• Capt. Praveen Davar

By a strange coincidence, the death anniversary of Kamaraj falls on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri – all three, symbolizing simplicity, austerity and integrity of the higher order.

Like Shastri, and unlike the Mahatma, Kamaraj was born, on July 15, 1902, in a family struggling to make two ends meet. His father died when he was only six years old, which led to his dropping out of school as his mother could not afford his school fee. At the age of 12 Kamaraj joined his uncle’s clothing store as a salesman but the fledging Indian nationalist movement attracted his attention. The news of Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Punjab on April13, 1919, spread like wildfire throughout the country. Virudhunagar, the birth place of Kamaraj was no exception. The 16-year-old future President of the Indian National Congress joined the Party and threw himself into organizing Congress Meetings in Virudhunagar and neighbouring areas. Kamaraj participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921 but his family did not like the involvement in politics and sent him to Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram) to work in a timber shop owned by his uncle. But Kamaraj’s interest in politics did not wane and he joined the Vaikom Satyagraha in the Travancore State for giving rights to the untouchables for entering streets near the temples. After the success of the Vaikom Satyagraha in 1925, Kamaraj returned to Virudhunagar where he plunged full time in the freedom struggle.

In 1923, Kamaraj met Sathyamurthy, who alongwith C. Rajagopalachari, was amongst the tallest leader of Madras Presidency. The twenty-year-old Kamaraj adopted Sathyamurthy as his political guru.This was to pay him rich dividends in future conflicts with Rajaji who was the arch rival of Sathyamurthy. In 1930, Kamaraj took part in the Salt Satyagraha Movement and was sentenced to two years imprisonment. By the time, ‘Quit India Movement’ ended, Kamaraj had already gone to prison six times and spent more than 3000 days in British Jails.

Kamaraj was elected as President of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee in 1940 with the help of Sathyamurthy and defeated his opponent supported by Rajaji by a narrow margin of 103 to 100 votes. He would hold this post till 1954. By this time Rajaji, who was the sitting Chief Minister for the second time, had become unpopular and Kamaraj in a dexterous move, made C.R. to step down on health grounds. In the contest that followed, Kamaraj became the Chief Minister defeating C. Subramanian, Rajaji’s candidate by 93 to 41 votes.

Kamaraj took over as Chief Minister of Madras on April 13, 1954. This was beginning of what is described as the “golden age” in the history of post- independence Madras State/TN. His first major reform was to provide free and compulsory primary education to all children in the rural areas and ensuring that there was no village in the whole state that didn’t have atleast one school and a teacher. To encourage parents to send their children to school he introduced the Free Midday Meal Scheme for both rural and urban children. This was indeed an innovative idea which was later improved upon by the MGR govt. and ultimately became a central scheme with the return of Indira Gandhi to power in 1980. The UPA govt. further expanded this programme which has now become a universally accepted scheme which no govt. can roll back. By harnessing irrigation power, Kamaraj turned a food- deficit- state into a food- surplus state. But the best was yet to come. Kamaraj appointed R. Venkataraman (later President of India), a young MLA as his Minister for Industries and gave him a free hand to execute his vision of making Madras a top industrial state. Steel, power, cement, chemical industries came up all over the state taking care that all industries and plants were evenly distributed throughout the state and no region was given special treatment. He ran a clean and honest government by setting a personal example and expecting his subordinates to follow his example. He himself drew inspiration from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who by the end of 1950s had emerged on the world stage as the ‘Moral Leader of Mankind’.

By 1963, Kamaraj’s ninth year as Chief Minister, and Nehru’s 16th year as Prime Minister the popularity of the Grand Old Party had waned. In May 1963, the Party lost three by-elections to Lok Sabha. Three opposition stalwarts- Acharya Kripalani, Ram Manohar Lohia and Minoo Masani - were elected to Parliament even though the Congress tried its best to deny them victory. It was at this point that Nehru called Kamaraj to Hyderabad and asked him to explain the details of a plan he had submitted earlier for reinvigorating the Party. When Kamaraj submitted his proposal, he had only Madras State in mind. He would step down as CM and concentrate on strengthening the Party organization in the state to counter the growing influence of DMK in the state. But Nehru told him it should apply to whole of India and asked him to raise the issue at the next CWC which was to meet shortly. Under the proposal, all Union Ministers and Chief Ministers were to submit their resignations to the Prime Minister who would decide who he will choose for the Party work. Pt. Nehru christened the plan as ‘Kamaraj Plan’ and accepted the resignations of 6 Union Ministers and 6 Chief Ministers. Morarji Desai, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Jagjivan Ram were amongst the union ministers while the CMs included Kamaraj (Madras), Biju Patnaik (Orissa) and CB Gupta (UP). Nehru also gave his resignation but Kamaraj and the CWC refused to accept it.

Soon after the ‘Kamaraj Plan’ came into effect, Kamaraj was unanimously elected the President of the Indian National Congress; even though amongst the names that did the rounds was also the then Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Nehru died on May 27, 1964. It was natural that the Congress President who had the experience of being an extremely successful Chief Minister for a decade will be considered as a serious candidate. But in his typical style, Kamaraj set at rest all speculations about him: No English. No Hindi. How? Though there were other aspirants too, the choice ultimately narrowed down to Morarji Desai, supported by the right wing and leaders like Jagjivan Ram, former INC President D. Sanjeevaya and Orissa CM Biju Patnaik. But like the mythological Pandavas who had Krishna on their side Shastri had the support of not only Kamaraj but also Indira Gandhi who had declined to be in the contest as she was, within days of her father’s death, ‘Emotionally ill -prepared’. In a matter of just two days, Kamaraj moved swiftly and met individually nearly 250 MPs and convinced them to support Shastri. Morarji Desai was totally out-manoeuvred and withdrew in favour of Shastri who became the PM but Morarji opted to remain out of his cabinet. Kamaraj was destined to play the role of ‘King Maker’ in less than two years. Shastri died at Tashkent on January 11, 1966, after signing a peace treaty with Pakistan following the India - Pakistan War in 1965 in which he led the nation successfully with his inspiring slogan of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’. This time the contest was between Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi. Despite appeals from many leaders, including Kamaraj, Desai refused to withdraw and forced a contest. In the election to the leader of CPP that followed Indira Gandhi, with the backing of Kamaraj and others like Jagjivan Ram and YB Chavan, won by 355- 169 votes. But the role of Kamaraj as ‘King Maker’ was still not over. In the 1967 elections, the Congress tally in the Lok Sabha reduced considerably and it lost power in as many as eight states, including Kamaraj’s own home state of Tamil Nadu. To keep the Congress’ ship stable in view of its narrow majority, Kamaraj suggested to PM Indira Gandhi to make Morarji Desai as the Deputy PM. Mrs. Gandhi readily accepted the proposal but soon differences were to arise between her and the Kamaraj-led Syndicate. Following the Congress split in 1969, Kamaraj was a disillusioned person but managed to win his Lok Sabha seat from Nagercoil, in alliance with Rajaji, his one-time foe. Soon he rebuilt relations with Mrs. Gandhi but his deteriorating health and the rise of MGR after the DMK split prevented Kamaraj from reviving the Congress in the state. He died on Oct 02, 1975, and was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1976 by the Indira Gandhi govt. His statue on Krishna Menon Marg was unveiled in 1985 by then PM Rajiv Gandhi. (This writer played a coordinating role in the ceremony which was presided over by then Vice President R. Venkataraman).

(The writer, an ex-Army officer, is a columnist and author of Freedom Struggle and Beyond)