Swarajya, April 16, 1966
People in Delhi are worried over starvation deaths — deaths during this year, 1966. But Sri Kamaraj is worried over starvation deaths in 1952— during Rajaji’s chief ministership in Madras. He has a private logic of his own that tells him that this is relevant for examining the deaths in 1966—the middle term for the syllogism being Rajaji, who now opposes Government and who was then the Government in Madras. Rajaji accepted the chief ministership of Madras in 1952 upon the earnest entreaties of Sri Kamaraj himself (who was then President of the Tamil Nad Congress Committee) and Sri Kumaraswami Raja, who was the retiring Chief Minister then. I was ill at the time - indeed very ill — and had come away from Delhi, having taken leave of Sri Jawaharlal Nehru who had twice kept me continuing in Delhi against my appeals to be left alone, telling him that that was my final adieu to office. Jawaharlal Nehru told these gentlemen when they first approached him that he would be no party to putting pressure on me to accept the Madras chief ministership. The job of a chief minister in Madras then was to run government with a Legislative Assembly of a 50 per cent Opposition of dedicated communists, fanatical Andhra partitionists and DK and DMK members who were then at the height of their particular ideologies. It was just for this reason that Sri Kamaraj wanted me to take up the chief ministership of Madras. Later, when Jawaharlalji learnt of the clique forming against me, he was exasperated at what he considered to be ingratitude on the part of people on whose entreaty I had accepted a thankless job.
There was then a very bad drought all over the State which, at that time, included parts of Kerala, Mysore and nearly the whole of present-day Andhra. The hostile half of the Legislative Assembly were busy all the time looking out for “starvation deaths” because I had decided on removal of controls and running of fair price shops. Sri C. Subramaniam, the present Union Food Minister, was then my Food Minister and the late Fafi Ahmed Kidwai, the brave astute gem of an administrator, was in charge of food affairs at the Centre. Not a day passed but allegations were made of some starvation deaths, somewhere or other. But every such allegation was enquired into and if a death had been proved as alleged in any instance, the hostiles in the Legislative Assembly, who were most vigilant watch-dogs, would have demanded my head to be presented to them an a charger.
If the proceedings of the Madras Legislative Assembly of that period were studied, it would be seen that not a single case of alleged starvation death was established and that Sri Kamaraj’s present story is untrue. All this, being an old story of fourteen years ago, has no relevance whatsoever to the food situation now created by the wrong land policies of the Congress Party. Sri Kamaraj’s reliance on the gullibility of the electorate is however strong and he seeks to convince the people in the countryside, that they ought not to pay any heed to the criticisms of Rajaji on land policies or food production because during his chief ministership in Madras in 1952-54 there was a drought and some people died in consequence of his abolishing rationing. Apart from the untruth of the fact alleged, it is just a red herring drawn across the track to divert public attention from the failures of the Congress.
TEACHER: Why are you limping, my boy?
PUPIL: Tamarlane, whose empire in the 14th century extended from Moscow to Bengal, was a lame man.
