Homage to Late Comrade Zora Singh Jalajan

Harsh Thakor

On 13th September the Communist revolutionary contingent dips it’s blood in memory of late Comrade Zora Singh Jalajan, a member of the Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India (Marxist-Leninist), on his 20th martyrdom anniversary. He lived for only 33 years, succumbing as a victim of cancer. However in his lifetime he lit the flame of Mao thought at its crescendo which shimmered at the very core of his soul. His life was a living illustration of a spiritual essence of a revolutionary whose aspirations are never dead and buried. There could be few better examples of how revolutionary events plant new lotuses to bloom or shape the life of an individual. Zora possessed the painstaking quality of a surgeon blended with the creativity of a poet and tenacity of a monk. Above all he radiated the spirit that laid the breeding ground for new comrades to spring up reminiscent of an inextinguishable flame.

The mass movement led by the trend of the Unity Centre of Communist revolutionaries in India in Punjab representing the T. Nagi Reddy trend played a major role in shaping the political course of Comrade Zora. Zora was later a living product of the massline manifested of the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India and later the Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India (Marxist-Leninist)

The valiant comrade gained his political baptism in the stormy period of Khalistani terrorism prevailing in the 1980’s, as a cadre of the Punjab Students Union. He played a vanguard role in rallying the youth against the fascist dictates of Khalistani forces and state terror through organizing mass combat. Zora's induction in the Communist movement coincided with the mass revolutionary movement based on massline against the twin monsters of Khalistan and state terror and with the toppling of Revisionist regimes in the late 1980's where the counter-revolutionary wind blew at its optimum.

The turning point that crystallized his political career bringing him into the forefront of the Communist revolutionary movement was the massacre initiated by Khalistani terrorists on 18 comrades of the ‘anti communal and anti-repression front in Sewewala’ in April 1991.This Communist revolutionary led front made the largest contribution towards waging mass revolutionary resistance against twin terror of Khalistani and state terrorism. The spirit vengeance against the killings in Sewewala literally transformed Zora who was steeled and tempered into a professional revolutionary to join the party ranks. He was inducted into the armed team of the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India. Zora played an integral role in the retaliatory actions against Khalistani terrorists where assassins of Communist revolutionary and democratic martyrs were executed. What was remarkable that even when he had individual differences he submitted to the individual discipline of the party.

With the skill of an architect he dealt with the problem s of the day that confronted the movement and waged a crusade against the enemy at its hardest point. In his practice he exhibited the discipline of a soldier always abiding by the party. With meticulous skill he knitted comrades together and guided mass organizations. In his area he played an instrumental role in steering comrades with mass political consciousness, particularly amongst the peasant youth. Zora Singh displayed great mastery in shaping of massline as a torchbearer of the path of T. Nagi Reddy and the Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India (Marxist-Leninist). He continued the legacy of the movement of the Punjab Students Movement and Naujwan Bharat Sabha in the 1970's. His practice was testimony to the mass line orientation of his organization, the C.P.R.C.I.(M.L.). Patience and gradual persuasion were hallmarks of Zora in nurturing comrades towards revolutionary path instead of mere revolutionary rhetoric of revolutionary groups which was also a predominant trend in his era. His painstaking groundwork was an ideal contrast to Communist revolutionaries who only waged political propaganda, without adequate preparatory work. The most subtle feature of Zora’s contribution was the demarcation of the role of a revolutionary party with a mass organization, giving them both a distinct identity.

His efforts played an important part in nurturing unity of the landless agricultural labour with the poor landed peasantry in the political movement and sharpening the polarization of mass political resistance. In his time the most prominent mass political platform in India was formed in Punjab in Selbrah in 1996 as well as the most correct Communist revolutionary mass line practice in election programmes took place. A base was also created for forming a genuine revolutionary organization of landed peasantry. The uprising of the landed peasantry against the police firing in Jethuke in December 1999 ,mass -political conference in March 1996,the victory of dalit agricultural labourers in Balajhar Vinju in 1993 in thwarting land auctioning ,mass revolutionary election rallies in 1996,98 and 99 and earlier memorial conferences in memory of martyrs of the Front against Repression and Communalism were amongst the major highlights in the time of Zora. On the political front a major happening in Zora's time was the merger of the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India with the Central Team of the C.P.I.(M.L.) into the Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India (Marxist-Leninist ), which manifested the proletarian revolutionary massline.

Few comrades were ever as inspiring as Jalajan who even on the brink of death illuminated spark of revolution. With the intensity of a professor he studied Leninist political ideology. There is hardly an adjective to do justice to the death defying courage he displayed in his last days. Zora constantly inquired about the happening sin the revolutionary movement ,virtually forgetting his personal physical misery.
To organize a homage meeting a preliminary gathering was held of selected young people of the village highlighting the significance of Communist revolutionary politics and Communist revolutionary organization towards the crystallization of liberation. Zora's role as a professional revolutionary in a Communist Organization was summarized. Subsequently a big mass meeting was held where a preparatory committee for staging Homage conference was selected. The political preparations for his homage meeting stressed on connecting the social revolutionary life of Zora Singh Jalajan with the development of the mass movement of the area. A continuous day night propaganda programme was launched exhibiting the values of Zora.

Significantly the youth comrades involved in the homage conference galvanised mass democratic forces in an identical manner as Comrade Zora did in his lifetime.

The memorial meeting paying homage to Comrade Zora in his village Jalajan ranked amongst the most memorable ever in the history of Punjab, attended by 1500 persons. It was addressed by Joginder Azad, leader of Lok Sangarsh Committee ,Khanna; Amolak Singh, secretary Lok Morcha; Bikramjeet Rauni, leading farmer leader; Kulwant Tark,  leader of the Sangharsh Commitee, Samrala; Parminder Singh, leader of Young People’s Preparatory Commitee; Captain Jarnail Singh,representative of the people of the village;and Jaspal Jassi , convenor of the homage conference party Harjinder Singh, managed the stage..It was adressed by comrades like Jaspal Jassi, Amolak Singh. Jaspal Jassi reflected on how Jalajan illness was a political confrontation of the Communist revolutionary movement, which exhibited deep collective spirit in contrast to bourgeois and reformist parties. He summed up how India needed professional Communist revolutionaries like Zora to fill the voids in the revolutionary movement. A deep impression was let on the villagers reminiscent of red spark flashing within their hearts. The conference made a major impact on the minds of the Communist revolutionary supporters and villagers. An elder of the village stated "Zora Singh Jalajan may not have gone to the gallows but he is nevertheless immortal like Bhagat Singh and Karnail Singh from Eesru village."Villagers previously only knew Zora as a friendly and good person and now eulogized his role as a Communist revolutionary leader.

Today the spirit of Comrade Zora Singh Jalajan has to be rekindled with proto-fascism of the Saffron variety at it s helm. The mass revolutionary movement today in Punjab guided by the C.P.R.C.I (M.L.) is a testimony of the guidance of Comrades like him who never substituted massline with romanticism and even when giving the party the cutting edge never violated the democratic norms of functioning of mass organizations. The organized protests of democratic forces against Operation Green Hunt, arrest of ‘Urban’ intellectuals, Attack on  Dalits,  repression in Kashmir, NRC-NPR; the mass-revolutionary consciousness created in election campaigns  as well as the mass resistance and mutual unity of the landed peasantry and agricultural labour owe a lot to the spade work done by comrades like Zora Singh Jalajan. Whatever its weaknesses in  being unable to build a sustained agrarian revolutionary resistance movement or a political movement of the students and youth, the C.P.RC.I.(M.L.) can be proud of being the single largest Communist revolutionary Organization in Punjab today and the highest adherent of mass line .Even if the political movement is weak the galvanizing of youth into the mainstream of revolutionary peasant and landless labour movement is most impressive, as reflected in the rallies commemorating Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his comrades.

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Sep 13, 2020