By C.P. Belliappa
It was the last week of December in 1965. All of us were at home in Gonikoppal during the term break.
My grandmother had taken a parike (vow) to perform Satyanarayana puja at the temple in Peggala. On 31st December we had an early start, since Ganapathi homa preceded the Satyanarayana puja.
Our grandmother insisted we go empty stomach! We had to carry all the provisions for lunch that was to be served to everyone present at the temple after the conclusion of the puja.
It was an elaborate affair and by lunchtime we were famished and were impatient for the delicious vegetarian food the Brahmins had prepared. The aroma of the food was already wafting in the air. However, we had to wait till the priests finished eating first. The food was finger-licking good as expected. By the time we returned home it was late in the afternoon.
My father, C.M. Poonacha, was a Member of the Rajya Sabha (RS) at the time. A ritual that he followed everyday was to listen to the 9 O’clock news on All India Radio (AIR) before we all sat down for dinner. Right from a young age we too got used to this news bulletin. I remember the three beeps before the newsreader started with the headlines. I think it was Melville de Mellow who read the news on that day in his typical baritone voice.
“Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari has resigned from the Cabinet.” My father was astonished. He increased the volume and gestured to all the children to keep quiet. “Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri has appointed Sachindra Choudhury as the new Finance Minister.”
What Melville de Mellow said next dumbfounded all of us. “C.M. Poonacha has been appointed as the Minister of State for Revenue and Expenditure.” It was unbelievable. When the news was readout in detail, we realised what we heard was correct.
My grandmother walked in hearing all of us shouting and congratulating our father. My father touched his mother’s feet and gave her the spectacular news.
Minutes later the DC and the SP drove in. They gave my father the official communication received from the Prime Minister’s Office. He was to leave for New Delhi the following day. His transport and air ticket had been arranged. Prime Minister Shastri himself wanted to talk to my father earlier in the day, but those were the days of the most unreliable trunk calls!
The swearing-in was on 2nd January 1966. President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office in the presence of Prime Minister Shastri, the new Finance Minister Sachindra Choudhury, Home Minister Gulzarilal Nanda and a few other Cabinet colleagues.
Prime Minister Shastri had great faith and confidence in my father. It was Lal Bahadur Shastri, who as Minister for Commerce, appointed Poonacha as Chairman of State Trading Corporation (1958-1963).
The second Indo-Pak war had ended in September 1965. Lal Bahadur Shastri left for Tashkent on 4th of January 1966 for a Russian brokered summit meeting between the Indian Prime Minister and the President of Pakistan, Gen. Ayub Khan. The ‘Tashkent Declaration’ was signed on 10th January 1966. It was on 11th January that India and the world heard of Prime Minister Shastri’s sudden demise apparently of a cardiac arrest. My father was devastated.
Indira Gandhi took over as the new Prime Minister. My father continued in her Cabinet but with a different portfolio, namely, Minister of State for Transport, Aviation and Shipping. C.M. Poonacha won the 1971 Lok Sabha election from Mangalore-Kodagu Constituency. He was appointed Cabinet Minister for Railways in Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was a friend, philosopher, guide and a role model for my father.
This post was published on February 16, 2022 4:00 pm