When the differences between the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the All-India Students Federation (AISF) took a violent turn in the State in 2019-end, CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran and his counterpart in the CPI(M) Kodiyeri Balakrishnan jointly met the leaders of both student outfits and asked them to bury the hatchet.
“This is the time for you to stand united and fight more serious battles,” the leaders told the members of their students’ unions. The appeal wasn’t significantly effective. But when Mr. Rajendran and Kodiyeri locked horns over many issues including on the Ordinance to amend the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act of 1999, they made sure that the disagreements between the two major allies of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) did not rock the boat.
There were parallels between Kodiyeri, who died last year while functioning as State secretary of the CPI(M), and Mr. Rajendran. Both were active in student politics and debuted as legislators in the same year, 1982. Mild mannered, both earned the reputation for being peacemakers. Mr. Rajendran faced flak from his party on many occasions for being too soft on the CPI(M).
