THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Half a century after the country suffered through Emergency, the twists and turns that it left behind in Kerala continues to spin curious political tales. As the nation prepares to observe the 50th anniversary of Emergency on June 25, not many would be aware of how two veterans of state politics, switched to the other side of the political spectrum during the period.
The dark days of the Emergency are obviously something that the entire Congress leadership in Kerala would want to forget; but not him. Senior Congress leader and former speaker N Sakthan Nadar would probably be the only leader who has happy memories associated with the period.
Sakthan who was part of the Kerala Congress -- not a Congress ally back then -- underwent a two-month jail term in the initial days of Emergency in 1975.
Beginning his public life via student politics at Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Sakthan went on to win the student union election at Thiruvananthapuram Law College as a Kerala Student Congress (KSC) candidate. He was district secretary of the Kerala Congress when he took part in the anti-Emergency protest. He was arrested from the picket line at the Secretariat.
“It was 1975. A host of leaders such as C K Hareendrdan and Selvaraj served jail terms with me. Comrade K Anirudhan was our leader in prison. I was in jail for two months,” recounts Sakthan. As fate would have it, the Kerala Congress became part of the Congress-led political front in 1976 and Sakthan crossed over to the other side. “It was Mani sir (K M Mani) who brought me into politics. In 1977, I was fielded as a Kerala Congress candidate. In 1984, I joined the Congress and became minister and speaker. Incidentally, I’m the only leader in the entire country who has served as pro-tem speaker, deputy speaker and speaker of the house in the same assembly session,” Sakthan told TNIE.
The tale takes an interesting turn, with the entry of the other leader. Even as Sakthan moved to the Congress, at around the same time, a prominent Congress leader decided to part ways with the grand old party.
As the Emergency entered its final phase, the ripples were felt in Kerala, too. As a wave of resentment within the party triggered a counter move against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, prominent leaders like Jagjivan Ram and H N Bahuguna left the Indian National Congress condemning Gandhi’s actions to form Congress for Democracy in 1977.
Neelalohithadasan Nadar, a Congress leader from Kerala, followed suit.
“I was the only leader from South India to resign my AICC membership. EMS had announced that they would welcome those who left the Congress, fighting against Emergency. He extended all support to me. That’s how I became part of the Left front,” Neelan, as he is popularly known, shared with TNIE. He later became minister in the LDF cabinet.
However the ironies of Kerala politics during Emergency do not end here. During the 1977 assembly elections, the Kerala Congress fielded Sakthan as its candidate from Kovalam against none other than Neelalohithadas who had just left the Congress and was contesting as a Left independent.
While Sakthan had the Kerala Congress symbol of horse as his symbol, Neelan was given two leaves. In an election where independent candidates garnered much attention, with the resultant confusion among voters over horse and camel symbols playing a crucial role, Neelan won by a narrow margin. In 1982, Sakthan however won from Kovalam.