H K S SURJEET Bhawan was inaugurated on October 2, 2019 at New Delhi. The bhawan will be a permanent party school for the cadres to be trained in the science of Marxism. The flag hoisting at the Surjeet Bhawan was done by S R Pillai, senior most Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M). The statute of Comrade  H K S Surjeet was unveiled by Biman Bose-PB member and the official inauguration of the building was done by Sitaram Yechury-general secretary of the Party.

The inauguration ceremony was held in the auditorium of the bhawan which was presided over by Prakash Karat-Polit Bureau member. The stage was occupied by polit bureau members and on either side there were two large portraits of HKS Surjeet and Mahatma Gandhi.

He narrated the historic background of the school building and said it was Surjeet who was very keen to get this school running. In the year 2005 the central government provided land to all the national parties according to their strength in the parliament. Just like other political parties, the CPI(M) also got a land where a decision was taken 10 years ago that a party school should be run, he said. He said Surjeet Bhawan is on the Indrajit Gupta Marg another stalwart of the Communist movement in the county who was also the union home minister.

Narrating about the massive drive that the more than 10 lakh party members in the country undertook he said this Bhawan has been constructed because of their contribution and their outreach to the people. Citing the example of Kerala, he said on a two days call for Surjeet Bhawan the Party members collected money in buckets and it got an amazing Rs 9 crore collection in just 48 hours.

Prakash further said that it is just a coincidence that the inauguration is taking place on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Giving a narration of how opposite is the present ruling dispensation to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, he said that they(BJP et al) do not have any shame in usurping Mahatma despite the fact that it is their ideology that killed him.

He said the space will be also available for other democratic and cultural forces for their requirements.

CORPORATE COMMUNAL ALLIANCE IS THE RULING COTERIE

Sitaram spoke in length about the past history of Surjeet. He said that Surjeet was a very keen learner and though he did not had much of formal learning, but he was always determined to build the party ideologically. Since at a very young age Surjeet had joined the freedom movement and was arrested for hoisting the tricolor at the office of the district magistrate in Punjab and after that there was no looking back, he could not continue his formal education. At that time he was kept in a juvenile centre as he was too young .  He shared some of the stories of Surjeet regarding his and likewise many other revolutionaries of the freedom movement’s desire to read and disseminate knowledge. Handwritten notes of books from the jail used to be smuggled out for disseminating party literature, he said.

Giving narration of the three visions that the freedom movement had, he said that the Left represented a vision for not just a democratic-secular Republic but also for an equitable distribution of wealth and that was possible only through socialism. The other vision of the Hindu Mahasabha was for a theocratic State on the basis of religion, for the RSS a Hindu Rashtra and for the Muslim League-Pakistan. In India, he said, the nation chose to be secular and defeated the nefarious designs of the RSS and their cohorts. However, today they are in power and are determined to rob all the advances that have been made since last seven decades, which definitely are not sufficient for human advancement, nonetheless are far better than what a theocratic state could offer.

Quoting Ambedkar, Sitaram said that he had warned the RSS during the writing of the constitution that through great labour the task of the formation of the nation was done and their ideas will rubbish it.

He emphatically said that the ruling dispensation of today is a ‘communal corporate alliance’, which is determined to exploit the people economically and ensure that the people are polarised on communal and such other identity, regional, linguistic issues so that the alliance can sustain.

Thanking all those who had come from Delhi and other parts of the country he said Party comrades have also come from England and Canada. He also thanked family members of Surjeet for joining the inauguration ceremony.

Speaking about the Party school to be run he said that modern methods of teaching are essential to ensure that the modern day challenges can be met effectively. He told the audience that the building has a capacity to house more than 250 participants during events such as Party schools etc.

Jogender Sharma, member of the Central Committee of the Party who was assigned the task of supervising the construction of the building spoke about the challenges that were confronted in the construction process. From permissions to sanctions from different authorities was an arduous task, he narrated.

D Raja, general secretary of the CPI was also present and spoke in the inauguration ceremony. He congratulated the CPI(M) for constructing the Party School and said the present times demand modern methods of teaching to be adopted to counter the Sangh narrative.

FAMILY MEMBERS PRESENT

HKS Surjeet’s family members also joined the inauguration ceremony. His two sons; elder one, Paramjit Bassi came from Scotland and Gurchetan the yonger one came from his native village in Jallandhar. Navdip and Pardeep Sahota both grandsons were also present. Surjeet’s granddaughter came from the US and his great grand daughter was also present. Preet Bains and Harsev Bains came from UK ; they represent the IWA(Indian Workers Association). Surender Dhesi came from Canada and represents the ICWA(Indo-Canadian Workers Association).