Congress observes Chettur’s death anniversary, accuses BJP of appropriating its leaders

Congress and BJP clash over honoring Chettur Sankaran Nair, highlighting historical differences and political motivations.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) making a major push towards celebrating jurist and former Indian National Congress president Chettur Sankaran Nair, the Congress on Thursday observed his death anniversary with events held across the State. While the Congress accused the BJP and the Sangh Parivar of appropriating yesteryear Congress leaders and freedom fighters because none of the Sangh leaders had participated in the freedom struggle, the BJP accused the Congress of sidelining leaders who are not part of the Nehru family.

This was the first time that the Congress organised a commemorative event for Chettur at the national or State level, although the Palakkad district committee has annually observed his death anniversary. Former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Muraleedharan, who inaugurated the event at the KPCC headquarters in the capital, was forthright in laying out the reasons for the same.

“The Congress cannot agree with some of Chettur’s opinions. Though he was the first Malayali to become the Congress president, he became a part of the Viceroy’s council after that. Someone who is neck-deep in the freedom struggle will not reach such a position. We do not know whether he had compromised with the British after he left the Congress president’s post. Research needs to be done on this. He also had strong differences with Mahatma Gandhi, especially on the non-cooperation movement. Chettur insisted that we must pay taxes to the British. In his 1922 book also he criticised Gandhi. The party did not celebrate Chettur not because he wasn’t a part of the Nehru family, but due to his serious differences with Gandhi. But we are not ready to cede him to the BJP, because he was a secular man,” said Mr. Muraleedharan.

He accused the BJP of following a system of “adopting” Congress freedom fighters, beginning with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who had banned the RSS.

KPCC working president T.N. Prathapan said the Sangh Parivar was appropriating Congress leaders due to its guilt of not taking part in the freedom struggle. Its few leaders who had participated in the movement wrote apology letters and later colluded with the British, he said.

Former bureaucrat T.K.A. Nair, who heads the Chettur Sankaran Nair Foundation, said that Chettur was an intellectual giant who reached the highest levels in the British government that an Indian could aspire for those days. Laying out the possible reasons for Chettur collaborating with the British, Mr. Nair said that Chettur was not an agitationist or a revolutionary, but a constitutionalist who believed that he would be able to change the rulers’ mind through constitutional means. Rajasekharan Nair, retired professor of history and editor of a book of essays on Chettur’s life, also spoke.

Speakers remembered his brave stand of resigning from the Viceroy’s executive council in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. In his book Gandhi and Anarchy (1922), he criticised Michael O’ Dwyer, the lieutenant governor of Punjab during the massacre, leading to a libel suit. He refused to apologise for his words and chose to pay the penalty.