Mridul Dey, Veteran Journalist and CPI(M) Leader Passes Away
Photo of Mridul Dey veteran communist journalist who passed away on monday
Kolkata: Mridul Dey, veteran journalist and former central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M), passed away on Monday. He was 76. He was suffering from lung cancer and had been admitted in New Town Government Hospital for months. He is survived by his wife and son.
Dey began as chief reporter of Ganashakti and has a lot of analytical writings to his credit During the collapse of the Soviet Union, he had visited there and had filed several analytical reports.
Dey is also remembered for his role in taking some “bold steps” to transform Ganashakti from an eveninger to the daily morning format. He was also associated with Kolkata Press Club and was once elected its vice president.
The veteran journalist and CPI(M) leader was born in 1947 in Chattogram’s Alampur village, now in Bangladesh. His father, Dr Jogeshchandra Dey, was a freedom fighter and a well-known medical doctor.
Mridul Dey graduated from Gobardanga Hindu College under Calcutta University in physics honours. He did his MSc from North Bengal University. In 1968, he turned to Marxist philosophy and joined the student movement.
He soon faced ideological and even physical attacks in Siliguri. The Congress government imprisoned him for one month on “frivolous” grounds alleging that his physics notes were meant to train students on how to make bombs. Later, after being released from jail, he travelled to Kolkata and became a whole timer of the party. He, however, kept his ties intact with Ganashakti and was a regular contributor to the newspaper.
In 1985, Dey was elected to CPI(M)’s West Bengal state committee and in 2001 he became party’s state secretariat member. In the 2008 party congress in Coimbatore, he was made a central committee member. He was relieved in the last party congress.
Dey was president of the Muzaffar Ahmad Memorial Award Committee and was also ardently related to progressive literature and cultural movement. He has written several books on Bengali politics and Marxist thoughts.
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