Bengaluru: Friends and well-wishers of former chief minister, Mr S.M. Krishna have decided to bring out five books on him despite Mr Krishna tendering his resignation from the Congress alleging that the party had 'sidelined' him.
“Mr Krishna quitting the Congress party is a recent development. However, a committee constituted for this purpose is going to release all those five books. The date and venue will be decided by Mr Krishna,” said Mr B.L. Shankar, former chairman of the State Legislative Council and Honorary Secretary of the felicitation committee.
The committee comprising senior Congress leaders and noted literary figures like Justice M.N. Venkatachalaiah, former vice-chancellor of Mysore University, Dr D Javare Gowda and noted Kannada litterateur, Prof L.S. Seshagir Rao, had been constituted to bring out five books on Mr Krishna in connection with his 50 years in politics. Though the function was supposed to be held during the 80th birthday celebrations of the former external affairs minister, it got delayed due to some reason. Now, all the books are ready for release.
Mr Shankar said a number of well-known personalities had contributed articles on Mr Krishna's childhood days, experiences of working in Harvard University, contributions to Karnataka state as minister and chief minister, and also on his days as governor of Maharasthra and as external affairs minister. Besides, one book was dedicated to rare pictures of Mr Krishna. In fact, Mr Krishna himself had written a book to share his five-decade political experiences in state and national politics. He said since from the beginning, Mr Krishna wanted the felicitation function to be apolitical and he had promised to choose the guests. One among the guests was head of Sri Ramakrishna Ashram where he studied. The committee bore the expenses of printing the books. Meanwhile, according to sources, Congress leaders were in a quandary on their association with the committee with Mr Krishna quitting the party. KPCC President and Home Minister Dr G Parameshwar, Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar and other leaders had planned to hold the function on a big scale but it remains to be seen whether they would remain involved in the event now.
