to it, in reality, it workswith one individual or a few ascentres. In reality, it reflects ownersand workers or bureaucracy andpeople. So, it is a formal democracy.The other one is proletariandemocracy, which reflects collectiveownership of production andproletarian way of living, that is

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee was identified withteachings of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh

Contd. from page 4

Contd. on page 6

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Contd. on page 7

collective living. We communistsare fighting for collective socialownership; it is from this that theconcepts of collective thinking andproletarian democracy stem. This isthe foundation of proletariandemocracy and culture. On thesequestions and issues ComradeShibdas Ghosh engaged himself inintense ideological struggle while inprison. It was more so, because atthat time there was an attemptmooted within the AnushilanSamity to build up an alternativeMarxist party; subsequently itemerged as the RSP. ComradeShibdas Ghosh opined that therecould not be a genuine Marxistparty with a mere change in thename of the Anushilan Samity orwith just a change in the signboard.So far, Comrade Shibdas Ghoshcautioned, we practiced pettybourgeois revolutionism, now weare going to accept the newideology of proletarianrevolutionism based on Marxism.For that, we need, before the partyis founded, an ideological struggleon the basis of Marxism, a strugglethrough which we must develop oneprocess of thinking, uniformity ofthinking, oneness in approach andsingleness of purpose covering allaspects of individual’s life; and thatis what is ideological centralism.The party cannot be founded beforethat. Lenin had said ‘ socialisttheory is not completed andinviolable, it has merely laid downthe cornerstone of the science, it isto be developed in all directions ifwe are to keep pace with life.’Comrade Shibdas Ghosh realizedthe real significance of this historicpronouncement of Lenin. Herealized that in keeping with theever changing life Marxism mustflourish, expand and develop inphilosophy, in knowledge andscience, in revolutionary theory, inliterature and culture. So, at thestage of founding the party heestablished ideologically why in thiscountry Marxism is the onlyweapon for emancipation, bywaging an ideological struggleagainst all the idealist andbourgeois philosophies of this soillike the Vedas and Vedanta,Gandhism and such others. Lateron, he enriched and developedMarxism also on different questionsof international domain. At that

time, he further realized thesignificance of two other importantteachings of Lenin. And that is,internationalism does not meanblindly following the revolutionaryline of another country, nor blindsubmission. It must be criticallyjudged, the general line ofrevolution must be appliedconcretely to the concrete situationof any particular country. Lenin hadsaid that the communist partymust cultivate common constantactivity. Enriching this, ComradeShibdas Ghosh said that commonconstant activity within the partywill be further developed throughcommon constant association andcommon constant discussion.

At that time, Comrade ShibdasGhosh raised another importantquestion before the worldcommunist movement. He said thatin the age of development ofcapitalism, capitalist productionsystem was complementary to theprogress of the society. Foradvancement of society, it was thenneeded to establish capitalist privateownership destroying the feudalabsolute ownership. To that extent,those days private ownership andbased on that individual right, whichmeant individualism too, alsohelped in social progress. In ourcountry during the age of Swadeshi,that is the earlier days ofindependence movement, thismoral value played a relativelyprogressive role in society. ComradeShibdas Ghosh pointed out that nowit is the age of crisis of capitalism,the era of imperialism. In everysphere of life, capitalist privateownership has become totallyreactionary and stands againstprogress. In this era the only road tosocial progress lies in establishingsocial ownership in place of privateownership. As a result,individualism created by capitalismhas become utterly reactionary in itscharacter and is giving birth to self-centredness and selfishness. Ideaslike individual freedom andindividual right have, now-a-days,turned into weapons for wrestingprivileges for the individual insteadof acting as a weapon for struggle toperform social duties andresponsibilities. Today, individua-lism is a serious impediment torevolutionary transformation ofsociety, to proletarian revolution.So, he said that in this era to attain a

higher communist character, arevolutionary must free himselffrom individualist thinking in allspheres of life and must identifyhimself with the social interest.Only in this process there willdevelop such proletarianrevolutionary character, who cansubmit every thing of his individuallife, unhesitatingly, unconditionallyand happily to the interest ofproletarian class, party andrevolution. From amongst them willemerge the leaders of the higherranks of the party.

In course of these theoreticaldiscussions and ideological strugglewithin the prison, Comrade NiharMukherjee accepted ComradeShibdas Ghosh as his teacher andleader. This is again a gloriousinstance to learn from. In their earlylife Comrade Nihar Mukherjee wasa colleague, a co-worker; in courseof this struggle Comrade ShibdasGhosh became his leader andteacher. Comrade Nihar Mukherjeewas three years senior in age andalso in joining of politics. But heaccepted the leadership of ComradeShibdas Ghosh without any shred ofhesitation. On their release from theprison, there started a new arduousstruggle for founding the new party.Hardly a few people knew ComradeShibdas Ghosh, knew about him.They had no money, no manpowerto assist them, no propagandamachinery, no shelter to live in, nomeans of subsistence. Day after day,month after month, year after yearthey had to lead such a life. Nowthey could not have food for a fewdays; then they could manage atmost a square meal a day.Sometimes they had to spend nightsin public parks, platforms ofrailway stations, or on the roof ofthe Kolay Market building inCalcutta. They had to walk for milestogether for want of money.Everywhere and always, ComradeNihar Mukherjee remained by theside of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh. Herealized it clearly that ComradeShibdas Ghosh must be kept alive atany cost. So each day some of hisvery important tasks remained incollecting a few paise from hereand there, or a fistful of rice fromsomebody. Had not Comrade NiharMukherjee been there, ComradeShibdas Ghosh might have died ofstarvation. One by one, ComradeNihar Mukherjee brought his

relatives, friends and old colleaguesto Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, for himto elucidate Marxism to them. Insuch a situation, how difficult aproblem it was to carry on an all-outstruggle on revolutionary ideology,to build up a new party on thatbasis, may not be easy tocomprehend for many in the presenttime. It makes a startling history.What depth of compassion foroppressed people, what extent ofdedication to the cause ofrevolutionary ideology, how firmand solemn the pledge for fulfillingthe revolutionary mission, couldmake it possible for them toundertake this task! At that time,Comrade Shibdas Ghosh said : Inour childhood, we had learnt fromVidyasagar’s teachings ‘Don’t sayany more that you cannot … whatothers can do, surely you too can dothat’! What Comrade ShibdasGhosh added to it was : My pledgehad been, ‘What others think theycannot accomplish, I will do eventhat for the sake of revolution’.There were people, who even afteraccepting his indisputablearguments, commented that it wassuch a big country and there were somany big parties that he would notbe able to cut any ice. He did nothave any manpower, money-power,propaganda, recognition, nothing ofthe kind. He would only spoil hiscareer. Firmly Comrade Ghoshwould answer them: I don’t cravefor any career other than truth andideology. I will die fighting, willfight while dying. If there is anytruth in my struggle, one day historywill recognize its worth . To thosewith whom he would be havingdiscussions, he used to say: May beI will not be able to accomplishmuch during my lifetime; may belike me, you would also have tostarve. Now, decide, if you wouldtake up this way of living to pay forthe revolutionary ideology. This washow people joined this party oneafter another. Later, ComradeShibdas Ghosh said that we oftenwere starving, but did not take pridein that. Because, we did not practisecult of sacrifice. We thought thatrevolutionary life is honourable.There is no life more honourablethan it. What we left back was adegraded self-centred individualistlife. In lieu of that we achieved aglorious honourable life of a

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Comrade Nihar Mukherjee first revolutionarycompatriot of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh

PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 15, 2010 PAGE SEVEN

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proletarian revolutionary. Finding usin want or starvation, many peoplemight have thought that we weresuffering. But, he added, theimmense happiness of arevolutionary life that weexperienced from within thisapparently miserable life — otherscould not find the like of it evenby earning millions of rupees andliving in palaces. Comrade NiharMukherjee was the earliest comradein this historic struggle of ComradeShibdas Ghosh. This was theprocess in which the party wasfounded in 1948 and ComradeNihar Mukherjee along with a fewothers was elected member of theCentral Committee. ComradeMukherjee also became the WestBengal State Secretary.

In the homage of the CentralCommittee we have mentionedabout the important role ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee inspreading left and democraticmovement in this part of Bengalafter independence. In theircondolence messages, the CPI(M)and Forwatrd Bloc leaderships havementioned this in one form. Manypeople do not know that in thefifties of the last century whenunited left movement was started inWest Bengal, different partiesincluding RSP, Forward Bloc,RCPI, Bolshevik Party werevehemently opposed to the idea ofincluding CPI into this unitedmovement because of the role ofCPI in the independence movementor the subsequent ultra leftism ofRandive and such other reasons.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh pointedout to Comrade Nihar Mukherjeethat CPI was a powerful leftist partyand should be included in the unitedmovement. Dr. Suresh Banerjee wasthen the President of the DurvikshaProtirodh Committee (FamineResistance Committee). Once aCongress leader, he was then aleader of PSP. And Hemanta Basuof Forward Bloc was the Secretaryof the Committee. Different parties,including ours were in theCommittee. On the other hand, CPIand Democratic Vanguard belongedto the Khadya Abhijan (Movementfor food) Committee led by Dr.Dhiren Sen. Comrade ShibdasGhosh entrusted Comrade NiharMukherjee to convince Dr. SureshBanerjee about why it was required

to bring CPI into the unitedmovement. Comrade Mukherjeediscussed with Dr. Banerjee severaltimes and finally convinced him.Then Comrade Nihar Mukherjeeinformed Jyoti Basu, the then StateSecretary of CPI, of thisdevelopment ; the latter readilyagreed. This way it was possible toinclude CPI in the united movementthrough the efforts of ComradeNihar Mukherjee at the guidance ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh.Afterwards he took part as one ofthe front-ranking leaders in eachand every movement in this state.Inside the party, in regard toorganizational activities, ComradeNihar Mukherjee always tried to seethat Comrade Shibdas Ghosh didnot have to worry about wherefromthe Party fund would be collectedor how the activities will be run. Healways wanted Comrade ShibdasGhosh to remain absorbed withbuilding up revolutionary cadres,with discussions and cult ofphilosophy, different branches ofscience and knowledge and withthe plans and prospects of spreadingout organizations to differentplaces.

How dedicated Comrade NiharMukherejee was in his efforts tokeep Comrade Shibdas Ghosh aliveand his discussions andobservations drawn from hisinvaluable revolutionary politicalteachings continuing unceasingly,you may perhaps realize from twosignificant incidents. In the earlysixties there was a meeting beingheld at the Party office in Calcutta.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh wasmaking his deliberations; by his sidewere seated Comrade NiharMukherjee and a few other leaders.Facing them, we sat listening.Suddenly we saw Comrade NiharMukherjee uneasy; it appeared hishead was reeling. His eyes wereshut. In a moment, he fell on theground, unconscious. Thediscussion was stopped. When heregained consciousness, he was sadto find that the discussion hadstopped because of him. Weunderstood that he had been feelingsick, but was not inclined to letothers know it. He was strugglingwith himself silently to keep himselfsteady, so that the importantdiscussion of Comrade ShibdasGhosh was not disturbed. He couldnot succeed and fell down. Let me

mention another incident. ComradeAnil Sen is present here, he alsoknows about it. We were thenresiding at the Party centre at AkhilMistry Lane. At around 10 pm wecame to know that ComradeShibdas Ghosh had had an accident,while returning from the partyoffice by taxi. He had beenhospitalized. All of us rushed to thehospital. By that time Dr. NaniGuha, a renowned doctor, hadreached there. He had profoundrespect for Comrade Shibdas Ghoshand also loved Comrade NiharMukherjee very much. ComradeShibdas Ghosh was on the bed.There were stitches made at severalpoints in his head, below the ear. Dr.Guha was himself checking those.Suddenly he found that a stream ofblood was coming down fromthe knee of Niharbabu. It showedthat he too was severely injured inthe same accident. But he wassimply oblivious of that; he wasworried about Comrade ShibdasGhosh and was busy arranging forhis treatment. We were allastounded. Thereafter he had to betreated also. These instances of hisdeep respect for Comrade ShibdasGhosh and love for him from thebottom of his heart left a deepimprint on us. (He choked withemotion)

Comrade Shibdas Ghosh died atonly 53 years of age. What acondition we were thrown into! Allaround, everybody was crying.Only one person did not cry andthat was Comrade Nihar Mukherjee.He stood up erect with all our griefin his heart. We knew it well,that, in fact, the fire of grief wascharring him from within and onlya few days later he had a stroke. Insuch a situation, the partyentrusted him with theresponsibility of the GeneralSecretary, for next to ComradeShibdas Ghosh, it was ComradeNihar Mukherjee who was in ourheart. No discussion was required totake this decision. With his role, hischaracter, in everything, heemerged as the next GeneralSecretary in the thoughts andcontemplations of all leaders andcadres of the party.

After 1976, the party hasexpanded to many states of thecountry under the leadership ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee. Now,the banner of SUCI (Communist)

flutters in almost every state ofIndia. We have thousands ofwholetimers. Workers, peasants,students, youth, womenfolk, middleclass people, all are joining theparty in numbers. Our massorganizations have also increasedtheir strength. And all this couldhappen under the extremelycompetent leadership of ComradeNihar Mukherjee towards givingconcrete shape to Marxism-Leninism- Shibdas Ghosh Thought.

In 1974-’75, even with hisfailing health, Comrade ShibdasGhosh had been travelling aroundthe country from one state toanother. At that time, there was asurge of movement in the Hindi-speaking states. Rightist forces hadusurped its leadership. It wasrequired to establish leftistleadership on those movements; itwas required to develop powerfulmovement under the leadership ofleftists in West Bengal. But wecould not convince any partyincluding CPI(M). It was becausethey had a clandestineunderstanding with Indira Gandhi.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh had beenmoving around from state to state,giving calls for revolutionarymovement to be built up. Doctorsadvised him to take rest. Therewere his famous words in answer:I am a revolutionary; I can not rest;I exist, I breathe for revolution. In aconvention in 1975 at Suri inBirbhum district of West Bengal, hefervently appealed to the youth: Ifothers are not agreeable, we wouldhave to develop movementourselves and alone. JaiprakashNarayan was also present in theconvention. Within 4 or 5 days fromtaking this decision, theEmeregency was clamped over thecountry. Even under the Emergencyand with his further deterioratinghealth, Comrade Shibdas Ghoshheld meetings with the organizers ofdifferent states and differentdistricts of West Bengal. Repeatedlyhe said: There will be surges ofmovement again. Be prepared forthat. Before the year passed, hebreathed his last on August 5, 1976.Before his demise, in many massmeetings and workers’ meetings,Comrade Shibdas Ghoshpronounced with great anxiety andemotion that surges of massmovements are rising time and

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee a front-rankingleader of united left movement

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Countless souls orchestrated in the

patiently gathered outside, que anddisciplined reflecting the higherculture of the Party and had theireyes glued upon the TV screensshowing the proceedings inside.

Inside the stadium, it was agreat congregation of people, butordered and calms. The longcurving rows in the gallerystretching around the entire stadiumwere full of people, and the vastfloor was full to capacity. It was anepitome of grief calmly borne, ofresolve burning in silence, ofdiscipline weaving a uniform whole.Countless souls orchestrated in onerhythm, one tune. The tune ofrevolutionary purposiveness. Theleader is no longer in physicalpresence, his behest remains torouse them up. So they are aroused,solid as one man, dedicated to thecause of revolution.

With deepest attention thepeople present focused their mindon the towering dais, on the giantportrait of Comrade NiharMukherjee, an emblem of radiancein the spirit of revolution. The PolitBureau and Central CommitteeMembers and veteran formerCentral Committee member whostood on the dais offered floral

tributes and respect in Red Salute.The state leaders and all-Indialeaders of mass organizations paidfloral tribute. Floral tribute was paidby painters, artistes, writers,physicians, advocates, teachers, andprofessors. Floral tributes were paidby leaders of the RSP, CPI (M),Marxist Forward Bloc, PDS andBolshevik Party. Representatives ofa number of other parties could notattend the memorial meeting due toan inadvertent and regrettableshortcoming on the part of the Partyin the matter of issuing invitationletters.

The proceedings unfolded andadvanced under the stewardship ofthe President of the MemorialMeeting, Comrade KrishnaChakraborty, member of the Politbureau of the Party.

Calmly rose a strain of the songon Comrade Nihar Mukherjee.

You will remain forever brightin the history of toilers’emancipation,

You are great, sleepless sentinelof the thoughts and creations ofShibdas Ghosh.

Your dedication to organise thestruggle of the Indian toiling peoplewill never fade, worthy follower ofShibdas Ghosh. Red Salute to you,

life-long revolutionary. Red Saluteto you, Comrade Nihar Mukherjee.

We are in tears, losing you, wehave lost our voice to cry. You willremain in our conscience, give usinspiration forever.

We remember you, we pledgewe will overcome all that hinder usto fulfill the dream of ShibdasGhosh and hold high the flutteringred flag. We will march ahead onthe road of class battle, rearing inour heart your last call.

Following the song, the leaderspaid their respects in flowers.Paying tributes were ComradesProvash Ghosh, Manik Mukherjee,Krishna Chakraborty, Ranjit Dharand Asit Bhattacharyya, all CentralCommittee Polit Bureau members,Comrades Yakub Pailan,Debaprasad Sarkar, KalyanChowdhury, C. K. Lukose, K.Radhakrishna, Gopal Kundu,Soumen Bose, Satyawan, andSankar Saha, all members of theCentral Committee and ComradeAnil Sen, veteran leader andformer member of the CentralCommittee,

Now was the turn of theKOMSOMOL, the youngcommunist league, of the SUCI(C),to present guard of honour to

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee. Theywere 90 members clad in white with90 red flags flowing in their hands,signifying the life span of the greatrevolutionary leader. Marching onsteadily, dream and determination intheir eyes, the future legion, legionof emancipation presented guard ofhonour to the departed leader.

Thereupon the CentralCommittee presented its homage inmemory of Comrade NiharMukherjee. First, the homage wasread out in English, by ComradeKrishna Chakraborty, then ComradeSatyawan read it out in Hindi, andfinally Comrade Manik Mukherjeeread it out in Bengali. Then thewhole gathering stood up andobserved one minute’s silencepaying respect to the greatrevolutionary leader. Condolencemessages received from abroadwere read out by Comrade ManikMukherjee. These were fromBangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal,Russia, Philippines, Britain,Netherlands, Norway, USA andother countries. It was followed bythe penetrating and inspiringspeeches by Comrade ProvashGhosh, the main speaker and byComrade Krishna Chakraborty, the

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tune of revolutionary purposiveness

PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 15, 2010 PAGE NINE

Comrade Krishna Chakraborty in the Memorial Meeting

Shibdas Ghosh and the necessitydevolved on Comrade NiharMukherjee to lead the revolutionarystruggle and the party. In the midstof that deepest moment ofbereavement, he led the party tostand steadfast. It was in my schoollife when I joined the party in 1951-52. At that time, only theCommunist-Congress or theCongress-Communist, the twonames, were doing the rounds in thecountry. There was no other partywell-known here then. SUCI tookbirth at that time in 1948. In such avast country, it was unfathomablethen, that this party could grow tosuch dimension as now, that it coulddraw attention of the whole country.

I wish to place a few words thatcome to my mind in this memorialmeeting.

A few years back ComradeNihar Mukherjee himself told me ina Central Committee meeting,‘Have you ever heard of anyGeneral Secretary of a revolutionaryparty, who cannot even go to theparty office for years together ?’ Hesaid this with deep pain. He wasvery eager to go, but could not, ongrounds of failing health. In reply,what came to my mind, I told him. Isaid, ‘I do not know of any GeneralSecretary who while sitting in aroom has been leading a party,organizing it in such a big countryas India’. Yes, Comrades, he tried tounite the communists the worldover, conveyed the revolutionarythoughts of Comrade ShibdasGhosh to them, elaborated ComradeGhosh’s thoughts in this countrytoo. He did it exclusively sitting inthe room.

When Comrade Shibdas Ghoshwas still alive, Comrade NiharMukherjee emerged as a leader nextto him. We knew it. But what wasnot known to us was that hepossessed such tremendous power inhim. We could know this after thedemise of such a great thinker,organiser and leader like Comrade

But Comrade Shibdas Ghosh knewit, Comrade Nihar Mukherjee knewit. They realised that the exploitedpeople once introduced with therevolutionary ideology cannot but beattracted to it.

You have aleady heard thatComrade Nihar Mukherjee joinedthe freedom movement of thecountry well before ComradeShibdas Ghosh. He was senior inage also. To recognize a teenager asa leader by another teenager is notso easy, ego must stand in the way.Over and above, Comrade ShibdasGhosh joined the revolutionarymovement one year after ComradeNihar Mukherjee did. Nevertheless,Comade Nihar Mukherjee was soattracted to Comrade ShibdasGhosh’s overwhelming power, tohis higher taste and culture thatComrade Mukherjee graduallyaccepted Comrade Shibdas Ghoshas his leader and began journey withhim in the revolutionary struggle. Itis not so simple as meets the eye.Until the sense of individual ego istotally shunned, this standard ofcharacter can never be attained.One can see the nobility of theother, only when one possesses thatquality. It was Comrade NiharMukherjee who first recognised thegreatness of Comrade Shibdas

Ghosh. Comrade Sachin Banerjee,Comrade Subodh Banerjee camelater, who also were attracted to thisgreatness in Comrade ShibdasGhosh. This is the quality that is ofimmense necessity still today, thequality which springs from the mindfree from ego. Such charactercannot grow from individualisticego. One who can give upeverything of one’s life to the causeof the society smilingly, he or shecan be a great leader. ComradeNihar Mukherjee was such a leader.His name will be inscribed inhistory after Comrade ShibdasGhosh.

Today, we can realize what avacuum has been created ! Why arewe feeling the want of ComradeNihar Mukherjee? It is because thestruggle through which ComradeMukherjee acquired this higherstandard of character is absent today.What we have to learn fromComrade Nihar Mukherje is that towin over the heart of the commonpeople we have to be free fromindividualism. Like ComradeShibdas Ghosh, whoever went toComrade Nihar Mukherjee returnedwith inspiration and encouragement.In the days of his grave illness alsoeveryone coming to meet him from

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PAGE TEN MARCH 15, 2010 PROLETARIAN ERA

outside left with enthusiasm. Inspite of his most critical illnesseveryone was amazed to haveobserved his vigour of character.This grit of character stems from therevolutionary thought, revolutionaryculture and love for the people.Love for the exploited millionsbreeds this inspiration. To his lastbreath, he struggled against theillness. He wanted to survive for therevolution, for the party. Only forrevolution and party he kept fightingthe diseases. The physicians whoattended him for treatment,witnessed how he fought to his last,even when consciousness began towane. He was identified with therevolution, with the party. He hadno other existence other than partyand revolution. It is in this backdropthat his character of such grit tookbirth. We have to learn this fromhim. This is lacking greatlynowadays. Individualism is the mainenemy to the advancement andprogress of the society. ComradeShibdas Ghosh had shown thatduring the period of Marx, Lenin,Mao Zedong individualism did notassume such extreme degeneratedform. Individualism today ispolluting the honest minds. Evenafter enormous sacrifice thereremains some such factors in thecharacter centering round theindividuality that deters one fromassociating with the progressivemovement. This individualismcreates obstacles in the way ofrevolution. Even after capture ofstate power, individualism posesvarious problems, brings in crisis –as occurred in Soviet Union, inChina. Individualism breedsrevisionism. Comrade ShibdasGhosh repeatedly emphasized, if wecould not weed out individualism,revolutionary struggle would notadvance, society would notprogress, revolution could not beorganized. The main problembefore the party today is to acquirehigher ethics, culture and a mindfree from the influence ofindividualism. Comrade ShibdasGhosh showed that withoutachieving higher culture, attainmentof higher understanding also will notbe possible. What does the higherculture mean? It implies getting ridof the influence individualism.

The objective truth does notdepend on willingness or

unwillingness of any individual, itdoes not even depend on theexistence of man too, as thismicrophone operates. I am nowusing it, you can use it, anyone cando so. Even if I cease to exist, if Iam not here, it will work. This iscalled ‘objective law’. To know thisobjective law, we have to freeourselves from individualisticthinking. If the eminent scientistswho discover various laws of nature,cannot free themselves from theindividualistic thinking, if they donot pursue scientific methods in thelaboratory, they will not succeed intheir mission.

First, we have to get rid ofindividualistic thinking. Secondly,we have to acquire dialecticalmethod of thinking. If we do notaccept the dialectical process ofthinking, we cannot find out thetruth. In the absence of “truth”,revolutionary struggle cannot becarried forward either. We need truthand to acquire this truth we have tostruggle. Reading volumes ofMarxism-Leninism we can knowmany things. But merely readingthe books will not do, we have toapply the teachings of those booksin our life. If covering every aspectof life we can follow dialecticalprocess of thinking and behaveaccordingly, what we call dialecticalrelation, then and then only thiswill get reflected in our thoughtsone day. From thinking to practice,then again from practice tothinking – these two are inalienablylinked up. Comrade NiharMukherjee, following the teachingsof Comrade Shibdas Ghosh,assimilated these two in his self. Hewould follow dialectical method inhis thinking and practice. It is forthis reason, Comrade NiharMukherjee could lead the partyactivities sitting in a room. After1997-98, he could not go to anystate, even couldn’t be present in theparty headquarters. It is natural forhim only, who is free fromindividualism. In all his conductsand activities, Comrade NiharMukherjee followed the method ofcollective thinking.

Comrades, I’ll say only thismuch that revolution is not fartoday. I have had the opportunity tovisit different states. I have seen,wherever SUCI reached, whereverwe could in any form reach thethoughts of Comrade Shibdas

Ghosh, however ordinarily theordinary comrades could take themto the people, they created immenseattraction among the people. Today,people are being steadilydisillusioned about the left partieslike CPI and CPI(M) throughout thecountry. They hate these parties. Inall the bourgeoisie parties – may itbe the Congress, BJP, TDP or DMKor Lalu Yadav or Mayavati, orMulayam’s party – people have theleast trust. But wherever in thecountry SUCI is working, peoplerepose faith in it. They haveintensify revitalization andconsolidation struggle to pay worthytribute to Comrade Nihar Mukherjeeexpectation about this party. Theybelieve, it is this party which can dosomething. They understand ourparty deeply. However, if by thisonly one concludes that theyunderstand the political line of ourparty, it is mistaken. But the culturewhich is being reflected throughthis party has itself created aconfidence among the massesabout it. This culture and sense ofvalues are badly lacking in thesociety. There is tremendousyearning for this. This is why theyare being drawn to the party.Assimilating the aesthetic essence ofthis soil Comrade Shibdas Ghoshgave birth to this culture based onMarxism, which Comrade NiharMukherjee disseminated across thecountry.

You note that the country isbreaking apart – not geographically,people’s unity is breaking downthrough caste and communalconflicts. Parochial conflict iscreating division among them. Thestates are being torn assunder byseparatist movement one afteranother, they are gettingfragmented. Given the situation,

those who attended the open sessionof the party’s Second Congress inDelhi witnessed that a new India, aunited India is taking birth given thecomposite character of thegathering. With whose thoughts isit taking shape? The architect isobviously Comrade Shibdas GhoshThought, which Comrade NiharMukherjee spread throughout thelength and breadth of the country.On the edifice of new ethics andvalues, a new united India of theexploited people has begun to takeshape. The whole country is takingstride towards that end, I discern.Won’t you respond to it? If you canrise up to the occasion in response,then revolution is not far away. Thestruggle to free ourself ofindividualism and identify the selfwith the life of the party, whichComrade Shibdas Ghosh initiatedand Comrade Nihar Mukherjeecarried forward, — we have toapply it in our life too. If we can doit, if hundreds of thousands ofcomrades can do it in unison, Ireiterate, revolution is not far off.The vacuum too created owing tothe absence of Comrade NiharMukherjee today, will be filled insoon. Presumably, ComradeMukherjee realized that his dayswere numbered. So, he gave thecall to begin the struggle forrevitalization and consolidation. Wehave fulfilled that struggle partly,yet left a lot unfulfilled. Wehave to accomplish it. If we cantake ahead this struggle of revita-lization-consolidation sincerely,only then can we pay worthy tributeand honour to Comrade NiharMukherje, This is what we shallhave to do. With this I end mywords after offering Red Salute tothe great revolutionary leaderComrade Nihar Mukherjee.

Intensify revitalization and consolidation struggle topay worthy tribute to Comrade Nihar Mukherjee

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About 20000 Anganwadi workers marched with a 7-point charter of demandunder the Joint Platform for Action to the Parliament in Delhi on 25 February;JPA President Comrade Achintya Sinha and leaders of JPA addressed the rally

PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 15, 2010 PAGE ELEVEN

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee architect of concretizingComrade Shibdas Ghosh Thought all over India

again; they are bursting forth inwave after wave; people are layingdown their lives; blood is beingshed all around; but the movementsare repeatedly failing for want ofthe correct revolutionary leadership;having been led astray people arebogged down into election-orientedpolitics. So, the party must bestrengthened not just ideologically,but organizationally too; it mustearn fast the capability to emerge inleadership.

Since 1977, our party hasorganized and is continuing toorganize, a number of massmovements in different states ofIndia. The responsibility ComradeShibdas Ghosh bestowed upon,Comrade Nihar Mukherjee hasdischarged that in his absence. Ifothers do not come along in themovement, we will carry out thetask alone : Such was the call ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh. ComradeNihar Mukherjee has translatedthat task too into reality. Today, notonly in West Bengal, in many statesof India people find how thecadres of SUCI (Communist) arefighting for various demands ofpeople at the cost of their blood,even life.

Our party cadres know thatComrade Shibdas Ghosh did notallow to adopt any Constitutionformally in the first Convention in1948. It was because, he did notthink it right to imposeconstitutional rules and disciplinesright at the beginning. He wishedthat rules and disciplines wouldnaturally grow as habits of cadresthrough conventional practice.Thereafter at any suitable stage,the Constitution might be adopted ina party congress and theconstitutional frame of the party beformalized. He was movingahead towards holding a partycongress, but his sudden demisecut his efforts short. ComradeNihar Mukherjee successfullyaccomplished that task in 1988by holding the first PartyCongress.

Comrade Shibdas Ghosh hadanother dream. It was, setting up ofa study centre of Marxism-Leninism at Ghatshila. ComradeNihar Mukherjee gave shape to thattoo. Our party has set up a StudyCentre of Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thoughts at

Ghatshila. For the party cadres andparticularly for those of futuregenerations, he has erected a statueof Comrade Shibdas Ghosh at theGhatshila Centre, which will act asa source of inspiration of therevolutionaries. The statue was builtby the late Comrade Tapas Dutta,member of the former CentralCommittee of our party and a wellknown sculptor. Under the guidanceand editorship of Comrade NiharMukherjee, a few volumes of‘Selected Works’ of valuablespeeches and discussions ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh have beenpublished, a few more are inpreparation. Repeatedly and in eachand every mass movement,Comrade Shibdas Ghosh laidemphasis on setting up of ‘people’scommittees’ as instruments ofstruggle. Elaborating this, ComradeGhosh pointed out that the people’scommittees must be set up asinstruments of struggle in such away that these can act asinstruments of struggle forrevolutionary movements in days tocome, so much so that acting onthe strength of Marxistrevolutionary ideology,consciousness and culture, thesemay give birth to people’spolitical power as an alternative tothe capitalist state power. On thebasis of this teaching, he guided usin every mass movement.

You know in what a complexsituation Comrade NiharMukherjee took initiative to developthe instruments of struggle againstimperialism. Socialism in the SovietUnion had been over thrown andsocialism in China, too, wasendangered. A few countriesincluding Afghanistan had beenattacked, Iraq too was facinginvasion. The USA was behind allthese attacks. Due to the downfall ofthe world socialist system, therewas no effective resistance againstimperialist aggression. ComradeNihar Mukherjee realized that asinternationalists, we had a greathistorical responsibility. He hadseen that even when in 1948Comrade Shibdas Ghosh wasforming the party practicallywithout a roof over his head, he had,as a great internationalist, held aloftvaluable Marxist analysis before theworld communist movement. Thatanalysis showed rare insight.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh had said

that it was true that the strength ofthe international communistmovement was increasing under theleadership of Great Stalin, but dueto lack of requisite advancement ofideological standard, instead of themutual relationship that should havedeveloped within the movement onthe basis of dialectical materialism,a largely mechanical relationshipprevailed which would createdanger in the coming days. Later on,when revisionist Khruschevattacked Stalin at the 20th Congressof the CPSU, Comrade Ghosh wasthe first communist leader in theworld who pointed out that theattack was not only against Stalinbut it was against Lenin, againstLeninism. This was because we hadlearnt Leninism from Stalin and thedanger of revisionism andcounterrevolution would arisethrough attacking Great Stalin.During the cultural revolution ofChina, too, Comrade Shibdas Ghoshvigourously stood by the side ofComrade Mao Zedong and placed avaluable analysis for enriching thecultural revolution even whilecriticizing some of its shortcomings.Comrade Nihar Mukherjee knew allthese. So he understood that theSUCI would have to take up thisresponsibility at that difficult timeof the world communist movement.He sent representatives of our partyabroad to contact anti-imperialistand communist forces in differentcountries of the world, to makethem alert, conscious and unified.Through this process, an anti-imperialist platform has nowappeared on the international scene.Another point is, he felt the urgentnecessity of developinginternational communist unity.When the Second Internationaldegenerated, Lenin formed theThird International. It was under theleadership of the Third Internationalthat the Russian and Chineserevolutions were accomplished anda powerful communist movementdeveloped in the world. At present,the world communist movement isagain crisis-ridden. Despair,despondency and rifts arewidespread. It is at such a time thatComrade Nihar Mukherjee took theinitiative again to establish contactswith and unity of the communistorganisations internationally. Youhave listened to, so manycondolence messages sent by

different communist parties of theworld that have been read out here.You can well understand whatintimate relationship has beenestablished between them and usand that exchange of thought ondifferent issues with them is on.Building up this anti-imperialistorganisation and movement in theinternational sphere, developingexchange of thoughts andconsolidation between thecommunist parties of differentcountries and conveying ShibdasGhosh’s revolutionary thoughts, themost advanced expression ofMarxism-Leninism in the presentera, from country to country – thesewill remain memorable as thehistoric contributions of ComradeNihar Mukherjee.

A teaching of Comrade ShibdasGhosh was : In order to become aproletarian revolutionary, one has tolearn at first from the lives andcharacters of the great personalitiesof the bygone era. This stillcontinues in our party as a livingmovement. What Comrade ShibdasGhosh used to say, and what hepractised in his own life, is that inorder to become a proletarianrevolutionary, one must at firstassimilate in one’s own characterthe essence of the boldest,uncompromising tune of humanistsense of values of the era offreedom struggle in our country.That is why he taught us too: Takelessons from the characters of thegreat personalities of therenaissance era, of the greatrevolutionaries of theuncompromising trend as onlythrough crossing that stage can oneattain a proletarian revolutionarycharacter. Attaining a proletarianrevolutionary character meant,Comrade Ghosh spelt out, toidentify oneself with the interest ofrevolution, proletarian party and thesociety (/class) by freeing oneselffrom individualism. There would nolonger be any contradiction betweenindividual interest and the interestof the revolution. Without attainingthis standard of character andculture, correct realisation ofMarxism would not come about.It is Comrade Nihar Mukherjeewho has kept uninterrupted thisstruggle inside the party. It isunder his leadership that the partyhas commemorated the death

Contd. from page 7

Contd. on page 12

PAGE TWELVE MARCH 15, 2010 PROLETARIAN ERA

centenary of Vidyasagar, the125th birth anniversary ofSaratchandra and the birthcentenaries of Khsudiram-NetajiSubhas-Nazrul Islam.

We know that in Russia andChina, socialism was powerful inthe economy, the socialist state waspolitically powerful and strong andthere had been advancement indifferent spheres – but crisis camedespite these. Comrade ShibdasGhosh showed that the main tune ofbourgeois humanism that the socialinterest was primary and theindividual interest secondary,worked in inspiring individuals inthe Russian and Chineserevolutions. But bourgeoisindividualism was inherent in thissense of values and culture and itwas this that created a new crisis as“socialist individualism” even aftersocialist reconstruction andattainment of stability in the stateand economic systems and broughtabout the danger of revisionism andcapitalist counter revolution. Andtoday, the SUCI(Communist) existsin a capitalist country like Indiawhere capitalism has attained thestage of imperialism. and hasbecome utterly reactionary. Herepolitics is capitalist, culture iscapitalist. It is in such anenvironment that our party exists.The families of the society fromwhich our party workers come, arealso under the influence ofreactionary capitalist thinking. Inthis condition, Comrade ShibdasGhosh conducted an all-out struggleto ensure that the influence ofbourgeois ideology, thinking andculture are eradicated from insidethe party and that no weakness,compromise prevail in personal life,family life and the sphere of love-affection-attachment. Later on,Comrade Nihar Mukherjee, too,kept this struggle uninterrupted andorganised the Second PartyCongress as its culmination. Hisdream was to be present at theSecond Congress. He tried utmostso that he could get up a bit and goto attend. We too hoped for that butit is very painful that he could not.You know, he had been sick for along time. He had to undergo bypasssurgery for heart. Stenting had to beresorted to thrice to remove heartblockage. He was attacked by

pneumonia again and again. Thetruth was, he could not walk, norcould move his hands and feetproperly. He could not eat on hisown, but had to be fed. But theyouth of his knowledge, of histhinking not only remainedunimpaired but kept developingfurther. This is a great struggle. It isin this way that he directed andguided the party. But this time, juston the eve of the Second Congress,he was again stricken withpneumonia. Even while in thehospital, he struggled so that hecould attend the Congress evenduring its closing stages. But hecould not succeed. He sent usinstruction to conduct the Congress,and we conducted it accordingly.From the hospital, he enquiredabout the day’s proceedings everynight. On 15 November, the date onwhich the delegate session of theCongress ended, a telephone callfrom the hospital reached us inDelhi at 11-17 p.m. in the night:Comrade Nihar mukherjee wantedto say something. After enquiringabout everything over telephone, heconcluded by saying “You goahead! Red Salute to you!” Weunderstood he realized that hisdeath was imminent. This RedSalute he offered to the whole party.But even after that, we regainedhope. He came out from thehospital. But he again fell sick andhad to be hospitalized again. A fewdays later, he returned. But oncemore he fell sick and wasreadmitted to the hospital.Ultimately, he breathed his last atthe hospital itself. This struggle, thishard struggle against disease evenwhile lying on his death bedbecause it was necessary for theparty – this will remain as a rareexample before us. Even thedistinguished doctors of Calcuttawere amazed and wereoverwhelmed with reverence. Oneof them told me that looking atComrade Nihar Mukherjee’s face,he found no expression of pain eventhough he was afflicted with such apainful ailment. The pain of thisailment was so much that ordinarypatients would wail and cry out inpain, bang their heads against thewall. But he silently bore theunbearable pain and conducted anextraordinary struggle to live. Hadhe succeeded in keeping himself

alive, he would have to lead acrippled, worn-out and very painfulexistence. But he wanted to live onfor our sake so that he could stayamong us for some more time toguide us on the basis of ComradeShibdas Ghosh’s teachings. Even inthe midst of all pain and suffering inthe hospital, his face and eyesremained calm, steady andcomposed – such remarkable washis power of endurance. The doctorsand nurses said again and again :We have not seen such capacity ofendurance, such unquestionedallegiance to medical science anddoctors in anyone earlier.Wherefrom did Comrade NiharMukherjee acquire such strength?He was a great revolutionazrymoulded by Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought. He knewthat Marxism was a scientificphilosophy. That is why, he hadunshaken trust in the medicalscience. Again, he had seenComrade Shibdas Ghosh too, seenhow he had fought death in 1972. Atthat time, there was no hope thatComrade Ghosh would survive.Comrade Nihar Mukherjee used tostay by his side almost whole dayand night, in the hospital. That time,Comrade Ghosh somehow came outalive. Even while in the sick bed,almost face to face with death,Comrade Ghosh’s eyes and faceshowed no expression of pain orsuffering. The day in 1976 on whichComrade Shibdas Ghosh breathedhis last at the Commune, he had afew successive heart attacks. Hewas lying down silently withoutany expression of pain in his eyes orface. Just before his death, Dr NaniGuha, sitting beside him, cried.Comrade Ghosh breathed his lastafter stroking Dr Guha’s chest withhis hand to console him. ComradeNihar Mukherjee was standing bythe side. This time, we foundComrade Nihar Mukherjeestruggling in the same way. Heconducted an arduous revolutionarystruggle in regard to his medicaltreatment in the same way he did itlifelong in the affairs of the party.This will remain as an examplebefore us. On 5th February last, atube had to be inserted in his throat.He would not be able to speakanymore after that. That is why, atthe last moment before that, heenquired about us to tell us

something. But the doctors saidthere was no time for that as itwould take us a considerable time tocome. He wanted to tell ussomething for the last time, but hecould not say it ( his voice chokedwith tears).

But of course we know what hewanted to tell us. The repeatedclarion calls of the great Marxistthinker Comrade Shibdas Ghoshthat was before us — ComradeNihar Mukherjee too reminded uslifelong about these again and againso that we constantly cultivateMarxism-Leninism-Shibdas GhoshThought, so that we continuouslyelevate the standard of ourconsciousness, so that we cancontinue to further sharpen thestruggle to attain higher proletarianculture and ethics by combatingbourgeois ideologies of all sorts, sothat we keep living collectivethinking, collective leadership andbody functioning at all levels insidethe party on the basis of democraticcentralism, so that we continue tohold aloft the banner of ProletarianInternationalism, so that wecontinue the struggle againstimperialism, world capitalism, sothat we further strengthen theinitiative to build up communistunity in the international sphere, sothat we further intensify the classstruggles and mass struggles insidethe country on the basis ofMarxism-Leninism-Shibdas GhoshThought, so that we build up in thisprocess the people’s committees,volunteer forces and theinstruments of revolution in thecoming days. He repeatedly stressedthese points. And what he used totell us again and again is: Youshould all work together closely.When we met him after the SecondParty Congress, he said: All of you,the five Polit Bureau membersshould stand like one man, allmembers of the CentralCommittee should stand like oneman; you should see to it that thestate committees stand like oneman, that the whole party standslike one man. Let us all take thepledge that, till the last day ofour lives, we shall give duehonour to this clarion call ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee, the ableand best continuator of ComradeShibdas Ghosh Thought. Thatwould be our true homage to him.

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee led SUCI(C) inorganizing worldwide anti-imperialist struggle

Contd. from page 11

PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 15, 2010 PAGE THIRTEEN

Historic AIMSS Protest March to Parliamenton the Centenary of Women’s Day

True to its legacy of struggle forwomen’s cause the AIMSS observedthe centenary of InternationalWomen’s Day this 8 March with ahistoric Protest March from RamlilaMaidan to Parliament. Thousands ofwomen from all walks of life,including doctors, educationists,artists, housewives along with themost oppressed sections of workingwomen and peasants from differentstates of India, spanning North,South, East, and West, marchedunder the banner of AIMSS. The100 red flags at the front held aloftby women activists symbolizing thecentenary year of InternationalWomen’s Day. Passers-by on theroad looked on in amazement andexpressed their appreciation at thelong, colourful and spirited marchof women who carried placards andraised slogans in so many differentlanguages, and radiated suchdisciplined and dignity. The Marchended at Parliament Street wherepolice stopped them. It wasfollowed by a protest meeting whichwas presided over by Dr. H. G.Jayalakshmi, General Secretary ofAIMSS. The meeting was addressedby Comrade Chhaya Mukherjee, AllIndia President of AIMSS, All Indialeaders of the organization and otherstate representatives. Dr. TarunMandal, Member of Parliament,Socialist Unity Centre of India(Communist) also spoke on theoccasion. Former Chief Justice ofDelhi High Court, Justice RajendraSachar was the chief guest. Hestressed that whatever women haveachieved till now is the result ofmovements. He reminded that sixyears back the AIMSS hadorganized a Protest March toParliament against the order of theSupreme Court which allowed thearrest of women after sunset andwithout the presence of womenconstable. Highlighting the fact thatthis movement was successful,Justice Sachar said that this

should be the way of struggle andthat is the message of Women’sDay.

A memorandum against pricerise, atrocities on women, obscenity,liquor menace and demandingeducation, job and security forwomen, among others, wassubmitted to the Prime Minister ofIndia. Comrade Chhaya Mukherjeein her address said that reservationcannot solve any problem ofwomen’s life. Atrocities and crimeon women are increasing; and so areobscenity and liquor menace;women are deprived of education,job opportunities and health care.The government is not taking anyeffective measures to eliminatethese problems, rather they haveintroduced a Bill on reservation forwomen with a view to misleadwomen and to create a false hopethat this will empower them andwill solve the problems of their life.It is our firm belief that reservationand demand for equality cannot gohand in hand. Democracy upholdsthe idea of equality of man andwoman. This idea of reservation forwomen goes against the very spiritof democracy. It goes against thehonour and dignity of women. Sono dignified woman can demand

reservation for women. Afterwards,leaders, including State Secretaries,State Presidents, State Convenors ofAIMSS from 14 different statesaddressed the women rallyists intheir own language, each dealingwith a different problem faced bywomen, including among others,crime on women, obscenity,problems of working women,problems of caste communal andregional divide. Thus, AIMSS StateSecretaries Comrades Hashi Hore ofWest Bengal spoke on the problemof price rise, Swayamprabha Naikof Orissa on Crimes on women,Keya De of Jharkhand on Obsceneportrayal of women in media,Aparna of Karnataka on Problemsof Working women including that ofASHA workers, Shyla K John ofKerala on Liquor menace, AIMSSState President ComradeChandralekha Das of Assam onEducation and employment forwomen, Comrade G. Lalita,President of Organizing Committeeof Andhra Pradesh, on Sexeducation, AIMSS State ConvenorsComrades Sadhana Mishra of Biharon Sex tourism, Jayanti of TamilNadu on Female foeticide,Meenakshi Joshi of Gujarat onCaste, communal, regional divides,

gathering. Comrade Shubha Dikshit,Organizer of Delhi presented asong. Dr. H. G. Jayalakshmi,presided over the meeting.

Later that same day Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer, called upon thewomen who gathered at RamlilaMaidan for a cultural event —organized by AIMSS onInternational Women’s Day — tounite and fight for their legitimatedemands. This is the one and onlyway for women’s emancipation, hestressed. “I am 95 and I would liketo see Indian women enjoyingfreedom and social security duringmy life time.”

The programme was presidedover by Dr. Sudha Kammath, AllIndia Vice-president, AIMSS.Comrades Manik Mukherjee andComrade Krishna ChakraborthyPolitbureau members of SUCI(Communist), Comrade ChhayaMukherjee, and Dr. H.G.Jayalakshmi, were also present.Comrade Manik Mukherjeeaddressed the gathering. In hisspeech Comrade Mukherjeecongratulated the organizers ofAIMSS for organizing a massivedemonstration before Parliament onthe occasion of the Centenary ofInternational Womens’ Day. Hecalled upon the women of thecountry to continue their strugglefor their dignity and rightful placein the society.

Various cultural programmes inthe form of progressive songs,dramas, dance-dramas, plays,dances etc. were performed inall of which the pathetic conditionof women in our society andthe struggle against it werepresented.

Nandini Bhonde ofMaharashtra on Childlabour, StateOrganizer ComradeJolly Sarkar, ofMadhya Pradesh onsexual crimes onwomen by politicians.Comrade RituKaushik, StateConvener of Delhiwelcomed theJustice V. R. K. Iyer (left) and Justice R. Sachar addressing

AIMSS Protest March in Delhi on 8 March

PAGE FOURTEEN MARCH 15, 2010 PROLETARIAN ERA

In memory ofComrade Nihar

Mukherjee[The following is a news item from the

News Russian journal of Russia]Obituary, All Union Communist Party

(Bolshevik) RussiaComrade Nihar Mukherjee, General

Secretary of the SUCI (Communist) breathedhis last on 18 February, 2010. After thedemise of the Founder General SecretaryComrade Shibdas Ghosh in 1976, he tookupon himself the unfinished great task left byComrade Shibdas Ghosh. On the occasion ofthe 50th death anniversary of Comrade Stalinin March 2003, he published ‘ Re4memberingStalin’. The booklet concluded with theslogans” Red Salute to the Great Leader ofInternational Communist Movement! LongLive Proletarian Internationalism! Long LiveRevolution!”

Comrade Nihar Mukherjee was a genuine

Comrade Soumen Basu electedWest Bengal State SecretaryIn the meeting of the West Bengal State

Committee of the SUCI (Communist) heldon 4 March, 2010, Comrade Soumen Basu,Member, Central Committee and WestBengal State Secretariat, was elected theSecretary of the West Bengal StateCommittee of the Party.

will continue to inspire and mobilize in thestruggle ahead. Being a devoted revolutionaryfor more than 70 years, and General Secretary ofSUCI since 1976, Comrade Nihar Mukherjee hasplayed a decisive role in developing arevolutionary line for the united left democraticmovements, in special in West Bengal but also inall India and wider. This will not vanish, even ifhis body no longer is among us.

We are mourning the death of Comrade NiharMukherjee, but the struggle he represented willgo on!

Solidarity regardsParty Red Norway

Arnljot AskResponsible International RelationsPrakashbhai Shah

(Editor, Nireekshak, Ahmedabad andCovenor, Movement for Secular Democracy,Ahmedabad, Gujarat )

India has lost a great son in the demise ofComrade Nihar Mukherjee. His stewardship ofSUCI will be remembered by many persons likeme as a pillar of strength to people’s movement.Salute to his memories.

In addition to the condolence messagespublished in the last issue of the Proletarian Era

, messages were also received from :Dr.(Capt.) D Nayak, Medical Service Centre,

Orissa; Prof. Dr. Birandra Nayak, President, SaveEducation Committee, Orissa; Brajanath Rath,Poet and Former member of All India SahityaAcademy and All Orissa Sahitya AcademyAward winner ; Prof. Neelamani Sahu, Orissa;Prof. Brajamohan Mishra, Orissa; KRChowdhury, Intellectual of the Working Class,Andhra Pradesh; BS Rao, President, ProgressiveOrganization of People, Andhra Pradesh.

Marxist- Leninist (Bolshevik). He provided firmleadership in developing the Party. He imbued theurban and rural proletariat of India in activelyparticipating in anti-imperialist movement andmovements for establishing human rights andbringing back peace in lives of the workingpeople of India. He considered that the 20thCongress of the CPSU was the beginning oftreachery to socialism, abject surrender toimperialism, the enemy of socialism. It was incontinuation of this trend that, in the Gorbachevregime, demolition of the world socialistmovement took place.

At the demise of Comrade Nihar Mukherjee,the General Secretary of the Central Committee,All Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) sentcondolence message to the SUCI (Communist)also expressing solidarity with the Party’sstruggle for socialism.

Party Red NorwayDear Comrades,

Please accept the deepest Condolences toyour Party and the family of Comrade NiharMukherjee on the passing away of the belovedGeneral Secretary February 18th.

As having the honour of being a guest at the2nd Congress of your Party recently, I was awareof the illness of Comrade Nihar Mukherjee. Itwas a very sad message to receive that he couldnot recover his strength.

However, his contributions to therevolutionary movements in India and worldwide

Protest Day observed in Assam on 4 February

Massive gathering at the Memorial Meeting on 3 March at Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata

state. On this occasion, a protest demonstrationdecorated with placards, gestoons and bannersmarched from Judges Field at Guwahati to theoffice of the Deputy Magistrate, led by ComradesBimal Nangi, Suratjaman Mondal, both membersof the state Secretariat of Assam, DistrictSecretary Cpoomrade Ajit Acharyya and otherdistrict leaders. A memorandum addressed to theChief Minioster was handed over to the DeputyMagistrate. Besides, Protest Day was observedholding similar programmes in Dhubri, Goalpara,Lakhimpur, Darang, Cachhar, Karimganj,Hailakandi, Shonitpur and other districts of thestate.

In demand of curbing sky-rocketting price riseof foord grains and essential commodities,introduction of all-out state trading of these items,meting out stringent measures and punishment tothe black marketers, profiteers, hoarders andunsrcrupulous business houses, protest day wasobserved at the cal, of of the Assam StateCommittee of the SUCI (C ). Responding to thiscall common people including workers,employees, youths, and students, peasants,women enthusiastically joined street cornermeetings, dharnas aof thinking and protestdemonstrations organized by the ditstrictcommittees of the party in different parts of the

President of the meeting. The Memorial Meetingended with the song on Comrade Shibdas Ghosh,and the Internationale. The speeches enthusedthe huge gathering, providing a purposiverevolutionary direction to the grief and emotionof those assembled.

The myriads of people attending the solemnmeeting stepped out of the stadium precincts,with the refrains and strains of the songs stillringing their ears, with firm steps, their profoundgrief crystallized into revolutionarypurposiveness and determination to fulfill thetask that lie ahead.

Contd. from page 8

Memorial Meeting

PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 15, 2010 PAGE FIFTEEN

and he passed away that evening, rending the doctors’ attemptsfutile. Upon receiving the news of his demise, Comrade Manab Bera,member of the West Bengal State Secretariat arrived at the nursinghome alongwith Mecheda party workers. Comrade Pal’s familymembers, his son and son-in-law also went to the nursing home.Comrade Manab Bera paid homage by garlanding the body of thedeceased after having dwelt upon certain aspects of the longstruggling life of Comrade Sudhir Pal. Comrade Pal was crematedon 21 morning on the bank of Rupnarayan river.

Ever since his student life in Dhaka, in current Bangladesh,Comrade Sudhir Pal was quite intimate with and loyal to ourdeparted leader Comrade Nihar Mukherjee. Through him, he cameinto contact with Comrade Shibdas Ghosh and embraced Marxism-Leninism- Shibdas Ghosh Thought as the philosophy of his life.After independence, coming to West Bengal, he joined theGovernment’s agriculture department and despite the then severity ofrules and regulations, propagated the thoughts of Comrade ShibdasGhosh and party ideology among everyone around him andattempted to link them up with the organization. Transferred toJalpaiguri in mid sixties as an agricultural officer, he set himself tostart party work there, and one by one got quite a good number ofpeople including students and youth interested in SUCI(C). He alsoarranged visit of state members from Calcutta to Jalpaiguri so as tohold discussions with the newly made contacts. It is specially worthmentioning that in 1969, it was Comrade Sudhir Pal who was themain organizer of the meeting held at Jalpaiguri, where ComradeShibdas Ghosh held the discussion which was later published as thehistoric book “Why SUCI is the only Communist Party in India”. Infact, those who worked in later years as leading organizers in NorthBengal had all been recruited to the party by Comrade Sudhir Pal.Later on, he bore other important responsibilities assigned to him bythe party and carried on with dedication the responsibility ofsupervision of the Study Centre of Marxism-Leninism-ShibdasGhosh Thought in Ghatshila, as entrusted to him. The last four yearsof his life he had been residing at Kolaghat in east Midnaporedistrict. With the demise of this veteran comrade, our party has losta party organizer truly dedicated to his ideology.

Red Salute Comrade Sudhir PalComrade Sudhir Pal, a veteran party

member of the SUCI (C), breathed his laston 20th February at 8 pm, at the PopularNursing Home in Mecheda. Afflicted withage-related ailments, he was also sufferingfrom cardiac and breathing problems. Thenews of the demise of Comrade NiharMukherjee on 18th February, had caused himdeep grief. On 20th noon, his pain havingaggravated, he had to be admitted to thenursing home. But his condition deteriorated

Police savagery on struggling students of Bihar

Police of the Bihar governmentled by Nitish Kumar resorted towanton lathi charge on the agitatingstudents of BR Ambedkar BiharUniversity at Muzaffarpur onJanuary 29 last which, in protest,fired up massive student movementin the state. Students of BRAmbedkar Bihar University, underthe leadership of the AIDSO, hadlong been demanding reevaluationof most negligently assessed answerscripts of Part II examination,immediate election of the students’union due since 1977, filling up ofvacant posts of teachers nowranging more than 50% of the totalteachers’ strength and againstrampant corruption in university

Jitendra, Secretary , Bihar StateCommittee of AIDSO, ComradePannalal a nd Comrade ParvezAlam, both members of theBihar State Committee of AIDSO.But the student s did not yield andthe VC was compelled to meet thestudents, expressing however, hisinability to accept the demands,particularly, reevaluation of answerscripts.

On the nexy day on 30 Januarystatewide Protest Day was observedagainst police atriocity, demandingin addition to others, removal ofpolice from the University campus.Protest demonstrations wereorganized throughout the state. InPatna, the protest demonstration

administration and others. But theuniversity authority turned deaf earto all the legitimate demands as asequewl to which the studentsstalled functioning of universityadministration since 23 January,2010. On 29 January a massivedeomonstration with the above saidcharter of demands was led to theadministrative building of theuniversity. But despite priorintimation neither the ViceChancellor nor his anyrepresentative met the students’delegation. When the studentswanted to meet the VC at hischamber, a huge contingent ofpolice suddently resorted to massiveand brutal lathi charge on thedemonstrating students includingthe girl students, severely injuringdozens of students. Among theinjured were Comrade Suryakar

from Patna University burnt theeffigy of the Chief Minister .Similar programmes were observedat Bhagalpur University, LN MithilaViswavidyalaya at Darbhanga, inthe districts of Arbal, Jahanabad,Vaishali, Sahibganj, Khagaria,Jounpaur. In Muzzafarpur districttotal students’ strike was observed,massive deomonstration wasorganized and effigy of NitishKumar was torched. Thedemonstration was addressed by,among others, Comrade ArvindKumar, District Secretary, AIDSOand Shiv Chandra Paswan. It wasresolved that the movement wouldbe intensified and for that purposeof Bihar University Students’Struggle committee was formedwhich called for a students’Convention at LS CollegeCommpound on 16 February 2010.

Nandigram Day observed on 14 March

Comrade Soumen Basu, West Bengal State Secretary, SUCI(C) offering tributeto the brave martyrs of Nandigram movement on 14 March at Nandigram. Onhis right Comrade Bhabani Prasad Das, front-ranking leader of Nandigram

movement and on the left Shri Shubendu Adhikary, TMC leader and MP.

Protest rallyagainst price rise

at Silchar ,Assam on 11

february

RNI No. 13932/67Postal Regd. No. KOL/ RMS / /145 / 2010-12

SUCI(C) demandsscrapping of

Nuclear Liability BillComrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary, SUCI (Communist), in

course of a statement issued on 14 March, 2010 said, that, the proposedCivil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill is a pernicious legislationframed only to protect the interest of the foreign, in particular US,suppliers/builders of nuclear reactors, done under pressure from USA.The foreign firms would have no legal liability in case of accidents andwould be completely immune from any civil or criminal proceedingseither in Indian courts or in the courts of their home countries. In caseof accident, the maximum liability of the Indian state-owned reactoroperator, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), wouldbe merely Rs. 500 crore ($ 109 million). NPCIL may try to recover thisamount as compensation from the foreign suppliers, but the latter wouldhave no direct accident related liability. The Indian Government (thatmeans the Indian people) would be liable for paying damages in excessof Rs. 500 crore, but this is also capped at a maximum amount of Rs.2087 crore ($ 458 million), the total amount being a pittance comparedto liabilities of several billion dollars stipulated in countries like Japan,USA, France etc. and unlimited liability in Germany. The Bill also limitsliability in time to 10 years though it is known that the harmful effectsof exposure to radioactivity may take many years to manifest andcontinue for many generations. Thus while the guilty foreign supplierswill bask under legal immunity the Indian people will have to not onlybear the brunt of the medical disaster but also the financial liability. Westrongly demand that the proposed Bill be scrapped in totality and callupon the Indian people to organize powerful movements to stop theenactment of this black Bill.

Honourable Madam,Participating on discussion on

President’s Address, I would like tostart where from the “Address” endsi.e. point 74 on the last page (16).Here a saying of Pandit JawaharlalNehru of midnight of 14th August,1947 has been narrated. “TheService of India means the serviceof the millions who suffer. It meansending poverty and ignorance anddisease and inequality ofopportunity.” I like to ask the UPAGovernment led by INC how farthese dreams and destinations havebeen achieved after 62 years ofindependence, where INC ruledmore than half a century? It’s ashame that one-third of worldchildren suffering from malnutritionbelongs to our country, more than50% of our population lives belowpoverty line. We are having thelargest number of TB, Leprosy,Filaria patients of the world whereour government spends among thelowest five countries of the world inhealth. ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Illiteracy’of our majority population,especially of women are among thehighest of the world and ademocracy we have created whichmeans not of the people, by thepeople and for the people; but of themoney power, by the money powerand for the money power. Andparticularly after the globalization,liberalization and privatizationpolicies of the government theyhave increased the gulf of differencebetween rich and poor people of thecountry. Rich became richerachieving even top ranks in theworld whereas poor has becomepoorer. It is a pity that 77% ofpopulation of the nation earns lessthan Rs 20 per day. One fourth ofour citizens go to bed with hunger.In this backdrop to talk abouteconomic growth in the range of7.55 (2009-10) is an insult to theunfed, unclothed, unemployedand diseased millions of thecountry.

Our Government is not actuallygiving due importance to pluralismand secularism. Instead there aresigns and symptoms of fascist

regimentation by this government.In West Bengal, people’s mass anddemocratic movements aredemolished by ‘Joint Forces’ in the‘Jangle Mahal’ as manoeuvered byCPI(M) led government to get backtheir control at adivasi areas, killingand capturing citizens who arecrying for legitimate demands offood, roads, education, employment,water and development of thedeprived areas. Draconian and mostundemocratic acts like UAPA beingimplied to leaders and workers ofthe mass movement, stamping themas ‘Maoists’. Unrest cannot besolved by ‘power and guns’, but canbe solved by exercise of sensibletalks with the agitated people andgroups.

Though declared as a naturalcalamity of severe nature Aila’09(of West Bengal) affected people ofSunderbans and of West Bengalhave not received their due reliefmaterials, promised for them andCPI(M)-led government throughpartiality and corruption has eatenaway crores of rupees, depriving theactual victims. Central Governmentshould take corrective steps to savethe Aila victims and punish themiscreants.

Bharat Nirman ‘vis-à-vis’Flagship Programme haveachieved less than 50% success.62% of our agrarian lands arewithout irrigation facilities after 62years of independence. One-thirdvillages of India still lack supply ofpotable drinking water. Electricityis a far cry to remote areas. Inmajority states including WestBengal NREGS is a failureand a ‘Story’ of nepotism andcorruption.

UPA II Government hasmiserably failed to stop rise ofprices of essential commoditiesincluding foodgrains, and foodmaterials. PDS is in a mess. Nohoarders, no black marketeers havebeen booked and punished in theentire country. If production is less,people will receive less, but at fixedand reasonable prices. But only tosatisfy the purse of the traders andbusinessmen Government has

opened the floodgate of exploitationand oppression of common people.Without allout state trading ofessential commodities and saleunder Government control, toreduce price is impossible. Increasein prices of petrol, diesel indirectlyincreasing prices of everything.This is totally an anti-people stepthrust ing further burden on ourpeople, who are practically living‘subhuman life’. Petroleum pricerise decision must be immediatelywithdrawn.

In education, plan to inviteforeign institutes and universitieswill adversely affect our educationsystem. Privatization andcommercialization are the mantrasof present education policy anddesign to dismantle all councilsand directorates in favour ofNational Council of HigherEducation and Research isundemocratic.

In the health field, NRHM is amassive failure as per auditaccounts. It is aimed to destroy ourexisting health structure in favour ofprivate health business,contractualization of services and to

treat health as a commodity up tovillage level. Three and a half yearmedical course, floated by UnionGovernment is to hoodwink ruralpopulation which is anti-constitutional and neglecting rural75% population of India as secondclass citizen. The scheme should beimmediately withdrawn.Improvement of infrastructure,implementation of proper,democratic, national policies andincrease in health budget, instead,can solve our rural healthproblems.

Government should take stepsto stop news purchasing bymoneyed political parties andcandidates which are anti-people,unethical and downgradingimpartiality of print and electronicmedia.

Discrimination in giving uniqueidentification numbers to asection of citizens of Assamespecially to Bengali minoritiessection of that state and to makelakhs of people as ‘devoters’ cannotbe accepted. Government mustsolve the problem with all sincerityand sanctity.

Dr. Tarun Mandal, SUCI(C) MPon the President’s address inParliament on 4 March, 2010

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : PROVASH GHOSH

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