COMRADE SUBHAS CHAKRABORTY (1942 – 2009)

A sea of humanity reached out the last remains of comrade Subhas Chakraborty to the final destination as a clouded evening accompanied by a light drizzle descended on the metropolis. Leading the cortège was state secretary of the CPI (M) Biman Basu and the state secretariat. The frontage of the march of lakhs included the largest bulk of the state leadership of the CPI (M) and of the Bengal Left Front, and almost the entire cabinet of ministers of the Bengal LF government. 67 fluttering Red Flags recalled the number of year’s comrade Subhas Chakraborty had spent on the earth that and the people of which he was so much in love with, all his political life.

Earlier homage was paid to him in hundreds of thousands of wreaths and garlands at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, earlier to that at the Assembly House, the Writers’ Buildings, the Dumdum office of the CPI (M), his ancestral house, and at his Salt Lake residence. Comrade Subhas Chakraborty had been for some time in the past, a victim to a fell disease that he bravely battled for months and weeks and days. Indeed, out last memory of him was his stentorian presence at the meeting with the bus owners who were tarrying to implement the banning of fifteen-year-old vehicles despite environmental ‘reasons why’ having been made clear to them. Comrade Subhas Chakraborty had his way.

What most people did not know that risking infection, Comrade Subhas Chakraborty had left in the midst of chemotherapy session to ensure that Bengal’s streets and roads remained moving with vehicular traffic and that the strike threat had no effect: this became as he had planned. Comrade Subhas Chakraborty went back to the medical institution where he was being treated for a fell disease, and to the immense regret of us all, succumbed and breathed his last, come the mid-day hours of 3 August.

DEMISE CONDOLED

Apart from the CPI (M) general secretary, Prakash Karat, Comrade Subhas Chakraborty’s passage was condoled by the Bengal CPI (M), the Bengal Left Front, the Bengal Left Front government including chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the mass organisations, the various popular associations including sports bodies to which Comrade Subhas Chakraborty was intimately linked – we recall his rousing reception to an overwhelmed legend called Diego Maradona in Kolkata some years back – and by the entire gamut of the Bengal opposition.

Of them all, Biman Basu broke down helplessly when he had to state the passing away of Comrade Subhas Chakraborty whilst the veteran mass leader and CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, an ailing Jyoti Basu was the most distraught at the going away of a CPI (M) stalwart whom he described as an activist ‘young Party leader’ in the full bloom of political endeavour.

A LIFE OF STRUGGLE

Born in Dacca on 18 March 1942, Comrade Subhas Chakraborty grew up in Nager Bazar in Dumdum where he cut his political teeth at the Motijheel College. A member of the Communist Party in 1958, Comrade Subhas Chakraborty had to go to jail for leading movements of students (the then BPSF) against a fee raise. Comrade Subhas Chakraborty took part in the successive food movements, struggles against imperialism, movements against price rise and for the spread of education.

A close aide of the late Comrade Dinesh Majumdar, Comrade Subhas Chakraborty spurned repeated offers of jobs – he was an outstanding student – and chose to be a Party wholetimer. Comrade Subhas Chakraborty was the general secretary of the BPSF in 1969, state secretary of the newly-formed SFI in 1970, and was the second general secretary at the all-India level of the SFI after the founder general secretary Biman Basu.

Comrade Subhas Chakraborty fought a stiff battle against both revisionism and sectarianism. A member of the state committee as far back as 1971, he was made a member of the state secretariat in 2008. He led the CITU from the front as a Bengal and all-India office-bearer.

ELECTORAL BATTLE

His electoral battle started as far back as 1967 when he was elected a councillor with overwhelming popular support in the then south Dumdum municipality—and he remained a councillor till 1978. In 1977, he won from the Belgachia Assembly constituency. Comrade Subhas Chakraborty who had won seven times in succession from this constituency was made a minister in the LF government in 1982.

Thence he was successively and successfully in charge of sports, youth welfare, and transport. Intimately linked to the Salt Lake stadium, Comrade Subhas Chakraborty was associated with the movements and struggles for the Bakreswar thermal power project and the Haldia Petrochem set-up.

A leader of great popular appeal, Comrade Subhas Chakraborty leaves behind his wife, Ramala who is a member of the district committee of north 24 Parganas of the CPI (M), and their son, Anubhav.

COMRADE SUBHAS CHAKRABORTY: Brief life-sketch

Date of Birth: 18^th March,1942

Place of Birth: Born at Mashail, Dhaka, Bangladesh(now)

Academic Degree: B.A.

Name of School: K. K. Hindu Academy

Name of College: DumDum Mothijhil College

Name of University: University of Calcutta

Name of Spouse : Smt. Ramala Chakraborty(Bhattacharya)

Son: One

Political Activities:

· Joined Student movements while in School

· Member, CPI from 3^rd May, 1959

· Joined CPI(M) after ideological division of Communist Party in 1964

· General Secretary of BPSF(1966-70)

· State Secretary of SFI(1970-77)

· All India General Secretary SFI(1977-79)

· Member, CPI(M), West Bengal State Committee from 1971

· State Secretariat Member, CPI(M) from 2008

Peoples’ Representative:

· Former Commissioner of South DumDum Municipality

· Elected MLA since 1977 from Belgachia East constituency (8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, 13^th, 14^th West Bengal Legislative Assembly)

Positions Held:

1982 MOS, Sports,Youth Services, Dairy Development

1987 MIC, Sports and Youth Services, and Tourism

1991 MIC, Sports and Youth Services, and Tourism

1996 MIC, Transport and Sports

2001 MIC, Transport, Sports and HRBC

2006 MIC, Transport, Sports and Youth Services

Activities as a Trade Unionist:

Vice President, CITU, West Bengal Committee

Member, All India Working Committee, CITU

ACTIVELY CONNECTED WITH STUDENT, YOUTH, TU AND MASS MOVEMENTS SINCE 1958, INVOLVED IN VARIOUS SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES, WROTE ARTICLES FOR VARIOUS NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINES.

BREATHED HIS LAST TODAY AT 11-35AM AT AMRI HOSPITAL, SALTLAKE