PM Modi unveils statue: ‘Sankar was close to Jana Sangh founder’

“Sankar along with Padmanabhan had formed a maha sakthi, Hindu Mandalam. They had invited Jana Sangh leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee to address a big event of the Hindu Mandalam. I feel proud to be a member of the BJP, which is the successor party of the Jana Sangh,” Modi said.

The PM said Mookerjee could not attend the event, but he met Sankar later in Thiruvananthapuram. When the Jana Sangh called an all-India conference in Uttar Pradesh, Mookerjee specially invited Sankar for the session, Modi added.

While Modi unveiled Sankar’s statue in Kollam, the Congress organised a prayer meeting in front of Sankar’s statue in Thiruvananthapuram. During the session, party leaders blasted SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan and the BJP for trying to claim the legacy of Sankar.

The Congress, CPM and their allies boycotted the Kollam event after Natesan asked Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to stay away from the function, allegedly under pressure from the BJP. The exclusion of Chandy was construed as part of a BJP agenda to usurp the legacy of Sankar, who was Kerala chief minister from 1962 to 1964.

Sankar’s son Mohan and daughter Susheela Kumari attended the Congress prayer meeting. They kept away from the unveiling of the statue in Kollam in protest against Natesan’s bid to portray their father as an “RSS man”.