A tale of twists and turns of two leaders in Kerala during Emergency
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Half a century after the country suffered through Emergency, the twists and turns that it left behind in Kerala continues to spin curious political tales. As the nation prepares to observe the 50th anniversary of Emergency on June 25, not many would be aware of how two veterans of state politics, switched to the other side of the political spectrum during the period.
The dark days of the Emergency are obviously something that the entire Congress leadership in Kerala would want to forget; but not him. Senior Congress leader and former speaker N Sakthan Nadar would probably be the only leader who has happy memories associated with the period.
Sakthan who was part of the Kerala Congress -- not a Congress ally back then -- underwent a two-month jail term in the initial days of Emergency in 1975.
Beginning his public life via student politics at Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Sakthan went on to win the student union election at Thiruvananthapuram Law College as a Kerala Student Congress (KSC) candidate. He was district secretary of the Kerala Congress when he took part in the anti-Emergency protest. He was arrested from the picket line at the Secretariat.
'It was 1975. A host of leaders such as C K Hareendrdan and Selvaraj served jail terms with me. Comrade K Anirudhan was our leader in prison. I was in jail for two months,' recounts Sakthan. As fate would have it, the Kerala Congress became part of the Congress-led political front in 1976 and Sakthan crossed over to the other side. 'It was Mani sir (K M Mani) who brought me into politics. In 1977, I was fielded as a Kerala Congress candidate. In 1984, I joined the Congress and became minister and speaker. Incidentally, I'm the only leader in the entire country who has served as pro-tem speaker, deputy speaker and speaker of the house in the same assembly session,' Sakthan told TNIE.
The tale takes an interesting turn, with the entry of the other leader. Even as Sakthan moved to the Congress, at around the same time, a prominent Congress leader decided to part ways with the grand old party.
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