THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When Narendra Modi swears in as the Prime Minister of the country, one UDF leader who will heave a sigh of relief in Kerala will be a Minister in the Oommen Chandy Cabinet- Labour Minister Shibu Baby John!
Not because it has to do anything with his allegiance to BJP leader, but his meeting with ‘Namo’ in Gujarat a year back had haunted him for several days with both the Left as well his colleagues in the UDF, particularly Congress leaders, targeting him for ‘endorsing’ Modi.
Now, the Minister is getting ready to push a slew of projects under skill development in the state which are sure to catch the interest of Narendra Modi, as it was a topic that Shibu discussed with Modi when he met him.
“Although there is a well laid national policy on skill development, one of the major hurdles is the lack of effective co-ordination between various departments. It should ideally be under one department and I hope skill development will be one of his top priorities,’’ said Shibu Baby John.
Shibu, who represents RSP(B) in the UDF Government, had met Modi in Gandhinagar last April. His visit was also acknowledged by Modi in his official website stating that Kerala Labour Minister was briefed about skill development centres and the proposed Skill Development University of the Gujarat Government.
However, back home in Kerala, the visit raked up a big controversy with many senior Congress leaders targeting Shibu, for ‘endorsing’ Gujarat model and ‘supporting’ Modi. They even demanded that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy should bring in measures to make prior permission mandatory for trips by Ministers of the UDF Government. The issue had then forced Chandy to seek an explanation from the Minister.
Now, the Minister has put all those controversies on the back burner and is looking forward to his next meeting with Narendra Modi, this time as Prime Minister of the country, and, probably, without any controversies.
“Gujarat Government’s Kaushalya Vardhan Kendra was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for efforts in skill development. The efforts of skill development initiatives under Modi was discussed in our meeting. Nationally, more quality should be brought into the skill development so that even in a global market one will be competitive and it is a model that Kerala can emulate,’’ he said.