Veteran CPI (M) leader of eastern India Noorul Huda has passed away due to heart attack at the age of 86. Huda – a Muslim Meitei Manipuri – was a member of the Central Committee [CC] of the CPI (M) for nearly three decades. A polyglot, Huda, knew at least a dozen languages and some of his speeches on political turmoil in India were acerbic enough for the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who once asked him why he used “rustic terminologies.”

Huda and Jyotirmoy Basu’s criticisms in the Parliament irked Indira Gandhi so much that they were arrested soon after the Emergency was declared, even though they were the sitting MPs in 1975. They were the only CPI (M) MPs behind bars during Emergency. Huda worked in many States and, interestingly, spent much of his time in the seventies uniting the anti-Congress force in Gujarat, which was another reason for his arrest.

He was jailed number of times and spent two years and eight months in jail. Noorul Huda was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1973 from Silchar constituency and a Member of Legislative Assembly in Assam for one term.