On 28 July 2012, the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of CPI(ML)’s founding General Secretary and leader of the historic Naxalbari movement, Comrade Charu Mazumdar, the CPI(ML) inaugurated its Central Office ‘Charu Bhawan,’ and unveiled a bust of Comrade Charu Mazumdar at the office.
The CPI(ML) Central Office was christened Charu Bhawan and inaugurated by the party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya. A bust of Comrade Charu Mazumdar was unveiled by party Politburo member Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya, who is also the sole surviving member of the CPI(ML) Central Committee which was reorganised on the second martyrdom day of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, 28 July 1974. The bust of Comrade CM was sculpted by Shri Bodhan Hansdah of Birbhum district of West Bengal.
Anita and Madhumita, daughters of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, as well as his son, party Central Committee member Abhijit Mazumdar, were also present on the occasion.
Politburo and Central Committee members of the party, CPN(UML) Central Committee members Comrades Devi Gyawali and Guru Baral, Kalpana Wilson of the South Asia Solidarity Group (London), as well as veteran party leaders, former members of the party central committee, leaders of mass organisations, and leaders from various states, paid floral tributes to Comrade Charu Mazumdar’s bust.
Cultural groups Hirawal from Patna and Ganasanskritik Parishad from Kolkata presented ‘Shaheed Geet’ (songs in memory of the martyrs). A condolence resolution was adopted, paying tribute to the martyred and departed comrades of the party’s 1st Central Committee (elected in 1970), including Comrades Charu Mazumdar, Saroj Dutt, Sushital Roy Choudhary, Kanu Sanyal, Nagbhushan Patnaik, Appu, Vempatapu Satyanarayana, Adibatla Kailasam, Appalasuri, Shiv Kumar Mishra, and Soren Bose; martyrs of the first generation of the ML movement including Comrades Panchadi Krishnamoorthy, Panchadi Nirmala, Subbarao Panigrahi, Master Jagdish, Rameshwar Ahir, Baba Bhuja Singh, Daya Singh; party General Secretaries Comrade Jauhar (martyred in 1975) and Comrade Vinod Mishra (passed away in 1998); martyred and departed Central Committee members including Comrades Ram Naresh Ram and Mahendra Singh, and other martyred comrades from different fronts. Observing two minutes’ silence, the gathering resolved to pay tribute to the departed and martyred comrades of the entire Indian communist movement and ML movement, and to carry forward their legacy of struggle and make their dreams a reality.
A book on Charu Mazumdar, Charu Mazumdar: The Man and His Legacy, was presented by Comrade Arindam Sen to Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya who released it and dedicated it to the fighting people of the country. The book contains a short biography of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, a memoir by Comrade CM’s daughter Anita Mazumdar, a collection of rare photographs culled from family albums, quotations from Comrade CM’s writings, and some articles about the historical context and enduring relevance of Comrade CM’s life and work.
Comrade Abhijit Mazumdar greeted the gathering on behalf of the CPI(ML) Central Committee and Comrade Charu Mazumdar’s family and called for carrying forward Comrade CM’s legacy. Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, speaking on the occasion, recalled that Comrade Charu Mazumdar and his comrades, bearing the worst brunt of state terror unleashed in the late 1960s and 1970s, had given new life and meaning to the country’s communist movement and revolutionary peasant movement. Today, as the country faces a renewed assault on democracy and on the rights of peasants and the poor, the legacy of Comrade Charu Mazumdar becomes all the more relevant. He also stressed the relevance of Charu Mazumdar’s praxis in the context of the struggle against opportunism in the Left movement.
The programme ended with a rousing rendering of the Internationale.
