THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said if anyone’s portrait should be put in the central hall of the Parliament then it should be the portrait of M P Narayana Menon. Nicknamed Mapila Menon due to his close connection with the Mapila tenants of Malabar, he never bowed before the Britishers who had imprisoned him in the Andaman jail and subjected him to various kinds of torture, he said.
While Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had tendered apologies to the British bargaining for his freedom, Narayana Menon never relented despite the Britishers dragging him through the ground tied to a horse-cart in order to persuade him to apologise. So, if there is anyone really eligible to be honoured in the central hall of Parliament, it is Narayana Menon and not the one who was an accused in the conspiracy to assassinate Gandhi, he said.
Speaking at the assembly on the occasion of observance of the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi, the chief minister said the country was passing through a turbulent period in which the Gandhi’s assassins were being revered by those who were at the helm of the country. He said they were exhorting to construct a temple and present the Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian honour, to Savarkar. He said concerted attempts were being made to glorify the Gandhi assassins than the father of the nation. He said that it was time to retrieve the values that Gandhi propagated.
The chief minister said the state would launch a 90-day intensive awareness drive across the state for a drug-free Kerala as part of state government’s Vimukti project. The programme would be conclude on January 30, the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. The state level campaign would start on November 17.