The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Unfair to C.P.

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Monday, Apr 25, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Unfair to C.P.

Former President K.R. Narayanan narrates an incident about Sir C.P. Ramaswami Ayier (April 22) in which he comes across as a person with strong caste prejudices. If the statement of the unnamed `Protector of Backward Communities' is to be believed, C.P. was so mean-minded a person as to lose sleep over [what he thought was] a silk jubba and gold watch of a Dalit youth. There is evidence enough that he was not.

A young law graduate from the Dalit community found that none of the senior lawyers would accept him as a junior. C.P. was then a leading lawyer of Madras. He readily took the young man under his wings, first as an apprentice and then as a junior. The young lawyer went on to become a Member of Parliament. The chauffeur at the C.P. household was Kunhiraman, a Theeya from Malabar. As a boy he had come to Madras as a car cleaner and stayed on to become the family chauffeur.

C.P.-bashing has been a favourite pastime in Kerala. If ever there was a man more sinned against than sinning, it was Dr. C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar.

B. Sasisekhar,
Madurai, T.N.

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