KOCHI: A historian, a poet and a cartoonist were the three Malayalis who were nominated to the Rajya Sabha (RS) from Kerala in the past, long before the honour was bestowed on actor Suresh Gopi.
Incidentally, Suresh Gopi is the only national award winning actor to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha, and 13th among the film personalities who have been nominated since 1952. However, it took 38 years for a Keralite to get nominated to the Upper House after renowned cartoonist Abu Abraham’s term ended in 1978. The political cartoonist and journalist was nominated in 1972 by the government headed by Indira Gandhi.
The first Malayali to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha was noted historian Sardar K M Panicker. His term, which started in 1959 and ended in 1966, consisted of two nominations - one from 1959 to 1960 and the other from 1960 to 1966. The second person who was nominated to the RS was G Sankara Kurup. The term of Sankara Kurup, the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award, started in 1968 and ended in 1972. Nargis Dutt, Sivaji Ganesan, Vyjayanthimala Bali, Shabana Azmi, Mrinal Sen, Lata Mangeshkar, Cho Ramaswamy, Hema Malini, Shyam Benegal, Javed Akhtar and Rekha, who is currently a RS member, are those from the tinsel world who got nomination, apart from Prithviraj Kapoor. In 1952, the first government nominated a dozen luminaries to the Rajya Sabha, including renowned lawyer Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer whose term ended just in a year, scientist Satyendranath Bose, filmmaker Prithviraj Kapoor, danseuse Rukmini Devi Arundale and educationalist Zakir Hussain, who later become the President.
Though active politicians are out of this list, Congress leaders Tindivanam Ramamoorthy(1984-90) and Mani Shankar Iyer (2010-16) were nominated members of the Rajya Sabha.
Thumbs up for Green Elections
Kasargod: The district administration has decided to promote an eco-friendly Assembly election in Kasargod, said Collector E Devadasan on Thursday. Instead of using ecologically damaging flex, plastic bunting, disposable items, he urged parties and candidates to use reusable flexboards, paper, cloth, and coconut fronds. Devadasan told reporters that officials had been instructed to segregate wastes generated at booths and dispose them at the spot. “We have also decided to have massive awareness programmes to encourage citizens to participate in the green election,” he said, and added that green volunteers would be deployed in each booth to spread the word. Plastic would be banned in and around polling booths, he said.