The 20th anniversary of the Martyrdom of Comrade Zora Singh Jalajan, who helped spark the Naxalbari rebellion

ON 20TH MARTYRDOM ANNIVERSARY LET US REKINDLE THE SPIRIT OF COMRADE ZORA SINGH JALAJAN WHO EVEN IN A VERY SHORT LIFE ILLUMINATED SPARK OF NAXALBARI, PEOPLES WAR AND MAOISM AT ITS PINNACLE OF GLORY.  

By Harsh Thakor

On 13th September we dip our blood in memory of late Comrade Zora Singh Jalajan, a member of the Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India.(Marxist-Leninist ) on his 20th martyrdom anniversary. He lived for only 33 years, succumbing as a victim of cancer. However he lit the flame of Mao thought at its crescendo which shimmered at the very core of his soul. His life was a living illustration of a spiritual essence of a revolutionary whose aspirations are never dead and buried. There could be few better examples of how revolutionary events plant new lotuses to bloom. Zora possessed the painstaking quality of a surgeon blended with the creativity of a poet and tenacity of a monk. Above all he radiated the spirit that laid the breeding ground for new comrades to spring up reminiscent of an inextinguishable flame. Today his soul is resurrected in the mass revolutionary political resistance led by the correct Communist revolutionary trend in Punjab.

The valiant comrade gained his baptism in the stormy period of Khalistani terrorism prevailing as a cadre of the Punjab Students Union. He played a vanguard role in rallying the youth against the fascist dictates of Khalistani forces and state terror through organizing mass combat. Zora was a living product of the mass line manifested of the Nagi Reddy group or the C.P.R.C.I.(M.L.)

Zora's induction into the Communist movement coincided with the toppling of Revisionist regimes in the late 1980's where the counter-revolutionary wind blew at its optimum.

Zora's induction in the Communist movement coincided with the mass revolutionary movement based on mass line against the twin monsters of Khalistan and state terror.

The turning point that crystallized his political career bringing him into the forefront of the Communist revolutionary movement was the massacre initiated by Khalistani terrorists on the anti communal and anti-repression front in Sewewala in 1991. The vengeance of the killings literally transformed Zora who was steeled and tempered into a professional revolutionary to join the party ranks. He was inducted into the armed team of the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India.Zora played an integral role in the retaliatory actions against Khalistani terrorists where assassins of Communist revolutionary and democratic martyrs were executed. What was remarkable that even when he had individual differences he submitted to the individual discipline of the party.

With the skill of an architect he dealt with the problem s of the day that confronted the movement and waged a crusade against the enemy at its hardest point. No obstacle deterred his great mental fortitude. In his practice he exhibited the discipline of a soldier always abiding by the party. With meticulous skill he knitted comrades together and guided mass organizations. Zora Singh displayed great mastery in shaping of massline as a torchbearer of the path of T. Nagi Reddy and the Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India (Marxist-Leninist) He continued the legacy of the movement of the Punjab Students Movement and Naujwan Bharat Sabha in the 1970's.

His efforts played an important part in nurturing unity of the landless agricultural labour with the poor landed peasantry and sharpening the polarization of mass political resistance. In his time the most prominent mass political platform in India was formed in Punjab as well as the most correct and election programmes took place during elections. A base was also created for forming a genuine revolutionary organization of landed peasantry. The uprising of the landed peasantry against the police firing in Jethuke in December 1999 ,mass -political conference in March 1996,the victory of dalit agricultural labourers in Balajhar Vinju in 1993 in thwarting land auctioning ,mass revolutionary election rallies in 1996,98 and 99 and earlier memorial conferences in memory of martyrs of the Front against Repression and Communalism were amongst the major highlights in the time of Zora. On the political front a major happening in Zora's time was the merger of the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India with the Central Team of the C.P.I.(M.L.) into the Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India.(Marxist-Leninist ) ,which manifested the proletarian revolutionary mass line.

Few comrades were ever as inspiring as Jalajan who even on the brink of death illuminated spark of revolution. With the intensity of a professor he studied Leninist political ideology.

To organize a homage meeting a preliminary gathering was held of selected young people of the village highlighting the significance of Communist revolutionary politics and Communist revolutionary organization towards the crystallization of liberation. Zora's role as a professional revolutionary in a Communist Organization was summarized. Subsequently a big mass meeting was held where a preparatory committee for staging homage conference was selected. The political preparations for his homage meeting stressed on connecting the social revolutionary life of Zora Singh Jalajan, with the development of the mass movement of the area. A continuous day night propaganda programme was launched exhibiting the values of Zora. Significantly the youth comrades involved in the homage conference galvanized mass democratic forces in an identical manner as Comrade Zora did in his lifetime.

The memorial meeting paying homage to Comrade Zora in his village Jalajan ranked amongst the most memorable ever in the history of Punjab. It was addressed by comrades like Jaspal Jassi, Amolak Singh. Jaspal Jassi reflected on how Jalajan illness was a political confrontation of the communist revolutionary movement, which exhibited deep collective spirit in contrast to bourgeois and reformist parties. A deep impression was let on the villagers reminiscent of red spark flashing within their hearts. The conference made a major impact on the minds of the communist revolutionary supporters and villagers. An elder of the village stated "Zora Singh Jalajan may not have gone to the gallows but he is nevertheless immortal like Bhagat Singh and Karnail Singh from Eesru village.” Villagers previously only knew Zora as a friendly and good person and now eulogized his role as a Communist revolutionary leader.

Today the spirit of Comrade Zora Singh Jalajan has to be rekindled with proto-fascism of the Saffron variety at it s helm. The mass revolutionary movement today in Punjab is a testimony of the guidance of Comrades like him who never substituted mass line with romanticism and even when giving the party the cutting edge never violated the democratic norms of functioning of mass organizations.