As part of the Onam celebrations of 2012, Amrita TV aired " In Conversation with His Highness Shri Marthanda Varma" a rare frank chat he had with K Gopalakrishnan CEO& Chief Editor of Amrita TV.
He dismisses the reports of his supposed turbulent relationship with Sir C.P Ramaswamy Iyer as a figment of the media’s imagination, though there had been instances when he was provoked by the highhandedness of the Diwan. On one occasion, the two princes were playing tennis when Sir C.P came in with an important file which he slammed down on the table rather forcefully. Shri Chithira Thirunal chose to ignore the insolence, but the more hot blooded Shri Marthanda Varma slammed the file back, after going through it as reprisal for the audacity of the haughty Diwan , a spat that provided grist to the rumour mills.
Touching on the delicate issue of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, he avows that the Royal family has never been anti-national; if the people had realized the importance of remaining independent, they would never have ceded to the Indian Union- an act that had caused Kerala to lose territories during the re-organization and be forever foisted with the tag of being the smallest state of India.
His Highness finds the proposal of placing the priceless treasures from the vaults of the Padmanabha Swamy Temple on public display in a museum quite absurd, reasoning that with the modern techniques of burglary available, such a move would be tantamount to asking for trouble.
Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the descendant of an imperial line of kings who had reigned over Travancore since recorded history, is the titular head of one of the richest royal dynasties in India, but simplicity rules everything about his personage. In measured tones, with his memory undimmed by time, he answers the tactfully worded queries, on landmark events of the Princely State and controversies that refused to die a natural death in, In Conversation with His Highness Shri Marthanda Varma. |
Interview with Maharaja
