A condolence meeting was held at the Sanskriti Bhawan in Bhopal to pay homage to Comrade Shailendra Shaily, Secretary Madhya Pradesh, State Committee of the CPI(M).

Paying homage to Comrade Shailendra Shaily Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury who had been Shaily’s comrade during the SFI days said that he had never thought that some day he would have to attend Shaily’s condolence meeting. Unable to find words to express his feelings he said that he always looked to Shaily for words whenever a slogan had to be coined or a speech had to be made. Shaily was a perfectionist to the core but no one had expected that he would do such a rigorous self criticism. He always cared for the discipline in the party. In the present era of marketism if Comrade Shaily had chosen to extract the price for his talents he could have secured the highest possible position for himself. But he had dedicated his life to the struggle of the exploited and oppressed people of the society. We should draw inspiration from his life.

Sandhya Shaily, Madhya Pradesh State Committee member, while remembering Comrade Shaily said that Comrade Shaily was not just her husband, he was much more, as he was a true Comrade of all the exploited and oppressed people in the society. Comrade Shaily took a hard decision. This decision is painful and shocking. But we must accept it now as there is no option. We must not raise any doubts about his decision. We are in a big struggle and the route to goal is long. Therefore we have to be cautious since certain elements are trying to scandalise his hard self-criticism. He was dear to party general secretary as well as to each individual engaged in revolutionary struggle.

Remembering Comrade Shaily, Bahadur Singh Dhakad recollected the emergency period when he had first met Comrade Shaily in jail. He said Comrade Shaily had learnt the lessons of Marxism in his student days and thus he became everybody’s teacher in Marxism in jail. Paying glowing tributes to Comrade Shaily Badal Saroj said that he was a poet, a writer, a journalist, an orator, an economist, a politician and above all a great human being.

Before the condolence meeting started several journalists, writers, artists, workers and comrades from women and science movements offered floral tributes at Comrade Shaily’s photograph.