In hindsight, it looks like Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's stubborn refusal to conduct a press conference for over seven months since February this year was the most stupid decision he has ever made. Because in the four press conferences he held after this dry spell, including Wednesday's (November 8), the Chief Minister has successfully managed to shift Kerala's focus from corruption and nepotism to governance and politics.
It has taken Pinarayi some time to realise that the cohort he considers to be his biggest tormentor, the mainstream media, can also be used to turn things around for him.
On September 19, the day he broke his long silence, difficult questions were waiting to burst forth at him like from a dam breach; right from his daughter's business deals to the Karuvannur bank loot. When the dam of questions broke, Pinarayi did not do anything heroic. He just hid behind the rocks of already stated positions and simply let the posers rush past him. Soon enough, these questions were like the proverbial water under the bridge. Forgotten.
Now one and a half months later, with no dangerous arrows left to come his way, Pinarayi has positioned himself as a resistance figure, a bold local hero who has effectively dealt with his domestic foes and is proudly standing up to the might of Narendra Modi.
There was not a hint that this was a man who just a month ago had to face perhaps the worst allegations ever suffered by a Chief Minister of Kerala.
South’s daring leader
By taking Governor Arif Mohammad Khan to court for indefinitely delaying his assent to Bills, Pinarayi has already fired the first salvo at the Centre. Now, he is all set to take the next crucial step: Take the Narendra Modi government to court, the first state to do so, and make it answer for denying Kerala its rightful share of funds.
He said he would talk to other Southern states that had also been hit by the Centre's overbearing ways and put up a joint fight. Pinarayi has already assumed the leadership of this southern gang. Earlier too, during the days of the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) agitation, Pinarayi had attempted to position himself as the most daring leader of the anti-BJP front.
Humanist and guardian
Nonetheless, on Wednesday, his political messaging was meant mostly for Kerala and its people. He wanted to be seen as a leader who has found a way to take Kerala to the world (Keraleeyam), who would root out poverty in Kerala (he declared that extreme poverty will be eradicated by November 2025) and who is now taking the government out of the exclusive realms of the Secretariat to the people (the grievance redressal programme 'Karuthalum Kaithangum' held in April and May, and the over one-month long Nava Kerala Sadassu to begin on November 17).
More importantly, Pinarayi wanted to be seen as the leader who protects values Kerala has always held dear. He sought to project the seven-day Keraleeyam as the biggest gamble in his fight against fascist forces.
"Keraleeyam was a declaration that Kerala would be at the forefront of the struggle to safeguard basic Constitutional values like secularism, socialism, federalism and parliamentary democracy," Pinarayi said.
Pinarayi saw Keraleeyam as a display of Kerala's heightened cultural consciousness. It is an antidote to fascism, he suggested. "To call the money spent on culture as wasteful and extravagant is unacceptable. To burn books and libraries is a fascist tradition, not ours. To invest in culture is to do justice to the coming generations," he said.
Politics of Gaza
Again, like during the anti-CAA agitation, Pinarayi used the war in Palestine to deftly position himself as the messiah of Muslims in Kerala. "We should give our unconditional support to Palestine," he said, a clear dig at the Congress that had pulled up one of its leaders for conducting a pro-Palestine rally.
After the CPM State Committee meeting this week, the party has decided to aggressively brand the Congress as having Zionist leanings. In keeping with this strategy, the Chief Minister hailed Jawaharlal Nehru for his anti-imperialist stance and pro-Palestine policy but criticised Narasimha Rao for being the first prime minister to move closer to Israel.
Pinarayi even feigned surprise that the Congress even asked for an explanation from Aryadan Shoukath for conducting a pro-Palestine rally. "Is it even thinkable to ask explanation for such a thing? Or do they equate supporting Palestine with supporting a terror outfit? To offer support to the Palestinian cause should happen naturally," he said.
Pinarayi employed the sharpest emotion to cut the Congress to size: Pity. "What we should consider with great pain is the way the Congress has transformed into a party that could adopt even such an insensitive stand. Though we have political differences, this is a party of the national movement. Should it stoop to such a low," he said.
