Veteran CPI(M) leader and trade unionist K.P. Sahadevan dies at 84

Veteran communist and trade union leader K.P. Sahadevan died in Kannur, Keralam, on Friday afternoon; he was 84.

He had been undergoing treatment for age-related ailments.

Mr. Sahadevan was a former CPI(M) State committee member and CITU State secretary.

Six decades in the workers’ movement

Mr. Sahadevan devoted more than six decades to the communist and working-class movements.

He began his trade union activities at the age of 18 and remained at the forefront of workers’ struggles until the final day of his life.

After completing his primary education, he began his working life as a beedi worker.

He entered public life as secretary of the Kannur division of the KP Tobacco Workers Union.

He later helped form and led numerous trade unions, emerging as a prominent voice of the working class in Keralam.

His union responsibilities included membership of the CITU All India Working Committee, the State Secretary’s position in the Beedi and Cigar Workers Federation, and the post of national vice-president of the federation.

He also served as the general secretary of the CITU district committee.

Rise through the CPI(M)

Mr. Sahadevan became a member of the Communist Party in 1955-56.

After the formation of the CPI(M) in 1964, he served as secretary of the Kannur Municipal Local Committee until 1978.

He became a district committee member in 1978 and joined the district secretariat in 1986.

He was elected to the CPI(M) State committee in 2005 and stepped down from the body in 2022.

He contested the Kannur Assembly constituency as the LDF candidate in the 2006 election.

Imprisonment and police violence

Mr. Sahadevan endured imprisonment and repeated police brutality during his political career.

During the Emergency, he was detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, or MISA, for 20 months.

He spent nearly two more years in prison during different periods.

He suffered severe injuries in police violence, including during a crackdown shortly before the Emergency.

On March 17, 2003, he was again subjected to a brutal police assault during an LDF march to the Kannur Superintendent of Police’s office.

His political and trade union work therefore spanned the expansion of the communist movement in Kannur, the organisation of beedi and cigar workers, and periods of imprisonment and confrontation with the police.

Mr. Sahadevan was the son of the late Kunhiraman and K.P. Thala of Kannothuchal in Elayavoor.

He is survived by his wife, K.K. Kaushalya, a former manager of the Kannur Town Service Cooperative Bank, and their two sons, K.P. Sajeevan and Shameer.

Source: The Hindu