People's Democracy

THE LAST JOURNEY

COMRADE Dipankar Mukherjee, national secretary of the CITU who passed away on June 18, 2012, was given a tearful farewell by hundreds of CITU activists, leaders of the CITU and other trade unions, and political leaders amidst thunderous slogans of “Comrade Dipankar Mukherjee Amar Rahe” and Comrade Dipankar ke Armanon ko Manjil tak Le Jayenge,” at the Lodi Road Crematorium of New Delhi on June 19 evening.

His body was brought from the mortuary of Gangaram Hospital at around 11 a m and kept at B T Ranadive Bhawan, the CITU headquarters, in New Delhi for the people to pay their last respects. The national secretariat members of the CITU who received the body and covered it with the CITU flag, remained there all the time. these included Tapan Sen, Swadesh Dev Roye, Dr Hemalata, Ranjana Nirula and Kashmir Singh Thakur.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau members, viz Brinda Karat, Sitaram Yechury and K Varadha Rajan, laid the party flag on Comrade Dipankar’s body. Floral homage was also paid by Hari Singh Kang, Nilotpal Basu, Jogendra Sharma and Srinivas Rao, members of the Central Secretariat of the CPI(M). Inderjit Singh, P M S Grewal and Badal Saroj, Central Committee members of the CPI(M) and secretaries of its Haryana, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh state committees respectively, and Vijendar Sharma, member of Delhi state secretariat of the party, also paid homage to the departed leader. Veteran CPI leader A B Bardhan came along with D Raja, Atul Anjan and Pallab Sengupta to pay floral tributes and convey condolences.

Hundreds of workers and trade union activists started assembling at B T Ranadive Bhawan well before the body reached the CITU centre. As the day progressed, the numbers swelled. Leaders and activists of unions, irrespective of affiliations, and of many independent trade unions, came to pay their last homage to the departed leader. The workers and trade union activists, not only from Delhi but from the adjoining states like UP, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh thronged in huge numbers to pay last homage to their beloved leader, whom they had seen so closely to lead them, guide them, instil confidence to fight and combat, and enthuse them in united struggle, not only in public rallies, but also at their workplaces, factory gates and their colonies. They all came to have a last look at their leader, with whom they could interact with ease and open their mind without any hesitation, without any fear of being frowned upon. Such indeed was the popularity of Comrade Dipankar Mukherjee among the mass of the common workers, across the sectors and occupations.

Central trade union leaders including Gurudas Dasgupta, H Mahadevan, Amarjit Kaur, G L Dhar, and D L Sachdeva from AITUC, B N Rai, Sajinarayan and A N Dogra from BMS, Shri Raju from INTUC, R A Mittal and A D Nagpal from HMS, Swapan Mukherjee, Santosh Roy and Rajeev Dimri from AIICCTU, R K Sharma from AIUTUC, and S P Tewari from TUCC paid their homage to Com Dipankar. CITU leaders from various state committees, viz., S Prasannakumar from Karnataka, Raghunath Singh, Vijay Mishra and Chandrasekhar from Punjab, Surender Singh Malik and Satveer Singh from Haryana, Hazarilal Sharma from Rajasthan, R S Bajpai, Daulat Ram and Rajjo Devi from Uttar Pradesh, Pramod Pradhan from Madhya Pradesh, Anurag Saxena from Delhi and Prasanta Nandy Chowdhury from West Bengal also paid homage.

Among the leaders of various federations who came to the BTR Bhawan to pay tribute to the departed leaders were Shrikumar, Saila Bhattacharya and Shri Pathak of All India Defence Employees Federation, Bhatnagar from All India Insurance Employees Association, P K Das from Steel Workers’ Federation of India, Airport Authority of India Employees Union, P Abhimanyu from BSNL Employees Union, Pradip Mayekar from Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers’ Federation of India and Satish Lamba from Electricity Employees Federation of India and Kishori Varma from All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers’ & Helpers. Floral homage was also paid by Sunit Chopra from All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, Nurul Hooda and N K Shukla from All India Kisan Sabha, Sudha Sundarraman from All India Democratic Women’s Association, Malayshri Hashmi and Sudhanwa Deshpande from Jana Natya Manch and also from DYFI, SFI and Janasanskriti.

Eminent economist Prabhat Patnaik reached BT Ranadive Bhawan in early hours to pay homage and respect to the departed comrade. Also present in a big way were many media personalities who had the occasion to interact with Dipankar Mukherjee during his eventful stint in parliament and also in the trade union movement. Also came senior management officials of many PSUs like NTPC, ONGC, BHEL who had the occasion of interacting with Dipankar Mukherjee both as a trade union leader and as a parliamentarian.

CITU vice president Basudeb Acharia, Lok Sabha member Dr Ram Chandra Dome and Shamik Lahiri, a former member of parliament, also rushed to Delhi on getting the news of Comrade Diapnkar’s demise.

CITU president A K Padmanabhan, who had been away in Karnataka for important organisational work, cut short his programme and rushed back to reach Delhi at 2 p m to bid adieu to Comrade Dipankar.

After his arrival, the last journey of Comrade Dipankar started from BTR Bhawan towards the Lodi Road Crematorium. Several political leaders including Ravi Shankar Prasad, MP from BJP, and important personalities from the media field came directly to the crematorium to pay last homage to Comrade Dipankar.

At 4 p m, the mortal remains of Comrade Dipankar were placed in the electric furnace, leaving behind for his fellow comrades the immortal and unforgettable memories of his association and contribution.