Senior CPI leader and four-time MP Parvati Krishnan, who was in the forefront of trade union movement in the country, died in Coimbatore on Thursday. She was 94 and is survived by daughter Indirani, a doctor, residing in the US.
She was a member of the central executive committee of CPI and vice-president of the All India Trade Union Congress.
She was elected from Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency first in 1957. Later she won the by-election held in 1974 and again in 1977. She had also represented the party in the Rajya Sabha once.
Parvati was the daughter of Dr. P. Subbarayan, the premier of the then Madras Presidency, and sister of Mohan Kumaramangalam, a communist leader and barrister who later joined the Congress and became a Minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet.
Her eldest brother was late Gopal Kumaramangalam, who was the chairman of the Coal India Ltd., and another brother late Paramasivam Kumaramangalam was the Chief of Army.
“They are the members of the Kumaramangalam Jameen, holding over 5000 acres. When they came to public life, the family distributed the land to the landless poor,” said M. Arumugam, CPI Legislative party leader, who knows her since 1972.
In his condolence message, CPI State secretary D. Pandian said that though she had been born in a rich and celebrated family and studied in western country, she left everything and joined the CPI and spent her life for the cause of the downtrodden of the country.
