Union Minister Ananth Kumar, who died on Monday, 12th November, is being showered by condolences, and commemorated with his achievements by almost all big media houses and newspapers. He is being deemed as “a great loss to Indian politics”.
We all, of course, are aware of this great politician who became the youngest minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet, and had been representing BJP in Karnataka since then. To commemorate some of his achievements, he gave a new face to BJP in Karnataka and handled a number of departments as the Union minister after he won the 15th Lok Sabha elections.
Like any politician however, the life of Ananth Kumar was not devoid of controversies, and the biggest one according to me was that of his relationships with Niira Radia, who worked her way to success with the help of this relationship.
RK Anand, a criminal lawyer, has traced the life of this intelligent and shrewd woman in one of his books in which are told the stories about her intimate and controversial relationship with Ananth Kumar.
Ananth Kumar became Aviation Minister in March 1998, and at that time Niira Radia was set to open her own airline and thus needed the help of the new aviation minister. Fathoming Ananth Kumar’s inexperience and naivety in the department he had started handling, she thought of a give and take kind of relationship which would benefit her to touch the skies, literally.
The cozy relationship of Niira Radia and Ananth Kumar was no hidden matter and Niira Radia never shied away from exhibiting it in public.
This controversy however, is not the only one on the life of late Ananth Kumar. He was also caught up in a scandal in 2012 while handling the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and one when he was as urban development minister. His personal assistant has run up taxi bills for Rs 11 lakh for the period between October 2001 and January 2002.
We should however, not judge any political minister on just one or two controversies or achievements he might have in his bag. We should rather analyze his life from various angles if we want to know him/her better as a person.