Krishna Menon’s contributions were remarkable, says Jairam Ramesh.
Former Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon was often “seen with the lens of 1962” [war with China], while there was more to him before 1946 and during the 1950s, said senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh here on Tuesday. Menon’s contributions in the drafting of the Constitution before 1946 and his actions during the 1950s were remarkable.
During a public discussion on ‘The Making of Independent India and V.K. Krishna Menon’ organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy at the Music Academy, Mr. Ramesh recalled incidents from Menon’s life since his college days until his death to capture various phases — both personal and political.
In his conversation with former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Mr. Ramesh said it was Menon, who first came up with the idea of ‘Make in India’. When India had options from the United States of America and the United Kingdom from whom it had to purchase fighter aircraft, he wanted the purchase to be from a country that allowed eventual manufacturing of aircraft in India.
“That was how fighter jet MiG-21 came to be manufactured in India,” pointed out Mr. Ramesh, who authored A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) came about during Menon’s tenure.
Though Menon enjoyed proximity with then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the latter too believed in the former’s judgment, the Council of Ministers did not approve of Menon’s ideas, Mr. Ramesh pointed out.