THE 11th death anniversary of Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet was observed in Chandigarh on August 1. The meeting was organised by the Punjabi daily Desh Sewak and Virsa Sambhal and Prasar Kender. 

Speaking on the occasion, Nilotpal Basu, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) called upon the Party workers and sympathizers to intensify the fight against communalism to protect the social fabric of the country from damage by the fundamentalist forces in the name of Hindu Rashtra and their efforts to convert India into a majoritarian  state. While explaining the series of incidents during the last five years where the communal forces aided and abetted by the ruling party created an atmosphere of terror and intimidation among the Muslim minority, dalits and women. He said that there has been systematic attack on educational, cultural and social organisations. He quoted the glaring example of JNU in detail. He further explained that how the constitutional institutions like CBI, RBI, Election Commission and judiciary were sought to be discredited in a systematic manner. He appealed to the workers and impressed upon them that true tribute to Comrade Surjeet will be to take a cue from his life and works to tide over the serious crisis in the country and go to the masses to explain the dangers of the policies of the present regime.

Pawan Kumar Bansal, ex-central minister and Congress leader shared his personal experiences with Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet. He explained that Comrade Surjeet is badly missed in the present circumstances when the country needs somebody who could bring all the secular and democratic forces on a single platform to fight the dangers of communalism unitedly. He said that most of the leaders of other parties too consulted Comrade Surjeet on their issues. He said that we can pay tribute to Comrade Surjeet by uniting all the secular and democratic forces and launch a struggle against the communal forces to strengthen the unity in diversity character of India.

Sukhwinder Singh Sekhon, CPI(M) state secretary, said that Comrade Surjeet fought against imperialism for independence from a very young age and then against terrorism in Punjab. He further said that Comrade Surjeet played a vital role on many occasions in national politics as well as for unity and integrity of the country. CPI(M) state secretariat members Gurchetan Singh Bassi,  presided over the function and Lehmber Singh Tagger conducted the proceedings. Tikender Singh, ex-deputy mayor of Simla Municipal Corporation, Raghunath Singh, Gurdarshan Singh Khaspur, Kulwinder Singh Uddat, Balbir Singh Jadla, CPI(M) state secretariat members also addressed the function.