Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi | CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby on Tuesday said that had V S Achuthanandan been alive, he would not have accepted the Padma Vibhushan conferred on him.

Baby said such honours had earlier been offered to several CPI(M) national leaders, including E M S Namboodiripad, Jyoti Basu, Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who thanked the government but politely declined to accept them.

"If comrade Achuthanandan were alive today, he too would have thanked the government and refused to accept the award. Now it is for his family to decide whether or not to accept it," Baby told reporters in New Delhi.

Achuthanandan, a founding member of the CPI(M), passed away in July last year at the age of 101.

His family, however, expressed happiness over the posthumous conferment of the Padma Vibhushan in the field of public affairs.

"He was a man who took part in and led the freedom movement. Such honours should be bestowed, and we always hope for them," his son V A Arun Kumar said, adding that it was a happy moment for the family.