Tributes Paid to Comrade Rajaram in Delhi

A memorial meet to pay tributes to Comrade Rajaram was organised in Delhi at HKS Surjeet Bhavan on 25 September. This was attended by a large number of activists and many old timers who had a chance to work with comrade Rajaram when he was in Delhi at the central office of Indian People's Front. Prof. Gopal Pradhan, senior journalist Urmilesh, Chandra Bhushan, former Rajya Sabha television journalist Irfan, former BBC journalist Rajesh Joshi and prof. Radhika Menon and CPIML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and Prem Singh Gehlawat recalled their inspiring experiences with Rajaram. CPIML Delhi secretary Ravi Rai conducted the proceedings.

Chandra Bhushan said that Rajaram was gifted with an unique talent that he could communicate with a very wide range of people and social forces to bring them on a common platform. Gopal Pradhan said that he worked with immense perseverance and simplicity in the fight for a true democracy. Urmilesh recalled his association during his JNU days and said that comrade Rajaram's intellectual prowess gained through persistent activism was the force behind his simplicity, that he was able to explain very difficult arguments in very simple language. Irfan remembered his humility and firmness of character that was due his commitment to stand with the struggles of the oppressed. Radhika Menon said he was a fearless fighter in face of brutal repression.

Com. Dipankar recalled his forty years' association and said that he was a representative of an alternative model of politics that emerged after the seventies. Comrade Rajaram joined the 1974 movement very consciously as a Marxist activist aspiring for a comprehensive transformation of society, the Sampoorn Kranti. His quest continued till he joined CPIML and enriched our experiences on a new plane. His revolutionary thought, initiatives, courage, human sensitivity remained his defining qualities always.