Senior CPI(M) leader and former Kerala health minister K K Shailaja has declined to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for her contributions to preventing COVID-19 and Nipah virus. While Shailaja told reporters in Kerala that she was not interested in receiving the award in her individual capacity, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the award is in the name of the late Ramon Magsaysay, who has a history of alleged brutal oppression of Communists in the Philippines. 

Shailaja, a Central committee member of the CPI(M), took the decision after consulting the party’s national leadership.