People's Democracy

Comrade Subodh Roy Remembered

B Prasant

A PACKED meeting held at the Promode Dasgupta Bhavan in Kolkata on September 14, 2006 remembered the departed CPI(M) stalwart and freedom fighter, Comrade Subodh Roy. Presided over by central committee member of the CPI(M) Benoy Konar, the meeting listened to important addresses by CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and Polit Bureau members Jyoti Basu and Biman Basu.

Prakash Karat said that Comrade Subodh Roy was an exceptional communist. Comrade Subodh Roy participated in the freedom struggle and then went on to join the Communist Party.

Beginning his life with taking part in the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist Chittagong armed uprising, Comrade Subodhda remained firmly rooted in his anti-imperialist conviction, basing his ideological moorings in the tenets of Marxism-Leninism, said Karat.

Prakash Karat said that Comrade Subodh Roy was meticulous in putting in his best for the Communist Party. He would perform and complete to the very best of his ability whatever task was assigned to him. He was an ideal for any communist, a cadre or a leader.

Identifying Comrade Subodhda as one of the pioneers in the task of putting together documents on Communism, Prakash Karat said that the late Comrade Subodh Roy’s efforts at compiling documents from the National Archives and from the archives of the former Soviet Union deserve high praise.

Jyoti Basu, deep in a reminiscent mood, harked back in time and remembered how he and Comrade Subodh Roy became members of the Communist Party in 1940. He referred to Comrade Subodh Roy as ‘a couple of years younger to me,’ and said that he was filled with wonder that his comrade was a participant in the Chitagong armed uprising at quite a tender age.

Sternly holding forth against the deliberate distortion of history, Jyoti Basu said that a correct evaluation of the important role played by armed revolutionaries in building up an anti-imperialist movement in the country groaning under British mis-rule must be disseminated.

The CPI(M) leader recalled that as a college-going student he had had first heard of the Chitagong uprising and he was impressed at the manner in which the town was made a free zone for three days before the overwhelming armed might of the colonial forces prevailed over Masterda’s dedicated group of revolutionaries.

Recalling Comrade Subodh Roy’s contribution to the writing of a history of the Communist Party, Basu said that his unfinished tasks must be carried forth by the Party’s History Commission.

Biman Basu noted that Comrade Subodh Roy shunned opportunities of studying abroad and joined the revolutionaries instead, veering away from his father’s fervent wishes. His life underwent a further change when he joined the Communist Party. Comrade Subodhda was a dedicated communist and he would perform assigned tasks faultlessly and without delay. He had a simple lifestyle. The attributes that marked Comrade Subodh Roy’s life as a communist must be emulated by those who remain to walk the path towards fundamental changes in society.

The meeting that began with Comrade Subodh Roy’s portrait on the dais being garlanded by CPI(M) and Left Front leadership and with a minute’s respectful silence in memory of the departed communist stalwart, concluded with the strains of the International.