People's Democracy

COMRADE PRANKRISHNA CHAKRAVARTY (1910-2002)

B Prasant

 LEGENDARY leader of the refugee movement in Bengal and a leading organiser of the CPI(M), comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty passed away in Kolkata late in the evening of October 21.  He had been ill for some time. 

 The Red Flag flew at half-mast at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan and Ganashakti Bhavan from six in the morning to five in the afternoon of October 22 as a mark of respect to the departed leader. Comrade Chakravarty leaves behind his wife and his three daughters.

 Expressing his deep sorrow at the demise of comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), Jyoti Basu recalled his lengthy association with the departed stalwart of the refugee movement.  He urged upon the present generation of the activists of the democratic movement to draw inspiration from the life and legacy of comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty.

 State secretary of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas described comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty as an astute organiser and a lively person.  Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that he had learnt from comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty a great many lessons in the task of conducting a political life.

 Born in Rudragarh in the Faridpur district of what is now Bangladesh, comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty became associated with the banned revolutionary organisation Anushilan Samity and it was this association that later forced him terminate his medical education prematurely because of police harassment.

 While operating underground, comrade Chakravarty was apprehended by the British Police in 1932. In a typically brave response, comrade Chakravarty promptly jumped down from a moving train to escape while being taken to Calcutta from Jalpaiguri under heavy armed escort.  Later, he was recaptured and sentenced to death; subsequently the Calcutta High Court commuted the sentence into life imprisonment and comrade Chakravarty was sent to the Andaman Islands, and later to the Dacca central jail.

 Released in 1946, comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty chose to join the Communist Party soon after, having been inspired to do so while in jail by such communist leaders as Dr Narayan Roy and Niranjan Sengupta.  He joined the CPI(M) when the Communist Party split in 1964.

 A legend of the movement for the rehabilitation of the uprooted people of erstwhile East Pakistan, comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty helped build up the UCRC as by far the biggest organisation of refugees in Bengal. Comrade Chakravarty would stay with the refugee families and they loved and honoured him.  He brought a measure of hope to the refugees at a time when the Congress-run state government had made the displaced persons face inhuman condition in the so-called “refugee camps.”

 The morning of October 22 saw comrade Prankrishna Chakravarty’s last remains brought to the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan where the state leadership of the CPI(M) paid their homage.  The cortège then moved to the office of the UCRC en route to the Nimtola crematorium.