THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On June 26, 1975, the day the nation woke up to a state of Emergency, a rather obscure Malayalam fortnightly came out with this daring headline: ‘Indira fascism aarambichu’ (‘Indira’s fascism begins’). The New Delhi-datelined report ran, ‘’The Congress and Indira Gandhi have begun enforcing the autocratic rule to escape the setback caused by the ruling front by the Supreme Court verdict.’’
‘Kerala Deluxe’ — the little-known fortnightly - was the first Malayalam paper to publish a highly critical piece on Indira Gandhi and the Emergency which continued for 21 months.
Kovalam Chandran (V Sekharan Nair), the fortnightly’s editor and the adventurous perpetrator of this largely-forgotten episode from the Emergency era, died here the other day, unknown, unmourned.
How the paper came about to print such an audacious piece is a story in itself, remembers journalist and historian Malayinkeezhu Gopalakrishnan, who wrote the report and the provocative headline for the issue which hit the stands on June 26 evening.
The emergency had been declared on the night of June 25.
“To be frank, neither Chandran nor I realised the gravity of the situation then. We were at the Deshabhimani book house with EMS’s son Aniyan (E M Sreedharan), who was in charge, and we heard the radio broadcast in the morning. We needed Chandran to bring out a supplement and he said OK, provided he got enough ads,’’ remembers Gopalakrishnan, who was the state advertisement representative for the Publications Division.
Gopalakrishnan wrote the headline and the article and the four-page supplement came out with the advertisement of Deshabhimani book house. The next day, things exploded!
“Chandran was a good soul,’’ says D Babu Paul, former additional chief secretary, who has remembered Chandran in his book. “With the police hard on his heels, Chandran got admitted at the General Hospital. He finally wriggled out with the help of the sensor officer G Vivekanandan who spoke to K Karunakaran (then Home Minister),’’ he says.
Gopalakrishnan’s role remained hidden as the report had lacked a byline. Later, threatened with dire consequences, Chandran made amends bringing out another supplement with a photo of Indira Gandhi.
“His paper came out when it got ads. But it remains a fact Chandran published it at a time when the cowed mainstream media was writing headlines like ‘Emergency: Ini achadakathinte naalukal’,” Gopalakrishnan says.
“For several days after that, I went to sleep expecting a knock on the door anytime. It’s sad no one remembered Chandran’s exploit when he died,’’ he says.
Chandran, who lived at Lyla Cottage, Kudappanakkunnu, leaves behind his wife Geetha Kumari and daughter Lekshmi G Sekhar. The ‘sanchayanam’ rites will be held on Thursday.