Senior CPI(M) Leader Baby John Passes Away At 74

Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Baby John passed away on Sunday at the age of 74. A member of the party’s State secretariat, he had previously served as CPI(M) Thrissur district secretary and district secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions.

Born in 1952 to Anthony and Mary of the Chakramakkil family at Thaikkad in Manalur, John joined the Left movement in 1969 and joined the CPI(M) two years later.

He began his organisational work as secretary of the party’s Paluvai branch and later headed its local committees in Thaikkad and Chavakkad. He served as Chavakkad area secretary from 1984 to 1997, joined the Thrissur district committee in 1986 and became a member of the district secretariat in 1997. In July 2006, he was appointed the party’s Thrissur district secretary.

John held several positions across Kerala’s trade union movement. Apart from leading the CITU in Thrissur, he served as district president and secretary of the Beedi Workers’ Union and as State vice-president of the Kerala Beedi and Cigar Workers’ Federation.

He was also a district secretary and State-level office-bearer of the Fishermen’s Union, president of the Chavakkad regional Toddy Workers’ Union and president of the Thrissur District Headload and General Workers’ Union. He worked with the Kerala Karshaka Sangham and participated in agitations concerning farmers, labourers and other working-class communities.

John’s political activism led to his arrest twice during the Emergency. He spent two-and-a-half months in prison and was booked under the Defence of India Rules. In 1975, police allegedly assaulted him while he was attempting to hoist a black flag on Independence Day.

He began working as a teacher at PVM Lower Primary School in Blangad, Thaikkad panchayat, in 1971. Following police action against him, he was suspended from service for one-and-a-half years. He opted for voluntary retirement from government service in 1991 to work as a full-time politician.

John also served in local government. After the formation of Chavakkad municipality, he was elected as a councillor for the 1980–85 term and became its first standing committee chairman. He returned to the municipal council in 1988.

He contested the 2011 Kerala Assembly election from the Manalur constituency.