Thiruvananthapuram :

In 2003, a packed Senate chamber in the city witnessed a rare event that had just two speakers – both non politicians – F C Kohli, father of Indian IT, and Vijay Bhatkar, Padma Bhushan award winner. Policitians, including K R Gowri Amma and P K Vasudevan Nair, sat in the front row among the audience. All eyes were on a man in the wheelchair, K P P Nambiar, the visionary behind the establishment of Keltron and Technopark. The occasion was his 75th birthday.

The function is still vivid in the memories of Technopark founder CEO R Vijayaraghavan, who strongly feel that KPP could do a lot more and that his illness was the result of unfair treatment meted out by the state. “A vigilance inquiry was ordered against him out of political vendetta. This happened because he refused to bribe a prominent politician for KPP’s prestigious Kannur Power Project. He had put much effort into the project, incurring substantial debt,” he recollected.

“What is surprising is that the inquiry was forwarded by the then chief minister based on an anonymous letter which just said ‘inquire against KPP and Keltron’. The vigilance department informed the government that no inquiry could be made against individuals, but only against allegations. Then, another anonymous letter with various allegations against KPP was forwarded to the department. Several people, including those whom KPP had helped a lot, raised false accusations against him. Recognitions like the Padma Bhushan got delayed due to this. The inquiry was dropped during the tenure of the last UDF government. KPP had written about this controversial phase in his book ‘Saphalam Kalapabharitam’, but most of its copies were destroyed. The book I have with me has that portion edited out,” he said.

Former senior business development manager of Technopark, M Vasudevan, recollected KPP’s contribution of KPP as the secretary of the electronics department in the Rajiv Gandhi ministry. “When IBM was banned in the country in the mid-1980s, TCS decided to import large IBM mainframes worth $5 million. But the government refused. TCS gave a guarantee that it would generate four times that amount in three years from software exports. Nevertheless, the firm had to approach KPP, who understood its significance and took up the matter with the concerned ministries and obtained approval,” Vasudevan remembered.

Vijayaraghavan said KPP was a man of great memory who was not afraid of anyone. “Once he had an argument with one of the Cabinet members in the Rajiv Gandhi government. He walked out from the meeting, but went to meet Rajiv Gandhi himself and got a favourable decision,” he said.

Technopark CEO K G Girish Babu described Nambiar as a brave visionary. “He was one of those rare non-IAS men who singlehandedly fought against the IAS lobby in the government. Today we organized an internal meeting of Technopark officials and shared our memories,” Babu said, before leaving for KPP’s funeral.

Chief minister Oommen Chandy condoled the death of K P P Nambiar. He directed that the funeral be conducted with full state honours in Kannur on Thursday.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Thiruvananthapuram / by Jisha Surya, TNN / July 02nd, 2015