He had an emperor’s name Ashok but he chose to hold aloft his family name to live and die as Palakkunnathu G. Mathai at his home town of Tiruvalla after strutting and fretting on the stage of business and financial journalism as a giant for half a century. 

Like his most celebrated compatriot TN Ninan, his insight and prophetic pronouncements stood like Ashoka’s edicts to mould and inspire economic decisions of the world’s most populous nation from the days of economic liberalism initiated by Cambridge-educated Manmohan Singh and carried on by successive governments under UPA and NDA.

Mathai’s favourite face drawn by Bombay artist Suza in 1976

Palakkunnathu family is the pioneering flag bearer of Marthoma Church, one of Kerala’s most powerful Christian congregation of  more than half a million people spread in all the seven continents. It has 1022 parishes with that that many priests and 13 dioceses including the one for North America-Europe and the other for Malaysia-Singapore-Australia and New Zealand. The family is proud to have produced three metropolitans-Mathews Mar Athanasius, Thomas Mar Athanasius and Joseph Marthoma. 

However, one is astonished to find barely four lines on him in the latest History of the Palakkunnathu Family. There is no mention of him as an eminent editor national stature nor there is any picture of him whereas every page of the History overflows with pictures single, family or both. May be he did not want it. 

After 50 years of fearless journalism in 2024

Born to Palakunnnath PM George and Chirakkarottu Acca in Maramon, on the bank of River Pampa in Central Travancore in 1946 George Mathai aka Ashok, graduated in economics from Layola College, Chennai and earned his masters in English from St Johns College Agra. 

He started his journalism career in Bombay. Joined India Today, worked for some time and left India on a five years leave to join his father PM George who was a foreign service officer of the Indian  Consulate General there. After a period of odd jobs, he chose to return to India to rejoin India Today.  Worked hard to emerge Assistant Editor Business where he stayed put for another five years. 

Mathai as a young boy (forefront) at the Swiss consulate, Mourner Julius Chacko and Dr. Leela 

He joined Economic Times as Resident Editor, Delhi (1989-1992) to join Joined Business World as Executive Editor to serve for 8 years. In 2000, he was drafted as Resident Editor of Business Standard, Bombay where he lasted for 5 years. 

Finally,  he was with Ananda Bazar Patrika Group’s English daily Telegraph in Calcutta as Deputy Editor and stayed put for almost 11 years. His acerbic writing that ranged from finance, business and politics attracted nation-wide attention.

He was shroud and visionary and his sharp observations were tempered by practical wisdom. As a commentator, Mathai dared to challenge political bigwigs but most of his writings earned the respect of seasoned leaders. To quote an example, he began his pretty long in-depth analysis of Narasimha Rao’s 100 days as Prime Minister in 2013 thus: 

‘The chairman's room in the government bungalow that houses the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust is sparsely furnished. In a corner stands an ordinary rectangular table. The air-conditioner hums, as it fights a desultory battle against the scorching June heat of the capital. Behind the desk sits P.V. Narasimha Rao. Across it is seated Pranab Mukherjee, long-time friend and Cabinet colleague.

With Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar KM Panikkar and his father PM George in the Indian Embassy, Cairo

‘The relationship between Rao and Mukherjee had subtly altered. A few days ago, Rao had been formally elected president of the Congress. In just over a week, he would be sworn in as India's ninth prime minister. The man who had held portfolios from defence to human resource development (HRD), and from external affairs to home, had never really handled a full-blown macroeconomic crisis in his long and varied political career. So he had summoned Mukherjee to 12 Willingdon Crescent Road, where they'd be undisturbed by telephone calls, to brief him on policy options.’

The detailed account of how Narasinha Rao tried to cut at the root of India’s infamous bureaucratic redtapism and corruption and open the flood gates of liberalism to usher the billions of Indians into a fast developing modern world traced all the drama and daredevilry involved.  

Family Histories- on the right by his father PM George

Mathai as a keen observer was kind to Rao on his astute political wisdom but unkind about his fault lines and dogged pursuit of old-world idealism. Hundreds of readers commended Mathai’s audacity in the face of seemingly subservient but time serving colleagues  and ephemeral political fortunes.    

‘After it appeared, Mr. Chidambaram rang me up and said it was an important article but it will be lost in the din of elections. It was,” posted Mathai in his Twitter handle. 

Mathai is the last to leave the pantheon of great business journalists India has seen. Among the pioneers was MKB Nair, who retired as editor of Economic Times  after a stellar career spanning decades. To quote from the blurb of  his autobiography  ‘The Unknown Nair.’ 

Son Adit flanked by Leela, Fr, Mathew Skariah and Jisha

‘From a nondescript village in Kerala to Indias financial capital Bombay, the journey of Madhav Krishna Bhaskar Nair (MKB to most colleagues) is a delightful insight into both the pre and post Independence days of economic and business journalism and perhaps life itself. MKB, the former deputy editor of the economic times, was also the acting editor of the pink paper daily for a brief period. 

‘The narrative is peppered with unusual anecdotes like a chance meeting with the Ethiopian emperor in a barber shop, a scoop while covering a un conference that drew the ire of PM  Indira Gandhi, a meeting in Japan with PM Rajiv Gandhi and his IFS officer turned private secretary Mani Shankar Aiyar, a long-running association with the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, a near run-in with West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, and encounters with greats like Balraj Sahni and Prithviraj Kapoor. 
‘The Unknown Nair’ is a rare and personal insight into an arm of journalism that has come to be all pervading.’

I hope some day some close associate of Mathai will venture to track his world of mysterious secrets and lay them bare for the generations to come so that Mathai will never be an Unknown Christian. 

Great predecessor MKB Nair and his autobiography 

On Tuesday I made a n early morning call on the bereaved Dr. Leela John, daughter of AV John Aviotte. She is an MD in Paediatrics from Lady Harding Medical College, Delhi. Rtd from the Central Government Health Service, she lives with her son Adit Mathai Palakkunnathu, who is also a journalist. Adit took his turn with the Indian Express, Outlook and EPW. 

The family legacy lives on. Dr. Leela let me browse a book written by her late husband’s  father PM George tiled ‘The Palakunnathu Family.’  “Sorry, I am left with only one copy as every one wants one,’ says she. ‘Mathai’s great grand father’s house on the river front in Maramon was an Ettukettu. The one left to my husband was less ostentatious, a little away from the river.’

There was a steady stream of mourners including Chandy Oomen, MLA, Julius Chacko, Municipal Councillor and long time family friends Fr. Mathew Skariah and his wife Jisha,  

While shuttling between Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta, Mathai  kept a close tab on the developments across the country and outside not to speak of his own home state of Kerala. Going through the 242 comments he posted during a period of ten years from 2013 to 2023, you get an assortment of gems like this:

=The banned BBC documentary is to be screened in Australia’s  Parliament just when the PM is visiting Australia.

=Ms Moitra will be back in Parliament after the 2024 elections, attacking the stupid party. What will it do then? Try and cook up more charges against her? All power to her elbow we say.

=In Kerala there is no leader for the Congress who can connect with the masses. It would do well to appoint Sashi Tharoor as its CM face-he is young and articulate.

=Let us congratulate the BJP. It is bent on making RG (Rahul Gandhi) a martyr. And martyrs win elections hands down. Remember what happened to Indira Gandhi after the Shah Commission?

=If you ever visit Kottayam, never visit Grand Hotel. The service is very poor.

Alas, to my experience, the old Ambassador Hotel rechristened as Grand in the heart of town was so shocked that they hired new staff and improved service very much. 

Unlike his mentor Amarthya Sen who called his autobiography Home in the World, Mathai has kept three homes in India. One in Andheri, Bombay, one in Asset Safire, a gated community in Kanjikuzhi Kottayam and the most precious one his ancestral home in Maramon. He died in the Believer’s Medical College Hospital in Tiruvalla and his funeral will take place in Maramon where the body will be interred in the Marthoma Church cemetery on Thursday.