COMRADE Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury, member of CPI(M) West Bengal state committee breathed his last after a brief illness on July 31. He was 75. Comrade Roy Chowdhury was secretary of Party’s Hooghly district committee from 2012-2019. He joined the militant students’ struggle in 1960s while in Presidency College.He participated in intense ideological battle against both revisionism and Left sectarianism and became one of the foremost leaders of the erstwhile BPSF. Later he joined the teaching profession and was a professor in Serampore College for long.

MYTHILY Sivaraman, a veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Tamil Nadu, passed away in Chennai on the morning of May 30, 2021. In her death, the Party and the democratic movement have lost a dedicated fighter against exploitation, oppression and inequality. Comrade Mythily served the democratic movement with great distinction for more than four decades, contributing significantly to the work of AIDWA and CITU in particular.

THE CPI(M) expresses its sorrow at the passing away of Comrade SP Kashyap due to Covid complications. He was a member of the state secretariat of the CPI(M), Uttar Pradesh and had earlier been the state secretary of the Party for several years. He was also a former member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M). Comrade Kashyap became a whole-timer of the party after his retirement from teaching.Comrade Kashyap was greatly respected as a Marxist intellectual and he was much sought after by all those who organised Hindi Party classes in different states and at the center.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on April 22, 2021:WE are deeply sorry to announce the passing away this morning (April 22) of Ashish Yechury, son of Sitaram Yechury and Indrani Mazumdar.  He died of Covid related complications. He was 35 years old.The Polit Bureau conveys its deepest condolences to Sitaram and Indrani, his wife Swati, his sister Akhila and all other members of the bereaved family.

PROFESSOR Dwijendra Narayan Jha (DN Jha or DNJ in short), who fought shibboleths and superstitions all his life, was busy doing so when he took a break, had lunch, went for his siesta and breathed his last on February 4, 2021. On that count, the loss to the cause he stood for and served – by providing well-honed intellectual instruments for changing the world for the better – is indeed real and irreparable. The departure of anyone who has given all that he/she had to is indeed very sad, but the bereavement causes little loss to the cause as such.