KOZHIKODE: “End feudalism and throw the feudal lords into the Arabian sea,” Mandodi Kannan who shouted this slogan was crushed to death by the people he stood against. The next time Onchiyam saw a leader of similar stature was T P Chandrasekaran, who fought against the system and tried to bring a revolution, also met the same fate,” says Puravil Kannan, the living martyr of Onchiyam police firing incident of April 30, 1948.Sitting on the verandha of his house at Onchiyam proudly displaying the bullet scar on his chest, the veteran communist said that though he was unaware of who is behind the murder of Chandrasekaran, it was quite normal to suspect CPM in the murder as they always opposed him. “It is not right to eliminate those people who have a difference of opinion and this is not the way forward to build the communist movement,” said Kannan. “Those who think that the movement started by Chandrasekharan would also die along with him will be proved wrong. TP will continue to live in the minds of people,” he added. Pointing towards two photos placed on the wall of his house, one showing AKG, EMS and Nayanar and another Kannan’s father Puvaran Kanaran, who was one among the 10 persons shot dead by the police force in 1948, he continues: “T P Chandrashekaran was a staunch communist who never compromised on his ideaology. “When he decided to part ways with CPM and float Revolutionary Marxist Party in the 2009, it was the right decision. The stand taken by TP was applauded by the chunk of the CPM activists in Onchiyam and I was one among them,” he said. Puvaran Kannan, once the poster boy of CPM depicting the Onchiyam firing incident, added that he had tried his best to avoid a spilt in the Communist Party. “The stand taken by the CPM State leadership on the advise given by the Area Committee in connection with sharing power with an ally at Onchiyam panchayat was so unfortunate that the split was the only way forward. Party is meant for the people but the CPM leadership has forgotten it.”
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