Opinion Always the pragmatist

K Karunakaran was called “leader” by everybody,irrespective of political allegiance. In the party,he was in touch with both the grassroots workers as well as national leaders. During his 75 years of political life,he was close to Pandit Nehru,Lal Bahadur Shastri,Indira Gandhi,Rajiv and later Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. At the same time,he was friendly with ordinary party workers in Kerala’s villages and towns,calling mandalam presidents by name.Karunakaran started his political career as a trade union leader,organising labourers in plantations and power looms. He was one of the founder-leaders of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in Kerala. At that time,the communists called him Karinkali Karunakaran (the betrayer). He was a daredevil in the labour movement. In those days,many Congress leaders were close to the politically and economically powerful tea-garden owners and liquor lobbies. He fought against them and laid a strong foundation for the labour movement in the state.As a young leader,he first became a councillor in Trichur municipality,then became a member of the Cochin assembly and later of the Travancore-Cochin assembly. After that he became the chief minister of Kerala four times and he was the leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Kerala for many decades. All this while,he made no compromise with the communists on any front. In 1967,the Congress had just nine members in the assembly. Many feared that the party would not be able to make a comeback in the state. But Karunakaran gave leadership to a coalition called the United Democratic Front,with like-minded parties such as the Muslim League and the Kerala Congress. In the beginning,the Congress was not too happy to go along with either the Muslim League or the Kerala Congress as they were considered communal organisations. It was in this political background that the shrewd Karunakaran created an alliance with them.He was loyal: during the splits in the Congress in the 1960s and 1970s,he stood behind Indira Gandhi like a rock,so much so that he was considered one of the most trusted leaders by her. He was pragmatic too. He brought young politicians to the fold and gave them good opportunity to grow in the party. MoS for Home Mullappally Ramachandran,KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala and a host of other leaders are his contribution. Even though,due to many reasons,Karunakaran and A.K. Antony were leading two groups in the Congress,they loved and respected each other.Karunakaran will always be remembered in Kerala as a man who laid the foundation for its development. Kochi’s international airport and the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium,and the Brahmapuram power station are just a few of the many projects that will stand as monuments to his developmental initiatives. The success story of the Kochi airport showed the leader’s acumen. When the city of Kochi needed an airport and neither the Centre nor the state was in a position to finance it,he took it up as a challenge and got ample financial assistance from non-resident Malayalis. He had a warm relationship with the media,although there is no journalist who has not criticised him,and criticised him brutally. He was also a favourite of the cartoonists,who delighted in sketching him. Karunakaran,who had studied drawing in his youth,appreciated those cartoons.My relationship with Karunakaran goes back to the 1980s when I was general secretary of the District Congress Committee in Ernakulam. When I had an accident in 1984,he was the one who took me to the hospital and bore all the expenses. In 2001,I became a member of Antony’s government,under Karunakaran’s banner. Even though he was a strong group leader who loved his followers,he respected others. It was the give-and-take policy of Karunakaran and Antony that made the party popular in Kerala. Later,he had differences of opinion with Sonia Gandhi and left the Congress. Those were the most painful days of his political life. But he came back to die as a Congressman. He used to say that his last wish is to be draped in a Congress flag.

The writer is minister of state for food and agriculture at the Centre,express@expressindia.com