It was during the Christmas week last year that I received a call from a gentleman who introduced himself as Jose C Jacob. He informed me that he is the ‘admin’ of a Whatsapp group called Nirnayam—consisting of the erstwhile Congress Parivarthanavadis, or Congress Reformists. Nirnayam weekly used to be the mouthpiece of the Congress Parivarthanavadis, led by Kerala Students Union (KSU) founder and Congress stalwart MA John (1936-2011) in the early 1970s’, which got disbanded during the Emergency.
The caller wanted to know if I could partake in an online meeting of the members of the group, including the surviving Parivarthanavadis and the daughters of MA John. He stated that the meeting was being held to explore the possibility of instituting an award and a memorial lecture in MA John’s name, on the lines of the KM Chandy annual memorial lecture, held in Pala.
As a relative of MA John and having cited the Congress party’s repeated neglect of the leader at multiple forums, I was only too happy to join the brainstorming session. At the online meeting held on 26 December, it was decided to go ahead with holding an award ceremony and memorial lecture, and some members—including myself—were nominated to draw up a plan.
That online meeting saw the participation of former minister A Neelalohithadasan Nadar and many erstwhile Congress Parivarthanavadis, including some from abroad. Following that, an offline meeting was held in the first week of January which I made sure I attended—driving straight to Thrissur from the Kochi airport, after returning from Delhi that morning.
At that meeting, VK Rajmohan, a former Janata Party leader, suggested that the award be bestowed on Shashi Tharoor, for his determination to contest the AICC President’s post against all odds, drawing parallels with MA John’s principled contest against TO Bava for the post of KPCC Chief, way back in 1968.
Later at lunch, I met with the would-be organisers of the proposed event, along with Rajmohan. There was Jose Jacob of course, and I was introduced to PT Ashraf, an erstwhile Congress Parivarthanavadi, and KV Dasan, former district panchayat president of Thrissur, who told me that he had contested unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket, from Nattika constituency, in 2016.
To cut to the chase, a three-member award committee was announced soon—with PV Krishnan Nair, former Kerala Sahitya Akademy secretary and a well-known cultural figure in Thrissur; N Sreekumar, former Resident Editor of Veekshanam, the Congress mouthpiece in Kerala; and myself, also in my capacity as a representative of the family.
The names considered for the award included Shashi Tharoor, Congress Working Committee member; VD Satheesan, Kerala’s Leader of Opposition; and VM Sudheeran, former Pradesh Congress Committee Chief. It was suggested by Jose Jacob that since they expected the participation of Congress leaders in Thrissur, it would be fitting to bestow the award on a leader of the grand old party, at least for the inaugural year.
Tharoor for the award
On 25 January, I drove to Thrissur to meet with PV Krishnan Nair. I have known N Sreekumar for a long time, lately as a sparring partner on Malayalam news channel debates. At West Fort, Jose Jacob (who took it upon himself to coordinate everything) hopped in and tagged along with me to Krishnan Nair’s house, where we discussed these names. N Sreekumar couldn’t join us as he was busy sending out invites and making arrangements for his daughters’ wedding.
Sreekumar stated on the phone that he favoured Satheesan citing the organisers had the same name in mind, but he would be fine with the other names. PV Krishnan Nair stated that he would be alright with any of the names. My pick was Tharoor since I reckoned that bestowing the award to an internationally-renowned figure like the Thiruvananthapuram MP would raise the stature of the event altogether, and set a healthy precedent.
Eventually PV Krishnan Nair favoured Tharoor, when he was informed that MA John’s family, too, backed his nomination. Sreekumar gave his approval on the phone rightaway, and it was decided that I would get in touch with Tharoor to seek his date. However, Jose Jacob seemed unconvinced that Tharoor would take time out from his busy calendar for an event like this.
That night, after a light supper at Thrissur, I drove straight to Kozhikode since I knew that Tharoor was due to speak at the Kerala Literature Festival, the next day. I contacted Tharoor’s secretary Praveen Ram and learnt that they were camping at Hotel Tiara in Kozhikode, and promptly booked myself a room there. It was around midnight when I checked into the hotel.
Tharoor was set to unfurl the flag on the property the next morning at 9 AM, followed by the Kozhikode District Congress Committee (DCC) office, to mark Republic Day, before proceeding to the venue of the Lit Fest.
Praveen Ram warned me in advance about the packed schedule, and that Tharoor was set to leave Kozhikode by a chopper to Chennai on a pre-scheduled event immediately after his session, and so I realised that my only chance was to catch him at breakfast. I gatecrashed his suite at quarter to nine in the morning to present my case. The gracious man that he is, Tharoor immediately agreed to attend the event, and I was told to coordinate with Ram regarding the date and time.
As per the instructions of the organisers, I had sought a Sunday that was convenient to Tharoor, and due to the budget session in two phases, it was fixed for April 13—that is, today, at 11 AM. Also, as requested by Jose Jacob, I spoke to my cousin Jayasree John, to get the family to furnish the cash award of Rs 25,000. The organisers informed me that the Sahitya Akademy Hall in Thrissur was booked for the event, and at this point, nothing was amiss.
A U-Turn
On 13 February, Tharoor wrote a column in The New Indian Express, where he extended a back-handed compliment to the Left government in Kerala led by Pinarayi Vijayan, for its belated change of attitude to private capital and rolling the red carpet to businesses. That, coupled with his praise for Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the United States, seemed to have suddenly caused a change of mind among the organisers.
On 14 February, I received a call from Jose Jacob, stating that it would be difficult for them to go ahead with the event if the award was to be presented to Tharoor. And worse, he came up with a suggestion to bestow the award to someone else, regardless of the fact that Tharoor had accepted our invitation to attend the event. On being asked about this sudden U-Turn, I was told that “Tharoor would be unacceptable to the Congress workers in Thrissur”.
MA John was renowned for his integrity, whose ample inheritance dwindled considerably on account of his public life, and died without assuming any parliamentary position due to that unrelenting attitude. I told him unequivocally that the family or I would have nothing to do with it if they went ahead with it unilaterally. Jayasree John communicated the same to him.
I received another call from KV Dasan, who spoke in a more assertive tone that they couldn’t go ahead with it. I explored the possibility of organising it without the participation of KV Dasan and his Congress cronies, with Jose Jacob, who has a socialist background—only for him to rule it out straightaway, saying that “it was beyond his capacity” to accomplish it.
When he raised trivial concerns such as how a crowd could be gathered without the backing of Congress, I assured him that it would be the least of my concerns for a Tharoor event—I recounted how Tharoor delivering the KM Chandy memorial lecture brought the town of Pala to a standstill in 2023.
Two other events
A couple of days later, on 16 February, there was a programme of Congress Parivarthanavadis in Kochi organised by former Janata Dal minister Jose Thettayil—marking the anniversary of the adoption of the charter of Congress Parivarthanavadis, to which I received an invitation.
Most of the surviving Parivarthanavadis were in attendance, including its former president SK Madhavan, from Kannur; P Rajan, veteran Mathrubhumi journalist and MA John’s close associate; Gandhi Peace Foundation’s Dr MP Mathai; Beebi John and CK Dayanandan among others. At that programme, Jose Jacob spoke about the award ceremony conceived in MA John’s name and how the recipient of the award has not been named—when I got up to publicly contradict him.
I briefed the audience regarding the whole episode and how Jose Jacob, along with KV Dasan and the latter’s cronies were displaying ‘typical Congress behavior’. They listened to it in horror, and almost every Congress Parivarthanavadi, including Jose Thettayil, noted that the conduct of the organisers was not keeping in spirit with MA John’s lofty values.
Two days later, I got a message from Lucy Aunty, widow of MA John, from Kuriyanad. She informed me that the Congress Kaduthuruthy Block Committee had sought permission to hold a commemorative event of MA John at Mattam House on 22 February—the day of his passing—and pay floral tributes at the tombstone of the indomitable atheist, buried in a patch of his own ancestral property, as per his last wish.
I attended that programme which was graced by the likes of former KPCC Chief K Muraleedharan and my former MLA, Joseph Vazhakkan, among others. The previous evening, during a conversation with Congress fellow-traveler JS Adoor, he recounted how he got Tharoor to Bodhigram, at his native Pathanamthitta, for an event which was boycotted by a majority of Congress leaders, in the backdrop of the AICC election.
An alternate plan
By then, it was clear to me that the organisers had no plans to go ahead with Tharoor’s event in Thrissur, and therefore I consulted Lucy Aunty and Jayanthy John, my other cousin, about their opinion on making alternative arrangements, along with Congress Parivarthanavadis.
I have an inextricable connection with Thrissur. I was born at the Elite Mission Hospital, and spent many a childhood summer holiday in the city, since my mother hailed from a prominent business family there. And I was certain that I could get it organised through my family network in the city, even if a single Congressman did not turn up for the event. Moreover, I just couldn’t think of an excuse I could offer Tharoor for the cancellation.
Lucy Aunty was totally opposed to it though, having just witnessed how two factions of the Kaduthuruthy Congress Block Committee tried to outwit each other to conduct the event at Kuriyanad. With the election season approaching, a lot many Congress leaders are busy making themselves ‘visible’ through such events all across Kerala, ingratiating themselves to the higher-ups to seek tickets for themselves and their cronies.
However, I hadn’t considered the most important detail: the venue. From the Thrissur Town Hall, the Sahitya Akademy, to the Mundassery Hall some distance away, no decent venues were available that day, and ultimately, it had to be cancelled. Jayasree John got Jose Jacob to call Tharoor’s office and inform his staff about the cancellation. Praveen Ram contacted me the next day—and I gave him a brief overview of what went behind the scenes.
I thought of picking up the phone, SMS-ing, whatsapp-ing, emailing and even meeting Tharoor in person to explain my predicament but somehow I could not bring myself to do it. And finally, I decided to blog about it, as a mark of public apology to Tharoor.
Come to think of it, how did the Congress end up losing the prestigious Thrissur Lok Sabha seat to Suresh Gopi? The Indian National Congress—at least in Thrissur—seems to have become a party of leaders with suspect integrity like KV Dasan and Jose Jacob, who volunteer to organise events for their own pecuniary or material benefits, with awards bestowed on leaders to suck up to them.
The Mayor MK Varghese with mannerisms reminiscent of actor Innocent, was a Congressman not too long ago, but opportunistically allied with the Marxist Party for the prestigious post—and then worked for Suresh Gopi in the Lok Sabha election. The likes of TN Prathapan and Anil Akkara don’t fare much better either. No wonder the party has been reduced to a solitary seat in K Karunakaran’s backyard in the last couple of elections.
And for those who believe that the Congress is sure to make a comeback in Kerala next year, this episode would serve as a stark reminder of the rubble that the party has ended up becoming in the state.
