Murali tallest among Kerala Maoists

KOZHIKODE: Murali Kannamballi, the Naxalite leader who initiated many students of the erstwhile regional engineering college (REC) here into the left extremist movement in mid 1970, has emerged as the tallest Maoist leader from the state.
Murali, son of the former diplomat Kannamballi Karunakara Menon, was the secretary of the CPI-ML (Naxalbari) before the party merged with the CPI (Maoist) on May 1, 2014.He was inducted into the central committee of the CPI (Maoist) after the merger.
“Murali was the central committee member of the CRC-CPI (ML), which was formed in 1981. He was given the charge of co-ordinating the international activities of the party. He had spent a year in Paris looking after the activities of the Revolutionary International Movement (RIM), the international forum of Maoist parties, in 1984,” said former Naxalite leader K Venu.
“He was a final-year student at REC when Emergency was declared. He left the institute and went underground after that.” Murali continued to uphold Naxalite politics even after Venu resigned from the CRC-CPI (ML) in 1991. “He, along with a few others, stuck to the Marxist-Leninist politics. Murali has wide contacts with Maoists all over the world. He had acted as mediator when serious conflicts cropped up among Maoists in Nepal,” Venu said.
M M Somasekharan, the Kozhikode district secretary of the CPI (ML) during Emergency, said Murali had leanings towards the Naxalite movement when he joined REC. “Me and T N Joy contacted him and initiated him into the party. It was Murali who built the party unit at REC and made Joesph Chali and P Rajan party sympathisers,” he said. (Rajan was killed at the Kakkayam police camp in 1976).
Murali was made an accused in the Kayanna police station attack case though he did not participate in the action. “He was an activist who strictly followed the routine of an underground worker,” Somasekharan said. Police do not have a photograph of the Naxalite leader even now. “We may disagree with his politics but we should recognise his dedication. It is not easy to lead the risky life of an underground activist for more than three decades,” he said.
A theoretician who has deep understanding of Marxism-Leninism, Murali writes books and articles under pen name Ajith. Convalescing after a heart operation, Murali is now engaged in revising his book on caste and land relations in Kerala.