India- COMRADE PURNENDU SEKHAR MUKHERJEE MAY HAVE GONE BUT HIS SPIRIT IS NOT DEAD AND BURIED

MAY MANY MORE LOTUSES BLOOM LIKE HIM.  WE MUST ALL DIP OUR BLOOD IN HIS MEMORY.

 

By Harsh Thakor

On August 7th Comrade Purnendu Sekhar Mukherjee a Central Committee member of the Communist Party India (Maoist) left us after ailing for a considerable period. He was 75 and suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was unmarried.

I can never forget even my very short times or association with him. To his last breath he strived for the line of Marxism-Leninism -Mao thought. Even when facing bad health; he worked most tirelessly with a relentless spirit. The most turbulent waters did not deter him from taking the cudgels of struggle. I must assert I am not paying this homage as a supporter of the C.P.I. (Maoist), as in my view subjective forces do not exist for undertaking armed struggle. However I can't hide my admiration for comrades like Comrade Mukherjee, who devoted their entire lives to cutting the tumours out of injustice and planting new red roses to bloom.

A tribute meeting is being held in Kolkata by the Anti-Fascist Front on September 7th which I hope ranks from all streams will attend.

Mukherjee was arrested from Bihar in 2011 along with other central committee members Varanasi Subrahmaniyam, Vijay Kumar Arya and Jagdish Master. Since being released on bail in 2015, he had shunned his underground life and was living publicly in south Kolkata’s Bansdroni area. However, the police suspected that he never lost touch with the party.

According to his friends and comrades, Mukherjee wished to donate his body upon death and they were in touch with government-run hospitals in Kolkata to ensure his body could be donated for medical research purposes.

This veteran comrade branched from the Maoist Communist Centre and played a key role in giving shape to the party and moulding its cadre. Mukherjee was one of the first-generation Naxalites who joined the movement in the late 1960s and was part of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) right from its inception in 1969. He worked in close coordination with the likes of senior Maoist leaders Sushil Roy (alias Barun da) and Prashanta Bose (alias Kishan da). The former has died while the latter is still leading the clandestine organisation in eastern India.

The Maoist Communist Centre played a principal role in West Bengal in sowing the seeds and sharpening the sword of class struggle. Even if its leadership or cadre worked in a most clandestine manner it wove mass organizations and movements like the Revolutionary Youth League, Revolutionary Student league and revolutionary peasant committees. Comrade Purnendu was instrumental in struggles of various fronts being interwoven and in consolidating the work in neighbouring state of Bihar. With great mastery he imbibed lessons from founding Maoist Communist Centre leader Kanhai Chaterjee or Amulya Sen. For long he tooth and nail defended MCC not being an original part of C.P.I.(M.L) of Charu Mazumdar. With great skill he knitted the open mass fronts, a feature he exhibited till his death. 

His life was perfect illustration of how a Marxist revolutionary swims the most turbulent waters or walks through the most tortuous paths. In junctures when the movement was in the depths of despair, he proved how the weapon of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism could withstand the most deadly forces. Few comrades could so dialectically apply Marxist-Leninist polemics, and maintain the concept of the secret party. Open functioning and revisionism had become the order of the day from the 1980's but his efforts prevented his organisation from derailing from the revolutionary road. His efforts played an invaluable role in the printing of the party organs like 'Red Spark' and he also wrote for the inner party journals. I admire the tenacity and courage of such comrades when the citadel of USSR fell in 1991 and critiques wrote of Communism.Purnendu with the skill of a surgeon nurtured mass work in urban areas

He was arrested in 2007 and later released on health ground sin 2011.After his death Purnendu played an instrumental role in building the united front to combat state repression and Communal fascism. He also convened memorials for leaders martyred like Narayan Sanyal and was the major convenor f the Memorial conference commemorating 50th anniversary of Naxalbari.in Silguri in 1917. At first he doubted my credibility and suspected I maybe from the police intelligence when I first met him in Kolkata. However I greatly appreciated that in all 3 meetings he convened he allowed me to speak on the stage, and apologized for doubting my credibility. Listening to the language of his heart enabled me to speak in rally condemning the massacre of Maoist in Orissa in December 2016, in the homage meeting for Maoist leader Narayan Sanyal in Bharat Sabha hall in March 2017 ,ad in the conference in Silguri commemorating 50th anniversary of Naxalbari. I thank him deeply for allowing me to speak in all the meetings he convened, as later in 2019 in Kolkata on 4 out of 5 occasions I was prevented from giving an address. It speaks about his large-heartedness.

Purnendu with an open mind welcomed forces from all trends be that of New Democracy, Class Struggle, Maoist, or 2nd CC. It was heartening to witness the optimism on his face when chairing events. In subsequent months he convened many a meeting of the Front against fascism, investing every ounce of his energy into extinguishing the spark of Hindutva fascism. Comrade Purnendu defended the concept of protracted peoples war and India, being a semi-feudal society to the very core. He defended 50 years of Naxalbari, most creatively and analytically in an article. In his last years he recognized the C.P.I.(M.L) New Democracy as a potent revolutionary force. When he met me, he even recounted the days he had met Comrade Tarimela Nagi Reddy. Above all he strove for the re-organization of the splintered Communist party and weaving together all possible elements to build the anti-fascist United Front.

It was my deep regret that he hardly was in contact with the forces of the Communist Party Re-Organisation Centre of India (Marxist-Leninist) or seriously read their literature. No doubt he did reflect on the grave errors of the C.P.I.(Maoist) in Lalgarh, particularly on open functioning, collaborating with ruling classes and not giving due respect to subjective factors. In my view he also erred on upholding the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement and breaking away to form the Revolutionary Communist Centre of India(Maoist). Comrade Mukherjee was one of the architects in the Maoist Communist Centre of India merging with the C.P.I.(M.L)Peoples War. I must mention that he failed to understand how even after the merger, agrarian mass revolutionary line or the correct military line towards forming base areas was till not established completely.

No doubt he may have made left sectarian errors and not fully grasped the mass line, but we must understand that it is such comrades who have enabled the flame of revolution to shimmer, even with proto fascism looming at an unprecedented scale. I can never forget how the mass events Comrade Purnendu addressed, made peoples' hearts simmer spirit of revolution like water at a boiling point. He was a living illustration of the importance of the seeds sown by the naxalbari movement and organizations like the Maoist Communist Centre in the 1970's, who gave the revolutionary movement it's soul. I do not deny it had many left sectarian features but still made a positive contribution.

I recommend every cadre to read Comrade Purnendu's essay on 50 years of Naxalbari-A Path for alternative Development, which elaborates on how revolutionaries are confronting the unjust social order. I greatly missed spending more time with the late comrade, to learn about the history of the Maoist Communist Centre, Unlike the C.P.I.(M.L)Peoples War Group, we hardly have  had books written on the Maoist Communist Centre or had access to it' s literature. In many ways the MCC made a more dialectical analysis of agrarian revolution and formation of a red army than the Peoples war group. Personally I feel it almost made the same; level of contribution as the erstwhile Peoples War Group. It was Comrade Purnendu’s wish that more literature was written on the history of MCC.

In his ‘50 Years of Naxalbari-A path for Alternative Development’-.most illustratively he contrasted the capitalist road with the Proletarian road. In deep detail he summed up the impact of intervention of globalization—ridiculing the free market economy. He complemented the movement of the Janatana Sarkars in Dandakaranya for incorporating democratic power in spheres of Defence, Finance, Agriculture, Small Scale Industries, Forest Protection, Mass communication and Health social development. The legacy of Charu Mazumdar was accurately touched upon. He also deeply delved into the evolution of Naxalbari, paying a great complement to late Kanhai Chaterjee,in addition to Chandrashekar Das, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Amulya Sen Sushital Roy Choudhary, and Saroj Dutta. He elaborated how Naxalbari was not just a land struggle but also a movement for seizure of power. The aspect of how revisionism was demarcated with and how strategy and tactics were formulated was touched upon in detail. Quoting journal Dakshin Desh in the 16th addition and 2nd year of publication "The lesson of Naxalbari” is the real application of the lessons of Mao to establish base areas in the villages. Such revolutionary bases will one by one form a chain around the cities in such a way that the enemy will not have a path to escape. In great detail he summed up the achievements of Dandakaranya like digging 110 ponds in 237 villages by voluntary labour, creating 47 reservoirs for irrigation and fish cultivation.and some for cattle. Numerous illustrations were given about the forms of people’s government and the method of functioning of the gram sabha.