British Parliament to honour K.M. Mani

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Finance Minister K.M. Mani, who holds the records of having presented the maximum number of 10 budgets in the Kerala Legislative Assembly as finance minister (the highest by any minister in the country) and also the MLA of Pala Legislative constituency for the last 47 years, will be honoured by the British House of Parliament on September 6.

The function will be attended by British cabinet ministers, lords, MPs, Professors from Cambridge, Oxford and London School of Economics Universities, and media persons.

Mani has been invited to deliver a lecture in Britain on his book ‘Theory of the Toiling Mass’. The function will be presided over by the Chairman of the British All Party Parliamentary Committee.

Mani wrote the book in Malayalam and published it in 1978. The English translation of the book will be completed soon. He has, altogether, penned 11 books.

Mani was elected to Kerala Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1965 from the Pala Assembly Constituency of Kottayam district, and since then he won all the ten elections that followed in 1967, 1970, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011. The 79-year-old has been a minister for 20 years.

He advocates 'toiling class' theory which is for the liberation and upliftment of lower middle class through progressive reforms and taxation policy. His 'toiling class' theory negates 'class struggle' whereas it stands for 'class collaboration' According to Mani, 'toiling class' theory is an alternative to socialism and capitalism.