Shock for all who knew him

Siliguri, March 23: Many had at first refused to believe that a charismatic leader like Kanu Sanyal had ended his life by hanging himself. Alaka Dey was one of them.

In Kurseong, Dey, a retired teacher who knew Sanyal since the mid-40s, said she was shocked when she heard the news.

“I got the news (of his death) this afternoon. It was so shocking,” said Dey who retired from St Joseph’s Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Kurseong in 1999.

Recalling his leadership qualities, Dey, now 70, said: “Kanuda was almost eight-nine years elder to me, and his sister, Usha, was my classmate. He was a quiet, sports-loving person and used to enjoy chatting with others. At that time his leadership qualities like forming an organisation and working with others had been noticed. In those days, young boys of Kurseong used to visit Raj Rajeswari Hall for physical training and Kanuda was one of the regular members.”

Sanyal studied in Kurseong Pushparani Roy Memorial High School with Dey’s elder brother, the late Ashim Banerjee. “They used to stay at Bhalu Busty in Lower Domaram in Kurseong,” said Dey.

According to Dey, Sanyal had shifted base from Kurseong to Siliguri in the late 50s. Around 10 years later, she met the Naxal leader for the last time when he came to visit a party comrade who was then under treatment at the Kurseong T.B. Sanatorium. Dey’s husband, the late Amiyo Dey, was the in-charge of the female ward of the hospital.

“He (Sanyal) came along with the late Jangal Santhal, another Naxal leader, to visit Shanti who was admitted then to the female ward,” Dey reminisced at her residence in Kurseong, 50km from here.

“When I saw him last, he was wearing a dhoti and a white full-sleeve shirt. A bag was slung on his shoulder. My mother asked him in jest if he had any gun inside the bag. Kanuda smiled in reply and said there was nothing like it in the bag,” she said.

Abhijit Majumdar, the son of late Charu Majumdar who was the co-founder of the Naxalite movement along with Sanyal, said the death was a great lose for the communist movement in the country. “He was totally dedicated to the ideology. He was one of the main architects of the Naxalbari movement who had worked throughout his life for tea workers and farmers,” said Majumdar, a central committee member of the CPI(M-L) Liberation and the district secretary of the party.

Source: The Telegraph