Kozhikode: The little known Dr K.B. Menon is the stalwart who rubbed shoulders with the greats like Jawaharlal Nehru and Jayaprakash Narayan. Though he was born in Cheruthuruthy, his political activity was in Malabar. Mahe-based Dr KB Menon Foundation is observing the 50th death anniversary of this forgotten hero. On Sunday, Mullappally Ramachandran MP unveiled his bust at PWD rest house in Vadakara.
Konnanath Balakrishna Menon got attracted to freedom struggle through his intimacy with Jayaprakash Narayan while working as a professor at Harvard University in the US. He got in touch with JP who came to the US to pursue further studies. Swayed by the leader, he returned to the motherland to take the plunge into the freedom movement. His first assignment was as the secretary of All India Civil Liberties Union headed by Nehru. During Quit India movement, he was the brain behind the Keezhariyur bomb case.
“Mr Menon himself oversaw all the works related to manufacturing bombs. He was the first accused in the case and was convicted,” says Dr A.P Sreedharan, secretary of the foundation. After independence, Dr Menon got elected as a member of Madras Legislative Assembly in 1952 from Thrithala as a Socialist Party candidate. In 1957, he got elected to Parliament from Vadakara. “Dr Menon was a staunch socialist and Gandhian. Nehru wanted to use his expertise in the first government, but he asked Nehru to join the socialist block,” said Dr Sreedharan. The 'simplicity personified' had a quiet death at Kozhikode medical college hospital on September 6, 1967.
