“Mr. Narasimhan is an honest and straight forward gentleman!”
said Shri N.M. Sundaram, General Secretary, AIIEA during an interview he had
given me for my journal ‘Initiative’ in the early Nineties. He made these comments about the Chairman of
LIC of India not as an answer to a question.
It was an off the record comment after the actual interview was over.
Journalists sometimes waited for such remarks. Such important comments may come during an
interview. It may even come while
packing off after the interview. Or any time..... One has to wait !
Employees and their organizations are supposed to fight with
each other. An employees’ association leader
may not make such comments about the Chairman of the organization. But Shri Sundaram did say and I published these remarks. When I showed the copy of ‘Initiative’ to some of the union leaders at Calicut, they frowned at me. Same thing happened in Chennai too. Finally I didn’t meet Shri Sundaram in Chennai but passed on the copy of ‘Initiative’ to a union functionary there.
When Shri Sundaram came to Calicut after a few months, I
talked to him about this news item.
“What of that”, Shri Sundaram said. It appeared he didn’t think I had done any
wrong to him. He stood by his comments.
That was Shri Sundaram.
I enjoyed the nobility of this
gentleman Shri N.M. Sundaram!.
