Modi’s Cabinet: A big moment for Kerala

By Shankar Raj*

Thiruvananthapuram: In a big moment for Kerala, the state will be represented by a minister from the Lok Sabha for the first time in the Narendra Modi 3.0 cabinet that took oath in Delhi on Sunday, June 9, 2024. While actor turned-politician Suresh Gopi, who won the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat with a thumping majority, was a sure shot for a minister’s post, the second minister,  Kurian George, was a surprise choice.

Former Information Technology minister Rajeev Chandrashekar did not find a place and created a flutter by announcing his retirement from public life and then clarified that he would continue to be an active karyakarta in Karnataka. Former minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan did not find a place.

All eyes are on Suresh Gopi, who finally broke the Bharatiya Janata Party’s jinx in the Lok Sabha polls from Thrissur. But there is an unease too in the Kerala unit of the party as Gopi is known for his maverick ways of functioning. Like the roles of non-conformist police officers and bureaucrats he had essayed in his movies, he can sometimes be very unpredictable in politics. He is a sort of Dennis the Menace who can bring joy and trouble.

He created a flutter by saying he did not want to be a minister and that his focus was on completing his roles in five movies in the pipeline.

He never attends any local meetings of the BJP and claims that he draws his power and support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Also read: Narendra Modi takes oath with 71 other ministers

To be fair, he never crossed swords with the state leadership, but stayed away from BJP’s organizational affairs ever since he joined the party in 2016. Of late, what irked the leaders was Gopi’s response to the reception planned for him along with Rajeev Chandrasekhar and V Muraleedharan at BJP state headquarters after the result declaration. Gopi said that people have started adopting an ‘apolitical’ stand and his victory in Thrissur was a testimony to the same.

“We really don’t know whether he used the word ‘apolitical’ after fully understanding its meaning. Hope he did not. I wonder how a person, who is a member of a political party and now a people’s representative, could say so and that too at a function at the party’s state headquarters. It would be a tough task for state leaders to rein in the new Union minister,” a senior BJP leader was quoted in the media.

Meanwhile, George Kurian’s choice as a union minister acknowledges the support that the BJP got from the Christian community in Kerala.

When a faction of socialists left the Janatha Party to join the newly formed BJP from Jana Sangham in 1980, George Kurian, barely 19 at that time, from a small village in Christian-dominated Kottayam, was one of them. His decision to join a right-wing Hindutva organization as a Christian youth attracted criticism from various quarters, including from his conservative Christian family circles.

But Kurian, now 63, remained a loyalist of the BJP overcoming numerous challenges. Though his appointment to the new NDA cabinet was unexpected, Kurian was already a familiar figure in the state due to his political activities and frequent appearances on television debates representing the BJP.

With over four decades in the saffron party, Kurian has held various significant positions, including membership in the national executive committee, serving as the national vice-president of Yuvamorcha, and being the vice-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities. At the time of his induction into the Modi-led cabinet, Kurian was a core committee member and vice-president of the BJP’s state unit. He has also served as a translator for Prime Minister Modi during his visits to the state.

Observers say Kurian’s inclusion in the cabinet is part of the BJP’s strategy to ensure Christian representation, taking into consideration Suresh Gopi’s victory in Thrissur, where Christian votes were a big factor in play.

Kurian had previously contested against Oommen Chandy in the 2016 Assembly elections in Puthupally as a BJP candidate. His wife Annakutty, is a retired Nursing Officer from the Indian Army.

*Shankar Raj is a former editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.