Full state honours for CPI leader R Nallakannu: CM Stalin
Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday announced that R Nallakannu will be accorded full State honours.
His mortal remains will be kept for public homage until 3 pm Thursday at the CPI Tamil Nadu state headquarters, Balan Illam, in T Nagar.
Nallakannu’s body will be donated for medical research at Madras Medical College Hospital on Thursday evening. The CPI has announced that red flags will be flown at half-mast for seven days.
Veteran Communist leader R. Nallakannu, one of the most respected figures in Tamil Nadu’s political landscape and a lifelong member of the CPI, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 101.
He breathed his last at 1.55 p.m. at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, where he had been undergoing intensive treatment.
Nallakannu was admitted to the hospital on February 1 after experiencing severe respiratory distress. For the past 24 days, he had been under intensive care, with a multidisciplinary medical team closely monitoring his condition.
According to the hospital’s official statement, his health fluctuated in recent days, and in the morning, his response to medication steadily declined. Despite sustained critical care, multiple organ failure led to his passing.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, along with several political leaders and public figures, had visited the hospital over the past few weeks to enquire about his health.
Leaders across party lines inlcuding President Droupadi Murmu, PM Modi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, expressed deep sorrow, remembering him as a symbol of integrity, ideological commitment and simplicity.
Born in 1925 in Thiruvaikundam in the then-undivided Tirunelveli district to a modest farming family, Nallakannu was drawn to activism during his college days. He actively mobilised youth against British rule during the Quit India Movement, which led to his expulsion from college.