Eminent human rights and anti-caste campaigner and long-standing leader of the CPI(ML) in Karnataka, Dr. V Lakshminarayana breathed his last around 11.30 pm in Mysore on 22nd April 2024. Comrade Lakshmi was a dermatologist by profession.
Comrade Lakshmi's political journey began in the wake of the Naxalbari peasant uprising when its reverberations were felt in Karnataka. A veteran of the Marxist-Leninist movement in Karnataka, Comrade Lakshminarayana was a staunch Marxist champion of civil liberties and the anti-caste stream of social justice. He was closely involved with the PUCL, Indian People's Front, Indian Institute of Marxist Studies and the All India People's Forum.
He was regularly running a Friday Forum in Mysore which had several brainstorming sessions on various theoretical ideological issues confronting the communist and democratic movement in the country. He was passionate about disseminating Marxist ideas of social transformation and imparting Marxist education to young activists.
A long-standing member of the Karnataka State Committee of CPI(ML) Liberation, Com Lakshmi was a key member of the editorial team of Kannada Liberation, the party organ. He was a member of the Central Education Department of the party too. Comrade Lakshmi is survived by his partner and comrade-in-arms Rati Rao, a well-known champion of the women's liberation movement and President of the All India Progressive Women's Association and their son Apurva who is based in Germany. The CPI(ML) Central Committee pays respectful homage to Comrade Lakshminarayana and expresses deepest condolences to Comrade Rati Rao, all their dear and near ones and comrades and friends.
