Speakers at the meeting to commemorate the death of senior Communist Party of India leader B.V. Kakkilaya called for a unified communist movement as desired by the departed leader. They called for continuation of the fight for the cause of people, which Kakkilaya carried out till his last breath.
People gathered in large numbers for the meeting organised by the Communist Party of India's Dakshina Kannada unit on Tuesday. Apart from CPI party activists and people who closely worked with Kakkilaya, a big group of beedi workers participated in the meeting.
K.V. Krishnan from Kerala State CPI Council took part.
Initiating the programme, CPI National Council Member Siddanagouda Patil said Kakkilaya devoted a major part of his life for the cause of the poor and downtrodden.
Scientific reasoning
Mr. Patil said the senior leader was not a mere politician but a thinker too. “He was known for his scientific reasoning behind his social thinking,” he said.
CPI former district secretary B.K. Krishnappa said Mr. Kakkilaya developed rational thinking in him and among several other CPI party workers.
He expressed the need for a unified communist movement that the departed leader always wanted.
Mr. Kakkilaya's son Shrinivas Kakkilaya said his father had clarity in his thinking that was based on scientific reasoning.
Dr. Kakkilaya (he is a medical practitioner) said it was because of his father that he and his three brothers developed an attitude of seeing the other side of an issue.
Dr. Kakkilaya said his father was sad over the arrest of postgraduate journalism student Vittala Malekudiya that had denied him the right to study.
“He was worried as to whether the government can make good the loss of his (student's) precious time if the court finds the student innocent,” he said.
The former Mangalore University Syndicate member and Congress leader P.V. Mohan said it was the protest by B.V. Kakkilaya in support of Vittala Malekudiya that prompted him to raise the issue of the student in his party.
“He was the conscience keeper of the district. We have lost him. It is difficult to fill the void that has been created with his death,” he said.
Senior CPI leader Shivashankara Rao, CPI (M) leader K.R. Sreyan, CPI State Secretary Lokesh, the former Karnataka Sahitya Parishat President Harikrishna Punaroor, P.R. Karnath from All India Bank Employees Association, rationalist Narendra Nayak, former President of Bantwal Town Municipality Vishwanath Nayak and District Secretary of Democratic Youth Federation of India Muneer Katipalla spoke.
