People's Democracy

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar: Homage And Last Journey

LONG queues had formed right down the A J C Bose Road hours before the last remains of the departed CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and CITU general secretary Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar were brought in, and the body lay in state at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan. Homage was paid to the memory of Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar by Polit Bureau members of the CPI(M) including Prakash Karat, Jyoti Basu, Sitaram Yechury, Biman Basu, S R Pillai, M K Pandhe, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Brinda Karat, and K Varadarajan. 

Other CPI(M) and CITU leaders who paid their last respects were Samar Mukherjee, Nirupam Sen, Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra, Benoy Konar, Shyamal Chakraborty, T K Rengarajan, state secretariat and state committee members of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M), Left Front leadership, Left TU leadership, INTUC leadership, CPI(M) and CITU leaders Bishnu Mohanty from Orissa, D K Bakshi from Jharkhand, Sudha from Andhra Pradesh CITU, V J K Nair CITU leader from Karnataka, P K Mukherjee from the Chhatisgarh CITU, Jogendra Singh from the Bihar CITU, Deben Bhattacharya from the Assam CITU, the leadership of the Bengal CITU, AIKS, AIDWA, DYFI, Kolkata mayor Bikash Bhattacharyya, and SFI, and Tapan Sen, Jiban Roy, Swadesh Deve Roy and Ardhendu Dakhshi from the CITU central functionaries. 

The last remains were earlier paid respect to at the Shramik Bhavan, and at the Assembly house. The last journey started at quarter past one in the afternoon, and several thousand people took part in the march. The Party and CITU leadership walked just behind the cortege. Strains of the International were heard from all over the procession. Placards carried by the marchers depicted a close of portrait of the departed leader. At the end of the march, the last remains were handed over to the authorities of the N R S Medical College and hospital for purposes of scientific and medical research. The eyes of the CPI(M) and CITU stalwart too had been donated for such purposes.

Rich tributes were paid to the memory of the departed leader by the general secretary of the CPI(M) Prakash Karat earlier while addressing a media conference at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan. He said that a deep loss was felt with the passing away of Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar. Noting the skill and dedication to the cause the departed leader possessed, Prakash Karat said that the example set by Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar needed to be emulated with fervour. 

Rich tributes were paid to the memory of Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar by other CPI(M) and CITU leaders.

Jyoti Basu:

We had gone to visit Comrade Chittabrata when he was lying ill in a medical institution. I could not speak to him, as he was asleep under medication. I knew him for a long time. I have seen him taking part in very many struggles and movements. He was member of the cabinet of minister of the first Left Front government and he worked with dedication and skill. He reached the apex of the TU movement through taking part in the workers movements. He was the general secretary of the CITU in this state and later at the all-India level. He played an important role in the Party. He was a member of the state secretariat and later a member of the Polit Bureau. I am deeply grieved by his demise. I convey my sympathies to his relatives.

Biman Basu:

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar was a member of the Polit Bureau of the Party. He was also the all-India general secretary of the CITU. He has left us. He reached the top echelons of the Party and CITU leadership through workers’ struggles and by building up the Party organisation. He would discharge his duties with skill and dedication. He would highlight the problems and prospects of the working people of the country in conferences and discussion sessions both here and abroad. We have suffered a great loss with his departure.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: 

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar, long-time comrade, and colleague of mine has passed away. He was ailing for a long time now. All available efforts were made but his life could not be saved. We knew each other from the 1960s. He was TU leader from the very beginning. We were in the Party for a very long period together. He successfully headed the cottage and small scale industries department in the first Left Front government. He carried on TU work after that. It is great loss to lose an organiser especially a TU organiser in the present circumstances.

M K Pandhe:

I was acquainted with Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar from 1966 when he was a member of the general council, of the undivided AITUC. He fought an inflexible battle against revisionism then. He was engaged in strengthening the CITU centre right from the moment the organisation was born. I recall how he had played the role of a volunteer at the Salkia plenum of 1978 despite having been a minister in the first Left Front government. I also recall how he was vocal against the theory of class cooperation broached in an international TU conference in Moscow in 1978.

We have been working together at the CITU centre for the past three years. He would take part in movements and struggle despite not being in good health. We asked him not to take part in the Bangalore conference as per advice of doctors. However, he would not give the massive gathering a go by. He was like this — discussing his views frankly and living a simple life. We had a relationship of friendship. He was popular in the CITU. Other TU leadership, too, respected him. His death is not only a personal loss for me; it would affect the TU movement as well and we shall find it difficult to fill the space he leaves behind. 

Shyamal Chakraborty:

The doctors did their best; and yet, we lost Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar. As the general secretary of the Bengal unit of the CITU, he played an important role in strengthening the workers’ movement here. He played an important role in the task of making people conscious about the industrial policy of the Left Front government announced in 1994. He put in his best efforts in strengthening the working class movement and the workers’ struggles at the all-India level. 

Kali Ghosh:

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar had been at the top echelon of the TU movement of Bengal and for a long time. Later he led the TU movement at the all-India level. He was a principled comrade and his death is a loss for the TU movement in Bengal as in the rest of the country. (B P)