Story of an interview

The last selection of the Kerala Municipal Service Commission

I had written earlier how in 1973 or 1974, my father fell out with the then Industries Minister, T.V. Thomas, following a corporate governance issue at ALIND, Kundara. One correction. That happened in TELK, Angamali, near Kochi. After the standoff, he was warmly welcomed by K. Avukader Kutty Naha of the Indian Union Muslim League to his Department of Local Administration. At that time it was considered a low key department, definitely lower than Industries.

My father enjoyed a huge rapport with the Muslim League ministers, including late C.H. Mohammed Koya and others. This was thanks to his tenure early as Sub-Collector, Palghat, in the late 1950s when parts of the present-day Malappuram district fell under it. He was later District Collector of then undivided Cannanore District, in the mid-1960s. These tenures brought him closer to the IUML politicians. Cannanore was then the largest district in the State. It now stands divided into Kannur and Kasargod districts. C.H. would later become the Chief Minister for a short period, and Naha Sahib a Deputy Chief Minister.

Naha Sahib belonged to a traditional aristocratic Muslim family of Tirurangadi, which he was representing since 1957. He was a low profile but a highly respected and dignified politician of the period. Naha Sahib and my father got along very well. He always called my father Secretary.

Till the late 1970s, Kerala had a separate Municipal Service Commission. It was sometime in 1977 or 78 that it got merged with the Kerala Public Service Commission.

Before the Municipal Service Commission was merged with the KPSC, it was holding its last interviews. My father was the Chairman. Naha Sahib called him to say, “Secretary, there is one candidate by the name of Salim. He should be selected.” My father promised to keep it in mind.

The interview scene from Ray’s Jana Aranya

At the interview, after others had asked a few questions, my father must have realized that Salim was not a suitable candidate. He asked the candidate only two questions:

1. Who is the Minister for Local Administration? Salim groped around before replying that he did not know.

2. Which Department is K. Avukader Kutty Naha in charge of? That also Salim did not know.

The candidate was rejected.

Later, Naha Sahib asked my father, “Secretary, why was Salim not selected?”

My father replied, “I asked him only two simple questions. I first asked him the name of the Local Administration Minister. He did not know the answer. Then I asked him which Department K. Avukader Kutty Naha was in charge of. He did not know the answer to that also. Since you had recommended him, I thought these will be the easiest questions he could have answered. Now you tell me whether he should have been selected.”

A very fair Naha Sahib had become red-faced when he replied, “Secretary, you did the right thing.”

My father did not reply “Yes, Minister.” That phrase became popular with the eponymous BBC serial only about a decade later.

Local Administration was where my father spent the longest tenure of four years. Three years was the norm, but Naha Sahib was not willing to let him go.

My father was proud that he left the department a high profile one, very much in demand. S. Krishnakumar, who later resigned from the IAS, joined the Congress, and became a junior minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, asked for it and succeeded my father.

Naha Sahib and my father remained good friends, occasionally visiting him over lunch at his residence in Parappanangadi. They both passed away in 1988 a few months apart.

Note: Thanks to a late colleague of my father for narrating the above story.