CPI (M) senior leader and two-time former MLA from Nagapattinam, G. Veeraiyan, who dedicated his life for the betterment of agriculture labourers in the composite Thanjavur district, died after a prolonged illness on Sunday. He was 86 and is survived by four sons and three daughters.
Recalling his contribution to the communist and agrarian movement, CPI (M) State secretary K. Balakrishnan in a statement said party flags would fly at half mast for three days to honour Mr. Veeraiyan.
Humble beginnings
Born in Sithadi in Tiruvarur district, Mr. Veeraiyan, named after Madurai Veeran, his family deity, became an agriculture labourer at a very young age. Mr. Veeraiyan studied in a private school run by a teacher for a few years. He got introduced to the Communist party in the Thanjavur belt when he was 12.
“My landlord told me that they would register five acres of land under my name if I quit the Communist party. I told them that it was unnecessary since all the land belonged to us,” Mr. Veeraiyan had recalled in his memoir Sengodiyin Paathayil Neenda Payanam (Long Journey in the path of red flag).
He mobilised agriculture labourers and played a major role in strengthening the party after the Keezhavenmani massacre. “The Communist movement put an end to the practice of lodging workers in cattle yards and forcing them to drink cow dung water,” he said. Mr. Veeraiyan was jailed for 16 months when there was a crackdown on the CPI in 1964. After the split, he joined the CPI (M) and rose to be the party’s State secretariat member.
He was elected to the State Assembly from the Nagapattinam constituency in 1984 and 1989.