Com Leelavathi : Valiant Fighter of Toiling Mass

YOU MAY BE ABLE TO KILL US, BUT CANT KILL OUR IDEAS AND DREAMS

Comrade K Leelavathi, the fighter who laid down her life for the cause of the people. April 23 is her Martyrdom Day. People of Madurai still holds her near to their heart. This time around her martyrdom day coincided with the election campaign in Tamil Nadu. This time Madurai is going to see a straight fight between the Culprits of Leelavathi's murder DMK and the Party for which she laid down her life CPIM.

Com Leelavathi was a political activist, fighter for social causes and an active participant in the women's movement, She was an active worker of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and was the member of its Maduri District Committe. She was elected to the Madurai Corporation Council from Ward 59 (Villapuram) in September 1996 in the first ever elections held with one-third of the seats reserved for women. She was One of her election promises was to supply piped water to the people of her ward, most residents of which are economically backward people. For long, they had been buying water supplied by water tankers actually supplied by the coporation but was hijacked by a mafia and was supplied at abnormal prices and had been literally at the mercy of the lorry operators for their daily requirements of water. During times of acute scarcity, they found it difficult to get even a potful of water.

Leelavathi intervened on behalf of these people. She tried to regulate the supply in a fair manner and fought against the fleecing of the poor by the tanker mafia. When she was named a candidate of the CPI(M) for the corporation election, she promised the people that she would put an end to this unfair system. From the moment she assumed charge as councillor, her one-point mission was to bring tap water to her ward. She had to pursue her efforts both inside and outside the Council. She insisted that water supply be given priority over other development works and, in six months' time, triumphed in her mission. The entire city saw her as a crusader.

The pipeline was laid and even a trial supply of water was also undertaken. But a day or two before the supply was to have been formally inaugurated, Leelavathi was done to death by a group of six persons while she was returning from a shop. The wrath of the water tanker mafia as well as political rivalry was seen as the reason for the crime. The city of Madurai plunged into grief. Protest rallies were held in several parts of Tamil Nadu.

Even after her election to the Corporation Council at the age of 40, Leelavathi, a weaver by profession, and her husband Kuppusamy, a vendor of stainless steel utensils, continued to live in a single-room house, along with their three grown-up daughters. Her loom occupied most of the space in the house. A table fan and a black-and-white television set were the only other valuables in the house. Simple and unassuming, Leelavathi endeared herself to almost all sections of the people in her ward. She attended to their complaints with utmost sincerity. In the process, she had to confront several anti-social elements in the area. When the CPI(M) launched a demonstration against these elements, she was in the forefront. She gave her whole time to public service and party work. She became an enemy of these anti socials who actually had the supporting of DMK and its top leaders.

On 23 April 1998 while Com Leelavathi was going to shop to buy household things she was attacked brutally killed by a group led by DMK Ward secretary.

At the time of her death, one of the State vice-presidents of the Handloom Workers Union and a State committee member of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA).

You have shown us our way forward and you have been leading us as torchbearer in our journey forward. We remember You Comrade. We dip our Red Flag in our great memory. Lalsalam Com. Leelavathi.. Long Live Your memories..