Kerala - Kannur   

Tearful adieu to C. Kannan

Mohamed Nazeer

The veteran Communist leader passed away on Saturday night

TRIBUTES TO A COMRADE: CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan paying homage to veteran trade union leader and Communist C. Kannan in Kannur on Sunday.

KANNUR: The body of the veteran trade union leader and widely respected Communist, C. Kannan, who died in his residence at Kannookkara here last night, was consigned to flames at the crematorium at Payyambalam on Sunday.

A large number of workers and party leaders and people from different walks of life bid tearful adieu to Kannan who was known for his personal integrity and spartan lifestyle.

Widely seen as a member of the vanishing tribe of political and trade union leaders who gave importance to probity and simplicity in public life, `C,' as he was known in the political circles and among the general public here, breathed his last on Saturday night. He was 93. He had been suffering from age-related ailments for the last few months.

The body was kept at the Azhikodan Mandiram, district committee office of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), since morning for public viewing till 5 p.m. when it was taken for cremation. Workers, party members, leaders of various political parties as well as members of the general public thronged the Azhikodan Mandiram to pay their last respects to the departed leader who was synonymous with the trade union movement in this part of the region. Among those who paid homage to the deceased leader included CPI(M) Polit Bureau member V.S. Achuthanandan, CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Left Democratic Front convener Paloli Mohammed Kutty, A.P. Abdullakutty, MP; CPI leader E. Chandrasekharan Nair, former Minister and Congress leader N. Ramachandran, KPCC general secretary M.K. Raghavan, Congress(S) president Ramachandran Kadannappalli, MLAs in the outgoing Assembly Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, K.P. Mohanan, M.V. Govindan, M.V. Jayarajan, P. Jayarajan, P.K. Sreemathi and M. Prakashan, and Students Federation of India general secretary K.K. Ragesh.

Born in a poor family, C. Kannan started his life as a beedi worker at the age of 11 after completing his elementary education.

Since then, he had been in the vortex of political and trade union movement in the region during the turbulent periods that saw split in the Communist Party and subsequent break-up of its trade union wing. Kannan was in the forefront of the activities that finally led to the formation of the CITU out of the breakaway faction of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in 1970. He had remained as president of the CITU for 30 years till 2000 when he was replaced in what was then widely viewed as a bid to remove him from the helm of the State leadership of the CITU as part of subduing the powerful CITU arm of the CPI(M).

Comrade C was among the Communist leaders who had attended the underground meeting at Parapram in Pinarayi here in 1939 that led to the formation of the Communist Party. He had also been in the forefront of organising workers in various fields, including beedi workers and handloom workers.

He had contested Assembly elections five times and won the elections thrice - in Kannur constituency in 1957 and in Edakkad in 1965 and 1967. He had also been member of the Kannur municipal council for 25 years.

Kannan had undergone imprisonment for total nine years on various occasions for mobilising workers for various agitations. He had been nearly killed in the Salem jail in a police firing in February 1950 in which 22 inmates died.

A hartal was observed in the district on Sunday as a mark of respect to the departed trade union leader.

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