Nehru was not enthusiastic about struggle against Communist ministry in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 18: India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeared to have reservations about the Congress support to the 'liberation struggle' against Kerala's first Communist ministry led by EMS Namboodiripad, which was dismissed in 1959 within two years of coming to power.

This was revealed by eminent jurist VR Krishna Iyer, who was a member of the Namboodiripad cabinet, in an interview to Doordarshan some time back. The interview, given to senior journalist R Ajith Kumar, is featured in an anthology released here last evening.

The anthology, which consist of a series of interviews telecast by Doordarshan in the past, was released by state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala by giving the first copy to CPI(M) politburo member MA Baby.

According to Iyer, Namboodiripad asked him to go and meet Nehru when there was an AICC meeting at Ooty. During their meeting, Iyer narrated to Nehru about the struggle going on in Kerala for removal of the elected Government and the Congress's support to it.

"Is this what Congress doing in Kerala?" was the response of Nehru.

"Nehru then called his daughter Indira Gandhi (who was the AICC president then) and asked her to listen to what I had to say. She heard all that I said. But it did not yield any result," says Iyer, who turned 100 recently, held key portfolios like Home and Irrigation in the ministry, which was dismissed at the height of the liberation struggle which had the support of the Catholic Church and outfits like the Nair Service Society (NSS).

The collection has interviews of leading political and cultural personalities like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, MP Veerendrakumar, Vayalar Ravi and Justice KG Balakrishnan.

PTI