Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Giri, The Man

K. P. S. Menon

To judge simply by bio-data, few Indians of this century have had a more crowded, varied and distinguished record than Dr. V. V. Giri. He was a labour leader, legislator, Minister of the State Government, Minister of the Central Government, High Commissioner of India in Ceylon, Governor of U. P., Governor of Kerala, Vice-President of India and finally President of India.

A recital of the posts which Dr. Giri held, however, will not do him justice. The man was greater than his record. None of the posts which he held could contain him.

In this article I shall make no attempt to appraise Dr. Giri’s achievements, but merely try and bring out the quality of the man.

Perhaps, Dr. Giri’s predominant trait was his sterling independence, which showed itself even when he was in his teens. As a student in Dublin he fell under the spell of De Valera, the famous Irish revolutionary, and threw himself into the movement for Irish independence, to the annoyance of the British Government. His independence showed itself equally in his resignation from the Central Cabinet when he found that the majority of the Cabinet took a decision which was adverse to labour. Above all it showed itself in the valiant manner in which, standing alone, he contested the President’s election in August 1969 and pitted himself against the official Congress candidate. Doubtless he had the unspoken blessings of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Nevertheless, the entire campaign was organized and conducted by him with a tenacity which a younger man would envy, and the result of the ejections confirmed that none but the brave deserve the fair.

This incident showed another quality which Giri possessed in abundance, his sheer zest for life. Even after he retired as President, he continued to take an active interest in politics, though he took care to keep aloof from politicking which was the order of the day. At the same time, he organised a city-cleaning campaign in Madras and the public saw the rare spectacle of a former octogenarian President himself sweeping the roads and cleaning the drains and thus setting an example in civic sense in which many of our countrymen are woefully lacking.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi, once said: “The bane with you, Indians, is politicking.” Not politics, but politicking, that is playing politics, not for the sake of one’s country, but one’s community, one’s caste, one’s sect, or one’s petty self. Giri felt that none of the existing parties was above politicking. Almost in the last year of his life he attempted to found a new party called Labour Party. To have imagined, however, that at a time when all parties were going to the dogs, the new Labour Party would remain immune to the general contamination was perhaps wishful thinking; but it is an example of another charming trait of his, his robust optimism.

As a champion of the underdog, the welfare of labour continued, to the end of his life, to be the mainspring of all his actions. He was a genuine labour leader who, however, set his face resolutely against the politicalization of the Labour Movement. When he was President, he prepared a blueprint called “Jobs for our Millions” for ending unemployment and underemployment in this country and presented it to successive governments for initiating action–which has yet to be done.

My own acquaintance or, if I may say so, friendship with him goes to the early days of independence. He has graciously recalled those days in a little book called “A Messenger of Friendship” which was presented to me by some of my friends on my 72nd birthday. “It has been my pleasure and privilege,” wrote Giri, “to have known K. P. S. Menon intimately for more than three decades. We used to meet very often at 21, Curzon Road, New Delhi, when Dr. P. P. Pillai used to reside there as the Director of the I.LO. K. P. S. was Secretary, Foreign Affairs, when I was High Commissioner for India in Ceylon and I valued always his advice in fulfilling my duties as envoy of India. There were many occasions during all these years when we discussed matters of national and international importance and I found his views not only sound but pragmatic.”

I have quoted this as an example of another gracious trait in Giri, his genius for friendship. If he made a friend he grappled him to his heart with hoops of steel. It was characteristic of him that when he was Governor of Kerala he insisted on our staying with him in the Raj Bhavan in Trivandrum, when we visited Trivandrum, even though we had many friends and relation there. Giri took a pleasure in exchanging reminiscences, and occasionally crossing swords, with old friends.

All this brings out a quality which has a tendency to recede in the rough and tumble of our hectic life, namely his warm-heartedness. This was shown in a gracious gesture which he made immediately after he assumed the office of the President of India. The first thing he did was to proceed, unheralded, with his wife to the house of Dr. P. P. Pillai to whom he was greatly attached and to whom he has referred in the passage quoted, above from “A Messenger of Friendship.” Dr. P. P. Pillai was the first Indian to have joined the League of Nations Secretariat and was primarily associated with the International Labour Organisation. It was their common interest in labour which formed the basis of the life-long friendship between one of the best-known Indians of the century, Dr. V. V. Giri, and the little known but very estimable international civil servant, Dr. P. P. Pllai;

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