Kannur: Days after claiming that he 'protected RSS shakhas', K Sudhakaran, the outspoken chief of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), has shot off another comment that is set to create a furore. The latest was on India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who still remains a major target of right-wing forces.

Jawaharlal Nehru was ready to enter into a truce even with 'communal fascists' for the sake of democracy, Sudhakaran stated on Monday during a function organised by the Kannur District Congress Committee (DCC), as part of Children's Day.

"Nehru was willing to make RSS leader Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (founder of Jan Sangh) a minister in his Cabinet. This was proof of his high sense of democracy. By appointing Dr B R Ambedkar as law minister then, he ensured the sacred values of democracy were upheld," said Sudhakaran.

Further praising the democratic values of the former prime minister, on whose birthday Children's Day is observed, Sudhakaran said there was no opposition during Nehru's era. "There were not enough numbers to make up an opposition," he added.

"Still, Nehru ensured differences of opinion would have a platform to be heard and made the then CPI member A K Gopalan the Leader of the Opposition. It was his thinking that there should always be an opposition in Parliament that got AKG the position despite him not deserving it," said Sudhakaran.

He also said no other leader would have done something like that.

Recent controversy

It was on November 9 that Sudhakaran landed in controversy by saying he had sent his men to "give protection" to RSS branches when he was part of the Congress (Organisation) decades ago and the right-wing outfit also has all rights to function in a democratic country.

(Congress (Organisation) came into being after the 1969 split of the Congress party. The Congress(O) later merged with the Janata Party.)

While speaking at a function in Kannur district, the Congress leader said the CPM had tried to destroy the RSS branches when they were launched in places like Edakkad, Thottada and Kizhunna in Kannur and he had sent people to "protect" them from left cadres.

However, Sudhakaran made it clear that he had done so not because of any affiliation towards the right-wing outfit but out of a feeling that it was not appropriate for a democratic believer to be silent when one's rights were being trampled upon.

The KPCC chief, who is known for his fight against the Marxist party in Kannur, which is known as a CPM bastion, also said freedom of expression and political liberty were the birth rights of every individual and should be protected.