Romesh Chandra, veteran CPI leader, is perhaps the only surviving Indian Communist to be named in The Mitrokhin Archives II.He is at times indignant, at others dismissive of claims that CPI leaders were bankrolled by the KGB.‘‘I don’t know what’s written about me. I am sure they have. After all, the World Peace Council (of which he was general secretary and later president) was a very active body,’’ says Chandra, now 86, who now stays at Ajoy Bhavan, the CPI’s headquarters in the Capital. Here’s what the Mitrokhin Archives II has on Chandra: Page 324 ‘‘India was also one of the most favourable environments for Soviet front organisations. From 1966 to 1986 the head of the most important of them, the World Peace Council (WPC), was the Indian Communist Romesh Chandra. In his review of the 1960s at the WPC-sponsored World Peace Congress in 1971, Chandra denounced ‘the US-dominated NATO’ as ‘the greatest threat to peace’ across the world. Page 335 The World Peace Council is described as ‘‘much used as a vehicle for Soviet active measures.’’ Page 340 ‘‘In an era of glasnost, Moscow also regarded the front organisations as a rapidly declining asset. In 1986 Romesh Chandra felt obliged to indulge in self-criticism. ‘The criticisms made of the President’s work,’ he acknowledged, ‘require to be heeded and necessary corrections made.’ The main ‘correction’ which followed was his own replacement.’’ Chandra rubbishes claims made against Left leaders. ‘‘Yes, we did go to the Soviet Union. But what do you say to this? Who are these people. someone who defected from the Soviet Union. We have worked for our country.’’
