THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Resentment is brewing within the Congress after KPCC removed the photo of late leader, TM Varghese, founder member of Travancore Congress, from Indira Bhavan.
On his 62nd death anniversary, a section of leaders commemorated the same by garlanding his statue at Kesavadasapuram. AICC secretary in charge of the state P Viswanath attended the event.
Varghese was a prominent figure in the struggle towards democratization of Travancore. Mavelikara native Varghese was the top leader under the Responsible Government who took on C P Ramaswamy Iyer, the dewan of Travancore State on various movements.
Apart from Varghese, C Kesavan and PS Nataraja Pillai were considered as the three men army in the freedom struggle then. It was during former State president VM Sudheeran’s tenure as State Congress president that the pictures of Varghese and Nataraja Pillai were unveiled at Indira Bhavan.
In fact, it was after the unveiling of a photo of Nataraja Pillai, who was the former Finance Minister of Travancore – Cochin that Sudheeran had dramatically announced his resignation on 10th March 2017. The pictures of former State Congress presidents from R Madhavan Nair to Ramesh Chennithala’s tenure were hung in the president’s room which has since been removed.
Varghese’s grand nephew, Roy Varghese told TNIE that it was unfortunate that his great uncle’s photo has been removed from the photo gallery where the press conferences are usually held.
“The Congress party was everything to my Uncle who died in 1961. He was one of the tallest leaders of Congress. He owned a car in 1930 but towards his last days, he was finding it difficult to meet Rs 2000 towards a civil case. We have every right to know why his picture has been removed from Indira Bhavan”, said Roy, who is a lawyer practising in Mavelikara.
Sensing the neglect, the family members constituted TM Varghese Memorial Cultural Foundation on Sunday at his cemetery at Polaythode in Kollam which was attended by Kundara MLA PC Vishnunadh.
A group of senior Congress leaders led by former MLA K Mohan Kumar, former party treasurer Johnson Abraham and former party general secretary Manacaud Suresh offered floral tributes at the TM Varghese Park at Kesavadasapuram. It was attended by MLA PC Vishnunadh as well.
A senior staff at Indira Bhavan confirmed to TNIE that the pictures of Varghese and Nataraja Pillai were removed a few months after Congress state president K Sudhakaran came to the helm of the party in 2021.
“Sudhakaran had asked for the pictures of all his predecessors to be removed from his office. Accordingly, we categorized the pictures, central leaders, state leaders, former Chief Ministers and former State Congress presidents. We didn’t know how to place Varghese and Nataraja Pillai and hence their pictures were removed”, said an Indira Bhavan staff.