Latest news with #AKGCentre
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Red crusader and the last of CPM's founders: Ex-CM of Kerala VS Achuthanandan dies at 101
VS Achuthanandan THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A singular chapter of Kerala 's red history turned its last page Monday. Former CM Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan - firebrand Marxist, CPM 's founding member, and Kerala's conscience-keeper - died aged 101 in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram at 3.20pm after 28 days on life support. VS, as he was known across political aisles, was hospitalised after a heart attack on June 23. Trusted comrades stayed by his side to the end. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan rushed in for a final glimpse. Funeral will be held Wednesday evening in Alappuzha. Public homage begins Monday evening at AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, continues Tuesday at Secretariat Durbar Hall, and concludes at Alappuzha Town Hall. Born on Oct 20, 1923, in Alappuzha to Velikkakathu Sankaran and Akkamma, he lost his mother at four and father at 11. Hunger cut short school at Class 7. The "chovan" (Ezhava) boy faced casteist jeers, but his resolve only hardened. At 21, he was organising Kuttanad farm workers. By 1940, he joined Communist Party. Jail, underground life, resistance - his early life reads like Kerala's own left-wing chronicle. Achuthanandan became CPM state secretary (1980-92), was elected to the assembly four times, and led the state as CM from 2006 to 2011 - the first working-class communist in India to do so. He twice served as opposition leader, and his loss at Mararikulam in 1996 polls shocked even his critics. His brand of politics was not of quiet obedience. He challenged CPM brass, openly taking on party honchos he dubbed "crafty revisionists". His feud with Pinarayi cost him a politburo seat. Yet he never broke from the party. He led anti-corruption crusades, exposed sex scandals involving ministers and film stars, and sent former minister R Balakrishna Pillai to jail. A green activist before the phrase existed, he battled land grab and paddy reclamation. Even in his 90s, he hired a tutor to learn Hindi after being named administrative reforms panel chief. Supporters called him the soul of CPM. With his passing, the last of the founding reds was gone.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
V.S. Achuthanandan helped transform socio-economic, political landscape of Kerala, says Antony
Veteran Congress leader and former Defence Minister A.K. Antony stated that the late V.S. Achuthanandan had played a pivotal role in transforming the socio-economic and political landscape of Kerala, when the vestiges of exploitative feudalism remained a fact of life for the labouring classes. Mr. Antony, who paid his last respects to Mr. Achuthanandan at the old AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, told reporters that as a school student in the early 1960s at Cherthala, he used to wait beside paddy fields to listen to the communist leader address agricultural workers. Mr. Antony rejected any comparison between himself and Mr. Achuthanandan. 'Mr. Achuthanandan's life and struggles and the torture and beatings he endured in the vanguard of the communist agitations for bonded agriculture workers in Kuttanad are unequalled and historical,' he said. Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan, who joined the Communist Party at the age of 17 in 1940, was second only to T.V. Thomas, K.R. Gouri, and R. Sugathan in the party's hierarchy in central Kerala. In the grip of poverty 'In the early 50s, poverty plagued Cherthala, Ambalappuzha and Kuttanad in Alappuzha district. I remember seeing hundreds of women making a beeline for the Thaneermukkam harbour at dawn. Their employers paid them slave wages. Many returned home late at night after enduring humiliation and exploitation with a small bunch of tapioca for the family dinner,' he said. Mr. Antony said Mr. Achuthanandan led the Communist Party's successful struggle for better wages and restored the self-esteem of the women by unionising them and placing himself at their head. Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan was the spearhead of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in the Assembly when EMS Namboodiripad was the Leader of the Opposition. 'VS, Balanandan, K.R. Gouri and M.V. Raghavan were the CPI(M)'s firebrands,' he added. Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan was seen generally as a martinet in the CPI(M) and a dogmatic party apparatchik with a limited public profile before he became the Leader of the Opposition. Champion of forgotten causes 'I watched with amazement when Mr. Achuthanandan emerged as the champion of forgotten causes, including women's rights and environmental protection, human rights, rights of sexual minorities, wetland conservation and became an idol of the masses, perhaps comparable only to A.K. Gopalan,' Mr. Antony said. When Mr. Achuthanandan became Chief Minister in 2006, he became a champion for State development. 'I was the Defence Minister, and Mr. Achuthanandan sought my assistance for making the Kochi metro a reality and for security clearance for the Vizhinjam port. I always went and met him at the Kerala House whenever Mr Achuthanandan came to New Delhi,' he added. 'A mind of his own' Mr. Antony said Mr. Achuthanandan had a strong moral compass and a mind of his own, which, he said, were not always subservient to party diktat. 'Perhaps, few remember that as a political prisoner, Mr. Achuthanandan donated his blood for soldiers during the Indo-China conflict, raising a few eyebrows and leaving behind a few ruffled feathers in the CPI(M),' Mr. Antony said. 'He was the strongest when in the Opposition, and he troubled us no end. But Mr. Achuthanandan never let politics creep into a personal relationship. An era has ended,' Mr. Antony said.
