People's Democracy

ADDRESSING a meeting at Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhavan in state capital Agartala, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar and other CPI(M) leaders called upon the younger generations to inculcate the vision, perseverance and professionalism that characterised Comrade Ranjan Roy, so as to give an impetus to the struggle for establishing an exploitation-free social system. The meeting was organised on December 27 in memory of the late Comrade Ranjan Roy, a legendary CPI(M) leader and veteran state committee member of the party.

After members of the party and several mass organisations had paid floral tributes at Comrade Roy’s portrait, a minute’s silence in his memory was observed, followed by revolutionary songs. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and chief minister Manik Sarkar, its state secretary and Central Committee member Baidyanath Majumdar, and Central Committee member and tribal welfare minister Aghore Debbarma were among those who paid heartfelt homage to the departed comrade.

Manik Sarkar reminisced about the role played by Comrade Roy during the troubled time of the Emergency and later during the semi-fascist regime of the Congress-TUJS for five years in Tripura. It was Ranjan Roy’s profound grasp on the Marxist-Leninist ideology as well as his temperament of a professional revolutionary that stood him in good stead in overcoming the adversities. Sarkar said compromise was an anathema to him. The key to his perseverance was his close link with the common people that never snapped, despite his age and ailments, till he breathed his last a few days ago. Even the most formidable enemies of the communist movement would fail to do any irreparable damage if the communists continue to rally bigger and bigger sections of the people for their cause, just as Comrade Ranjan Roy had done throughout his life, Sarkar added.

Aghore Debbarma emphasised Comrade Ranjan Roy’s deft handling of the problems created by reactionary forces in Tripura, who are always trying to erode the party’s base through their attacks on tribal belts. It is by inculcating Comrade Ranjan Roy’s outstanding qualities that a real homage may be paid to him, Debbarma concluded.

Delivering his presidential speech, Baidyanath Majumdar said in the hard times that lie ahead, when reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces are closing ranks in Tripura and are being aided and abated by imperialism, the ideological conviction that Comrade Ranjan Roy had displayed under all circumstances, is worth emulating. He also characterised Comrade Ranjan Roy as a bridge of ethnic unity that led to the groundswell of communist movement in Tripura. (INN)