| 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." | 
