Amritsar, June 15
Veteran communist leader Satyapal Dang, who was in the forefront of the battle against terrorism and secessionism in Punjab, breathed his last after a prolonged illness at a private hospital at 5 pm here today. He was 92.

Dang's body will be kept at the Ekta Bhawan, the local CPI office, from 10 am to 1 pm tomorrow to enable people to pay their last respects to the departed leader.

The cremation will be held at Narayangarh in the Chheharta area of the city at 2 pm. Senior CPI leaders are expected to take part in his last journey. He was admitted to the hospital yesterday due to chest infection.

Dang was living with his nephew in the city as his wife Vimla was no more and the couple had no children. Dang was admitted to the hospital yesterday due to chest infection. Though Dang was not keeping well for a long time, his condition particularly deteriorated after the demise of his wife in 2009.

With Dang's demise, an era of principled politics has come to an end. All his life, Dang struggled for the toiling people and took a principled stand against militancy in Punjab. He had fought many relentless battles for the just cause of the downtrodden while leading a simple and austere life.

Dang attracted national attention when he defeated Gurmukh Singh Musafir, the state Chief Minister from the Congress, and won the Assembly election with a convincing margin in 1967. He held the Amritsar West seat till 1980 and served as a minister in a non-Congress government too.

Though he lost the Assembly seat to Sewa Ram Arora of the Congress in 1980, his wife Vimla won back the seat for the CPI in the 1992 elections.

As a minister, Dang did not opt for an official bungalow and instead lived in MLAs’ Flats. He loved to paddle through his constituency on his bicycle. The Dang couple had set a rare example of voluntary retirement from active politics.

Dang belonged to Ram Nagar village (it was called Rasoolpur being Muslim-dominated) in Gujranwala district, now in Pakistan. The couple was so dedicated to the cause of the people that they decided not to have children as they did not want to divert their attention from the people’s struggle.

The couple led ‘underground’ life during the British rule and were entitled to Freedom Fighters’ Pension, though they never claimed the same. The couple had shifted to Chheharta from Mumbai in 1952 after their dowry-free court marriage. Before that, they had never been to Amritsar. Both were senior leaders of All-India Students’ Federation. Both communist party leaders took active part in pre-Independence movement.

Dang was also elected vice-president of the World Youth Federation. The Dang couple had the honour of holding personal meetings with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. The most memorable event in the life of Dang was the Naval Mutiny, a year before the Independence of the country, in which he actively supported the cause of mutineers.

In the words of Khushwant Singh, “Satyapal Dang and his wife Vimla Dang lived in Chheharta, a suburban township near Amritsar, in the heat of the terrorism let loose by the supporters of Bhindranwale and the protagonists of Khalistan. Not only did the Dangs refuse to seek sanctuary elsewhere, they made Chheharta an island of peace when most of the state was in turmoil.”