With the demise of Comrade Basudeb Acharia, the working class lost one of the finest leaders who dedicated his life towards the betterment of the working class. Acharia (81) breathed his last on November 13.Unlike many bourgeoisie trade union leaders, he never used trade union activities for his personal gains. He had deep sympathy for the suffering working people and tried his best to reduce their pain. He was one of the most prominent leaders of the coal mine workers union and railway workers union. He was active in the Raniganj Coal mine and Dhanbad Coal mine area, establishing Mazdoor Union as its vice president. He also served as the president of the All India Coal Workers Federation. His decades-long efforts brought about a positive turnaround in the lives of coal mine workers. Alongside, he also worked towards strengthening the Steel Employees Union and also contributed towards mordenising Durgapur Steel Factory by pursuing Union government.He also helped the Railway Workers Union and led them in many struggles to improve their fate. He worked hard during the railway strikes in 1974 and was arrested and jailed for organising the strike. He also organised insurance agent contract workers in the country. His contribution towards building the Bank Employees Movement is remarkable. The Grameen Bank employees also worked under his guidance.He worked also for the CESE Employees Union and ESTC union while helping the electricity struggle. He was the president of the LIC Agents Union. He also helped the Calcutta Port Trust Union, in their movements. He also helped in building the Pearless Employees Union through his remarkable contributions. He joined the All India Reserve Bank Employees Movement many times. Building many trade unions and leading their struggle, he became an important leader of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and became its all-India vice president. As CITU leader, he also organised the workers of Damodar Valley Corporation under DVC Shramik Union and contract workers in the Railways, the Thermal Power Station, Cement Industry.Immense contribution as a parliamentarian Not only had he worked for the trade union movement, but his contribution as a parliament member was also immense towards the cause of working-class people. During his three and half decades of work as an MP, he brought hundreds of workers’ issues to the forefront in the Lok Sabha. No MP had raised so many trade union and working-class issues in the parliament, in a number of ways. Almost every day during the parliament session, he would raise one or other workers’ issues. He contributed to all the labour-related laws brought in the Lok Sabha during those three and half decades. He commanded the respect of the House for his great role.Acharia and I began working as MPs in the Lok Sabha in the 1980s, which continued for the next three decades. His dedication towards the parliamentary work was unprecedented. During that period, there was not a single issue on which he did not submit a notice to the speaker under different rules and zero hours. He was almost a permanent member of the Railway Standing Committee, and served as the chairman of that committee for a long time. His knowledge of railways was remarkable, sometimes even better than the railway ministers. His speeches on the railway budget, issues and accidents, workers’ and employees’ issues would be the single largest volume of records.He brought many changes in the railways through his recommendation as the chairman of the Railway Standing Committee. His attendance in the parliament was at its highest, as he would stay throughout the session, starting from 11 am towards the end of every day’s session. He used every opportunity, under different parliamentary rules, to intervene on various public issues to contribute to the legislative debate. He was also on important parliamentary committees like the Public Undertaking Committee, Committees on Government Assurance, Committee on Petition, Committee on Agriculture, among others.He brought many Private Members’ Bills to the House, many of which were accepted by the governments and were brought out as Bills later. He made a large number of suggestions which led to the amendments in various Bills throughout his parliamentary career.He made it a point to meet ministers every day on people’s issues. Sometimes, he also led delegations of students, workers, peasants, youth, women, among others to meet ministers concerned to press for the resolution of their issues. While other MPs did that too, there was no comparison to the level at which Acharia had done. His busy schedule never restricted him from raising public issues with ministers. His official residence always teemed with people from all walks of life who reached out to him for help. Acharia ensured that he listened to each of them patiently. While he was firm in commitment towards the causes he believed in, he was soft in his nature, exuding qualifies of the highest morality, integrity, and honesty. He walked the talk on any public issue he took up.Besides being a trade union and workers’ leader, he took up farmers’ issues consistently both in the parliament and outside, emphasising the need for the implementation of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee’s recommendation on remunerative price. His role in the enactment of the pro-farmer Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement legislation earned him wide respect across all farmers’ groups. He stood up for the rights of farmers and dependants on land by moving numerous amendments to the Bill. He was a strong voice on the issue of the rights of agricultural labour and for the effective implementation of the MNREGA as well as the Forest Rights Acts.He played a pioneering role in organising silk farmers and workers and took up their issues with the government and the Central Silk Board. On the problem of sugarcane farmers and their mounting arrears, he addressed many of their protests. As a chairperson of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, he raised his voice against corporatisation of agriculture, against the dismantling of the extension services, public stockholding, and efforts to privatise the Food Corporation of India. The report on GM crops tabled during his tenure stressed that the regulatory system in India is inadequate, needs more robust, ensures adequate security as well as control over monopolies and cannot ignore concerns like biosafety biodiversity, food sovereignty and farmers’ livelihood.Archaria’s family came from South Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli. His forefather came to ‘Gadi Berh’ of the Purulia district in West Bengal, as the Gadi Berh Panchakot Royal family brought them as the Royal priest. His family then adopted the Bengali language and culture. Basudeb’s wife was also from a Tamil family. Basudeb was born on July 11, 1942, in Purulia. He was involved in politics during his student life. He joined as a teacher at Kashipur Panchakot Raj High School. Later on, he left his job and became whole timer. He was a leader of the teachers’ movement in the Purulia district and state level and, a leader of ABTA. Then he was involved in the Labour movement, especially in the Coal miners’ organisation and also the Railway Worker Union. He joined CPI(M) and was elected to the Purulia District Committee in 1981 and to the West Bengal State Committee in 1985. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2005 and Chairman of the Control Commission in 2018. He remained in the party till his last day.His parliamentary career was long and glorious. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1980 from Bankura and re-elected a total of nine times till 2014. He was the leader of the CPI (M) group in Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2014. He played an important role as the chairman of many important Parliamentary Standing Committees as stated earlier.He was a man of the soil. He was very popular among people in Purulia and Bankura. His place of work was Addra-Kashipur and he was known as “Sir” in the district. He played an important role in building Kashipur Maichel Madhusudan Medical College. He moved in his area widely on a motorcycle or local train, without any security. People irrespective of political affiliation had easy access to him, and he never discriminated any anyone. He always looked at the party organisation in his district, took political classes, and helped the mass organisation and panchayats.In times of political violence, he stood by his cadres. In the 2018 panchayat election, our candidates could not submit nominations. He took all the candidates and went to submit nominations. The TMC workers attacked him and he was badly injured but he never retreated from any terror. He was always a source of courage and inspiration to the cadres and people.I worked with him in close coordination for more than four decades and watched him in action. In parliament, he was always friendly, cordial, and gentle with all members irrespective of party affiliation and loved by all including the staff of parliament. I was surprised by his energy to work around the clock. He did justice to all his work in the parliament, in his constituencies, in hundreds of trade union struggles, attending to each problem of people and helping them. People would come to see him from all over India in hundreds, but he never showed annoyance, or left unattended. This was the source of his immense popularity. He lived a very simple life and maintained a Communist standard in his life and behaviour. He widely travelled the whole country to attend meetings, conferences, or to participate in struggles to visit if people were attacked by police or affected by communal and caste riots. And the next day he would raise the issue in parliament. Despite his ill health, he never shied away from work.After retirement from the parliament, he was fully engaged in organisational activities of the party, trade union or social work. He would read Marxist literature and party literature regularly to keep himself updated and inspired. His family has been living in Hyderabad for the last few years. Recently he was very ill due to age-related diseases and was admitted to a private hospital. But finally, he passed away on November 13 at the age of 81 years. A few months back his wife had also passed away. He left behind his one son and two daughters and lakhs of comrades, friends, sympathizers and followers.Hannan Mollah is a member of the CPI (M) politburo, and was also elected to the Lok Sabha eight times.