His welfarism made ‘revolution’ redundant

Thiruvananthapuram: “Marx divided people. I’m uniting people. My theory is an all-embracing one” — This was what Karingozhakkal Mani Mani said while presenting his ‘Theory of the Toiling Class’, which he claimed as an alternative to the Karl Marx’s theory of working class revolution.
True to his words, his life as a people’s representative was full of initiatives meant for the toiling class. From granting title deeds to hundreds of landless families to the introduction of Karunya lottery, a revolutionary step to provide treatment expenses to the poor, the political career of Mani was dotted by several pro-poor and people-friendly initiatives.

A brief look into the speeches made by Mani in the state assembly shows how effectively he had fought for the rights of people. “My party and I do not expect the ration system (public distribution scheme) to continue forever in the state. Our aim is to have a society where people can live without ration.” — This was his vision when he made his first speech in the assembly on March 20, 1967.

Mani had always stood for farmers. Mani had to engage in a relentless fight with the Centre to have an Act amended, which paved way for providing title deeds to all high-range farmers in 1977.

The concept of welfare funds was also a brainchild of Mani. The scheme was introduced for tens of thousands of coir, cashew and handloom workers in Kerala. During his days as a practising advocate, Mani had taken the initiative to introduce a welfare fund for the lawyer community.

As a finance minister, he also relaxed plantation tax for people who owned land up to two hectares. Farmers’ pension — a first of its kind in India — was one of his most revolutionary decisions. It was in the 1980-81 state budget that Mani unveiled his scheme, which was well-appreciated by the then chief minister E K Nayanar. “When I was reading the budget to the chief minister on the eve of my presentation, Nayanar said even West Bengal could not think of such a scheme,” Mani had recalled later.

As the chairman of Law Reforms Committee, he stood for a total revamp of outdated laws and acts passed by the state assemblies. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there were no bills passed by the state assembly between 1967 and 2019 without a signature of K M Mani.