vadakkoot viswanatha menon known among friends as ambadi viswam was a firebrand political activist in his youth one of the accused in the communist attack on the edappally police station he was a leader of communist party of india marxist in kerala starting his aweinspiring career as a student activist leader for the freedom fight in his almameter maharajas college he became popularly known as ambady viswam among his peers colleagues seniors near ones as his father belongs to the famous nair family of cochin ambady and was one of the popular youths in kochi at that time due to his frank fearless opinion actions against any injustice oppression a follower of gandhiji from childhood he was inclined towards communism socialism during his student days due to the influence of many prominent personalities around him one of them being his cousin akdamodaran exiasvviswanatha menon was one of the earliest members of cpi in kochi and essayed an essential role in erecting its base here amidst the monarchic imperailistic period of the 1940s and 1950s along with other stalwarts like mm lawrence and ap kurien working selflessly among the party ranks for growth and against the suppression of the oppressed downtrodden after sacrificing his royal and rather luxurious life in his highy influential patriarchal family thus incurring the wrath of many orthodox nair and other uppercaste families of the time who always stood for the monarch and the powerful in order to sustain their own survival influence and power in society these malafides and atrocities were those that really angered ambady viswam who had a softspot for the downtrodden from his childhood days and inspired him to take a giant step in the world of socialisma twotime member of parliamement representing cpi later the cpi m faction that came into being after the 1964 split in the communist bastion he was also the finance minister in the 1987 ek nayanar led left democratic front governmenta fact union president for 12 years and indal union president for 14 years ambadi viswam had also been the leader of a cochin port union