The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a
deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
Keep, to be clear, there is no obligation to delete articles on politicians who failed to get elected to legislatures, there is still scope for other criteria for notability. The article needs a clean-up and improvements, but notability can be established. From a quick google books search, keeping in mind that the article subject died before google came into being, we find a number of notability indicators; " K G Marar has become persona noa grata with the CP-M in Cannanore oecause of his BSS past. It may be of interest to recall that the very same Janata leader K G Marar was the CP-M's hot favourite in the March 1977" (
[1]), "[...] the BJP leader was widely regarded as mediocre and intellectually shallow. A rare exception was K. G. Marar, state party president from 1984-8 and again from 1992 until his death in 1995. A former Malayalam schoolteacher and RSS pracharak from Malabar, he was an able orator known for his cutting repartee.59 Following his demise, leadership was mainly provided by two lacklustre former state presidents in their sixties," (
[2], book also mentions his role as BJS state secretary), "Last week, a biography of the late state bjp president K.G. Marar, released in the state capital [...]" (
[3]), some mentions in
[4], "In the meanwhile, K G Marar, state president of the BJP in a press statement alleged that the fishermen's agitation in [...] (
[5]), " leaders of Jan Sangh like K.G. Marar, Adiyodi and A.C. Nair and finally Ummer Bafaqi Thangal, Cheriya Mammukkeyi, P.M. Aboobacker, V.P. Mohammed Haji and Ibrahim Haji of All India Muslim League also reached the Central jail." (
[6]), "The party's firebrand national council member, K.G. Marar, was in the assembly fray at Manjeswaram, bordering Karnataka." (
[7]), "Prominent Bharatiya Janata partymen who lost were Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra (South Delhi), Dr Murali Manohar Joshi (Almora), Mr K.G Marar (Kasargod) and Mr K.S.Hegde (Udipi)" (
[8]), "The mortal remains of Swadesha- bhimani Ramakrishna Pilla, A.K.Gopalan, K.P.Gopalan, Pamban Madhavan and K.G.Marar are laid to rest near this resort." (
[9]) There is also a 'K.G. Marar Smaraka Samithi and Trust' ('K.G. Marar Memorial Association and Trust', per
[10]). Memorial organized by party, reported in national media:
[11],
similar post from 2019) --
Soman (
talk)
00:11, 9 February 2020 (UTC)reply
The
Notability (people)#Politicians is a higher bar for a reason. The political candidates almost always get some amount of coverage for being associated with a notable party. I have reviewed all the sources and claims above and I stand by my assessment that the subject still does not pass out notability criteria for politicians. Many of the links only contain one word mention of the subject. having a trust does not make one notable. DBigXrayᗙ05:37, 13 February 2020 (UTC)reply
What is clear from the sources above, is that BJP treats KG Marar differently than their run-of-mill politicians. BJP is not a major party in Kerala, but from the coverage he had a high profile. He is describes him as someone that stood out from the crowd of 'lacklustre' BJP leaders, he is mentioned as 'prominent'. He is described as 'party's firebrand national council member'. And evidently, he's notable enough to warrant annual memorials by his party. --
Soman (
talk)
15:09, 14 February 2020 (UTC)reply
We don't care how BJP treats its leaders. he was Kerala BJP president, so it is expected that Kerala BJP will worship him. That does not mean he passes for an article. We are concerned about what real and significant work the person has done. Kerala BJP hardly existed then, so it is expected that its president was non notable. It is inline with the sources that we are seeing here. DBigXrayᗙ17:18, 14 February 2020 (UTC)reply
After, @
Soman:'s comment here, I don't think the person did not passWP:GNG. And I have to say, we do not keep article for a person becoming famous or prominent. We consider our
WP:GNG and other criteria. So, we keep notorious people like Osama, Hitler and so on. We don't keep article for those people who are doing social work relentlessly and considered as famous and prominent in their local area (I mean village, town, city etc) but, don't have coverage to pass
WP:GNG,
WP:ANYBIO or other criteria. And memorial and trust etc are not considered as notability sign. Even, naming an asteroid, process etc after a person is not enough to pass a person
WP:ACADEMIC.
S. M. Nazmus Shakib (
talk)
15:50, 14 February 2020 (UTC)reply
The term 'prominent' was used as a comment on national election in an academic source, not in the sense of being 'prominent' at local level. --
Soman (
talk)
17:38, 14 February 2020 (UTC)reply
As it is said here, "Prominent Bharatiya Janata partymen who lost were Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra (South Delhi), Dr Murali Manohar Joshi (Almora), Mr K.G Marar (Kasargod) and Mr K.S.Hegde (Udipi)", As he is his party's state president, he can be considered as prominient among his party leaders, which is not enough for having a Wikipedia article as it is covering result during election time. Secondly, this small prominient mention is not enough for passing
WP:GNG or
WP:NPOL.
S. M. Nazmus Shakib (
talk)
17:58, 14 February 2020 (UTC)reply
Comment, looking at Malayalam sources,
[12],
[13] (note the photo of
Amit Shah paying homage to K.G. Marar),
[14] are indicative of the cult of K.G. Marar. In Deshabhimani (i.e. the
CPI(M) organ in Kerala), K.G. Marar is referred to as 'eminent BJP leader' (
[15]). Deshabhimani also has a full article of review of the Marar biography,
https://www.deshabhimani.com/news/kerala/koleebi/789390 , and the article notes that Marar nearly won a legislative assembly seat in 1991 (margin of 1,000 votes). Here another commentary on the K.G. Marar biography and his role in the 1991 elections,
https://www.deshabhimani.com/articles/iuml/792651 . The largest Malayalam daily, Malayalam Manorama has a number of articles dealing with K.G. Marar as well (plenty on his role in 1991 election), but they seem to have a script blocking use of google translate... --
Soman (
talk)
18:00, 14 February 2020 (UTC)reply
Comment Via google translate it seems to me that these sources enough for passing
WP:GNG.
Source no. 1 (janambhumi daily) may become a good point. But it was written by his partyman. And it is
BJP's Malayalam mouthpiece. So this source fails to make any effect.
Source no. 2 about Kerala wing of his party and his performance. Even paying homage by his partyman is not enough for notability.
Source No. 3 Janam TV can be a good point. But, I think this source is not enough for
WP:GNG as it is
BJP's Kerala Channel. So this source also fails to make any effect.
Deshavimani's mere mention prominent Marar wrote a book is not enough.
Deshavimani's second source is mainly about Kerala BJP, 1991 Niyamasabha (Legislative Assembly) Election Tactics etc. This is not enough.
Comment,
New Indian Express,
[16], "Since 1991 when BJP stalwart KG Marar contested in the constituency and lost by 1,071 votes",
[17] "The northern-most constituency in Kerala had always given hope to the saffron party, which consistently fielded its top-rung leaders such as K G Marar", another sources:
[18] "the most popular BJP leader KG Marar by a margin of 1,072 votes." --
Soman (
talk)
03:29, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
He might be popular among the BJP workers but clearly he was not popular to general public,or else he would not have lost the elections throughout his career. Please note that he fails
WP:NPOL for the same reason. DBigXrayᗙ04:54, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
These three souces are not enough for passing
WP:GNG
The last source was
Death news of Cherkalam Abdullah, former legislator of Manjeswaram. It was mentioned there "Cherkalam defeated the most popular BJP leader KG Marar by a margin of 1,072 votes." You mentioned earlier that BJP is not considered as a major party in Kerala. And even prominent, famous etc are not enough for passing a politician
WP:GNG. A politician is famous, prominient, stalwart etc among his supporters. A local politician can become famous in his area as a tragic hero by lossing a small margin.
Keep per Soman. The fact that something called "KG Marar Smrithi Dinam" (KG Marar Memorial Day) is observed every year
[19] gives me the impression that he was a notable figure (within his party or otherwise is beside the point) during his time, and almost certainly received significant coverage in print and Malayalam sources from the pre-internet era. According to NPOL, Just being an elected local official, or an unelected candidate for political office, does not guarantee notability, although such people can still be notable if they meet the general notability guideline. With one source calling him
"the once-towering figure of the Jan Sangh", I am somewhat convinced about the existence of sources required to pass GNG. The article needs some work though, but that would be a
separate discussion.
Dee0308:41, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
That is "not" besides the point, we are looking for overall notable, not just notability among a closed group such as a fan club or members of the a minor state unit of a political party.
"KG Marar Memorial Day" is celebrated only by members of the state level branch of the party as a "sponsored" event and not by the general public,
Your quote seems to be missing an important word. "the once-towering figure of the
Jan Sangh in Kannur" (i.e. figure of a political party in a city and not entire country)
Had he been a towering figure, he would have won at least once throughout his life, but no, he never won.
That party neither won from
Kannur nor in Kerala state whose leader the subject is. Anyway this is not a contemporary topic, so this claim is offtopic.
yes, but where are the sources for GNG ? Without evidence in the form of sources, I am not sure how you can claim notability here.
Indeed they are independent but the Newslaundry is covering the Political strategy of BJP as the main topic and only gives a 1 line mention to Marar, (that is not
WP:SIGCOV)
TNIE article is covering a "sponsored" party event (his memorial) and only contains the statements of the party office bearers This is a sort of obituary and cannot be used to claim notability. DBigXrayᗙ09:30, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
I never used those two sources for establishing notability. I only suggested that based on how he is known more than two decades after his death, there is a high likelihood of existence of sources in print and local language newspapers from the pre-internet era to satisfy GNG.
Dee0309:38, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
As it was mentioned by @
Dee03: I have to say here again naming an asteroid, process etc after a person is not enough to pass a person
WP:ACADEMIC and here I think a memorial day observation by his partymen is not sufficient for passing him our notability guideline.
Hopefully you are aware that there could be sources outside of Google too, especially for a pre-internet personality. And we are not talking about ACADEMIC here, are we? Ping me only if you have a coherent argument.
Dee0314:22, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
A quick Google Books search yielded
this book by
Thomas Blom Hansen and
Christophe Jaffrelot which has some detail in its snippet view: A rare exception was K. G. Marar, state party president from 1984-8 and again from 1992 until his death in 1995. A former Malayalam schoolteacher and RSS pracharak from Malabar, he was an able orator known for his cutting repartee. A simple
WP:BEFORE from your end is all it takes to save a lot of community time.
Dee0314:50, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
@
Soman: Still fails our notability guideline. The sources you posted is an article during Niyamsabha election fever is a political analysis. Becoming the tallest/most prominient/famous etc of a party are insufficient for getting wiki article.
S. M. Nazmus Shakib (
talk)
14:38, 15 February 2020 (UTC)reply
Comment I have already shared my views above (to delete). I went through all the sources and comments above and my opinion is unchanged. I note that users voting a keep are putting a lot of emphasis on passing mentions or the party dependent sources (press releases, party events etc). This is not how
WP:GNG is judged, where the requirement is for " significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject," which is lacking. DBigXrayᗙ09:07, 22 February 2020 (UTC)reply
Comment, a coverage by a mainstream newspaper on a party event is not a party dependent source. I only find Janambhumi as a dependent source in this conversation. --
Soman (
talk)
09:56, 22 February 2020 (UTC)reply
Yes? I just said that Janambhumi is a dependent source, i.e. linked to the article subject. None of the other sources mentioned in this conversation appears to qualify as dependent. --
Soman (
talk)
10:24, 22 February 2020 (UTC)reply
I mistakenly read dependent as dependable in your line above, apologies. Any coverage that is based on the party press release or statements by the party office bearers is dependent coverage. --DBigXrayᗙ10:50, 22 February 2020 (UTC)reply
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a
deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.