The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : State bids adieu to PKV

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

State bids adieu to PKV

Special Correspondent

Cortege makes slow progress to Pulluvazhi

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rivalries took the backstage as the who's who in State politics and tens of thousands of people from other walks of life converged at the Durbar Hall of the Secretariat and at several points along the road from the capital to Pulluvazhi, a village in the north-eastern periphery of Ernakulam district, to bid adieu to P.K. Vasudevan Nair, one of modern-day Kerala's most popular leaders, who died on Tuesday. It was a farewell befitting a mass leader.

The spontaneous response of the masses as the cortege made slow progress was reflective of the world of love and affection that PKV had conquered with his sunny nature and genial ways.

PKV's last journey out of the capital began in the morning when the body was taken from M.N. Smarakam, the State headquarters of the Communist Party of India (CPI), to the Durbar Hall. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and senior civil and police officials received the body on the portico of the Durbar Hall at 8.40 a.m. It was laid on a flower-bedecked rostrum with the picture of a smiling PKV forming the backdrop.

As doleful music filled the air, people in their hundreds filed past the body paying their last respects to one of the architects of the present-day alliance politics in Kerala.

Governor R.L. Bhatia, the Chief Minister, Cabinet Ministers, leaders of various political parties, trade unions, service organisations and cultural bodies, besides heads of institutions and scores of others, placed wreaths on the body. Four police personnel with red cross bands and reverse arms stood guard.

Slogans hailing the departed leader rent the air as the body was shifted to a decorated half-open Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus exactly at 11 a.m. for its final journey, accompanied by scores of vehicles.

CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan; the party central secretariat members D. Raja and Gurudas Das Gupta, MP; central control commission chairman J. Chitharanjan; State secretary Veliyam Bhargavan; the central executive committee member C. K. Chandrappan; the State secretariat members Kanam Rajendran, Sathyan Mokeri and C. Divakaran; and the executive committee member C.A. Kurian accompanied the body.

The party's State assistant secretaries Pannian Ravindran and K.E. Ismail; the State secretariat members Mullakkara Ratnakaran and C.N. Chandran; legislature party leader K.P. Rajendran; deputy leader Benoy Viswam; and the State executive member P. Ramachandran Nair travelled in the vehicle carrying the body.

The roughly 240-km journey from Thiruvananthapuram to Pulluvazhi took around 12 hours, what with people thronging main junctions to capture a glimpse of PKV's mortal remains and at the previously announced stops at Attingal, Parippally, Kollam, Karunagappally, Kayamkulam, Alappuzha, Cherthala, Vyttila and Aluva. Although it was scheduled to reach Pulluvazhi at 8 p.m., it could only cross only Alappuzha, some 70 km away, around that time.

The Government had declared a public holiday on Thursday, and shops, commercial establishments, banks and markets in Thiruvananthapuram remained closed till noon as the capital city observed a half-day hartal as a mark of respect to the departed leader.

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