Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Kanam Rajendran has said that there is no truth in Archbishop Joseph Powathil’s claim that the late Communist veteran T.V. Thomas had sought ‘extreme unction’ shortly before his death in 1977.
Replying to questions at a meet-the-press programme here on Wednesday, Mr. Rajendran termed the disclosure ‘ridiculous’ and said a person of his stature should not have said this so many years after the Communist leader’s death. In fact, the demand that he had put before the then CPI State secretary N.E. Balaram and senior leader M.T. Chandrasenan was that he should be cremated at the Valiya Chudukaad in Alappuzha (where several Communist revolutionaries and martyrs had been cremated). In Thomas’ biography written by K.K. Kunhan, it is clearly stated that when his brother reached his bed with a few bishops before he breathed his last to give him ‘extreme unction’, Thomas’ reply was that he was till not dead.
Mr. Rajendran also termed untimely and inappropriate the discussion on who should lead the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the Assembly elections due next year since no such discussion had taken place in the LDF. He reiterated his stand that religious minorities in the State were catching up with the majority communities.
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He and his party firmly believed that given this situation, the Left must adopt a cautious stand in the State. His statement on the minorities was intended to caution the Left in general against the same mistake, the CPI leader said.