Then PM Narasimha Rao ditched my father: Karunakaran's son
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 16 : Late Congress leader K. Karunakaran's son K. Muraleedharan on Sunday claimed that then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao "ditched" his father and then Kerala Chief Minister after the 1994 ISRO espionage case.
"As far as I know, and what was told by him (Karunakaran), he was crestfallen by the way Rao (then Congress President) behaved in 1995. It was Rao who ditched him. (Congress leader) G.K. Moopanar called me on March 15, 1995, to tell my father to resign as Chief Minister as per Rao's directive, which he did the next day," Muraleedharan, a Congress legislator, told the media here.
"He (Karunakaran) told me that Rao was responsible (for his removal). No one from Kerala had ever asked for Karunakaran's removal. What happened in the Congress then was nothing but the usual factional feud," the Congress leader said.
Muraleedharan also said that had someone from the Nehru-Gandhi family been at the helm either in the government or the party in 1995, Karunakaran would not have suffered the "humiliation". Karunakaran passed away in December 2010.
The Congress leader said that he will appear, if asked to, before a three-member committee set up by the Supreme Court to probe the role of three police officers in the espionage case and tell them what he had said on Sunday.
Reacting to his sister Padmaja Venugopal's assertion that the Indian Space Research Organisation espionage case was the creation of five Congress leaders which led to Karunakaran's resignation on March 16, 1995, Muraleedharan said that he did not know on what basis she had made the statement.
Her statement came after the Supreme Court on September 14 directed the Kerala government to award Rs 50 lakh compensation to ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan for his unnecessary arrest and harassment and mental cruelty he underwent due to false implication in the espionage case.
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RR beat RCB by six wickets in IPL
Guwahati (PTI): Blistering fifties by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel powered Rajasthan Royals to a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL match here on Friday.
Sent in to bat, RCB rode on a fighting half-century by skipper Rajat Patidar (63) to post 201 for 8.
Virat Kohli (32), Romario Shepherd (22) and Venkatesh Iyer (29) also chipped in with useful contributions.
In reply, Sooryavanshi (78 off 26 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (81 not out off 43 balls) shared a 37-ball 108-run partnership for the second wicket to set the platform. Krunal Pandya (2/30) tried to bring them back with back-to-back wickets.
But Jurel, in the company of Ravindra Jadeja (24), completed the task with another 68-run stand, with two overs to spare.
For RR, Jofra Archer (2/33), Ravi Bishnoi (2/32) and Brijesh Sharma (2/37) took two wickets.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 201 for 8 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 63; Jofra Archer 2/33, Ravi Bishnoi 2/32, Brijesh Sharma 2/37).
Rajasthan Royals: 202 for 4 in 18 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 78, Dhruv Jurel 80 not out; Krunal Pandya 2/30, Josh Hazlewood 2/44).
