Chennai: Sporting half-sleeve white shirt and a dhoti with a jholna bag on the shoulder was the identity of the frail man, known as a roaring lion on public meetings. Engaged in cause of the poor and marginalised, veteran freedom fighter and communist leader N Sankaraiah has turned a centenarian on Thursday. Joining a protest against the execution of Bhagat Singh was his baptism in politics when he was just nine years old as a school student. There was no looking back and the journey from then onwards moulded him into a mass leader.
The centenarian had spent a total of eight years in various prisons, including at Vellore and Kannanur in Kerala, and three years of underground life when he stayed at the house of washerman, a party worker in Madurai. Incarceration had brought him into close contact with Congress stalwarts like K Kamaraj, Pattabhi Seetharamaiah and former President R Venkataraman as well as Communist leaders including the legendary Bala Dhandayutham. Beginning his political journey with the Congress and then with the Self Respect Movement, life in prison had slowly but steadily took him towards the Left.
Hours before the nation attained independence, he was released from jail in the sensational Madurai Conspiracy Case on August 14, 1947 and accorded a rousing reception. But, his first term in jail was when he was arrested 14 days before his BA examinations in 1941 and on his release became the district secretary of the CPI. Then he was only 22 years old and his father's dream of making him a lawyer had vanished.
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Born on July 15, 1922 as Prathab Chandran, his father Narasimhalu, an engineer by profession, had to rechristen him as Sankaraiah, due to the insistence of his father. The grandfather wanted the grandson to be named after him. His family has been traditional village revenue officials in their native Athur village in present day Thoothukudi district, which was a hotbed of freedom struggle.
With the CPI being proscribed, Sankaraiah who participated in the party's Congress in Kolkata in 1948, had to return to Tamil Nadu in disguise and spent three long years at a washerman's house in Madurai. Despite suffering from skin infection, he could not visit a doctor. On the ban being lifted, he served as the editor of the CPI's daily, 'Janashakthi'. When the party split in 1964, he was among the 35 National Council members who founded the CPI(M). Of them only he and former Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan are still alive. The later is three years younger to Sankaraiah, who has been a legislator for 15 years.
Politics has not robbed him of his other interests. Even now, he reads newspapers to keep him abreast of developments with the aid of a magnifying glass. An avid sports lover, he had watched the Euro Cup football matches and listening to light music, especially of the old movies, remains a hobby.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin were among those who greeted the veteran on his birthday at his residence. “Born during the Spanish flu pandemic, he continues to inspire the present generation in this Corona pandemic,” said Yechury.
