Remembering Comrade Sudipto Gupta : Fallen Comrade's Birthday
Remembering Comrade Sudipto Gupta

Fallen Comrade's Birthday

8th November 2014 : SFI Kolkata District Committee today organised a public meeting and blood donation camp in commemoration of Comrade Sudipto Gupta's 26th birthday. Our Comrade was beaten to death by the state police on the 2nd of April last year while in custody after being arrested from a civil disobedience protesting the suspension of college union elections. His killing sparked tumultous public outcry in its immediate aftermath. The organisation has been out on the streets demanding justice for Sudipto throughout the last one and a half years. Yet justice, or even the mirage of it, is nowhere in sight. Today the SFI Kolkata District Committee along with three other leftist students' organisations took the call back to the public with a meeting in front of the Calcutta Coffee House. The demands raised from the meeting also included the demand for democratic rights of teachers students and educational staff and a demand for the resignation of the Jadavpur VC. The meeting further called for unified resistance from the students' to the continuing attack on democracy across campuses in the state.

 The General Secretary of the SFI, Ritabrata Banerjee addressed the assembly, speaking at length on the rise of communal forces in the Indian political arena and the overall attack on democratic values. He narrated how the hindutwa brigade had been forcing their agenda onto the people of India ever since the BJP came to power. He also described the facilitative role played by the TMC run state government promoting divisive politics in Bengal, their negative role during the Bangladeshi Shahbag uprising, their turning a blind eye to the activity of fundamentalist groups in Bengal. The Secretary of SFI West Bengal State Committee Debojyoti Das spoke on the relentless fight for democracy that the students of the state were waging in campus and the need to intensify the struggle. Madhuja Sen Roy, President of the West Bengal State Committee addressed the ongoing ststruggle to restore campus democracy and made all remember the sacrifice of Comrade Sudipto Gupta spearheading the struggle.

This morning the Kolkata District Committee had also organised a blood donation camp. Hundreds attended the camp, and it was a resounding success.

The day closed with the determination of carrying forth the banner that Sudipto had held high, reawakening the rage at justice denied and youth wronged, with a promise of fiercer battles tomorrow.