TRIBUTE PAID TO CPM POLITBURO MEMBER M.K PANDHE

TRIBUTE PAID

TO CPM POLITBURO MEMBER M.K PANDHE

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) politburo member and chief of its trade union arm CITU, M.K Pandhe died at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital a little after midnight Friday,20^th, August,2011, following a cardiac arrest, party sources said. He was 86.Pandhe was admitted to the hospital around 8 p.m. Friday (18^th August,2011)after he complained of chest pain. His end came at 12.20 a.m. Saturday.

Born July 11, 1925 in Pune, Pandhe joined the undivided Communist Party in 1943 and rose through the ranks to become a secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), a trade union wing, in 1966.He joined the CPM after the division of the Communist Party in 1964 and was elected secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) in 1970.He was elected to the CPM central committee in 1978 and took over as CITU general secretary in 1990.Pandhe, a PhD from Pune's Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, became a CPM politburo member in 1998. A year later he became the CITU president.

In the passing away of Polit Bureau member M.K. Pandhe, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) lost one of its foremost leaders who worked for the uplift and welfare of the working classes and for an organised labour force in the country for over seven decades. Much before he armed himself with a doctorate from the prestigious Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Mr. Pandhe entered public life by becoming a student activist as the Secretary of the Sholapur Students Union in 1943.

In the same year, he began his journey into Communism joining the Communist Party of India, and rose to become the Secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). During the 1964 split, Mr. Pandhe took a stand against revisionism and later on joined the CPI(M). After having served the AITUC, he had the unique distinction of being one of the prime leaders of its trade union frontal organisation, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, serving as its general secretary for a decade and later as its president till last year. At the time of his death, he was associated as its vice president.

One of the central themes of his work was to bring about unity among various trade unions and along with other Left organisations. There was a measure of success when of late, even the Congress-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress joined hands to mount pressure on the Government to secure rights of the working class and also to protest on issues of common concern such as price rise.

Mr. Pandhe was known for his simple way of life and was one who continued to voice his views on problems of the workers and their rights. The octogenarian leader was known to be candid while articulating his views on contemporary developments, especially the pursuit of the neo-liberal policies by successive Governments since initiating the economic reforms in 1991.

“As a dedicated Marxist-Leninist, Mr. Pandhe strove consistently to equip the working class movement with the ideology of socialism and to develop the political consciousness of the workers to enable them to discharge their revolutionary role in social transformation,” was how the party Polit Bureau summed up his contribution. “Com. Pandhe was a true internationalist and firm in his anti-imperialism who worked constantly for developing the solidarity of the working class movement all over the world”, the Polit Bureau said, describing his contribution to the party and its work.

Mr. Pandhe was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI(M) at the 10th Congress in 1978 and to the Polit Bureau two decades later and remained in these positions till his death. The party said not only had it lost an invaluable leader, the Left movement of the country had suffered an irreparable loss 

                                                                            Prof. John Kurakar