Congress demand apology from Kerala CM for his remarks on Nataraja Pillai

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should apologise for his rude remarks against former minister P.S. Nataraja Pillai, the state Congress demanded on Sunday.

State Congress President V.M. Sudheeran told the media here that Vijayan's remark was not acceptable from a Chief Minister.

"The best that Vijayan can do now and that too at the earliest is to apologise to Pillai's family. It is most unfortunate that Vijayan addressed Nataraja Pillai 'as some Pillai'," said Sudheeran.

Vijayan made the rude reference to Nataraja Pillai on Saturday when he was asked to comment on a row over the nearly 12 acres of land that is in possession of the Kerala Law Academy located in the capital city.

The academy's students are on an indefinite protest, demanding the resignation of its principal Lekshmi Nair for her mismanagement and rude behaviour.

The land in the possession of the academy originally belonged to Nataraja Pillai and was taken over by the then Diwan of Travancore C.P. Ramaswamy as a punishment to Pillai for participating in the freedom struggle.

Pillai, a respected figure in the state politics, served as a state Minister for Finance for Travancore-Cochin (1954-55).

He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly (1948-50), the Travancore legislative assembly (1944-47 and 1948-50), and the Travancore-Cochin legislative assembly (1951 and 1954-57).

Pillai also represented the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency in the third Lok Sabha as an independent candidate. He passed away in 1966.

Last week, Nataraja Pillai's son N. Venkatesan asked the government to cancel the assignment of the 11.49 acres of land with the privately-run Kerala Law Academy, and take over its possession since the academy was trying to put it to commercial exploitation.

Vijayan said his government has no plans to do anything of the kind as the family members of "some Pillai" asked for.