KOTTAYAM: M.M. Mani, the firebrand CPM leader of Idukki and the son of a toddy tapper, Mundkkal Madhavan, of Kunjuthanny, has seen the dark side of life as well as faced the dark days of Emergency imposed in 1975. He was wanted by the police as part of hunting down the Communists and had to leave his home and stay in his ancestral home at Padua near the Kidangoor temple for some time.
However, it was his younger brother Mr Govindan, who closely resembled Mani, who fell a victim to police brutality. Govindan, who was mistaken for Mr Mani, was beaten up by the police and was paralysed. He was bed-ridden for five years and died later. Thus it was a narrow escape for Mr Mani, the eldest among nine siblings. These incidents were recalled to this paper by Mundakkal Vijayan, grandson of Mr Mani’s father’s elder brother, on the eve of the swearing-in of Mr Mani as power minister in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet to be held on Tuesday.
Vijayan, who now works as a KSRTC conductor at the Pala depot, recalled the visit of Mr Mani during the Emergeny period to their ancestral home, when Mr Vijayan was seven years old and Mr Mani in his thirties. He was then a CPM taluk leader in Idukki. “Soon we became friends and used to take bath in the Pannagam thodu (river Pannagam), which is near our house at Padua,” Mr Vijayan said. Mr Mani's family moved to Kunjuthanny in Idukki district more than 50 years back in search of better prospect. Mr Mani’s father later became a priest at a temple at Kunjuthanny. The family was poor and left Kunjuthanny seeking better prospects. Mr Mani’s relatives at Padua will go to Thiruvannathapuram on Tuesday to see him taking the oath of office.
