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News18
39 minutes ago
- Politics
- News18
'Goodbye Comrade VS': Kerala Fills The Streets As Achuthanandan Begins His Final Journey
Last Updated: Thousands in Kerala mourned former Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other leaders paid tribute. Kerala declared three days of mourning. The roads of Kerala turned red on Tuesday as thousands lined the national highway, pouring in to bid farewell to former Kerala chief minister and veteran Indian communist leader VS Achuthanandan. Thousands took to the streets to mourn the man who fought his way from the fields and factory floors to the frontlines of India's communist movement. The turnout was staggering. In CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac's words, 'It has taken eight hours for the cortege to cover just 30 kilometers" indicating that it was not crowd control but the masses refusing to let go. He also posted an image of the sea of people lining the highway, referring to the photo he shared on X showing crowds stretching for miles to pay tribute to Achuthanandan. Beaten and left for dead by colonial police in a pre-Independence workers' protest, he got back up and never stopped fighting. When he finally became Kerala's Chief Minister, the office didn't tame him. He took on land mafias, corruption and even factionalism in his own party. He called things as they were and for that, generations called him simply 'VS". On Tuesday, Kerala gave him a honourable send off. In the morning, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visited the residence of the late leader to pay his respects. State ministers, including V Sivankutty, and senior CPI(M) leaders also paid tribute. The Kerala government has declared a three-day mourning period starting July 22 as a mark of respect. During this period, the national flag will be flown at half-mast on all government buildings across the state. All state government offices, educational institutions, public sector units, statutory bodies, and establishments covered under the Negotiable Instruments Act remained closed on Tuesday. In a message shared on social media, Chief Minister Vijayan said Achuthanandan played a key role in Kerala's political history and contributed to movements like the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising. The final rites will be held after the public homage. view comments First Published: July 22, 2025, 23:32 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
NDTV
a day ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Comrade VS: The Staunch Communist Who Rose From Working Class To Lead Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: V S Achuthanandan, a staunch Marxist known for his sharp rhetoric, anti-corruption stance, and unwavering commitment to social justice, was India's first communist leader from a working-class background to rise to the office of Chief Minister. A founding figure in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) after the 1964 split in the undivided Communist Party, Achuthanandan's life in Kerala was defined by unrelenting struggle -- against the entrenched injustices of a caste and class-bound society, and against the creeping revisionism he saw within his own party. He died at the age of 101 on Monday. Whereas his peers--E M S Namboodiripad, Jyoti Basu and E K Nayanar -- came from privileged, upper-caste families and were drawn to communism by its intellectual promise, Achuthanandan lived the inequality they fought. Achuthanandan, affectionately known as Comrade 'VS' by party colleagues and even political opponents, led a life so eventful that he was once presumed dead and prepared for burial after being assaulted by police during a pre-Independence struggle for workers' rights -- only to survive, defy his attackers, and rise to become one of Kerala's most towering political figures. On Monday, Achuthanandan died at a private hospital here. For over eight decades, he remained firmly on the side of workers, farmers and the poor-- his politics shaped by the fires of anti-colonial resistance, class struggle and the complicated, often turbulent path of the Indian Left. Born on October 20, 1923 at Punnapra village in Alappuzha district, and educated up to Class VII, Achuthanandan's political awakening began early. He entered public life through trade union activism and joined the State Congress in 1939, before embracing Marxism a year later by becoming a member of the Communist Party. His political career was not without its cost. During the British rule and the turbulent post-Independence years, he endured five and a half years in prison and spent four and a half years underground to evade arrest. In 1964, he was one of the 32 prominent leaders who broke away from the Communist Party of India (CPI) to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), following an ideological rift. His role in this defining moment remains a cornerstone of the CPI(M)'s identity in Kerala. Achuthanandan served as the secretary of the CPI(M)'s Kerala State Committee from 1980 to 1992, helping to shape the party's strategy and mass base. He was elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly four times - in 1967, 1970, 1991, and 2001 - and twice served as the Leader of the Opposition, first from 1992 to 1996, and again from 2001 until 2005. Despite setbacks, including intra-party disputes that defeated him in 1996 Assembly polls in his home turf Mararikulam which kept him from the chief minister's seat, VS remained a beloved and uncompromising leader of the Left. Achuthanandan's journey, starting as a helper in a tailoring shop, transformed into a string of relentless battles, both within and outside his party, championing people's causes until he rose to the position of chief minister in the state in 2006. As opposition leader, he led a strong campaign against land grabs and the real estate lobby, winning support from people across social and political backgrounds. A fierce organiser within the CPI(M), Achuthanandan was never afraid of a fight -- not just with political opponents, but often with rivals inside his own party. Notable among them is politburo member and present CM Pinarayi Vijayan. In the 1996 Kerala assembly elections, although the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) won, Achuthanandan lost in Mararikulam, a shock defeat in a constituency long seen as his stronghold. The loss was widely blamed on behind-the-scenes moves by his rivals within the Marxist party. Many political observers at the time wrote him off, saying his role in the party and in Kerala politics had come to an end, only to be proved wrong. He fought his way back, rebuilt his position within the party, and returned stronger and more popular than ever. Achuthanandan's deep popularity among the public often placed his party in a difficult position. Despite opposition from the powerful Kannur lobby in the party, led by Vijayan, the CPI(M) was compelled to field him in the 2006 and 2011 assembly elections, thanks to strong grassroots support. He went on to lead the LDF government from 2006 to 2011, even as some within his own party continued efforts to sideline him. His time in office was marked by a tough stance on corruption, a push for transparency, and a focus on welfare schemes aimed at helping ordinary people. In the 2016 assembly elections, the CPI(M) once again turned to Achuthanandan, presenting him as the face of its campaign. Despite his age, he travelled across the state with energy, delivering fiery speeches in his trademark style and rallying support for the Left. The veteran was also known for his colloquial style of speaking and witty political statements. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi got a taste of VS' wit when the Communist veteran called him "Amul Baby". When Rahul remarked about his advancing age, Achuthanandan hit back at the then Congress General Secretary saying, "Everyone knows Rahul Gandhi is an Amul Baby, and he has fielded Amul Babies in some constituencies. His comments are meant only for infants, leaving the Congress leadership across India stunned.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Darling of the masses, ruthless organiser, fiery Opp leader: ‘Comrade VS', former Kerala chief minister, dies at 101
A dominant figure in Kerala politics for several decades and a founding member of the CPI(M), former chief minister Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan, popularly known as Comrade VS or just VS, died at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. He was 101 years old. He had been staying away from public life since 2019, when he suffered a stroke. Last Monday, he was admitted to a hospital following a cardiac arrest, and had been on life support system since then. Achuthanandan was one of the 32 leaders of the undivided Communist Party of India to walk out in 1964 and form the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He served as Kerala chief minister from 2006 to 2011, and as Opposition leader for three terms — 1991-1996, 2001-2006 and 2011-2016. In his political life spanning eight decades, Achuthanandan became known as an icon of relentless fighting spirit. Starting from the pre-Independence period, his career has been closely interwoven with the socio-political history of modern Kerala. A politician shaped by struggles and agitation, the Communist luminary donned different mantles in the Left movement and society at large. At different points in his life, he has been an organiser of grassroots workers, an underground revolutionary, an election manager, civil society's conscience keeper, his party's crowd-puller, a public interest litigant, an anti-corruption crusader, and a voice for green movements. He maintained a streak of rebellion throughout his political life. He was CPI(M) state secretary from 1980 to 1992, the period when the state settled into coalition politics. He also served as convener of the Left Democratic Front from 1996 to 2000. Born on October 20, 1923, at Punnapra village in Alappuzha district, Achuthanandan lost his mother, Accamma, when he was just four and his father, Sankaran, when he was 11. The next year, he dropped out of class 7 and started working at elder brother Gangadharan's tailoring shop, which regularly saw locals dropping in for informal chats on politics. Over the years, he developed an interest in politics himself, and joined the Travancore State Congress. After he turned 17, he became a member of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI). The teen communist was deputed to work among the fishermen, toddy-tappers and coconut tree climbers of Alappuzha, his home district. The first break in his political career came in 1940, when he joined a coir factory in Alappuzha. There, Communist leader Comrade P Krishna Pillai urged him to bring the workers closer to the movement and urge them to fight for their rights. The Punnapra-Vayalar uprising of October 1946 was another defining event in the making of the organiser in VS. He spurred coir workers to fight against the plan of Travancore Diwan C P Ramaswami Iyer for an independent state, separated from the Indian Union. At the behest of the party, he went underground to evade arrest by the Diwan's police. While hiding in Poonjar, he was nabbed by police and was subjected to brutal torture. He was later imprisoned for nearly five years during and after the Independence struggle. In the meantime, Achuthanandan had risen through the ranks to the leadership of the CPI. He became a member of the CPI State Committee in 1954, and three years later, was promoted to the State Secretariat. When the first Communists government took office in Kerala in 1957, Achuthanadan headed the party in unbifurcated Kollam district, winning nine out of 11 Assembly seats in the elections. Realising his ability to run the campaign machinery, the party dispatched Achuthanandan, then 35, to manage the 1958 by-election held at the high ranges of Devikulam in Idukki. When the CPI was divided in 1964 as a fallout of the prolonged inner-party struggle over political strategy, VS was one of the 32 national council members to walk out of the meeting, leading to the formation of the CPI(M). The others included Joyti Basu, A K Gopalan, EMS Namboodiripad, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, and E K Nayanar. VS tried to start his legislative career during the 1965 Assembly election, contesting from the Ambalapuzha constituency, but lost. However, in 1967 and 1970, he won from the same seat. During the Emergency, he was arrested and jailed for 21 months. In 1980, when the state turned into a laboratory for coalition politics, VS was elected as state secretary of the CPI(M) — a post he held for 12 years until 1992. His time as party state secretary was marked by traits of uncompromising political stubbornness. In 1986, M V Raghavan, then a powerful leader from the party citadel of Kannur, was ousted for his efforts to get the Muslim League to join the Left Front. In 1994, VS was again instrumental in the dismissal of firebrand leader K R Gouri Amma. In 1991, Achuthanandan became the Leader of the Opposition. However, while the party returned to power in 1996, he lost the election in party stronghold Mararikulam in Alappuzha in a shock result. The electoral setback of 1996 and the failure to retain the post of party state secretary after 1992 left Achuthanandan fighting multiple battles within the party in the following years. In the state conference held in 1998, VS virtually decimated a rival group in the party's trade union wing, CITU, demonstrating that he retained his clout to dictate terms within the party. Changing equations led to a redrawing of battle lines within the party, and for around 15 years starting from the early 2000s, CPI(M) saw recurring bouts of a feud between Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan. The power struggle between the two giants of the party came with undercurrents of personal animosity and ideological differences. With every passing year, Achuthanandan was losing ground in the party to Vijayan. However, in civil society, Achuthanandan was winning hearts, emerging as a crowd puller and championing several social issues. His term as the Leader of Opposition between 2001 and 2006 was a watershed moment for VS's political career. From being known as a ruthless Communist, he transformed into a darling of the masses. VS plunged into every social issue, toured across the state, visited the sites of agitations and stood with mass sentiments on all issues. In the 2006 Assembly elections, the octogenarian was instrumental in ensuring a landslide victory for the Left Democratic Front. He was made chief minister, and his term was a stormy one, with the government being buffeted by intra-party bickering and conflicting stands on policy matters. Even as Achuthanandan resurrected his image as a crusader against social evils and corruption, all those who stood with the CM in the party were either silenced or shunted out. In the 2011 elections, too, VS led the LDF to a photo finish, leaving the Congress with 72 seats in the 140-strong Assembly. In 2016, at the age of 92, VS was in the election fray, leading the LDF's campaign. Despite age not being on his side, VS longed for another innings at the helm in the event of an LDF win. However, it was Vijayan who the party picked as chief minister in 2016. VS was given Cabinet rank and accommodated as the chairman of the state Administrative Reforms Commission from 2016 to 2021. As a legislator from Malampuzha constituency between 2001 to 2021, VS had been an active presence in the state Assembly until he fell ill in 2019.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Health
- Indian Express
Ahmedabad: Construction of 1,800-bed hospital hits wall of ‘faith'
On May 27 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his two-day trip to Gujarat, laid the foundation stone of an 1,800-bed hospital inside the Medicity campus in Ahmedabad, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 588 crore. Almost two months later, the project has hit a hurdle even before even the plans could be finalised. Standing in the way of the expansion and modernisation of the largest public sector healthcare campus on India's western seaboard, is a temple, whose priest has claimed that the 'goddess has refused to give up the space'. The priest at the temple of Khodiyar Mata, a local deity, claims that it has been there since pre-Independence and has become an 'intersection of science and faith and a major landmark for those lost in the sprawling campus'. A constant stream of devotees, including relatives of patients admitted to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and those from the neighbourhood, flock to the temple that has recently repainted saffron from the outside, with its sanctum containing multiple idols of Khodiyar Mata, dotted with blue tiles which have not been changed for several years now — also 'as per the wishes of the mother,' priest Sandeep Thakurbhai Dave tells The Indian Express. The temple, located at the centre of the Medicity campus has also become a geolocation as people are given directions with the temple as a point of reference. The civil hospital in the Asarwa area of Ahmedabad recently saw a huge influx of visitors from all over the world, when it turned into a nodal centre for families of victims after a London-bound AI 171 crashed minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad, into the BJ Medical College hostel next to the temple. The hospital took charge of the DNA investigations of the severely charred bodies of the 241 aboard and 19 on-ground who died, handing them out to their relatives. The deceased included some of the hospital's own students and staffers. Now, the old post-mortem building, which connects through a skyway to the main hospital building, the area between the old trauma centre till the Superintendent's office (admin block) is to be demolished to free some 1.60 lakh square metres of space for the 1,800-bed hospital with an OPD section and a 150-bed ICU to eliminate waiting for beds. There will be a 50-bed isolation ward and several modular operation theatres and a two-storied parking block, which will accommodate 650 cars and 1,000 two-wheelers. The civil hospital is spread over a 108 acre space that includes several super speciality facilities. The Khodiyar Mata temple, located right opposite to the old post-mortem building, is also among those marked for demolition. The plan was to relocate the temple in an alternate space inside the hospital campus, if the authorities agreed. The construction of this new hospital building will not only take the total bed capacity of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to 4,200 beds, but will also double its ICU capacity from the current 150 to 300 beds. Most importantly, the OPD blocks will be moved to the prospective 10-storey building. On July 13, a video of Dr Rakesh Joshi, Medical Superintendent of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, went viral where he was seen praying and performing rituals at this temple. Dr Joshi had later clarified in a video that he had gone to discuss with temple officials possible ways to proceed with the development 'in a way that faith is not compromised'. 'I went and explained the project to them. I suggested that we must co-operate to make sure that this hospital is built so that several poor patients receive the benefit of treatment', he said in the video. Dr Joshi later told The Indian Express, 'I tried to reach out to the temple to find a consensual path forward. However, they have refused to relocate the temple. A decision will now be taken by higher officials.' Notably, the buildings marked for demolition are already being evacuated and stopgap measures are being taken in other parts of the hospital campus. Most importantly, the labs and central stores have already been relocated and the rest of the buildings will be cleared soon, said Dr Joshi. Temple priest Dave told this paper: 'Hospital officials told us that if they don't move the temple, then they will lose space for 300 beds, but this temple was here even before the hospital was built.' Claiming that the deity had 'not allowed' a previous construction project decades earlier because the temple had been removed in the 1950's, Dave said, 'Mataji had destroyed the incomplete construction seven times. The mother then told my ancestor, who was then the pujari here, that he would find her idol buried where her small temple once stood. And true enough, the top half of this idol was found there,' he says, pointing to a smaller idol next to the main one of the deity that is kept on a wooden stool. 'It was only after the temple was restored that this hospital was built,' he adds. When asked about the current predicament, the priest said, 'The hospital administration approached us about the construction of the new hospital a couple of months ago and we have had several conversations about it. But when we asked Mataji if she permitted the relocation of the temple, she refused not once but multiple times.' Dave claimed that the hospital superintendent's visit on Sunday was part of his 'seeking clearance' from the Goddess for the project. 'He (Dr Joshi) came at 9 am and we first asked him to pray for what he wished to seek from Mataji and told him that we would look for her answer. If she agrees even twice, that means she has given permission,' the priest claimed, adding that they performed a temple ritual to seek the Goddess's 'consent' — but it was 'negative'. Dave said they had not received any communication from the hospital administration after Sunday's ritual.
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
The elephant village in Thiruvananthapuram
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala's love for elephants is legendary. But Cherapally village in Thiruvananthapuram takes it a notch up. Here, elephants are a way of life. For generations, hundreds of families here have earned their livelihood by crafting elephant sculptures from Indian rosewood (eetti in local parlance). Over time, though many moved on to other occupations, the tradition has sustained. 'It all started when our forefathers crafted sculptures out of leftover stumps of rosewood trees that were felled during the pre-Independence era,' says K G Sashidharan, 75, who has been in the profession for six decades. 'The elephant sculptures became popular. Soon, more families got involved.' Subsequently, Cherappally became a hub for wooden elephants in various designs and sizes. 'It is a trade that has never brought financial loss. We have never had to seek out buyers — they come in search of our elephants,' Sashidharan adds. In addition to buyers from across India, the village caters to international clientele as well. Recently, they delivered 250 sculptures for a buyer from the US.
