Veteran communist leader Roza Deshpande is no more

Sep 19, 2020
Mumbai: Veteran communist leader, trade unionist and former lok Sabha MP from Mumbai (then Bombay) Com. Roza Deshpande passed away at her residence at Dadar in Central Mumbai, Saturday afternoon.

She is survived by her daughter, son and grandchildren.

Roza-daughter of famous communist leader and founder of the first Communist party of india Shripad Amrut Dange was born the week her father was charged as the 52nd accused in the famous Meerut Conspiracy Case by British government in 1929.

Com. Roza was dubbed as the first child of the undivided Communist Party of India.

Involved right from her teens into trade union activities Com Roza apart from helping her father in party work won the North Central Mumbai 5th Lok Sabha seat on CPI ticket.

Thereafter, along with her husband Vidyadhar Deshpande she was associated with All India Communist Party between 1980-87.

Along with socialist leader Mrinal Gore and CPI(M) leader Ahilya Rangnekar, Com Roza formed a triumvirate of women who brought not just feminism onto the streets but woes and issues that never found themselves aired in the corridors of power, except in helpless wails in kitchen sinks and street corner pan kiosks.

Com Roza while penning articles for newspapers and magazines also wrote biography of her father tracing his friendship with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and sectarianism in Indian communist parties.

Her husband Com. Vidyadhar Deshpande had passed away in 2015.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM