Kerala - Kollam   

Karunakaran justifies Emergency

Staff Reporter

Says it helped bring a section of wayward Malayalis under control

KOLLAM: K. Karunakaran, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, said here on Friday that the Emergency of the mid-1970s had served to bring under control a section of Malayalis who had gone out of control.

Inaugurating a lecture series on `The changing face of Malayalis' organised by the district unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists, Mr. Karunakaran said that the pre-Emergency period was one during which many people feared whether their heads will be hacked by morning.

`Saved lives'

The Thalassery Police Station was attacked in broad day light at that time. The Emergency was an exercise aimed at saving lives. "A surgery is something aimed at saving a life but a little blood will be shed in the process," he explained. Mr. Karunakaran said that Kerala is the only State that has not fallen prey to terrorist or militant activities so far.

Recalling the spadework for the Nedumbassery Airport, the veteran leader said that the proposal at that time had invited a lot of opposition from various quarters, including the bureaucracy.

"I had reacted at that time by stating that if good things are proposed, the people will stand by it."

Today, the airport is in a position to declare 10 per cent dividend to its shareholders.

He said that during the course of the past 50 years, the Malayali had achieved much that the people in many other States could not.

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