A CONDOLENCE meeting was organised on the evening of August 16, at CPI(M) headquarters, A K Gopalan Bhawan, to pay tributes to Comrade Birender Singh and Comrade Rajiv Jha. The two comrades, who had been associated with the Party centre for more than four decades as full-fledged workers, died recently. Both comrades were associated with the publications of the Party; Comrade Birender Singh was handling the managerial affairs of party publications and Comrade Rajeev Jha was on the editorial team of Loklahar.

Party general secretary, Sitaram Yechury recalled the nearly four-and-a-half-decade-long contribution of the late comrades in the work of the Party Center and their unwavering loyalty to the Party and Marxism. Both the comrades had directly decided to become full-time workers of the Party from student life and fulfilled that determination with complete dedication throughout their lives. Yechury specifically underlined the fact that both the comrades came from the area where the influence of the Party and the left movement is not so strong. He said that from the life and sacrifice of such companions, we get an important lesson to stick to our loyalty and decision. Yechury also recalled the relationship he had with Comrade Rajiv Jha in the late seventies, from his student days at JNU.

Former Party general secretary and current Polit Bureau Member, Prakash Karat presided over the condolence meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, Rajendra Sharma, editor of Loklahar and a member of the Party's Central Secretariat, gave a brief account of the lives and contributions of the two colleagues and his long experience of working with them.

Prakash Karat, in his presidential remarks, recalled how these two comrades, along with Party papers, had become attached to the Party headquarters, Delhi, after the emergency and after Salkia Plenum. The Party published a weekly Hindi paper, Loklahar. He underlined the important role of Party papers in the work of the Party and the long, uninterrupted contribution of both the comrades in connection with this role. While he mentioned Birender’s enduring life-threatening cancer, he regretted the sudden demise of Rajeev Jha. He expressed his heartfelt condolences on behalf of the Party.

Prakash Karat, also shared the news of the demise of Comrade Roopchand Pal from West Bengal with the comrades present. He had been a CPI(M) MP for a very long time. The meeting ended with a minute's silence, paying tribute to the three companions. A large number of Left activists and sympathisers of Delhi, besides the leaders of the Party and mass organisations and workers of the Party centre, took part in the condolence meeting.