It was Sir CP who got K R Narayanan admitted in LSE

CHENNAI: The critics and the so called ’eminent historians’ who spare no opportunity to ridicule and spread all sort of canards about Sir C P Ramaswami Iyer , the late Dewan of Travancore, are in  for a shock. TJS George, an elitist columnist, in an article in the Sunday Express dated Nov 13, had blamed Sir CP for ‘denying K R Narayanan a job in the Travancore University’. Haindava Keralam had published an article proving the hollowness of the charge leveled by George against the former Dewan.

“As far as we are aware, Mr. Narayanan’s job application was sent to the University where the officials offered him a clerical post. I don’t think the Dewan would be making the appointments, and Sir C.P. was a stickler for doing the correct thing. He would never have rejected an application on the basis of caste when he was appointing Harijans (Dalits) as his junior and even personal staff,” said Dr Nandita Krishna, Chairperson, Sir CP Foundation and the great grand daughter of the former Dewan.

Dr Nandita, who always keeps a low profile, quotes from records maintained by the former Dewan that it was Sir CP himself who forwarded Narayanan’s bio-data to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru with the suggestion that he should send it to Harold Lassky of the London School of Economics. “This was also told to us by Professor Ramaswami, formerly of Presidency College, Chennai,” Dr Nandita told this correspondent referring to the Haindava Keralam article.   

“However, I dont think people like Mr. George and Kerala’s Leftists will concede what they do not wish to know,” added Dr Nanditha.

The Sir CP Foundation at Chennai is an internationally reputed institution actively engaged in social activities and public service. The Foundation runs a number of schools where financially and socially backward students are given top preference. Environment, ecology, health, arts and crafts are some of the other areas where the Foundation has made big impact. True to the Sir CP style, the Foundation shuns publicity.     

It seems that the ire of George and other Christians for Sir CP, especially a leading Malayalam newspaper, could be due to the tough posture of the former Dewan against the nefarious activities of the Travancore National Bank in which the management of this newspaper had a major stake along with C.P Mathan, yet another Christian fraudster.