Centenarian freedom fighter Ayyappan Pillai passes away
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 5: Veteran freedom fighter, eminent lawyer and one of the early leaders of the BJP in the state, K Ayyappan Pillai passed away in the city at the age of 107 years, family sources said on Wednesday.
He was not keeping well for some time due to age-related ailments and was under treatment for some health issues at a private hospital here, they said.
A prominent personality in the socio-cultural arena of the state capital for several decades and a public figure commanding respect across party lines, Pillai was one of the senior most members of the bar associations in the country. The centenarian was also the one of the first councillors of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.
An ardent admirer of the 'Father of the Nation", Mahatma Gandhi, he had actively participated in the Quit India movement. It was as per the advise of the Mahatma that Pillai ventured into the public service in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore at a tender age.
A supporter of Travancore State Congress, formed under local chapter of Indian National Congress in 1938, State Congress leaders assigned him to present people's grievances before the royal administration on many occasions.
He had acted as mediator between the royal administration and Congress when many of its leaders were jailed immediately after Independence, when the then diwan C P Ramaswamy Iyer propped up the idea of 'independent Travancore'.
Pillai later moved to Praja Socialist Party and then to the BJP, in which he served as the vice-president for some time.
Pillai had been in news some years ago as a person who had never failed to exercise his democratic right in any of the elections after Independence.
Pillai, in an interview to PTI earlier, had said his first vote was cast on February 1948 to select representatives to the Constituent Assembly of the 'responsible government' in Tranvancore. This Assembly was later given powers of a Legislative Assembly based on the request of leaders.
"I cast my first vote at a polling station, set up at a military camp of the Travancore State Force at Pangode here. I also worked as a polling agent then," he had said adding that he had since then voted in all the polls held.
They include the first election after the formation of Travancore-Cochin state, the first Parliament election in the country in 1951-52, the first state election in the united Kerala in 1957, after amalgamation of Travancore-Cochin with Malabar, which was part of composite Madras state.
Though he contested in the BJP ticket from Thiruvananthapuram during 1980s, he could not win.
Condoling his death, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said besides being a prominent socio-political activist, Pillai also made his mark as an eminent lawyer.
BJP state president K Surendran, in his condolence message, remembered Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called Pillai over phone during the time of the lockdown last year.
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
