COMRADE M K PANDHE: LAST JOURNEY

COMRADE M K PANDHE: LAST JOURNEY

THOUSANDS of people from all walks of life paid their respects to Comrade M K Pandhe, veteran trade union leader and CPI (M) Polit Bureau member who passed away on August 20, 2011. The body of the departed leader was kept at the BTR Bhavan, the central office of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions from 9-10 am on August 21 where the trade union leadership and hundreds of workers paid homage to their dear leader. By 10.30 am, the body was brought to AKG Bhavan, the headquarters of the CPI (M).

CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat led the Polit Bureau members in paying respects to Comrade Pandhe. Pramila Pandhe and family members paid their respects. Members of the Central Committee, office bearers of the CITU, All India Kisan Sabha, All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, All India Democratic Women’s Association, Democratic Youth Federation of India, Students’ Federation of India, All India Lawyer’s Union, Jansanskrti and many other mass organisations as well as unions paid their respects amidst incessant slogan shouting by comrades. A B Bardhan, general secretary, CPI, S Sudhakar Reddy, deputy general secretary, CPI, Debabrata Biswas, general secretary, All India Forward Bloc, Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary, AITUC Abani Roy from UTUC, S P Tiwari fron TUCC, Krishna Chakravarthy from AIUTUC, Swapan Mukherjee from AICCTU and others paid respects. CPI (ML), INTUC, HMS, NTUI and representatives of banking, insurance, state government employees associations also paid their respects. The chief managing directors of many PSUs like BHEL, Coal India, Air India, Airport Authority of India joined their workers in paying their respects.

The last journey of Comrade Pandhe, a tireless traveller who crisscrossed the entire country and the globe to unite the workers and spread the message of working class internationalism, began from AKG Bhawan at 2.30 pm. Thousands of workers, and leaders of fraternal trade unions and mass organisations marched in the procession led by the politburo and central committee members of CPI (M) and the central office bearers of CITU. The last journey ended at Lodhi Road crematorium where the body of Comrade Pandhe was cremated with resounding slogans of ‘Comrade Pandhe Amar Rahe’.