THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is an open secret that the Nair Service Society and its general secretary G Sukumaran Nair wished for a change of guard in the state in the assembly elections. On the polling day, Sukumaran Nair gave a clear hint of the same, prompting senior CPM leaders led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to take a critical position of the caste organisation which had been practising an ‘equal distance’ policy in the state politics for long.
Even after the poll results, the war of words continued between CPM leaders and the NSS general secretary, but CPM leaders took extreme caution that the dispute didn’t cross the border and hurt the community. When the second Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet was sworn in on Thursday, one of the most satisfied social groups in the state would be Nairs. There are seven ministers from the community in the 21-member cabinet, apart from the speaker and chief whip. Among the total cabinet-rank posts, representation of Nair community is 37.5% while the population of Nairs in Kerala is estimated to be around 12.5%.
While CPM assigned four ministers and the speaker from Nair community, CPI has three Nair ministers out of its four. Chief whip N Jayaraj is the nominee of KC(M), a traditional Christian party which has two Hindu MLAs out of its five this time.
The increase in the number of Nair ministers is at the cost of Ezhava community which had more representation in the last cabinet. There are only five Ezhavas in the cabinet, including CM Pinarayi, though the LDF has 26 Ezhava MLAs. Ezhavas, who form 23% of the population, is the biggest caste group among Hindus.
Political observer A Jayasankar in his latest video blog noted that this is the first time that Nair community gets these many cabinet berths. “Nair community received one-third representation only once before. In Travancore when Pattom Thanu Pillai was one among the three ministers of the first cabinet, there was one-third representation,” he said.
Sources in CPM said there had not been any purposeful effort to increase Nair representation, but the leadership was keen on not antagonising the community though the NSS leadership took a stand against the LDF. “Reports from grass-root level said that LDF could win the majority of Nair votes in many seats. That means community members largely ignored the political stand of NSS leadership,” said a leader. CPI leaders also rubbished allegation of Nair dominance among their ministers. “Seniority in party was the only criterion. All four selected were the senior most among MLAs,” said a CPI leader.
But the raw deal given to Dalit communities has sparked a debate among the group and on social media. “Even if the statutory reservation norm in government service is applied, there should be two Dalit ministers in the cabinet,” said Dalit thinker and writer Sunny M Kapikad.
The LDF has bagged 14 of the 16 reserved seats. Apart from minister K Radhakrishnan, deputy speaker Chittayam Gopakumar is the only Dalit MLA with a cabinet rank. In the CPI state executive, there were demands to assign one Dalit MLA as minister. But the leadership decided to go by the precedence set last time and picked Chittayam Gopakumar for the deputy speaker’s post.
“K Radhakrishnan is a very senior leader who had proved his worth while serving as a minister and the speaker. Yet, he was given an insignificant portfolio. And to add insult to injury, they hail giving Devaswom to a Dalit minister as something revolutionary. These people don’t realise that upper caste dominance is not in temples now but in aided educational institutions, judiciary and some government departments,” said Kapikad.
The sidelining of Radhakrishnan, who is one of the two central committee members, also sparked the debate about glass ceilings which cause hindrance to the career growth of Dalit leaders as in the case of woman leaders.
“When we ask why there is not a Dalit politburo member, CPM leaders say merit is the criterion. When a leader from Dalit community comes up the ladder by virtue of his merit, the leadership intervenes to stop his growth at a certain level,” said Kapikad, recalling that a similar act had prompted KK Shailaja’s exit from the cabinet.
RAHIM PROTEM SPEAKER, GOPALAKRISHNA KURUP AG & SHAJI DG (PROSECUTION)
T’Puram: Kunnamangalam MLA P T A Rahim will be the protem speaker of the Legislative Assembly. He will administer the oath of office to other MLAs when the assembly’s first session is held on Monday and Tuesday. The first meeting of the cabinet also approved the proposal of giving one more term to planning board vice-chairman V K Ramachandran.
Advocate K Gopalakrishna Kurup will be the new advocate-general and advocate T A Shaji the new director-general of prosecution. Kurup is the elder brother of former MLA K Suresh Kurup. K K Ragesh, ex-MP, has been appointed the private secretary to the CM. Puthalathu Dinesan will continue as the political secretary. R Mohan, who is the incumbent private secretary to the CM, will continue in the CMO as officer on special duty.
BALANCING ACT
The selection of four Christian ministers was also done in a balanced manner - one each from Syro Malabar, Latin Catholic, Orthodox and CSI churches. The number of Muslim ministers - three - is also higher than the previous cabinet.
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