Senior Socialist leader Bhai Vaidya passes away

3 April 2018

Press Release

Senior Socialist leader Bhai Vaidya passes away

  

            Senior socialist leader Bhai Vaidya passed away on April 2, 2018 at Poona Hospital in Poona, about 8 in the evening. 90-year-old Bhai Vaidya was admitted to Poona Hospital on March 26, 2018, when he was diagnosed with cancer in the pancreas. He was born on June 22, 1928 in Poona district.

            Bhai Vaidya, MA in Sociology and Political Science, was one of the few prominent survivors of socialist movement in India. He joined the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1946. Then played a major role in socialist movement while working in the Socialist Party, Praja Socialist Party, Samyukt Socialist Party and Janata Party. He had an active stake in the Quit India Movement of 1942, the Goa Liberation Movement of 1955, the Kachch Satyagraha of 1956, and the JP movement of 1974. He was jailed in the Emergency from 1975 to 1977.  From 1978 to 1980 he was the Home Minister of Maharashtra. He participated in Chandrashekhar's Bharat Yatra in 1983. He was also the National General Secretary of Janata Party from 1986 to 1988. He took over as National General Secretary in the Samajwadi Jan Parishad (SJP), formed in 1995 and held the post till 1999.

            In 2011, after the re-establishment of the Socialist Party in Hyderabad, he became its National President and guided the party till 2016. Bhai Vaidya has consistently protested against neo-liberalism/neo-imperialism that came with the new economic policies introduced in 1991 with the founding of socialist ideology.

            The Socialist Party gives a hearty tribute to the passing away of his most revered leader and resolves to strengthen the original ideological spirit of socialism against neo-liberalism/neo-imperialism.

Dr. Prem Singh

President

Socialist Party (India)