Veteran Communist leader Raghavan dies

 By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram

M V Raghavan, the firebrand Communist leader, institution builder and two-time Kerala minister, died of cardiac arrest in the northern Kerala town of Kannur aged 81, his family said yesterday.

Raghavan was ailing for almost two years and was admitted to hospital attached to the Pariyaram Medical College, India’s first medical school in the co-operative sector that he established two decades back.

Scores of mourners, including leaders of the opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) that expelled him for presenting an “alternative document” in 1986, advocating an alliance with parties fighting for minority rights, paid their last respects at the hospital.

He will be cremated at the Payyambalam beach at 11am today with full state honours, his son M V Rajesh Kumar said.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and senior cabinet colleagues will attend the funeral.

Chandy described him as an able administrator and institution builder while V S Achuthanandan, the Leader of the Opposition, said he was an organiser beyond comparison. Prakash Karat, the CPM’s general secretary, also expressed grief over his death.

“He was a brave politician. He played a very important role in strengthening the (Congress-led) UDF (coalition) and also stood firm in his stand even in times of adverse political situations,” the chief minister said in a condolence message.

Chandy said Raghavan, besides establishing the medical college, AKG Hospital, Ayurveda Medical College and hospital and a snake park and snakebite treatment centre, he also played a key role in conceiving and promoting the idea of a mother port at Vizhinjam in the state capital.

“These establishments will remain as his memorials forever,” Chandy added.

CPM leaders claimed that Raghvan, who floated the Communist Marxist Party (CMP) after he was expelled, was inching closer to his parent party in the twilight of his life.

He was mentor to many top CPM leaders of today, including its secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the former home minister of the state.

“His life was a brave episode in one of the phases of Communist party’s history in the state,” Vijayan said while expressing his party’s condolence to the grieving family. “He also played a dedicated role for social changes in the state.”

Raghavan, who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other age-related ailments, attended a public function at the Ayurveda College on Saturday after being confined at home for more than a year. He was soon shifted to the hospital and the end came in the morning.