U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent allegations of $21 million in USAID having been handed over to India for influencing the 2024 general election had led to a war of words between the Congress and the BJP. Against this backdrop, All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged that the BJP and its affiliates were spreading “narratives” to “divert attention from their sins” of using foreign funds to destabilise the Congress-led Central governments. Among the incidents he listed was the one in 1966, in which the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had allegedly funded an anti-cow slaughter protest during which an attempt was made to burn down the New Delhi house of K. Kamaraj, then Congress national president and former Madras Chief Minister.
For Kamaraj, November 7, 1966, was like any other day until his siesta was disrupted by a mob that had taken out a rally to Parliament, demanding a law to ban cow slaughter in the country. The agitators, including self-proclaimed sadhus and activists, unleashed violence on government buildings and property on the streets in the vicinity of Parliament when they found the gates to Parliament closed.
While there have been varying views on how the mob chose Kamaraj’s house, a report from The Hindu archives details, “The residence of the Congress president on Jantar Mantar Road was partly burnt, the greatest damage having been done to the furnishings of the drawing room by the anti-cow-slaughter demonstrators. Mr. Kamaraj was uninjured. His cook, Ambi, who tried to deal with the demonstrators, sustained facial injuries. He was belaboured by hooligans with sticks. As the violent, slogan-shouting mob of demonstrators converged towards his residence, the Congress president escaped into the adjoining Vithalbhai Hostel for MPs along with a few friends.”
The report lauded the resistance put up by Niranjan, Kamaraj’s aide, and the only guard on duty, barring which “an escape might have been difficult”. A more detailed account, citing news reports and sources of the day, can be found in the book, Kamaraj Oru Sagaptham, penned by Congress leader A. Gopanna. The book contends that the intention of the mob was to destroy Kamaraj’s residence. “After the police opened fire in the air, a section of the protesters entered Jantar Mantar Road. It surrounded the residence of Minister for Social Welfare K. Raghuramaiah. However, one of the leaders of the mob shouted, ‘you are attacking the wrong house. Our goal is the house opposite this one’, which was the residence of Kamaraj.”
Unfavourable stand
According to the book, Kamaraj’s stand against the anti-cow slaughter group at a Congress Working Committee meeting on November 2 would have triggered the violence. The Congress veteran is said to have not taken a stand favouring the protesters and reportedly said, “New Delhi is not a place to hold such protests. Let them hold such demonstrations in Madras.” However, it remains a mystery as to how the mob came to know of Kamaraj’s statements made at the party meeting.
Asked about the varying claims, Mr. Gopanna told The Hindu that though there was a “possibility” of the arson attempt being done on purpose, it was likely that the mob just happened to pass by the area where important leaders lived and targeted Kamaraj’s residence along the way. “With so many narratives, it is difficult to arrive at a conclusion. It was also likely that the mob decided to attack the residence [of Kamaraj] upon seeing a board sporting his AICC designation.”
However, other leaders, especially those of the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), blamed the attack on the RSS. “The DK, led by ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramasamy, staged demonstrations condemning the attack. In fact, it even published a book on the incident,” he added. References to the minutes of the DK’s meeting held in Thanjavur on December 4, 1966, at which slogans were raised in support of Kamaraj, can be found in the book.
Prior to Mr. Khera’s reference to the incident, Congress MP Jothimani, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in 2017, blamed the RSS for the attack. It quotes Kamaraj as having said, “They [the RSS] fear me. This Kamaraj is the one who is set on bringing about a socialistic rule in society. He is the one who has been steadfast in the approach.”
‘Not premeditated’
However, Kamarajar Makkal Katchi leader Tamilaruvi Manian says, “If we go by the claims of Kamarajar being a socialist, there were many socialists residing in New Delhi at the time of the incident, such as [former Prime Minister] Chandra Shekhar and George Fernandes. So, why target Kamarajar alone? It was not a planned attack,” he told The Hindu.
Besides, Mr. Manian contends that Kamaraj was never against the RSS or the Jana Sangh. “Had he been opposed to these organisations, he would have never entered into the Grand Alliance [of which the Jana Sangh was a constituent] in 1971. Moreover, the attack happened in 1966, when the Jana Sangh was ideologically at war with the Congress. If anything, Kamaraj’s residence could have only been targeted as he was the AICC head at the time. Nothing more.”
Author and commentator on Dravidian politics R. Kannan, too, is unsure of the socialist links to the attack. “Kamaraj was a pragmatist. He was somewhere in the middle of the road. In 1971, he veered right by forming an alliance with Rajaji [C. Rajagopalachari]. Maybe, the RSS may have considered him non-religious by its standards, but he certainly was not the man who would have stood for cow protection or the opposite. He felt that there were more important things [to work on] such as poverty eradication, education, and jobs,” he says.
Kamaraj was given a grand welcome in Madras on his return on November 26. Reports in The Hindu Archives reveal that DK members were also present at the airport to receive the Congress president, who was given police protection after the incident. Next month, a meeting of the Jana Sangh’s Tamil Nadu unit adopted a resolution condemning the “acts of violence and hooliganism near Parliament and the attack on Kamarajar’s house”.
