People's Democracy

Marxwadi Chetna Kendra Inaugurated

Vijay Mishra

ON March 12, Sitaram Yechuri, member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, inaugurated  the “Comrade Rattan Singh Marxwadi Chetna Kendra,” a centre for party education, at Derabassi town near Chandigarh. The inaugural function was organised by the Chandigarh and Mohali district organising committee of the party. A large number of local residents, party workers and state leaders of the party attended the function. About 100 party workers from Hindi speaking states, who had come to Chandigarh for attending a five-day party school, also attended the ceremony.

While initiating the ceremony proceedings, state secretariat member Vijay Mishra informed that the building of the party education centre was constructed in 1000 square yards. An open ground of about 6000 square yards has been donated by Comrade Rattan Singh, a veteran party leader from Derabassi and chairman of the state control commission of the CPI(M).

Sitaram Yechuri offered red salute to Comrade Rattan Singh on behalf of the party’s Polit Bureau and said his sacrifice would inspire the party workers in a big way. He recalled that earlier late Comrades P Sundrayya and E M S Namboodiripad had donated their entire property and assets to the party and later on late Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet also donated his share of the family property to the party.

Commenting on the present UPA government, he termed it as a government of scams. He also had a dig at the explanation given by the prime minister that he could not do much due to pressure from the coalition partners. He told the gathering that at the time of signing the nuclear deal with the USA, the prime minister openly violated the Common Minimum Programme, thus caring least for the coalition partners. Explaining the root of the scams, Yechuri said that earlier it was to get a licence or some other favour that corruption was resorted to, and the bribe money used to be not very big, but now, in the era of globalisation and liberalisation, corruption is being resorted to in order to change the government’s policy in favour of multinationals or Indian big business houses and hence the volume of scams is in lakhs of crores.

State CPI(M) secretary Charan Singh Virdi thanked Comrade Rattan Singh for his noble deed. He said though many struggles were conducted in Punjab but the party cadre were not well equipped with Marxism-Leninism. He expressed the resolve of Punjab party to ensure regular education of the cadre in party ideology to help them unite the working masses and conduct struggles to make the movement effective and broader. He further said the party education centre in Chandigarh centre would function as a branch of  “Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan Education Centre” of New Delhi.

Dr Sher Singh, retired SMO of Derabassi and a prominent personality of the area, also spoke on the occasion. He narrated in detail the simple and honest life of Comrade Rattan Singh who dedicated his entire life in the service of workers and peasants.

CPI(M) Central Secretariat member Sriniwas Rao, who is convener of the education sub-committee, expressed his appreciation of the sacrifice of Comrade Rattan Singh. He assured that the centre would be properly utilised for the education of party workers.

During the function, some participants donated money totalling Rs 38,200 for maintenance of the building. This included Rs 11,000 donated by a veteran CPI comrade.

State CITU general secretary Raghunath Singh expressed the hope that the centre would help the party in keeping the cadres updated in party ideology and make them capable of fighting for the toiling masses of the country. Chandigarh and Mohali organising committee secretary Nazar Singh thanked the participants for making the inaugural function a grand success.

The function was presided over by a presidium consisting Shyam Singh, Nazar Singh and Dr Sher Singh.