Mundapallil Oommen Mathai (1909 – 28 August 1981) was the Private Secretary to India's first Prime Minister

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

before he was forced to quit in 1959 following the charges of corruption. He is also known for his collaboration with the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA), and for writing politically motivated memoirs in ''Reminiscences of the Nehru Age'' (1978) and ''My Days with Nehru'' (1979).

Early life

Mathai was born to a traditional Marthoma Syrian Christian family in central

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...

Career

Mathai used to work for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in India, before becoming the Private Secretary to Nehru in 1946. He resigned from his post in 1959, after the Communists accused him of misusing his power to commit financial fraud.

Controversies

CIA connection

Mathai is noted to have worked for the

(CIA). In 1959, Mathai was forced to quit as Nehru's secretariat following the charges of corruption. The Cabinet Secretary Vishnu Sahay investigated the case and was convinced that Mathai had compromised every file since the days of the Interim Government of India.

Books

Mathai wrote two politically motivated books, ''Reminiscences of the Nehru Age'' and ''My Days with Nehru'', during the rule of the Janata alliance government formed after ousting of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

's government. These books were released at the time when malinging the image of Indira Gandhi was profitable for the market. The book ''Reminiscences of the Nehru Age'' has a total 49 chapters, some on Nehru's work and personal life and some on the various people that Mathai met. Mathai had falsely proclaimed himself to be "Nehru's Special Assistant" in the book, and added that "the book is not history or biography , but chatty stuff containing my reminiscences". The chapter 29 named 'She' was blanked and a note was appended in place. The contents of the chapter has since birthed intense speculations. T V Rajeswar, former chief of

Intelligence Bureau Intelligence Bureau may refer to: * Intelligence Bureau (India) * Intelligence Bureau (Pakistan) * Intelligence agency See also *Intelligence Bureau for the East, a World War I German organisation *Intelligence agency *National Intelligence Servic ...

has since claimed of receiving a copy of the chapter from M. G. Ramachandran and duly submitting to then-Prime Minister

; he claims to have not read the contents. The blanked chapter claimed affairs Indira Gandhi had with other people and chapter also concerned the Gandhi family in general. Demands for the ban on the book were made to during the Janata alliance rule but Morarji Desai refused these suggestions. His second book "My Days with Nehru" failed to gain any traction.

Inder Malhotra Inder Malhotra (1 February 1930 – 11 June 2016) was an Indian journalist, editor and author. Career Malhotra was the resident editor of '' The Statesman'' in New Delhi from 1965 to 1971. He was the India correspondent for ''The Guardian'' from ...

noted that "Few books in India have got such bad reviews as Mathai's did."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathai, M. O. 1909 births 1981 deaths Writers from Kerala Malayali people 20th-century Indian biographers People from the Kingdom of Travancore Malayalam-language writers Indian autobiographers