Rajiv Menon

V. K. Krishna Menon Interview

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• published: 08 Dec 2011
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http://thefilmarchive.org/ Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (Malayalam: വി. കെ. കൃഷ്ണമേനോന്‍, Hindi: वि. के. कृष्ण मेनोन्) (3 May 1896 -- 6 October 1974), commonly referred to as Krishna Menon, was an Indian nationalist, diplomat and statesman, described as the second most powerful man in India by Time Magazine and others, after his ally and intimate friend, Jawaharlal Nehru. Described as "vitriolic, intolerant, impatient, and exigent -- yes, but generous, sensitive, considerate, a great teacher too, and a great man" by Lord Listowell, the last British secretary of state for India, Menon was an influential and controversial figure on the world scene, and the architect of the Third Bloc foreign policy of non-alignment. He headed India's diplomatic missions to both the United Kingdom and United Nations, and was repeatedly elected to both houses of the Indian Parliament from multiple constituencies, serving as Defence Minister of India from 1957 to 1962. Menon cofounded Penguin Books in 1935 with Sir Allen Lane, and also created the Sainik Schools. He is the first Malayalee to have won the Padma Vibhushan. During the 1930s he worked as an editor for Bodley Head and Twentieth Century Library, and in 1934 cofounded Penguin and Pelican Books with colleague Sir Allen Lane. In 1934 he was admitted to the English bar, and after joining the Labour Party he was elected borough councillor of St. Pancras, London. St. Pancras later conferred on him the Freedom of the Borough, the only other person so honoured being Bernard Shaw. In 1932 he inspired a fact-finding delegation headed by Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson to visit India, and edited its report entitled 'Conditions In India', obtaining a preface from his friend Betrand Russell. Menon also worked assiduously to ensure that Nehru would succeed Mahatma Gandhi as the moral leader and executive of the Indian independence movement, and to clear the way for Nehru's eventual accession as the first Prime Minister of an independent India. As Secretary, he built the India League into the most influential Indian lobby in the British Parliament, and actively turned British popular sentiment towards the cause of Indian independence. The origins of what would become the policy of non-alignment were evident in Menon's personal sympathies even in England, where he simultaneously condemned both the British Empire and Nazi Germany, although he did march several times in anti-Nazi demonstrations. When asked whether India would prefer to be ruled by the British or the Nazis, Menon famously replied that "(one) might as well ask a fish if it prefers to be fried in butter or margarine." After India gained independence in 1947, Menon was appointed high commissioner to the United Kingdom, a post in which he remained until 1952. Menon's intense distrust of the West extended to the United Kingdom itself, and his frequent thwarting of British political maneuvers eventually led MI5 to deem him a "serious menace to security". From 1929 onwards Menon had been kept under surveillance, which only intensified following Menon's 1946 meeting in Paris with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, and Indian independence. In 2007, hundreds of pages of MI5 files documenting their coverage of Menon were released, including transcripts of phone conversations and intercepted correspondences with other statesmen and Nehru humself. In 1952, Menon accepted the command of the Indian delegation to the United Nations, a position he would hold until 1962. He earned a reputation for brilliance in the United Nations, frequently engineering elegant solutions to complex international political issues, including a peace plan for Korea, a ceasefire in Indo-China, the deadlocked disarmament talks, and the French withdrawal from the United Nations over Algeria. During this period, Menon pioneered a novel foreign policy for India, which he dubbed the non-alignment in 1952, charting a third course between the USA and USSR. Menon was particularly critical of the United States, and frequently expressed sympathies with Soviet policies, earning the ire of many Indians by voting against a UN resolution calling for the USSR to withdraw troops from Hungary, although he reversed his stance three weeks later under pressure from New Delhi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._K._Krishna_Menon