Thozhar Mohan - Man of the Mass

Com. P Mohan, CPIM candidate for the Madurai constituency may be better called the Man of the Masses. He is the sitting MP for the 2nd consecutive time. He is better known for his simplicity and his work mentality. To go through his simplicity republising a coverstory that was published in Sunday times weekly. A photographer’s delight!

“Earlier, my father used to walk to Parliament in Delhi. Now he has a bicycle. Once, one Malayalam daily published a photo of him riding his cycle in Delhi," laughs Bharathi, the young daughter of P Mohan. So far as lensmen go, he is their delight anywhere, whether in Delhi or in his constituency Madurai. He still moves about – mostly alone – in his Bajaj M80 bike gifted to him long ago by his party. One day, on the way back from a fair price goods shop (!), his vehicle needed some repair. So he stood it on the road and got down to repair it. And again, a photographer passing by got a picture that hit the front page the next day! Generally, you can find him walking to and from Parliament House when in Delhi. The man who failed to become MP thrice before he scored in 1999, ‘Thozhar’, or Comrade Mohan started as a student activist of the CPI(M) in 1973. And Madurai denizens tell stories of how he helped the city grow for the past 50 years. Madurai has five assembly constituencies. He divides his development fund equally among them. Every year, he provides Rs 25 lakh to Madurai Rajaji Hospital. He is strict in monitoring progress. A contractor hired for building a village auditorium was mixing more sand than cement. Mohan told the people how the man was wasting their money. Then the people themselves threw him out! On a rainy morning, Jyothi Ganesh, a bank employee, was stunned. The road was water clogged. There was a single man with his dhoti folded working with a garden shovel. And it was none other than their Member of Parliament, Thozhar Mohan! Deyvanayagam, a former Congress MLA says: “I am testimony to the fact that he's never accepted money from anyone and though I am from a rival party, I am proud of saying this." (courtesy : The Sunday Times http://www.thesundayindian.com/25012009/storyd.asp?sid=6461&pageno=1)