Coimbatore is known to be business city which practised conscious capitalism. The city produced a number of business and social leaders. A number of freedom fighters and politicians emerged from Coimbatore.
Coimbatore is known to be business city which practised conscious capitalism. The city produced a number of business and social leaders. A number of freedom fighters and politicians emerged from Coimbatore. It has been known to be open to ideas of all kinds and its one of the rare parliamentary constituencies which has elected all the national and regional parties in spite of their varying approach. The liberal and open but positive approach has made the city visible politically to the rest of India. Its much touted as the ecological capital in spite of its commercial success and its rare to find such a gem among cities.
All this has been been possible due to the 'Coimbatore Culture' that has ensured a place for the city in the history of cities. Great people like S.P.Narasimhalu Naidu, A.T.Thiruvenkataswamy Mudaliar, C.S. Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar, T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar, C.V.Venkataramana Iyengar, Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty and V.C.Vellingiri Gounder stood in as the early public representatives and did much for the region. They had known how to do so in times when they held opposite views on a number of subjects. Similarly G.K.Sundaram and few others belong to this tribe of Coimbatoreans whose voice stood for a prosperous Coimbatore within a resurgent India.
G.K.Sundaram (1914 - 2009) of Lakshmi Mills was a freedom fighter, industrialist, philanthropist, avid bridge player and a leader amongst people. He was keen politician who had worked with C.Rajaji, the Founder of the Swatantra Party. Rajaji was a fabulous leader and dissenter who had worked in the interest of the nation. The harsh economic realities that became visible post independence made Rajaji to feel the need to take action on a nation wide basis. He found that democracy, secularism, socialism and non alignment were becoming mere catch phrases with the ballot box as the focus.
Rajaji felt that the nation was dangerously drifting towards dictatorship and all consuming statism which was a negation of democracy. He wanted to arrest this disastrous trend and reverse it if possible. The leader in him chose to do so in the form of the Swatantra Party. A number of educated and well meaning Indians connected themselves to the Swatantra Party in the interest of the nation. Rajaji had always stood in the midst of political conflicts and sought to draw the attention of the people whenever he found that something was wrong. The Avadi session of the Congress had clearly laid down that the State will effectively control the principal means of production and material resources. This was against Rajya Dharma as propounded by Bhishma in the Mahabharata.
Bhishma had stated that, "Men should engage in husbandry, trade, commerce and such alike. Lack of enough numbers of such men will ruin enterprises. If those who are engaged in them fear that they will lose the fruit of their industry due to insecurity or due to the actions of the Government, it is the ruler who has to take the blame". The events that took place between the years 1952 and 1957 propelled the formation of Swatantra Party by Rajaji who was the mentor of G.K.Sundaram. Rajaji was the Founder and unquestioned leader of the party and its goal was not to merely unseat the Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru but to put the nation on a positive route. He chose the productive path for he felt that spewing venom on the Prime Minister is not going to help the nation in any way.
G.K.Sundaram joined the party at the very start and he was nominated to contest the parliamentary elections in the year 1962. Prof P.R.Ramakrishnan was the candidate who filed his nomination on behalf of the Congress Party. The families of G.K.Sundaram and P.R.Ramakrishnan were joint venture partners in the huge textile venture, South India Viscose. The elder brothers of the candidates R.Venkataswamy Naidu and G.K.Devarajulu were in fact the Managing Directors of Viscose at the time of the elections. G.K.Sundaram (GKS) lost the elections but this did not deter him from working for the benefit of the country under the Swatantra Party banner.
Maharani Gayathri Devi of Jaipur in Rajasthan had savoured a record breaking victory and the party was quite popular in Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa and Bihar. Sadasivam of Kalki had served the party well and so did Saw.Ganesan (Kambanadipodi), S.S.Mariswamy, Venkat Rao, V.P.Kandaswamy, Kovai Khadar Ayyamuthu and N.A.Parasuraman (Ramoo & Co - Cloth Merchants - Coimbatore). The party was strong in Rajaji's home base, Dharmapuri. The Congress had won the elections in 1967 on a slender margin and V.V.Giri had become the President and from what it appeared the vote of a few parliamentarians may have swung it the other way. The Swatantra Party worked with G.K.Sundaram in Coimbatore and the results became obvious. N.A.Parasuraman became a Municipal Councillor and his good work won accolades for the party. Kovai Subri, the freedom fighter latched himself to the party and along with G.K.Sundaram he undertook tours of the district. Manpower, finances and infrastructure were provided by G.K.Sundaram to the aspiring candidates who contested the elections on behalf of the Swatantra Party. GKS worked really hard and he did not spare efforts in this regard. He was never tired of explaining to the poor and illiterate villagers in simple direct language about what was required to make India shine again. He told them how the ruling elite had failed to destroy poverty is spite of destroying the fortunes of the wealthy of the land. The poor were made to understand why the nation was on the brink.
G.K.Sundaram ensured that a car was made available to Kovai Khadar Ayyamuthu and the same was used by the freedom fighter to travel and enroll members for the party in the undivided Coimbatore district. Advocate Sundaramurthy, Ponnusamy of Narasipuram and one more Ponnusamy were among the hard working candidates from the party who received the support of G.K.Sundaram. Rajaji saw the reports sent by the Coimbatore section of the party and used to exclaim that if there was a G.K.Sundaram in each district, both the party and the nation would progress. GKS had lost the elections though the party had contested 90 assembly and 10 parliament seats. The campaign had been intensive and extensive. Eight massive conferences had been held and GKS was a keen participant in each one of them. He had once unequivocally stated that, "Individuals should be allowed to pursue their avocations without let or hindrance - there should be no unnecessary governmental interference. We believe in freedom of enterprise because it is the only system that can uphold and protect individual liberty which is paramount and matters more than anything else".
The Swatantra Party was keen to get GKS elected to the parliament and he was nominated to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) much to the consternation of the Congress Party. He won comfortably due to the support of the opposition parties which included the DMK. G.K.Sundaram went to Delhi as a representative of the Indian public who had reposed in much faith in him. He believed in the words of Voltaire - "I do not agree with even a word of what you say but I shall defend your right to say it with my life".
GKS, the Swatantra Party representative in the Rajya Sabha never missed an opportunity to draw attention to the chaos in the country. The desperate gamble for power had brought down the political morality of the country and it was plummeting alarmingly. Even a dull passage of the Motor Vehicle Act of Delhi was made interesting by GKS who spoke about the points relevant to the bill but went on to speak about the deplorable condition of the taxis and other vehicles in the capital. The Minister was obviously looking embarrassed.
GKS spoke up against several of the dictatorial economic policies of the then government under Indira Gandhi. He opposed the nationalisation policies for it was destroying the competence of the educated who were meant to lead the nation. Throughout his six years in the Rajya Sabha GKS fought for the nation by drawing the attention to the financial chaos that was becoming the order of the day. GKS stated that the Swatantra Party did not mind if the government spent more money on the telegraph department provided they did not send telegrams by aeroplanes and also provided the phones worked. He bitterly criticised the Gold Control Order, the vague provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Bill etc.,
He felt that these bills showed the incompetence of the government for it could not do things with the existing laws. He addressed issues like deficit financing that caused a lot of inflation in the country. Of course he drew the attention of the government with regard to the disastrous textile policies introduced by them. The industrial licencing policy was also not spared by him. He told the government that the MRTP Act could cause a lot of hassles in the long run.He stated that it was not the Swatantra Party which wanted wealth in the hands of a few individuals, but the government because due to the commissions and omissions of the people concerned the entire wealth of the country had gone into the hands of a few politicians and bureaucrats. Eminent industrialist J.R.D.Tata was of the same opinion.
The people's representative G.K.Sundaram spoke about the issue of poverty and how the introduction of economic policies and new bills did nothing to help in the eradication of the same. He warned that if economic liberties and liberties of other kind get crushed under the garb of an 'ISM' the nation and people will suffer in a big manner. The actions and words of G.K.Sundaram was just a recap of the advice given by Rama to Bharata before undertaking his onerous 14 year self exile - "It is your duty to favour those who live by husbandry and commerce. It is only where men produce, buy and sell freely we see prosperity. Would you give them support and sustenance and remove all obstacles in their way?" - how apt!
G.K.Sundaram was an important leader in the Swatantra Party which offered itself as a political alternate to the Congress Party at a time when it was considered to be disastrous to oppose the party which was responsible for getting freedom. However the large number of freedom fighters like Rajaji, Subri, Kovai Khadar Ayyamuthu and G.K.Sundaram who were part of the Swatantra experiment made quite a few understand that they stood for the well being of every Indian. They were not opposing the Congress or Pandit Nehru or Indira Gandhi but only their policies.
This kind criticism which had etiquette was much appreciated by the people. GKS was quite close to M.R.Masani, Girish Munshi, A.S.Nagabhushana Rao, Harihara Patel, Sumatilal P.Shah, S.S.Mariswamy, H.Ajmal Khan, G.Latchanna, Lobo Prabhu, Prof N.G.Ranga, H.M.Patel and Piloo Mody. He used to address the members of the Verandah Club in Cosmopolitan Club year after year and the opportunity at the time of the budget was used to constructively criticise and also appreciate the salient features of the budget. His speak was akin to the speech of Nani.A.Palkivala who used to speak on the budget every year on behalf of the Forum of Free Enterprise in Mumbai.
One must remember the fact that G.K.Sundaram was associated with the Lakshmi Mills group of companies and he opposed the government of the day in spite of his business status at a time when not many were ready to come out of their comfort zones. He used his ninetieth birthday as an occasion to reprint the speeches that his mentor Rajaji had rendered as the Governor General of a newly independent and hopeful country.
The year 1978 saw him dedicating a statue of his mentor Rajaji at the Cross Cut Road signal. He was quite close to Nani.A.Palkivala and an auditorium was named after the eminent lawyer at the Lakshmi Mills run, Mani Higher Secondary School in Coimbatore. The concept of fighting issues and not people as espoused by Rajaji was followed by the Swatantra Party and its ideologues like G.K.Sundaram all their life. The times of G.K.Sundaram with the Swatantra Party is sure to act as a guide for a budding and well meaning politician in our country today.
