Kochi: Congress veteran T H Musthafa who passed away here on Sunday was a man of words. When it came to political speeches, he was ready to go to any length, literally. His ability to deliver long speeches engagingly was so effective that it came to the rescue of the party during a high-profile event three decades ago.
Musthafa delivered a four-hour-long speech at Marine Drive here in 1990, making what could be one of the longest political speeches in the country's history. Musthafa was deployed by the then-party leadership to speak as long as possible in a bid to keep the Congress crowd engaged until Rajiv Gandhi came to the venue.
It was Rajiv’s first visit to Kerala after he stepped down as the prime minister following the Congress’s defeat in the 1989 general elections. A large crowd of Congress workers had filled the sprawling Marine Drive Ground to meet him and listen to him. The event started around 6 pm and Rajiv was supposed to reach the venue by 8 pm. However, he got delayed as he had to attend another event in Thiruvananthapuram.
“On that day, Musthafa started his speech around 8 pm and it went on till 12.30 pm when Rajiv Gandhi arrived. He touched upon a wide range of topics including Congress history and the Babri Masjid issue. The speech was in typical Musthafa style with varied tones and modulations. He was able to keep the crowd intact despite speaking so long,” Congress leader Dominic Presentation, who was present at the venue remembered. Musthafa was 49 and an MLA and vice president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) then. Presentation, who was the opposition leader of Kochi Corporation when the 1990 event took place, remembered Musthafa as the leader who built the Congress’ organisation in Ernakulam district, still arguably a stronghold of the party.
KPCC president K Sudhakaran, in his condolence message, hailed the Marine Drive speech as part of history.
In speeches or on party forums, Musthafa minced no words to voice his stances and concerns. In 2014, he was suspended from the party after he reportedly dubbed Rahul Gandhi a ‘joker’ and called for his resignation in the wake of the Lok Sabha poll debacle. Though he was a loyalist of the late K Karunakaran in the Congress’ factional war in the state, he did not hesitate to criticise his political master when he found that the latter wanted to promote nepotism in politics.
Musthafa was an adamant secular who did not want any truck with communal organisations. When his party colleague friend P P Thankachan lost the assembly polls in 2001 despite a Congress wave in Ernakulam and elsewhere in the state, Musthafa blamed Thankachan’s understanding with the Abdul Nazer Madani-led People’s Democratic Party for the loss.
Musthafa was a Food and Civil Supplies Minister in the K Karunakaran cabinet and a five-time legislator. He was the Ernakulam District Congress Committee president for 14 years and also served as a KPCC general secretary.
