First Lok Sabha of independent India had in its ranks many stalwarts, who made their individual mark in various areas of public life. Tiny state of Kerala, then constituted by erstwhile Travancore- Cochin and Malabar, also had a fair representation of its illustrious sons and daughter in the exalted house. Starting with the then opposition leader A. K. Gopalan, the list included K. Kelappan, K. A. Damodara Menon, N. Sreekantan Nair, P.T. Chacko, K. T. Achuthan, Mathai Manjooran, Kum: Annie Mascarene, P. T. Punnoose and Nettur. P. Damodaran, names that inspire awe and reverence. The house also had a sprinkling of other eminent Malayalis, representing the cabinet or constituencies of other states, namely, V. K. Krishna Menon, Pattom Thanu Pillai, Anandan Nambiar, Shakuntala Nair and C. Krishnan Nair.
Among the comity of members of pre eminence from elsewhere in the country were brilliant Parliamentarians and orators of rare calibre like Shyamaprasad Mukherji, Acharya JB Kripalani, H. V. Kamath, Ashoka Mehta, Hiren Mukherji, S. K. Patil, V. V. Giri, C. D. Deshmukh, K. D. Malaviya, A. O. Thomas etc to mention a few. Nettur. P. Damodaran, representing the then Tellicherry constituency of erstwhile Madras state, through his speeches and interventions on wide ranging subjects, had caught the attention of all, including Pandit Nehru, on many an occasions. His performance as a Parliamentarian was widely reported in the press during the period and were followed with interest by not only Malayalees but citizens of other parts of the country also. Passage of the period and emergence of new issues had, as a rule of nature, taken these contributions away from the public purview.
Thanks to the great tradition of our Parliament, every Parliamentary word spoken in the house by its members finds their way to the annals of Parliament library for the benefit of the generations to come. The idea of tapping this source to collect the contributions made by Nettur. P. Damodaran, as Member of the Lok Sabha, and make it known to the present day world occurred to me during one of the family gatherings we his children had shared. It was in April 2009 that the undersigned four children of Nettur P, made a resolution to build a permanent memorial for this illustrious son of Tellicherry at his birth place, at their own cost. Among the many ideas that emerged during the discussions to fulfill the dream, this idea also remained at the back of our mind. This was put into action by roping in the services of one of Nettur P’s grandsons, Sudeep Nettur, who is employed and stationed in Gurgaon, close to New Delhi. He was requested to explore all the avenues available to compile the data. Thus commenced his pilgrimage to Parliament library.
Thanks to the very helping nature extended by the Parliament Library authorities, our initial apprehensions of facing many a hurdles in realizing the goal vanished quickly. As one has to wade through hundreds of books stacked neatly in many racks with limited help from the computerized data, he had to spend several days inside the library to retrieve much of the useful data pertaining to Nettur P. One of us also had an opportunity to visit the Parliament library, during a trip to Delhi in February 2012. We got awe stuck by the enormous data conserved for posterity at the library, under the watchful eyes of dedicated professionals entrusted with the task. We were overjoyed, when we got hold of some of the speeches he made and sat inside reading those treasures, forgetting the fact that the one hour time allowed to us passed several hours before and we were about to be hauled up by the security team for over stay. The library in charge was quite obliging in getting all the pages of the books, which were marked by us, getting photocopied on subsequent days at a very nominal cost. It is also a fact that we could not lay our hands on all the speeches and interventions made by Nettur. P. Damodaran, merely on account of the enormity of the task and the limited time allotted for each visit.
However, the retrieved data on hand and the great experience of acquiring the data had pumped sufficient energy in us to bring those records to the purview of the present day citizens of free India, to give them an insight of how these great men and women held sway over the Parliamentary proceedings with their deep understanding, commitment and vision. The compilation of the speeches, question answers and interventions of Nettur. P. Damodaran in Parliament also brought in its wake very interesting and thought provoking replies and studied responses by other eminent members of the day as well. Thus, this compendium not only throws light on Nettur P’s parliamentary contributions but also on many other forgotten luminaries’ of the period, who made very forceful and effective presentations and interventions of public importance, which are in a different class altogether.
The layout of this book has been selected to have a year wise spread, in the ascending order, commencing from 1952. As the subjects touched by Nettur P were very wide and varied, it was impossible to make it subject wise. Nor was it possible to group them in a different format than year wise. However, each chapter is given a title, chosen from the matter that was talked about by Nettur P, to keep the interest and inquisitiveness of the discernible alive, leading them to delve into the contents.
This book is also expected to give the reader an insight into the personality traits of Nettur P, the convictions held by him, courage of his convictions, the force in his arguments, the farsightedness and broad vision, the urge to build a strong nation keeping the welfare of the people uppermost in mind, curbing corruption, steadfastly secular mindset, and above all a completely non parochial approach to all issues. He held all these traits throughout his career, from early on, right through as a Member of Parliament and later. How else he would build up strong cases for Railway expansion in Vindhya Pradesh, plead for Aligarh Muslim University, Urdu broad cast, express concern on train accident of Gaya Mughalsarai passenger etc with equal vehemence and equanimity as he took up the cases of Barapuzha project or Payyoli railway station? This book will reveal all these and more. Every sentence uttered by him reveals his wide knowledge of history, geography and politics, deep understanding of the society and the peoples’ plight as it remained then, rare skill in presenting the case, his ability in invoking all round sympathy and succeeding. The success stories for which the genesis was laid by him in the first Parliament through his impassioned speeches containing his wish list as also that of the nation were, liberation of Mahe from French rule, Ernakulam Quilon and Trivandrum Kanyakumari Railway lines, linking of Bombay and Mangalore through rail on the western coast, Calicut aerodrome, independent radio station of Calicut, expansion of Railway stations of Malabar etc. Two pet projects, which were very close to his heart, unfortunately remain unimplemented till this date though he took up these cases right from 1952 and vehemently pursued it till his last day in Parliament. They are Tellicherry Mysore railway line and Barapuzha Hydro electric project in Coorg. How the state re organization on linguistic lines played spoilsport to these vital projects, that would have benefitted Malabar immensely, can be traced in his speeches of rare calibre, replete with wit and sarcasm. These speeches also reveal his ability to forecast the future on factual basis and his strong commitment to build the nation free of all evil forces. It is very interesting to note that many of his predictions and prophesies, made in fifties, have come really true, some for the good and some for the worse. Cases in point are rail link from Bombay to Kanyakumari on the west coast, instability in the governance of Kerala, communalism creeping into politics, sad plight of Malabar remaining same to cite a few.
It is another matter altogether that his excellent performance in the Parliament though endeared him to the top echelons of power and reputed leaders of the day, was equally responsible for the undoing of a very promising political career. His political career unfortunately eclipsed for reasons other than merit, thanks to the local factors and associated machinations of the political operators of the day in the newly constituted state of Kerala. By then, the days of principled politics had to slowly give way for the new trends that we witness today, in which there was seldom any role for persons like him, who were cast in freedom struggle mould. He, however, continued to serve the nation through other Government assignments for which he was specifically chosen by Pandit Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and E.M.S. Namboodiripad for uplifting Scheduled caste, Scheduled tribes and Backward classes, in late fifties and sixties, where also he made his mark. It is hoped that the records retrieved and presented here would help, though in a small way, in resurrecting the times, the political processes underway then through Nettur P Damodaran.
I would like to place on record our immense gratitude to the Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, who had promptly conveyed her permission to publish these Parliamentary records, related to Nettur. P. Damodaran, during the course of his birth centenary celebrations commencing on 14th May 2013. A scanned copy of the Hon’ble Speaker’s letter, conveying the permission, and a piece, as instructed by Hon’ble Speaker, are appended at the beginning of this book. We will also be sending two copies of this book for the record of Parliament, as requested by the Hon’ble Speaker.