KOCHI: As hundreds gathered to bid an emotional adieu to veteran CPM leader MM Lawrence who died on Friday, Ernakulam Town Hall Monday witnessed dramatic scenes - a loud standoff ensued as both, the party, to which he devoted his life, and his daughter, who had a troubled relationship with him, laid claim to his body. The party, citing the leader's own wish and as befitting a dedicated communist, had donated Lawrence's body to Ernakulam medical college hospital. However, Lawrence's daughter Asha ML demanded that her father be buried at St Francis Xavier's Church in Kaloor, claiming that he had never been against religion and had over the course of his life - from his own marriage to the baptism of his children - adhered to Christian rites.
Asha and her son stood beside the coffin draped in red, adamant that they wouldn't allow anybody to shift the body to the medical college. CPM workers, on their part, surrounded the coffin and started shouting slogans. Eventually, Asha and her son were taken outside the hall and Lawrence's body was transported to Govt Medical College Hospital, Ernakulam, where it would be preserved in the mortuary, as directed by the Kerala high court till the principal of the medical college arrived at a decision considering Asha's objections as well as affidavits submitted by Lawrence's other children.
ML Sajeevan, Larence's elder son, said that the decision to hand over the body to the medical college was taken after considering the wishes of the departed leader. Lawrence’s heroic legacy remembered Asha is unnecessarily creating controversy with support from BJP and RSS . The influence of RSS-BJP leaders is evident in Asha’s Facebook posts.
This is being done to insult CPM leaders,” Sajeevan said. “Foul play spoiled my father’s last journey. His last journey should have been conducted in a religious manner,” Asha said.
CPM politburo member MA Baby enunciated the party line. “Recently, I personally witnessed handing over bodies of four party leaders to various hospitals. CPM former general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s body was handed over to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, while the body of Budhadev Bhattacharjee was handed over to Kolkata Medical College,” Baby said.
“The body of Lawrence also is being handed over to the medical college as per his wish”. Meanwhile, speaker after speaker at the Town Hall condolence meet spoke in glowing terms about Lawrence’s heroic legacy. Writer and critic MK Sanoo said that Lawrence had endured barbaric torture by the police during the anti-com munist witch-hunt following the 1950 Edappally police station attack.
Baby spoke about how Lawrence was instrumental in uniting manual scavengers – considered the dregs of society -in the city. “Lawrence led a march by the scavengers through the roads of Kochi city. Poet Balachandran Chullikkad recently penned a poem titled ‘Thotti’ on Lawrence’s work among scavengers.
Lawrence was a major character in NS Madhavan’s work ‘Lanthanbatheriyile Luthiniyakal’,” Baby recalled. CPI national executive committee member Prakash Babu said that there was no difference or gap between Lawrence’s words and deeds. BJP state vice president K S Radhakrishnan said that Lawrence’s speeches held a special place among political leaders.
NCP leader P C Chacko said that Lawrence shared love and care to all those around him, while former Congress leader KV Thomas said that though a hardliner in politics, Lawrence was a beautiful human being. Industries minister P Rajeeve said that the best way to preserve Lawrence’s memory was by emulating his passion for continuous struggles..
