Just months after a statue of V I Lenin was pulled down in Tripura by right-wing goons, the largest statue of the Communist icon in the country was installed in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu at the initiative of the CPI(M) Tirunelveli district committee.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury unveiled the statue. He congratulated the Tirunelveli district committee of the Party for the initiative and recalled how the legendary Tamil poet, Subramania Bharathi, who was a native of Tirunelveli, had penned a song praising the October Revolution.

Lenin and other Marxists did not just interpret history. Instead, they created history, and hence we believe the statue of Comrade Lenin being installed even after 95 years of his death is a significant achievement, Yechury said.

He added that capitalism should be fought simply for the reason that it exploits the working class and does not permit any state to survive if it does not support the corporates to exploit the working class at a higher rate. They take all possible steps to cut down the growth of any progressive organisation working for the betterment of working class, he noted.

The continuous struggle of progressive forces alone can defeat crony capitalism, he added.

At a public meeting preceding the unveiling, CPI(M) state secretary K  Balakrishnan, Central Committee member U Vasuki and other leaders including, K Kanagaraj, K Balabharathi and MNS Venkataraman spoke.