KOZHIKODE: Congress has not fully utilised the capabilities of K P Unnikrishnan after he returned to the party, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Speaking after releasing the biography of the Congress leader here on Saturday, Pinarayi said Unnikrishnan returned to Congress not for any positions.
“He did not opt for any positions in the party in the past thirty years, rather it would be more correct to say that Congress didn’t give him any posts. There are many in Kerala who believe that the state could have benefited had Unnikrishnan’s abilities been utilised,” Pinarayi said.
Unnikrishnan returned to Congress at a time when he was shining as a leader of the opposition.His performance during the debate in Parliament over the Bofors issue and his service in the evacuation of Indians during the Gulf War when he was the union minister cannot be forgotten, he said.
Unnikrishnan always maintained a secular stand throughout his life. “He never bothered about gains and losses, but was only concerned about rights and wrongs. It is this attitude that led to parting ways with his one-time mentor Indira Gandhi,” he said.
Pinarayi said it was the stand against autocracy during the period of Emergency that culminated in his estrangement with Indira Gandhi. “At one point he even tried to correct her,” he said.
The chief minister released the book by giving a copy to the Minister for Forests A K Saseendran. MLAs Ramachandran Kadannapally and E K Vijayan, BJP leader P K Krishnadas, Mathrubhumi chairman and managing editor P V Chandran, author of the book M P Sooryadas, and others spoke.
Congress leaders V D Satheesan, MLA, and M K Raghavan, MP, were invited for the function but they did not turn up.