Comrade Janardan Harijan, State Committee member of CPI(ML)’s Jharkhand Committee, passed away on 8 October. He was 54. Fondly called Comrade JD, he was born in a Dalit coal workers’ family in Sindri village in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, and when offered a job in BCCL, he passed it on to his brother instead.
In the 1980s, when there were rising protests and people’s movements against the autocracy of the Congress rule across the country and strengthening of the movement for a separate state within Jharkhand, Com. JD was active in Student Liberation Front, the student wing of the MCC. He was also jailed during this period. Impressed by his fighting spirit and enthusiasm, party comrades established contact with him. Gradually, becoming influenced by the party’s work he started working on the former student wing of the party, Creative Student Union. He joined the Bihar State People’s Front formed in 1981 and became a whole timer of the party. In 1982, after the formation of IPF, he joined the Dhanbad unit of the IPF. He also fought from Sindri and Chandankyari as the IPF candidate. He was a leader of anti-feudal struggles in Parasbaniya and also a leader of Sindri’s Dalit workers. He organized against the Congress-sponsored anti-Sikh communal violence in 1984.
He brilliantly performed the task of the local organiser of the party’s student organisation – All Bihar Student Union. He then fought the assembly elections from Aurangabad as per the party’s decision. After Jharkhand became a separate state, he ably performed his role in Dhanbad, Bokaro, Ranchi and other districts.
He never shied away from starting the party units in new regions. He later became the state committee member of the party’s Jharkhand unit. He enthusiastically participated in the party workshop organised in Lakhun. In recent times he had been appointed by the party to work in Ranchi’s Bundu region.
Comrade JD had a good knowledge of folksongs and music and was a very good folksinger himself. Comrade JD had a special bond with forests, mountains, rivers and nature. He played the mouth organ and the flute. One of his favourite songs was about the hills and nature of Jharkhand’s Rajmahal. He wrote and composed several revolutionary songs, mostly in the local languages of Jharkhand. He was an active member of the Jan Sanskriti Manch’s Dhanbad unit. A few days earlier he had recorded some of his self-composed Jharkhandi folksongs with people’s support. Wherever he went, he was appreciated and recognized among a wide section for his communist character and revolutionary spirit. In the recently concluded national conference of construction workers in Ranchi held on 29-30 September, Com. JD enthralled the audience with his rendition of ‘Suno Shaheed Birsa Re’.
Red Salute to Comrade JD !
