Santosh Rana, veteran Naxalite leader, passes away

Santosh Rana (76), the veteran Naxalite leader, has passed away in Kolkata on June 29, 2019. He is one of the foremost leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and a major thinker on caste, class and tribal politics in West Bengal and winner of a top literary award in the State. The CPI-ML (PCC) was one of the very first Naxalite groups to participate in elections. Under his leadership, CPI-ML (PCC) was active in parts of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. It played a significant role in opposing the CPI-M led government during the Nandigram land agitation, which contributed to the electoral debacle of the Left Front in West Bengal. He argued in his award-winning autobiography, Rajnitir Ek Jibon [A Life in Politics], that the Left in India made a huge mistake as they never analysed and responded to the caste question.