People's Democracy

Comrade Surjeet�s Biography Released

ON March 23, the day of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev in 1931, the CPI(M) published a popular booklet on the life of Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet, thus remembering one of its founder members. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat released on the day the booklet titled Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet: Highlights of an Inspiring Life, presenting its first copy to Smt Amrit Kaur, the late leader�s wife.

March 23 is also the birth date of Comrade Surjeet.

Addressing a gathering of party members and supporters, held in A K Gopalan Bhavan on this occasion, Karat said the little publication gave one a glimpse of Comrade Surjeet�s valuable contribution to the spread of Marxist ideas and the growth of the communist and kisan movements in the country, and in unifying the Left and secular forces for pro-people changes in our society. Coming about two years after the departure of Comrade Surjeet, this booklet also highlighted his life of trials, tribulations and sacrifices. He expressed the hope that this introduction to the late leader�s life and work would help us in moving forward in today�s situation.

In his concluding remarks Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and its leader in Rajya Sabha, said the booklet was by no means an effort to evaluate the contributions made by Comrade Surjeet but only to provide a brief introduction to his life and work. In this context he underlined that Comrade Surjeet had been committed first to the country�s political independence and then to taking this struggle to the stage of socio-economic emancipation of the Indian people. That struggle is by no means over, the speaker stressed.

Conducting the proceedings, Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat informed that the party had chalked out a plan to publish small, popular biographies of all the nine members of the Polit Bureau at the time the party was reorganised in 1964, so that the saga of their struggles and sacrifices could be taken to the younger generations.

Polit Bureau members S Ramachandran Pollai and K Varadharajan were also present on the occasion.

The 36-page booklet, containing several pictures, is priced at Rs 5.