Comrade Pawan Sharma, senior leader of CPIML passed away 30 January at 4 pm. He suffered a cardiac stroke a day before in the evening after which was admitted in a hospital in Patna where angioplasty was performed though his condition remained critical. But we hoped he would recover soon.

Comrade Pawan Sharma led many struggles of rural poor and peasants in Magadh region of Bihar. His role was crucial in building the party organisation during the decades of 1980s and 90s.

Social scientist of international repute; founder member of Shramik Mukti Dal Maharashtra;   a veteran researcher-writer on Buddha, Mahatma Phule, Dr. Ambedkar, and Marx; a feminist, a scholar who interpreted the Sant Literature and the Warkari tradition of Maharashtra in a new light; a participant in the women’s movement and adivasi movement who travelled extensively throughout Maharashtra – Gail Omvedt, 81, died of old age at her home at Kasegaon village, in the Sangli District of Maharashtra.

With the passing of Comrade BB Pandey, we lost the last member of the famous Durgapur trio - Comrades Vinod Mishra, Dhurjati Prasad Bakshi and BB Pandey - who played such a key role in the revival of the CPI(ML) after the setback of early 1970s. Comrades VM and BBP had come to study engineering in Durgapur in 1966 after finishing school in Kanpur. Comrade DP Bakshi was from Chinsura (Chunchura) in Hooghly district and had joined Durgapur Regional Engineering College the year before.

With the passing of Comrades Ramjatan Sharma and Arvind Singh, we have lost two of our finest comrades who had begun their communist journey in the tumultuous 1970s. Comrade Ram Jatan Sharma gave up his government job to join the movement as a full-time organiser in the mid-1970s after his younger brother Comrade Suresh (Siddheshwar Sharma), who had joined the CPI(ML) as a college student, had died a martyr in the Bhagalpur jailbreak campaign on 4 May 1976.

Poet, essayist and translator Aloke Ranjan Dasgupta passed away on 17 November. He authored 20 books of poetry and translated Bengali and Santhal poetry and plays into English and German, and also translated literature from German and French into Bengali.

In tribute to Aloke Ranjan Dasgupta, we reproduce one of his poems in translation.

Paying tribute to the legendary actor of Bengali theatre and cinema Soumitra Chatterjee, CPIML general secretary Comrade Dipankar wrote, “Adieu, Soumitra Chatterjee! For decades you strode like a colossus on the cultural canvas of West Bengal, and now you won't be around when West Bengal is fighting the biggest battle ever to save its cultural soul and social ethos. Your legacy will inspire us to win this battle.”