ANIL

DISCHARGING HIS REVOLUTIONARY DUTIES: Hours before he suffered massive brain haemorrhage, Comrade Anil Biswas steering the state committee meeting held on March 18. Jyoti Basu and Biman Bose are flanking him

Jyoti Basu

ON 26 March, and it was a Sunday afternoon, I had no fresh engagements. I thought I would visit Comrade Anil Biswas at the medical institution where he had been admitted with a massive brain haemorrhage.

Earlier, on reading the medical bulletins released by the Medical Board in charge of Anil, I was very upset.  I visited him at around 4:30 pm and met Biman Basu there.  Biman told me that Anil’s condition had become very critical.  After spending sometime there, I returned home and heard the news that Comrade Anil has passed away.

Comrade Anil Biswas’s premature death is a great loss for the Party. It is a grave loss not only for the Party unit in Bengal but also for the Party organisation as such. A member of the Polit Bureau and of the central committee of the CPI (M), Anil played an important leading role in the Party.

He was an organisation man. He would also address a large number of meetings, frequently visit the districts, and meet district level leaders. He also interacted with the common people.

He was a man of sympathetic and gentle behaviour and possessed great organisational skills.  He reminded me of the late Comrade Promode Dasgupta.  Comrade Dasgupta had insisted on bringing young people into the Party.  Comrade Promode Dasgupta it was who brought Anil, Biman, and Buddhadeb into the CPI (M).

What I liked most about Anil was his stress on Party education. Over the years, Party members did not engage themselves in political education. But with Anil becoming the state secretary of the West Bengal unit, the trend took a turn for the better. He insisted on Party education and on education in the tenets of Marxism-Leninism.

Anil regularly organised classes for the Party members. He was also member of the History Commission set up by the Party to document the history of the Communist Movement in India.

Anil also took upon himself the duty and the task of bringing together and publishing Party documents.

I knew Anil since he was very young.  I have visited his home in Nadia.  As editor of Ganashakti, he played a major role in building the Party mouthpiece as one of the most read newspaper in the state. Anil would make sure that the Party newspaper reached a massive number of people.

Anil was not only a leader of the Party but a leader of the mass of the people as well. I had the opportunity to address meetings with him on several occasions. The last time we were together on the dais was on the Brigade Parade grounds, in the month of January this year. It was a massive rally organised by the CPI(M). Besides Anil and me, Biman, Buddhadeb and several others addressed the meeting.

He never used to say anything about his illness. 

I used to get the information about his deteriorating health from my personal physician, who also happened to be his personal physician. I would ask him to take care and to take medicines regularly. He would seldom listen.

I saw Anil working day and night, addressing meetings and visiting districts. He was a tireless worker.

None of us ever thought that he would pass away at such a young age. He was just 62.

I extend my condolences to his wife, Geeta, daughter Ajanta, and to his son-in-law and relatives. 

When Anil fell ill, the state committee of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) gave the responsibility to Biman and to Buddhadeb. Anil’s responsibility was distributed among all the members of the state secretariat.

We must ensure that Comrade Anil Biswas’s dream would fructify, which is also a dream of all Communists, and that is to work for a classless society, bereft of exploitation of man by man.

Elections are upon us.  The biggest task looming large before all of us at the present point in time is to ensure that the Bengal Left Front is victorious at the elections and is able to form the government for the seventh time in succession.

The most fitting tribute to Anil now would be to work hard to ensure a massive victory of the Left Front. (INN)