Kummanam Rajasekharan, the 18th governor of the state of Mizoram of the Indian Union, is a study in frugality. His deep roots in the right wing Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) made him regimentally and philosophically accustomed to curtailing any materialistic want - a trait which leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad too follow to this day. Kummanam, after quitting his government job, plunged into active politics as an RSS worker. After the year 2000, Kummanam, as general secretary of the Hindu Aikya Vedi and office-bearer of several Hindu organisations like the Ayyappa Seva Sanghom, was a fixture in the Thiruvananthapuram activist circles that was remarkably rich with selfless souls like Gandhian KE Mammen.
Old-timers remember a Kummanam, clad in spotless white, walking up the main thoroughfare of the city to reach the Secretariat or the Press Club right behind it. He was by then known as a man of impenetrable integrity. 'Money cannot buy Kummanam' was an oft-heard rant as he was in the forefront of the agitation against the Aranmula greenfield airport project.
To Mizoram
Kummanam's shift to Mizoram as governor probably marks a new phase of his life - one which may call into use his skills as an administrator and organiser. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) found in Kummanam a go-to man and got the RSS to 'relieve' him to mend the seemingly endless infighting in the party state unit. As the 'agreeable' Kummanam took over as party Kerala unit president in 2015, the internal squabbles were apparently never so rife again, if not over.
Challenges
The new governor has already seen a bout of protests. The People’s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (Prism) and the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) have already issued statements against the appointment saying that the incumbent is a 'radical Hindu.' The Prism statement said: "he is an active member of the RSS and was involved with the Hindu Aikya Vedi and the VHP." The GCIC said: "Rajasekharan is a hardcore, fundamentalist, ruthless and uncompromising in respect of any deal concerning non-Hindus and he will not be acceptable to fair-minded people anywhere in the country."
A lot of flak for Kummanam comes from his failure to be a typical career politician. He refused to wrap his political statements and standpoints in posturing and calculated poise. For Kummanam, there was no altering the political course. His inherent reluctance to assume positions of power has but gained him quite an acceptance across the spectrum. After all, a soft-spoken but hard-toiling leader is not a sight too common in the India political-scape.
Also, Kummanam as the governor of the Mizo people is a dichotomy – for Kummanam has been a leader of open credentials. But the origin of the Mizo people is a mystery and a major theory is that they came in during the grand wave of Mangloid influx. So, who in history could have predicted a ruler from the deep south to settle in the ancient and stately Mizoram Raj Bhavan, the original structure of which was designed by the wife of Major J Shakespear, the first superintendent of the Lushai Hills District in the year 1898.
Also, for humour, this is Kummanam's sweet and noble revenge on the incisive troll-makers of Kerala who will need to live with the fact that Mizoram is an Indian state and he, its first citizen.