C. Krishnan Nair

C Krishnan Nair (1902–1986) was an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress, an Indian Independence activist, a Gandhian who participated in the Salt March of 1930 and a Member of the Indian Parliament of the First and Second Lok Sabha. He was popularly known as Delhi Gandhi or Nairji.

In 1952, when Delhi became a Part C State of India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited Krishnan Nair to become the first Chief Minister of Delhi as he was the senior leader of DPCC. However, he refused and instead proposed the young leader Chaudhary Brahm Prakash, who was only 34 years old at the time, to become the first chief minister of Delhi.

When the Delhi legislative assembly was abolished in 1956 as per recommendations of the State Reorganisation Commission (SRC), he joined other key personalities of Delhi in strongly criticising the SRC. As the SRC effectively suggested to reduce the autonomy of the national capital to the level of a Municipal Corporation, he expressed his disappointment thus: “But what we expected is a fair deal for Delhi just as every Part C State was added to Part A State, which means greater advantage and greater freedom for people of those areas. It is not so with regard to Delhi.”

As a senior Congress leader, he also mentored juniors such as Prem Singh who rose to take up important roles both in the party and government.

During his active political life in Delhi, he mostly lived in the Gandhi Ashram and the Narela area.

The C.K. Nair Public School near Gandhi Ashram Road in Narela, Delhi is named after C. Krishnan Nair and was established in 1997.