SUDHEER NATH
A Malayali, KKK Nair alias Kishnakumar Karunakaran Nair, of Kainikari in Alappuzha district, was responsible for the appearance of the Ram idol at Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
Born on September 11, 1907, KKK Nair was an officer of the Imperial Civil Service during the British rule, equivalent to the Indian Administrative Service. Nair, a 1930 batch ICS officer, married Shakuntala, a native of Dehradun, in 1946. Thus Shakuntala became Shakuntala Nair.
A staunch Hindu, Nair had personal connections with Hindu leaders like Pateshwari Prasad Singh, Mahad Digvijay Nath and Abhiram Das. The idea of seizing temples destroyed or taken over by foreigners and Mughal emperors at the behest of V.D. Savarkar was being widely discussed at the time. Nair assured all possible help and support in this endeavour. In 1945, KKK Nair met Guru Dutt Singh. Both were great devotees of Ram. Strong ties with Hindu leaders led to the decision to capture the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
When Pateshwari Pratap Singh founded the Ram Rajya Parishad in 1948, he made a special invitation to his friend Nair. In 1948, Guru Dutt Singh, a close friend of Nair, was appointed Faizabad City Magistrate. Making use of his personal influence, on June 1, 1949, Nair was appointed Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Faizabad, including Ayodhya.
The duo reached an agreement to instal an idol of Lord Rama inside the Masjid. The Babri Masjid was guarded at night by a Hindu and a Muslim. Singh was able to entice the Hindu guard. Abdul Barkat, a Muslim hawaldar, was forced to cooperate on being threatened with death.
At 11 pm on December 22, 1949, a small Ram Lal (idol of Lord Rama), seven inches high, was erected inside the Babri Masjid by Pandit and wrestler Abhiram Das along with a few Hindu sannyasins. The two guards cooperated. News was widely spread that an idol of Lord Ram has appeared inside the Babri Masjid. Faizabad District Magistrate KKK Nair and Faizabad City Magistrate Guru Dutt Singh were with Das and others on that night. News spread that the idol of Lord Rama had appeared by itself. The next day, there was a huge crowd of Hindu devotees at the masjid. Crowds flocked to see the idol of Lord Rama inside the mosque. Nair’s wife Shakuntala Nair led the Shri Rama Bhajan in the mosque.
The Faizabad District Magistrate and the Faizabad City Magistrate delayed reporting the incident in Ayodhya to the authorities on time. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, through Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant, ordered the removal of the idol of Lord Rama from Babri Masjid and the handing over of the mosque to Muslims to avoid clashes in the area.
Ignoring the order of the then Prime Minister and the then Chief Minister, Nair closed the Babri Masjid using his power as the District Magistrate and brought it under receiver rule. Nair was suspended from service for disobeying the Prime Minister’s directive.
In the ensuing 1952 parliamentary elections, the All India Hindu Mahasabha won four seats. NC Chatterjee, father of late Communist leader and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, was elected from Hooghly in West Bengal and Shakuntala Nair, wife of KKK Nair, was elected from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh. In 1962, Shakuntala was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Faizabad City Magistrate Guru Dutt Singh had to resign after the Ayodhya mosque was closed due to the idol dispute. Singh resigned after KK Nair’s suspension and when he saw that action against him was imminent.
Nair, who returned to ICS service after a long legal battle, faced many challenges. Nair finally resigned from the service in 1952. Later, Nair served as an advocate in the Allahabad High Court. Guru Dutt Singh joined the Hindu Nationalist Party and became its leader. Later, he was the district chief of Jana Sangh in Faizabad.
Nair’s wife Shakuntala Nair was elected to the Lok Sabha for the second time in 1967 and the third time in 1971 from Kisharganj. In the Fourth Lok Sabha in 1967, KKK Nair was elected to Parliament from the Bahraich Lok Sabha constituency as a representative of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Thus the husband and wife have a history of becoming members of the fourth parliament together. KKK Nair passed away on September 7, 1977.
