RIP Comrade R Nallakannu: People’s leader who breathed communism

Fondly known as RNK among comrades, Nallakannu never kept cash awards for himself; he always donated them to the party or farmers’ associations.

Chennai: R Nallakannu, who passed away here at the age of 101 on Wednesday, was a freedom fighter, an icon of the Communist movement, and an epitome of simplicity in public life. He fought for people’s rights for over eight decades and took pride in never holding any positions.

Fondly known as RNK among comrades, Nallakannu never kept cash awards for himself; he always donated them to the Communist Party of India (CPI) or farmers’ associations. 

When he turned 80, his party gave him a cash prize of Rs 1 crore, collected from supporters, which he generously donated back to the CPI for various purposes. He also returned Rs 10 lakh presented to him when the DMK government awarded him the Thagaisal Tamizhar (Eminent Tamil) Award in 2022.

Nallakannu, who had been unwell for the past few months, breathed his last at 1:55 p.m. on Wednesday at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) here. His body will be donated to the RGGGH on Thursday, even as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin announced state honours for his last rites.

Born in 1925 in Srivaikundam in Thoothukudi district, Nallakannu joined the freedom movement as a schoolboy. He joined the CPI in 1943 at the age of 18 and remained with the party even after the Communist movement in the country split in 1964 following the Indo-China war.

Nallakannu spent seven years in jail after his arrest in 1949 for allegedly conspiring with other comrades to overthrow the then-Jawaharlal Nehru government following the ban on Communist parties. During his jail term, a police officer subjected him to custodial torture, burning off his moustache.

“The police burnt my moustache off with a cigarette. That was how I was tortured during my prison term,” Nallakannu once recalled. His colleagues say he then decided not to grow a moustache until there was equality in society.

A leader who always stayed close to the people, Nallakannu organised several protests in favour of landless agricultural labourers in the composite Tirunelveli district, undertook many hunger strikes, and spoke against caste discrimination since his formative days.

A very simple man who travelled in ordinary class on trains even in old age and stayed in a rented government flat, Nallakannu participated in several people’s movements—especially against illegal sand mining from the Thamirabarani river basin.

Nallakannu never compromised on secular principles. When an Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) flag was removed from his campaign vehicle as it entered a Hindu-majority area in Coimbatore a day after the 1998 serial blasts, the Communist leader insisted that the flag remain on the vehicle. He told leaders that the ally’s identity was more important than anything.

Very close to leaders of the Dravidian movement -- especially M Karunanidhi -- Nallakannu contested elections only once in his long and distinguished political career, from Coimbatore in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. He was defeated by the current Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan, who later said he felt sad fighting against a man who had dedicated his entire life to the people.

While his father wanted him to take up a job, Nallakannu -- inspired by Communist leaders like P Srinivasa Rao and trade unionist V  Kalyanasundaram -- joined the Communist movement. “I simply left home with a dhoti and towel and became a full-time Communist,” he said in an interview.