Tough man’s soft spot

For all his reputation as a stickler for ideology and a hardliner who gives no place to emotions, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat revealed a soft spot during the jatha against the joint naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal. It happened when the jatha passed through Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh—the birth place of P Sundarayya, the former general secretary of the CPI(M). Karat and other leaders spent one night with the family of the communist leader who played a pivotal role in the formative years of the current general secretary. Karat also wrote an emotional diary about the occasion in party organ Deshabhiman. Incidentally, the only photograph that Karat allows to be put up in his office is that of Sundarayya.