K. Karunakaran

Karunakaran was born on 5 July 1918 in Chirakkal near Kannur to Thekkedathu Ravunni Marar and Kannoth Kalyani Amma. He had two elder brothers, Kannoth Kunjirama Marar and Kannoth Balakrishna Marar; a younger brother, Kannoth Damodara "Appunni" Marar; and a sister, Devaki, who died when Karunakaran was five years old. His father was a record keeper in the erstwhile Malabar District.

During his childhood, Karunakaran was an expert in swimming, painting, football and volleyball. Though he was named Karunakara Marar, he later dropped his caste title, and came to be known just by his given name.

Karunakaran began his education at Vadakara Government Lower Primary School in 1923. Later, he studied in Andallur Government School and Raja's High School near his home in Chirakkal. After graduating high school, he went to Thrissur and enrolled at the fine arts college, where he obtained degrees in painting and mathematics. For treating an eye disorder, he went to his maternal uncle's home in Vellanikkara near Thrissur, along with his elder brother Kunjirama Marar. Later, he married his uncle's daughter Kalyanikkutty Amma in 1954 at Guruvayoor Temple, when he was 36 and she was 30. Their children are Congress politicians K. Muraleedharan and Padmaja Venugopal.

On 3 June 1992, during his last term as Chief Minister, he had a near fatal car accident on his way to Thiruvananthapuram. He recovered after prolonged treatment in both India and the US.[11] In the next year, his wife died following a heart ailment.[12]

Karunakaran in 1977

In 1937, Karunakaran joined the flood relief camps that were conducted by V. R. Krishnan Ezhuthachan, C. Achutha Menon, R. M. Manakkalath and other leaders of Prajamandalam, an early freedom movement in Kochi. He became a member of the INC and began to wear khadi. He also participated intensively in trade union activities in the vast Thattil rubber estates where his uncle Raghavan Nair was a writer. During this time he used his artistic skills and labour to help the workers' union, which would become the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), with their posters and campaigns. Gradually, he was picked up by Panampilly Govinda Menon as his favourite follower. Eventually, Karunakaran rose to the level of senior leader of the INTUC, which became one of the largest trade unions in India with over 33 million members. He went on to become INC's Thrissur District Committee President, after which he was elected to the Cochin Legislative Assembly twice before the formation of Kerala State. He contested the 1957 Kerala Legislative Assembly elections against trade unionist and ex-INC member Dr. A. R. Menon, when no one else in the state INC party would oppose him. Karunakaran lost by less than one thousand votes in the race.

After a career of both achievements and setbacks in his 30s and most of his 40s, K. Karunakaran was allotted a ticket to contest from a Communist stronghold, Thrissur's Mala constituency, considered a "safe seat" for the Left, in the 1965 Kerala Legislative Assembly Elections. To the astonishment of most political observers, 47-year-old K. Karunakaran defeated the Communist candidate by more than 3000 votes, and went on to represent the constituency in seven successive elections: 1967, 1970, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1987, and 1991.

— Shashi Tharoor, in an article published on Mathrubhumi online[13]

The VIP pavilion in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kaloor, Kochi is named in his honour.[14]

In 1977 following the National Emergency, when INC state governments lost elections across the nation, Karunakaran led the INC to a victory securing 111 seats in the 1977 Kerala Legislative Assembly elections. However, he had to resign after one month following the controversies that emerged about the Rajan case.[15] Regardless, he emerged as a strong supporter of Indira Gandhi after the emergency.[16]

His political downfall began with a car accident that happened to him in June 1992. After the accident, he was hospitalized in Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum and was unable to manage the finances and administration of the state government.[17] This became a political crisis when the state government was managed by a kitchen cabinet of Karunakaran's son K. Muraleedharan and his trusted aide and Chief Secretary of the Indian Administrative Service, K. Padmakumar.[18] This was an issue within the state INC as then-Finance Minister and second in command of the ruling coalition Oommen Chandy, belonging to the party's pro-Antony faction, was not given command.[19] By 1993, Karunakaran had recovered and became active in government affairs. During this period, discontent was further aggravated by bringing K. M. Mani into the foray when a split occurred between Kerala Congress and Kerala Congress (Jacob).[20] Meanwhile a revisionist (Malayalam: തിരുത്തൽവാദി, romanized: thiruthalvadi) group emerged within Karunakaran's INC faction led by G. Karthikeyan, Ramesh Chennithala and M. I. Shanavas against his authoritarian tendencies and proxy rule by his son.[21] The situation intensified into an intra-party revolt when M. A. Kuttappan, nominated by the state INC as a Rajya Sabha nominee, was denied candidacy by party leadership, which Karunakaran had considerable influence over.[22] The difference of opinion that emerged between Chandy and Karunakaran became public and vociferous with Chandy threatening to resign and giving speeches against Karunakaran.[23] By the end of 1994, the ISRO espionage case emerged and the case led to political tensions when the Kerala High Court made remarks against then-Inspector General of the Kerala Police and Karunakaran ally Raman Srivastava.[22][24] Thereafter the dissidence in the party grew into a full-scale crisis, with the Antony faction threatening to withdraw their support from the government, and G. K. Moopanar arriving on behalf of P. V. Narasimha Rao to insist that Karunakaran resign.[25] At the time Karunakaran was defending Nambi Narayanan, arguing that no action should be taken against the top scientist without a detailed probe.[26] Later the ISRO case was proven baseless, but after stepping down from the chief ministry of Kerala in 1995, Karunakaran would never again rise up to higher ranks in successive governments or within the party.[27][28] The Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) (DIC(K)) party was founded at a meeting of Karunakuran's INC faction in Thrissur on 1 May 2005. Initially it was called National Congress (Indira), but the name was changed to DIC(K) for registration purposes in August 2005. Karunakaran rejoined the INC on 11 December 2007.

Karunakaran died on 23 December 2010, aged 92, at Ananthapuri Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. He had had respiratory problems, a fever and other age related diseases and had been hospitalized since 21 October 2010. His condition worsened following a stroke and he died following cardiac arrest, as declared by doctors at 5:30 PM. It was coincidental that his and Narasimha Rao's deaths were on same date, Rao having died six years earlier. Karunakaran had played a key role in backing the Rao government and later Rao had dismissed him from the chair of Chief Minister of Kerala.[29][30] His funeral was attended by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the AICC chief Sonia Gandhi. He was cremated with full state honors at his residence in Punkunnam, Thrissur.[31]

K. Karunakaran was the home minister of Kerala during the Emergency period and decimated the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in Kerala.[32] After the Emergency, the Rajan case rocked Kerala politics and Karunakaran was forced to step down as the case attracted national attention.[15] A habeas corpus petition was filed by T. V. Eachara Warrier asking the state government to produce his son Rajan (a student of the Regional Engineering College, Calicut who had actively participated in protests against the Emergency) in court. Rajan was allegedly killed by the police at the Kakkayam police torture camp and his body disposed of. The legal battle led by his father became one of the most remembered human rights fights in the state and diminished Karunakaran's popularity.[33]

Karunakaran was accused of involvement in the Palmolein Oil Import Scam, about which a case was pending before the Supreme Court at the time of his death. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) who finally investigated the case mentioned in 2013 that no case can be made against the officials and that there was no loss to the state government,[34] and the case was withdrawn.

He was forced to resign due to allegations that his subordinate, senior Indian Police Service officer Raman Srivastava, was involved in the ISRO espionage scandal.[35][36]

• Chief Ministers of Kerala
• Kerala Ministers
• Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran)
• Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee

• Chief Ministers, Ministers, and Leaders of Opposition of Kerala (PDF), Thiruvananthapuram: Secratriat of Kerala Legislature, 2018
• K. Karunakaran, a biography by Vrindavanam Venugopalan, published by Islamiya Books in Aluva in 1992.

• The Hindu on Karunakaran
• News of Death of Karunakaran
• Reporter TV report on Karunakaran on YouTube

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