Re: [www.keralites.net] Bangladesh honours VK Krishna Menon

 

I do NOT think any other Indian leader got such a recognition for his services like Mr. VK Krishna Menon. For example please read 

Blue plaque for Krishna Menon's London home, HASAN SUROOR     LONDON, July 16, 2013

In a rare gesture, the British government has decided to commemorate V.K. Krishna Menon's long and eventful association with London by putting up an English Heritage blue plaque at the house where he lived when he first moved to the city. The plaque at #30, Langdon Park Road in Highgate, north London, where he lived from 1929 to 1931, will be unveiled on Wednesday by Left-Wing Labour veteran Tony Benn who knew Menon personally. Howard Spencer of the 150-year-old Blue Plaques scheme described Menon as "a formidable man — determined in his beliefs, passionate in his pursuit of what he felt to be right, and unafraid of controversy."

Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel are among the other Indian leaders previously honoured by English Heritage.

During his long stay in London, culminating in his being appointed independent India's first High Commissioner to the U.K., Menon took an active interest in the social and political life of the city. For 14 years in the 1930s, he served as a Labour councillor for the Borough of St. Pancras, and is still remembered for introducing travelling libraries and children's corners. During the Second World War, he served as an air warden around Camden Square, where he lived at the time, and in 1955 he was made a freeman of St. Pancras, only the second person ever to be given the honour after George Bernard Shaw. An indefatigable pamphleteer and fiery orator, Menon led the campaign for Indian independence with his characteristic gusto. The former Labour Prime Minister, James Callaghan, once described him as "the embodiment of the movement within Britain for India's freedom".

Bangladesh honours V.K. Krishna Menon,   October 6, 2013

Thiruvananthapuram: Former Indian defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon has been posthumously honoured by the Bangladesh government with the 'Friends of Liberation War' award.  The award was received by Krishna Menon's grandniece Radha Anand Menon at a ceremony at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre in Dhaka Oct 1, according to information available here. The award was conferred by President Abdul Hamid at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, among others.

Menon, who studied at the London School of Economics and University College, London, also spearheaded the movement for India's independence from Britain. He founded the India League to lobby the British parliament and influence public opinion in Britain for the cause of India's freedom. He was also India's first envoy to England before he became defence minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet.

Krishna Menon is remembered as an extraordinary orator, and delivered a record eight-hour speech in the United Nations in 1957 defending India's stand on Kashmir. Menon was born in Kozhikode in Kerala in 1896, and travelled to Chennai and London for higher studies.  He was also the Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram from 1971 till his death in 1974.

On 8 October 2013 10:38, Narayanan Ramachandran <nnr_rama@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

Mr Pramod Agarwal.  Even if China attacks now India cannot win.  Forget those days when there was no defence equipment even shoes for the
soldiers. The Finance Minister and the Coterie ( Congress Party Members)  around him were vehemently opposed to Menon as the PM was very close to
him and the FM and Coterie were jealous.  The FM did not release funds for Defence which the Public and Media knew but all wanted Menon out because
he was outspoken.  Journalists like Kuldip Nayar, D.R Mankekar (I do not know what was he) all wrote books against him all one-sided books but no
tried to project his side of the Story.  And Menon would not stoop low like others.  For an understanding of VKK please read TJS George's book.
The Jana Singh wanted him out as that would impair Nehru.  This was told to me by a late colleague of mine who was a member of Jan Singh and
in charge of our Union controlled by Jan Sangh.

Rgds RAM. 
   . 

---

From: Gangadharan Nair N <ng.puthoor@gmail.com>
To: Keralites@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, October 7, 2013 8:20 PM
Subject: Re: [www.keralites.net] Bangladesh honours VK Krishna Menon

 

Let us see what Mr. Jawaharla Nehru has said about VKKM.Let us see what Mr Jawaharlal Nehru had said about VKKM.

VK Krishna Menon: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's (the 1st Prime Minister of India) following comments will give a vivid picture of Menon's personality. "Krishna Menon is by far the ablest and most outstanding figure in the United Nations. In carrying out India's policy, he comes into conflict with some policies of other countries and, because of his great ability; he creates an impression in the United Nations. There are some people in this country, and some people in other countries too, whose job in life appears to be to run down Mr. Krishna Menon, because he is cleverer than these people, and because his record of service for Indian freedom is far longer than theirs, and because he has worn himself out in the service of India". This quote of Nehru epitomizes Krishna Menon.

Let us see what Mr. R Vekitaraman (ex President of India) has said about VKKM. As Minister for Defence, Krishna Menon brought to bear his great knowledge to strengthen national self reliance. Krishna Menon was to so modernise and indigenise our preparations for defence as to bring them on par with the best anywhere. After a decade of relative inaction, our defence industry acquired, under Menon, direction as well as momentum. Krishna Menon was the first to acknowledge that the defence production base, in the ultimate analysis, could not be divorced from the economic and industrial infrastructure of the country. Thanks to his great foresight and vision, we have now established the necessary infrastructure and expertise in various areas of interest.' -- R Venkataraman, Minister of Defence for India, 1980-1984 (quoted in A political paradigm' by VR Krishna Iyer).

 Let us see what Mr KR Narayana 9ex President of India) has said about VKKM.  "India has been fortunate to have had not only a glorious heritage of culture and civilisation but a succession of great men from the Buddha to Gandhi, from Ashoka to Nehru, from Kautilya to Krishna Menon". -- KR Narayanan, speaking in Bombay at a memorial lecture, 1984 (quoted in A political paradigm' by VR Krishna Iyer).

Let us see what Lt. General Kandeth has said about VKKM.  He was undoubtedly the ablest Defence Minister the army ever had-- we owe him a tremendous debt, because but for him we would not have had a defence industry. He had vision and enormous drive. He could get things done. But his manner of doing things was what antagonised the army. Because we are an organisation where respect, honour, and tradition holds a great deal of importance. And we have to command people and we can't do it if someone denigrates you.' -- Lt. Gen. KP Candeth (quoted in 'VK Krishna Menon: A Personal Memoir', 1997,

 Let us see what Mr. VKKM has said about himself.  If you go round the Prime Minister's house you won't see any photographs of mine over there; if you look at his Bunch of Old Letters' you won't see any letters of mine there. He made very few public references to me. That was how our relationship was. Even when I resigned, in explaining it to Parliament Panditji did not discuss any personal aspect of the matter. I am not resenting it; that was the type of relationship we had. With me being the kind of person I am it does not lend itself to the kind of treatment you suggest. I can't explain it myself and I don't want to. If I did, you would only get a distorted picture of it."-- VK Krishna Menon, in Michael Brecher, India and World Politics: Krishna Menon's View of the World', 1968, 




Krishna Menon as a Diplomat: Immediately on independence, he was appointed as the High Commissioner (1947 to 1952) of India to England based at London. He was coordinating the affairs connected with the transfer of power from the British Government to Indian Government on independence. Since he was having close contact with many top personalities of the Government, the transition was easier and smooth. In 1952 he was sent as deputy leader of the delegation to the United Nations, New York [Leader: Vijayalakshmi Pandit] and in 1953 he became Leader of the Delegation to the United Nations, New York. At that time the major issue for India was the Kashmir Issue with Pakistan. Menon presented India's case most effectively in UN by making the longest speech (8 hours) ever made in UN by anybody till today. During this period Menon was working on behalf of Nehru who was also the Foreign Affairs minister, and was functioning virtually as the foreign affairs minister. He worked for the close co-operation of Afro-Asian nations on the principle of non-alignment. That is, not to align with the then existing 2 camps led by USA and USSR respectively. The non alignment principle became so effective that most of the nations of Africa and Asia became members and many European countries supported it. This policy was effective in not getting involved in the cold war going on between the 2 camps and keeps a neutral policy with supporting the right cause, irrespective of the camp. As a prelude to this movement the Bandung Conference from 18th to 24th of April 1955 in Indonesia was held with the participation of India with Indonesia, Ceylon, Pakistan and Burma consisting nearly 25% of the earth's total surface. The main architects of non alignment were Nehru and Menon of India. Menon's work during this time for the cause of the Afro Latin American nations was commendable and appreciated by those nations very much. Our China was becoming a major 3rd force in addition to the American and Russian Camps. As a neighboring country, India was developing close relations with China. Towards fostering the close relation with China the Panchasheel principle was followed between India and China. This was the time of the slogan "Hindi Cheeni – Bhai –Bhai".

V K Krishna Menon as Minister: In 1957 Nehru inducted Menon into his Cabinet as a Minister without portfolio. After his election from North Bombay, he was appointed Defence Minister. V K K initiated several measures to restructure the defence services. Till now there was one person the head of Army who was controlling the entire defence force. Mr Menon separated the power of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Further he devised the regional concepts and the 3 heads with the regional heads became the policy decision makers of the defence system thereby making it impossible for a military coup as was happening in the neighboring countries.

Side by side Krishna Menon took steps to make the Indian Defence Force Self Reliant. He established the Sainik Schools to train the defence personnel. He established the Armed forces medical college to train Doctors to take care of the needs of the defence personnel. He established the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop the defence equipments. He established the Public Sector defence factories like the Ordnance factory, Heavy Vehicles factory of Avadi, Bharat electronics, HAL at Bangalore and Kanpur etc, Things were not smooth for Menon both in the country and outside. He was very close to Nehru. Nehru had his enemies within the Congress party and outside. Since Menon was close to Nehru and these people were trying to create hurdles for Menon in his discharge of duties as they had no courage to openly fight against Nehru. Besides these people can stand nowhere near to Menon on the level of intellect, logic and factually, so they used to hate him. Menon was also treating with scorn which further alienated them from him. He was the main person behind the Goa annexation in 1961. In 1962 the China waged war against India on the Northern Border. Because of the unpreparedness due to the close relation with China, India lost the war. His Enemies in the country got a chance to bait him. He resigned from the Government owning the moral responsibility. That is the end of brilliant career of V K Krishna Menon.

Menon's Election Experiences: His first contest was for the Borough Councilor, of Ward 4, St. Pancras of London Municipality in 1934 and won the election. Next was to the Rajya Sabha Member post from Madras State in 1953. Contested to the Lok Sabha from North Bombay in 1957 and won. Again in 1962 he contested from the same constituency against the Acharya Kripalani and won with a margin of 1,45,000. The Siva Sena was founded around this time in Bombay mainly to oppose Menon with the hidden support of SK Patil boss of Bombay Congress. The Bombay Congress Committee denied ticket to him for the reason that he was not Maharashtrian. Menon's enemies became more powerful due to the defeat in China war. He contested from the same constituency 2 more times as independent and lost with margin of around 14,000 votes. !969 he won from Midnapore of West Bengal with the support of Left front and finally in 1971 from Thiruvananthapuram with LDF support.

Recognitions to Menon's Services: Freeman of the Borough – 1955 awarded by British Government. A statue of Krishna Menon was erected twice in London. Both the times the same were stolen. Road by name Krishna Menon marg in Delhi. Establishment of Krishna Menon foundation award for best diplomat of India. Padma Vibhushan by Government of India.

Demise: V K Krishna Menon died on 6 October 1974 in the G B Pant hospital, New Delhi.

 

On 7 October 2013 13:36, Pramod Agrawal <pka_ur@yahoo.com> wrote:

Very shameful receiving this award from Bangladesh. Former Indian defense minister V.K. Krishna Menon was the person  responsible for the shameful defeat with China in 1962 war. His grandniece Radha Anand Menon should  have refused to take this award in the interest & respect of Nation.

From: Gangadharan Nair N <ng.puthoor@gmail.com>
To: Keralites@yahoogroups.com
Cc: puthoor <puthoor@egroups.com>; pattathanam <pattathanam@yahoogroups.com>; Ajay C <ajaychellappan@gmail.com>; Aditi Ajay. <aditiavni@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 6, 2013 9:25 PM
Subject: [www.keralites.net] Bangladesh honours VK Krishna Menon

 

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 5 (IANS): Former Indian defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon has been posthumously honoured by the Bangladesh government with the 'Friends of Liberation War' award. The award was received by Krishna Menon's grandniece Radha Anand Menon at a ceremony at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre in Dhaka Oct 1, according to information available here. The award was conferred by President Abdul Hamid at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, among others. Menon, who studied at the London School of Economics and University College, London, also spearheaded the movement for India's independence from Britain. He founded the India League to lobby the British parliament and influence public opinion in Britain for the cause of India's freedom. He was also India's first envoy to England before he became defence minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. Krishna Menon is remembered as an extraordinary orator, and delivered a record eight-hour speech in the United Nations in 1957 defending India's stand on Kashmir. Menon was born in Kozhikode in Kerala in 1896, and travelled to Chennai and London for higher studies. He was also the Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram from 1971 till his death in 1974. Menon died at the age of 78 on 6 October 1974, whereupon Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi remarked that "a VOLCANO is extinct". At a 1984 memorial lecture for Menon, K.R. Narayanan extolled that "India has been fortunate to have had not only a glorious heritage of culture and civilisation but a succession of great men from the Buddha to Gandhi, from Ashoka to Nehru, from Kautilya to Krishna Menon."

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*By any chance if you find my mail a HATE one, please pardon me by reporting it as SPAM & ignore it.
"Na Mo Namasivaya",

   'Vande Matharam'

 Gangadharan Nair N.

"Sab Ke Saath, Sab Ka Vikas"

Please visit:  www.arthakranti.org

"Dharmam Saranam Gachhami"

"Make Giving Bribe & Exposing it, Legal & a Birth Right of every citizen of INDIA, but Demanding or Accepting Bribe Illegal & a willful act of Crime,"

We had a DREAM of Principled, Prosperous & Peaceful INDIA & are committed to fulfill that DREAM.

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