However, Bhaktavatsalam continues to be seen adversely by sections of historians and political leaders for the best way he dealt with the acute scarcity of rice and anti-Hindi imposition agitation within the State. He remains to be blamed for the debacle of the Congress within the 1967 Assembly election.
Yet, one comment that he made after the declaration of outcomes of the 1967 Assembly election, stays a topic of intense debate among the many political class and college students of up to date historical past. The statement was this, “I see a virus has unfold throughout Tamil Nad[u]. I pray God could save the folks.” Actually, this shaped part of his assertion made solely to The Hindu, in keeping with a report revealed on February 24, 1967. Needless to say, the outgoing CM, who graciously congratulated the DMK, acknowledged he accepted the defeat as “the decision of the folks in opposition to the Congress.”
That the ballot outcomes surprised the Congress occasion was an understatement as not solely the incumbent Chief Minister and most of his Cabinet colleagues had been defeated but in addition the then all-India president of the organisation and former Chief Minister Okay. Kamaraj needed to chew the mud. In Virudhunagar, a younger student-leader P. Srinivasan of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had outsmarted Kamaraj by a margin of rather less than 1,300 votes whereas one other DMK nominee, D. Rajarathnam, beat Bhaktavatsalam almost by 9,000 votes in Sriperumpudur.
In an hour-long interplay with reporters at his Nungambakkam residence, the DMK chief C. N. Annadurai, who turned Chief Minister on March 6, 1967, described his predecessor’s assertion as “unlucky” and sounded considerably bitter by saying that “it’s completely unbecoming of him,” reported this newspaper on February 25. M. Karunanidhi, who succeeded Annadurai two years later following the latter’s demise, in his memoir, Nenjukku Neethi (Volume 1) [which he originally wrote in 1975], likened Bhaktavatsalam’s statement to “one in every of spewing venom.”
Two days later, the outgoing CM clarified his controversial comment, which, he mentioned, had been “misunderstood.” There was no “insinuation” in his comment in opposition to any particular person or occasion. “What was uppermost in his thoughts was that there must be some introspection and that the Congress ought to look into its shortcomings and rectify them. All that he was involved about was the obsession with which the physique politic was seized. He didn’t imply any reference to the D.M.Okay. and that was why he used the expression ‘a virus’ and never ‘the virus’ or ‘most cancers’. He mentioned that ‘God could save the folks,’ as a result of he discovered that his partymen had not been in a position to take care of that obsession. He had in thoughts the shortcomings in ‘our personal organisation and organisational method.’ In truth, he had been mentioning it to his buddies even earlier than the elections,” The Hindu reported on February 28.
Three years later, in an interview to well-liked Tamil periodical, Kumudam, the previous Chief Minister gave one other clarification about what he meant by the time period “virus.” This interview was revealed in December 1970, the contents of which had been carried in Bhaktavatsalam’s memoir, Enadhu Ninaivugal, which was revealed in 1971. When the memoir was launched, he was on the aspect of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had fallen out with senior leaders together with Kamaraj. Spearheaded by Indira Gandhi, the Congress had change into an ally of the DMK.
In the interview, he defined that the truth that the folks had rejected the Congress, which had bought freedom [from the British] for the folks and strove for the welfare of the general public by formulating a number of developmental schemes, had made him to ponder over confusion, which had engulfed the folks. “I used the time period – virus – solely to confer with this state of confusion,” he defined.
He didn’t describe the DMK MLAs or the DMK as “virus.” Had it been in any other case, this is able to have been “opposite to my nature,” Bhaktavatsalam identified, recalling he had made clear his place to Annadurai, V.R. Nedunchezhian and Karunanidhi who known as on him at his residence earlier than assuming cost. Karunanidhi, who was Public Works Minister within the Annadurai’s Cabinet, advised him that he and his colleagues too had been initially below the improper impression. Now, that they had bought readability after the reason.
In February 1987, Bhaktavatsalam died on the age of 89. At that point, the AIADMK’s founder M.G. Ramachandran, as Chief Minister, ensured that the previous CM was given a state funeral at an unique spot on the premises of the Gandhi Mandapam, Guindy. Eleven years later, the DMK authorities had constructed a correct memorial for him at a price of ₹25 lakh and in 1998, declaring open the memorial, the then Chief Minister Karunanidhi lauded Bhakthavatsalam for his administrative skills. He advised the viewers that he learnt the fundamentals of presidency administration from his predecessor, this newspaper talked about in a report revealed on March 14, 1998.
He additionally recalled how Bhakthavatsalam, [as Finance Minister] inaugurated a mother-child care centre arrange by him (Karunanidhi, who was within the Opposition then) in his native Thirukuvalai close to Thiruvarur in 1962 regardless of stiff opposition from the native Congressmen, [an incident of which was recounted in Enadhu Ninaivugal too]. Similarly, on his launch from jail in Palayamkottai, Bhakthavatsalam had known as him to his residence and defined to him why he was incarcerated. When he (Karunanidhi) gave him an inventory of individuals who had been nonetheless in jail, the latter, because the Chief Minister, instantly ordered their launch. These situations revealed Bhakthavatsalam’s “humane aspect,” the every day talked about as Karunanidhi having mentioned.
Bhakthavatsalam’s daughter and social activist, Sarojini Varadappan, and granddaughter Jayanthi Natarajan, who was the then Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, attended the inauguration of the memorial.
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