Qurban Ali 
This article is part of a series by The Wire titled ‘The Early Parliamentarians’, exploring the lives and work of post-independence MPs who have largely been forgotten. The series looks at the institutions they helped create, the enduring ideas they left behind and the contributions they made to nation building.
Veteran parliamentarian and Communist leader Padayattu Kesava Pillai Vasudevan Nair, popularly known as PKV, was born on March 2, 1926, at Kidangoor in Kottayam district. He served in the cabinet of K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony as the minister of industries from April 1977 to October 1978, following which he became the ninth chief minister of Kerala on October 29, 1978. However, he resigned less than a year later, on October 7, 1979 in order to create a favourable atmosphere for the formation of a Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the state. His former colleagues recall how PKV took a state transport bus upon resignation as CM to Perumbavoor, where he was from. This simplicity was remarkable.
Showering him with a fond tribute on his death, veteran jurist Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, had this to say:
“He was among the finest of my friends and humblest of humans as a public activist in behaviour even while a leader. His habits, his lifestyle, his politics and his revolutionary commotion were the secrets of his success which endeared him to me. The CPI discovered in him a most affable incarnation of socialist thought, well informed about national issues and dialectical materialism. Bernard Shaw, going by my recollection, once wrote about politics, ‘He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows every-thing. That points clearly to a political career.’ Of course, such a definition holds good even today about political annals in India that is Bharat. Hostile Churchill, in vitriolic diction once described them as ‘rogues, rascals and freebooters’, I quote these harsh expressions about bogus politicians and baloney parliamentarians who are many and some in power or aspiring for power, only to emphasise as forcefully as I can how sublime, by contrast, the noble PKV was throughout his life. What a political paradigm he was and will remain in future for our generation to cherish! He knew the essence of communism and never resorted to ‘sound and fury’ signifying nothing.”
PKV entered politics during his student days at Union Christian College, Aluva. As the country entered the final and feverish period of the freedom struggle, students everywhere were at its forefront.
The erstwhile Travancore region to which PKV belonged was ruled by a king and hence was not part of the British colonial empire. So the popular struggle in Travancore, though backed by nationalist movements, was aimed at replacing the monarchy with the democratic system.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The students of UC College were particularly known for their militancy and involvement in the struggle. PKV joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1945 as most of his comrades in the radical students’ movement found the Congress party too moderate and pro-rich. He was the UCC unit secretary and president of the Travancore Students Union, a prominent pro-nationalist student organisation espousing the cause of democracy, in 1947. He was also elected president of the All Kerala Students Federation in 1948.
PKV faced his first arrest warrant during this time, for making a speech against the king. India won freedom in 1947 but the CPI chose to continue the struggle for the rights of the poor, and for the cause of a socialist state.
He was among hundreds of communists who went underground when the CPI was banned following its adoption of the Calcutta Thesis that called for armed struggle against the ruling government in 1948. PKV and other comrades travelled incognito all around the state and his customary pseudonym during the period was ‘Valsan’, the name of his favourite sweet meat.
It was also during this period that he got married to K.P. Lakshmi Kutty Amma, at Koppillil House, Perumbavoor. The marriage was arranged by party workers and friends as Lakshmi Kutty Amma was the sister of his closest friend and comrade in college, P. Govinda Pillai, later a prominent leader and intellectual of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and former chief editor of Deshabhimani.
The period of his life he was forced to spend underground was unpleasant, with the repressive state conducting regular raids on his home and causing harassment for his wife and other family members. The period was also marked by the saddest incident of his life, when his first child met with a fatal accident, aged barely two. So much were the fetters on his freedom that PKV could not even attend his child’s funeral as the police kept close vigil on his house, expecting him to be in attendance.
PKV’s first arrest came in the early 1950s, when he was locked up in the Trivandrum Cantonment police station for leading a student struggle. He spent a few months in the lock up room with a few fellow student politicians and petty criminals. When a messenger came with the news that a son was born to him, PKV was released by a kind police inspector.
The ban on CPI was revoked in 1951, and it recommenced legal operations, but by that time he was so deeply involved in politics and had become the first president of the All Kerala Students Federation, that PKV could not continue his studies at the Government Law College in Trivandrum.
He was the founder-president of the Travancore Students Union, president of Kerala Youth Federation, All India Students Federation (AISF), All India Youth Federation (AIYF), and Vice President of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY).
PKV and noted film actor Balraj Sahani backed the idea of All India Youth Federation. Delhi’s firebrand youth leader, Guru Radha Kishan, was very active in organising the first national conference of AIYF in Delhi. This effort paid off when more than 250 delegates and observers across India representing several youth organisations of various states attended this conference. He remained with the CPI after the split in the Communist movement in 1964 and was elected the party’s state secretary in 1982.
In 1957, PKV faced his first electoral battle as CPI’s Lok Sabha candidate from Thiruvalla. Though Thiruvalla was largely an anti-communist constituency, thanks to his clout as a popular student and youth leader, PKV went on to win the seat, defeating his Congress rival.
A veteran parliamentarian, PKV was elected to the third Lok Sabha from Ambalappuzha in 1962 and to the fourth Lok Sabha from Peerumedu in 1967. PKV succeeded in making a mark as a young parliamentarian, even impressing veterans like Morarji Desai, who praised him as one of the finest members of the House.
From 1982 to 2004, PKV stayed away from electoral politics, dedicating his time and energy on the organisational front. During this period, he mostly served as the state secretary of CPI. Widely admired as an efficient organiser, PKV apart from being a political leader, has participated in various social and cultural activities.
When the party wanted him to contest the 2004 election from the Trivandrum seat, so that his help and guidance would be available at the party centre amidst the fast developing and complicated political situation, he was extremely reluctant at first. He already had a long stint in parliament while he was in his 40s and 50s. Having been out of parliamentary life for nearly two decades, he wanted no more of it.
However, he finally bowed to the party’s decision and undertook a gruelling election campaign despite old age, a heart bypass surgery and diabetes. For him, the party came well before of any personal considerations. He was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram for the fourth time, and after a gap of 37 years, with a considerable majority.
Whether in or out of power, PKV always led a simple life and was accessible to all sections of society. In his long political career spanning six decades, he was elected to the post of chief minister, a four-time MP and leader of CPI’s Parliamentary Group in the Lok Sabha.
He was at the helm of affairs of some widely known cultural organisations and institutions like KPAC. He served as the president of the prestigious Vayalar Ramavarma Trust. He also left an indelible mark in the field of journalism as editor of Janayugam daily during 1954-57 and Navayugam political weekly of CPI, Kerala State Council. A prolific writer, he published a number of books on political issues as well as a biographical work.
PKV passed away on July 12, 2005 at the age of 79. He is survived by his wife Lekshmikutty Amma. They have three sons and two daughters.
Qurban Ali is a trilingual journalist who has covered some of modern India’s major political, social and economic developments. He has a keen interest in India’s freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country.