I JOINED People’s Democracy editorial staff soon after it moved to Delhi from Calcutta after the emergency was lifted in 1977. Comrade Ramdas was the working editor, whom I knew from before as the Central Committee member and husband of Comrade Kitty Menon. Comrade Kitty Menon, (later colleague in Social Scientist and People’s Democracy), a teacher of economics at Delhi School of Economics at Delhi University was our Party mentor and was responsible for educating several generations of teachers and students in Marxism. She was living with her two sons in Delhi while Comrade Ramdas was living in Party Commune in Calcutta and bringing out the Party paper from there. He used to visit Delhi occasionally. All such visits were used to understand the nuances of the Party’s current political-tactical line.

So walking into PD office was a relaxed affair, meeting with a very effable and familiar comrade. PD office was in the Party headquarter which had recently shifted to 4 Ashoka Road which used to function as our Parliamentary office earlier. PD office was opposite Comrade BT Ranadive’s room and Comrades M Basavapunnaiah, Desraj and Unny lived in the back portion with one man staff. Comrade Ramdas was to start bringing out the weekly in as trying circumstances as he must have faced initially. These were no computer times and PD did not have a typewriter of its own. We borrowed a typewriter for PD. These were letter press days and all the matter had to be typed before it could be sent to press. Since PD did not have a typist of its own, Comrade Desraj and Unny used to type hand written articles of Comrade BTR, EMS Namboodiripad and MB. Only these two apart from Comrade Ramdas could decipher BTR and EMS’s handwriting.

Comrade Ramdas will read the typed matter, mark it for the press, send it and then wait for the galleyproofs. Comrade Ramdas will read everyline not only for language and spellings but also for the political line. He was then considered a comrade whose understanding of the Party line, outside of the PB was impeccable.

Comrade Ramdas was a very patient and open-minded colleague and teacher. How to mark the type face and size, how to lay out the page and organise the material in terms of its political significance was explained in detail. Comrade Ramdas was very open to new ideas. Within months of starting the paper from Delhi, PD started several columns: economic notes by Prabhat Patnaik, notes on education and women by Kumaresh Chakraborty, regular book reviews by several teachers of Delhi University and even sketches and posters by artist Vivan Sundaram.

In terms of production of the paper, I think Comrade Ramdas faced as many problems or may be even more because of a weak Party base in Delhi. When managing letter press became difficult, Party bought a press that belonged to Secular Democracy – a trust run by Subhadra Joshi. It had a lino machine – this is a technique in which a full line is composed with molten metal. So it can be operated by a skilled worker familiar with it. When we reached the press with typed manuscript, the compositer refused to work because the workers had not been paid their wages. Comrade Ramdas took money from the Party office, went to the press next day, paid the workers and got the paper going.

Comrade Ramdas’s commitment to the paper was absolute. I remember at the time of the Salkia plenum. He said we will not drop an issue and in case I wished to go, he would stay back to bring out the paper. Of course, I did not go to Salkia. Comrade Ramdas used to write a large number of editorials after discussing with the PBM incharge explicating the Party line on various issues.

On the occasion of observing 50 years of People’s Democracy, I feel it is obligatory to remember Comrade Kitty Menon’s contribution to the paper. First, by deciding to support the family by working in Delhi while Comrade Ramdas worked on the Party paper in Calcutta. These were not easy times for her. And second, joining the paper as a wholetimer after her retirement from Delhi University. She would not allow a single mistake in the paper even if she had to read the proofs several times although it irritated us a great deal.

The experience of working with Comrade Ramdas and Kitty Menon has given me the wherwithal and inspiration to work with People’s Democracy for the last more than 35 years.