There was a river in Pinarayi Panchayat in Kerala and the time was 50s. The kids of the village had to cross that every day to reach the school on the other side. One day the boatman decided to increase the fare steeply, making it unaffordable for most kids. One boy, barely 10, decided to take it up with the boatman. He refused to pay the hiked fare and the irate boatman threatened to sink the boat. While other kids swam back to the shore, this little rebel sat glued to the boat even as the boatman tried to tilt it. The matter reached the elders in shore that Vijayan was still in the boat about to sink. By then the boatman had realised his folly and agreed to bring down the fare. That was the first political victory of Vijayan, much before he became the Pinarayi Vijayan. “He was a born fighter and was never afraid of anything in this world. Consequences have never worried him,’’ said a former Area Committee member and a long time close friend of Vijayan. And he was short on smile, even then.
Maybe there was not much to be happy about. Born to a poor family, life was a struggle every day. Though a bright student, his mother, a daily labourer, found it difficult to afford to send him to school. When she went to tell this to the school teacher, he elicited one assurance from her. “You stop his studies the day he fails in any exams,” he told the mother and she agreed.
Failure never happened as he completed degree from Government Brennen College. But still smiling was an art he was yet to learn.
Given the social scenario that existed in the village, his joining the CPI(M) was only natural. And his rise in the party was swift with the support of M V Raghavan, the then all powerful district secretary. His anti-Emergency struggles brought him to the limelight but also left him with a fractured leg.
Still, he was only a ‘Kannur party leader’. His evolution to a state leader happened during his stint as the electricity minister in the 1996 Nayanar government. But with the death of CPI(M) state secretary Chadayan Govindan, Pinarayi had to leave government and become the party state secretary in 1998. His tenure witnessed the ‘institutionalisation’ of the party with it launching a number of new initiatives like Kairali TV, RUBCO and good number of cooperative banks in northern Kerala.
While his critics accused him of ‘corporatisation’ of the party, his supporters see it as a ‘need of the hour’. The evolution of V S Achuthanandan as the ‘most populist CPI(M) leader’ and Pinarayi as the ‘most tainted, the least loved’ happened simultaneously.
The Lavallin controversy further spoiled his image, a taint which is yet to leave Pinarayi. But he withstood all the allegations and continued to cleanse the party of all sectarian tendencies with his iron fist. No wonder, he is the most “feared politician of Kerala”.
“He will commit only those things which he thinks he will be able to deliver. And he expects the same from every one,” said an insider.
All these traits may be good for the state secretary of CPI(M) but now that he has become the chief minister of the state, one may need more qualities. “He may still not smile very often... and may not be media-friendly. But time will prove that he will be the best administrator that the state has ever seen,” insisted a long-time colleague.
He added, “There are certain traits in all of us which are inseparable from our identities. His Stalinism is one such. Actions matters more than smiles...”
He may still not smile very often...and may not be media friendly. But time will prove that he will be the best administrator that the state has ever seen.
Pinarayi Vijayan’s colleague