Visually impaired man is CPM district unit secretary

In what is being claimed as a first for political parties in the State, CPM’s Chengalpattu district unit elected a visually impaired person, Bharathi Anna, as its secretary.

“I extend my greetings to the Chengalpattu District Committee and newly elected District Secretary Bharathi Anna for setting the precedent for a visually impaired person in India to be elected as the District Secretary of a party,” CPM State Secretary K Balakrishnan tweeted.

The 51-year-old Bharathi Anna joined the path through its student’s wing SFI in 1989. A lawyer by profession, he became blind at the age of 41 due to high myopia. He had held various positions in the CPM’s frontal organisation including DYFI and Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front.

Bharathi Anna told DT Next, “I started working with the differently-abled forum and became its state vice president. It helped build my confidence,” he said, noting, that at the party’s previous district conference, he wanted to be relieved from the district committee. “Today, at the same conference, I have been elected the district secretary thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence like the text to speech facilities in mobile phones that help in communication,” he said.