People's Democracy

Condolences Offered On Com Surjeet�s Demise

Pratibha Devisingh Patil

President of India

Dear Smt Pritam Kaur,

I am saddened to learn about the passing away of your husband.

Shri Harkishan Singh Surjeet was a veteran Marxist leader, parliamentarian and an eminent statesman. He was a multi-faceted personality who served the nation with distinction. Shri Surjeet was also a well-known freedom fighter. In his passing away the nation has lost a veteran public figure.

Kindly accept my condolences and convey them to the rest of the members of your family. I pray to the Almighty to give you and your family the strength to bear this irreparable loss.

Sonia Gandhi

All India Congress Committee

Dear Smt Pritam Kaur ji,

I was deeply grieved to learn of the passing away of Shri Harkishan Singh Surjeet. His death leaves our political landscape and our national life much poorer, for he enriched and illuminated it with his many and inimitable qualities.

As a young man, Comrade Surjeet threw himself into the freedom movement and worked wholeheartedly for the liberation of the country from colonial rule.

Throughout his long and distinguished career he championed the cause of the poor and the oppressed. His unflinching commitment to secularism will serve as a moving inspiration for everyone in public life.

His open mind and generous heart, his willingness to listen to others, understand their compulsions and then find a common meeting ground brought together people of divergent political belief and opinions to work for the national interest. The warmth of his personality, his gift for friendship, his wisdom and experience won him devoted friends from every walk of life and across the political spectrum.

Comrade Surjeet lived a long, rich and fulfilled life, leaving a precious legacy that we will always cherish and honour. At this time of grief, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Communist Party of Nepal

We are deeply aggrieved hearing the news of sad demise of Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet. I, on behalf of the Central Committee of our party and on my own, would like to pay our solemn homage to late Comrade Surjeet and express our deep condolence to you, to Comrade Surjeet�s aggrieved family members and the entire leaders and members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) through you.

Comrade Surjeet was an esteemed great leader of the Communist movement of India and a close friend of our party. His demise is an irreparable loss to the Indian communist movement and the Indian people. His immense contributions to the communist cause will be immortal and cherished by all communists in our region forever.

At this moment, we are recalling Comrade Surjeet�s firm support to the democratic movement of the Nepali people and his strong solidarity to our endeavours in the difficult days under the autocratic Panchayat regime, specially during the people�s movement of 1990. His support and solidarity to the last historical movement of the Nepali people was also very inspiring. We remember his valuable contributions to the promotion of relations between our two parties, peoples and the countries, particularly during the minority government of our party in 1995 with high appreciation.

J N Khanal

General Secretary