The Lone Ranger

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s development model is bringing real change on the ground, but complacency and aversion to counsel may prove to be his undoing

- Jeemon Jacob

His first decision on being picked by the CPI(M) state committee to steer the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala was to announce a change in his date of birth with dramatic flourish. Offering sweets to the media, with whom he has had a testy relationship, Pinarayi Vijayan declared on May 24, 2016, that he was born the same day 71 years ago in 1945—a signal of sorts that he is making a new beginning.

Having narrowly lost out on an earlier chance to head an LDF government, Pinarayi has been keen to demonstrate that he leads from the front and has a mind of his own. Even the canons of Marxism were secondary in his aggressive style of governance that glossed—at times rode roughshod—over attempts to ‘guide’ him. Comrades offering counsel were snubbed, with the chief minister underlining “I know exactly what to do”. Pinarayi is the first Kerala chief minister from the CPI(M) to control both the government and the party at the same time.

Predictably, this approach has triggered controversies, but Pinarayi has remained unfazed. At 73, the man who some wryly call ‘Modi in dhoti’ for his uncompromising attitude, works tirelessly, covering tracks for several of his handpicked—and less competent—cabinet colleagues. Personal integrity has mattered the most in Pinarayi’s political career, which has been largely devoted to nurturing militant party and trade union cadres locked in bloody battles with the BJP and the RSS in Kannur and elsewhere in north Kerala.