Veteran Forward Bloc leader and former minister of the Left Front government in Tripura Dr Braja Gopal Roy passed away on Sunday morning following prolonged illness. He was 86.
He is survived his wife, daughter and son in law.
A Bengali scholar, a teacher turned politician Dr Roy was also an eminent cultural personality. He authored about 15 books.
He was also a lifelong and founder member of Rabindra Parishad, Tripura’s top literary-cultural centre, and was always active in literary and cultural activities all through his life.
Dr Roy was minister in the first CPI-M led Left Front government in 1978-1983 under Chief Minister Nripen Chakraborty and again in the third Left government (1993-1998) led by Chief Minister Dasaratha Deb.
He was born in Bispasha village of Comilla ( Now in Bangladesh) on June 30, 1937 and educated in Netaji Subhash Vidyaniketan and then in Pragati Vidyabhaban in Agartala and appeared at HS exams in 1954. Then he studied in Ramkrsihna Mahavidyalay in Kailasahar in 1956 and passed BA from MBB College , Agartala. In 1963 he passed Bengali Special honours from Charuchandra College , Kolkata and then got his Diploma in English from Hyderabad Central Institute of English. He secured his MA in 1968 and then PhD from Calcutta University.
He was also central committee member of the Forward Bloc and all India president of Agragami Kishan Sabha.
In 1959 he joined as a teacher at Prachyabharati school and also became Headmaster of the institution. He edited Tripurabani paper for 20 years. In 2013 Dr Roy was awarded with Tripura government’s prestigious Rabindra Purushkar.
A pall of gloom descended as the news of Dr Roy became known. All political parties, cultural activists and thousands of his students expressed their grief.
Condoling the death, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha in a statement said, “Dr Roy was actively involved both in literary works and politics. He was a very honest personality and his death was an enormous loss to the cultural and literary world.”
Former Tripura Chief Minister and opposition leader Manik Sarkar and Left Front convener Narayan Kar condoled the death and highly praised his simple life style and intellectual capability. Forward Bloc in a statement said it was a serious loss for the party and democratic movement in the state. Dr Roy’s last rites were performed with full state honours on Sunday afternoon at Battala mass cremation ground.
