TN university to confer honorary doctorate to 102-yr-old Communist leader N. Sankaraiah

The Madurai Kamaraj University will confer a honourary doctorate to 102-year-old Communist veteran, N. Sankaraiah.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin who was on a trip to Madurai, announced this on Saturday evening.

Stalin in a statement said that Sankaraiah, who was a student of American College in Madurai, was not able to write the examination as he was arrested by the British Government due to his Communist activities.

The Chief Minister said that the Communist veteran was first arrested in 1941 when he was a final year student of American College. He was released just 12 hours before August 15, 1947 when the country attained Independence.

He was a state secretary of Communist party of Tamil Nadu and was elected to the state legislative assembly in the years 1967, 1977 and 1980.

It may be noted that the veteran Communist leader was conferred Tamil Nadu’s supreme award, ‘Thagaisal Tamil’ award in 2021 when he turned 100. The award carried a citation and an amount of Rs 10 lakh. The veteran Communist leader donated the money to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.