Chennai: Call it irony or fate, Congress MP H Vasanthakumar, who urged the govenment to declare Covid-19 as ‘national disaster’, died of coronavirus on Friday.
“Speaker sir, we have to announce a national disaster due to coronavirus affecting the whole nation. A zero-revenue situation will definitely impact the repayment of loans. I urge the government to reschedule the loan payment of small businessmen and individuals at least for three months,” he had said during a session in March when Parliament was still functioning.
“Daily wagers have been adversely affected. I urge upon the government to pay a minimum of Rs 2,000 per family,” he said. As Vasanthakumar went to speak about the pandemic, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla denied him permission due to time factor and asked another lawmaker to speak.
Vasanthakumar is survived by his wife Tamil Selvi, two sons and a daughter. His elder son Vijay Vasanth is a Tamil film actor who has appeared in several films since 2007.
He is the first MP from Tamilnadu to die of corona and the second lawmaker after DMK MLA J Anbazhagan who succumbed to the virus on 10 June. Seventy-year-old Vasanthakumar, born in a family with political background with his elder brother and former TNCC President Kumari Ananthan, had earlier served as MLA of the State Assembly from Nanguneri in 2006 and 2016.
He had resigned as MLA in 2019 after his election to the Lok Sabha in 2019. Founder of home appliances retail chain the popular Vasanth and Co, Vasanthakumar was elected from Kanniyakumari seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Vasanthakumar was also the vice-president of TNCC and chairman of TNCC traders wing. In the year 1978 he started the home appliances sales showroom Vasanth & Co, which later grew into a popular retail chain with outlets across Tamilnadu, Karnataka and neighbouring Puducherry.
Always clad in white trousers and white shirt, with the Congress shawl on his shoulders, Vasanthkumar was a smiling face and was a sown to earth person, having won the hearts of the people of his constituency by heldping people in needy.
He started his career as a salesman with the VGP, which was the first to enter into the consumer and home appliance business, and went on to found Vasanth & Co, and made it a successful business chain, which became a household name in the State.
He also revolutionised the concept of EMI by offering home durables at less and later and at zero interest rates with attractive offers on all festival occasions, be it Pongal, Deepavali, Christmas and New Year.