Congress welcomes back Chacko’s legacy

For the first time in 50 years, the party is observing the death anniversary of P.T. Chacko.

August 01, 2014 12:40 am | Updated 12:40 am IST - KOTTAYAM:

Illus: for TH

Illus: for TH

Half a century after his untimely demise, subsequent to his getting caught in the web of the first major sex scandal in Kerala which ultimately changed the course of the Congress’s fortunes and altered the course of Kerala’s politics, the party in his home turf is all set to rekindle and acknowledge the legacy of P.T. Chacko.

For the first time in 50 years, the District Congress Committee (DCC) will observe the death anniversary of Chacko, who died a Congressman, on Friday. The Congress Mandalam Committee will observe his death anniversary at Vazhoor in the morning while the DCC will hold a memorial meet in the evening.

“We are organising such a memorial meeting for the first time in 50 years. After all, he was a former president of Kottayam DCC and one of the tallest leaders the party ever had in the State,” DCC president Tomy Kallani said.

Chacko, Home Minister in the R. Sankar Ministry, took the controversial drive to Peechi on December 8, 1963, after successfully piloting the Land Reforms Bill in the House. When he reached Changanassery, he sent his driver, a newly married person, away for a break.

Chacko was driving his official car when a young woman Congress worker in dark glasses joined him on his front seat from Aluva. In Thrissur, the car hit a bullock cart, injuring the cart driver. Chacko panicked and drove to the plantation of a friend and later to the Peechi Guest House.

No sexual misdemeanour was established and injuries to the victim were minor. But it was a different age and times and Chacko’s opponents within the party forced his resignation in February 1964. His effort to redeem himself was thwarted once again when he was defeated in the contest for KPCC presidency in June 1964. The promising political career ended abruptly when he succumbed to a heart attack on August 1, 1964 at the age of 49.

Against this emotionally charged situation, Chacko’s followers in the party grouped together and came out pulling down the Ministry when14 Congress MLAs expressed their lack of confidence in the leadership of Chief Minister Sankar. Congress had never again formed a government of its own in the State. That was also the beginning of the Kerala Congress.

Says M.P. Govindan Nair, president of the Travancore Devaswom Board who was Chacko’s colleague in the Sankar Cabinet: “There are many who believed that the Congress did not do justice to Chacko. But not all of them believed that formation of another party was the ultimate solution to tide over the situation. I for one still believe that there would not have been a Kerala Congress, had Chacko been alive.”

Ever since, the various Kerala Congress factions had observed Chacko’s death anniversary with public functions, while the Congress desisted from doing so. The new initiative by the Congress leadership is seen by many as the first step in confronting the coalition partner Kerala Congress (M) in the ongoing internal tussle in the United Democratic Front by appropriating a legacy which was so dear to the Kerala Congressmen.

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