The elevation of V. Muraleedharan, former RSS pracharak and one-time Bharatiya Janata Party Kerala president, to a Minister of State in the Narendra Modi government is viewed as a long-shot strategy to aid the BJP’s game plan for the 2021 Assembly elections.
Political commentators see the appointment as a freebie that could influence Keralites to vote for the BJP in the Assembly elections.
No doubt, the BJP top brass would be more than happy if this happens. But they know pretty well that the Kerala electorate is a bit too hard to crack and that by including a Keralite Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra in the Central Ministry may not necessarily bring votes in an election two years away.
When K.J. Alphons was appointed as Union Minister of State for Tourism, the BJP’s political math apparently was that he would be a catalyst in wooing the influential Christian community, which makes up around 17% of the Kerala electorate, to the BJP fold.
Moreover, the tourism portfolio was such an important concern for Kerala’s economy. But the Lok Sabha election outcome proved this math wrong.
A more liberal view of Mr. Muraleedharan’s inclusion in the Ministry would be that the party leadership wanted Modi government 2.0 to be broad-based to represent as many States as possible.
Note that 23 States/Union Territories have found their representatives in it. Mr. Muraleedharan is just one of them.
Now that Mr. Muraleedharan is the Union Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, the Malayali community across the globe, especially those in the Gulf, should be happy.
Already, he has said that he would look at the practice of airlines jacking up airfares from the Gulf during festival times.
Reverse migration
From Kerala’s viewpoint, one area where Mr. Muraleedharan’s attention would have to focus on, according to leaders of pravasi organisations, is the reverse migration of Keralites from the Gulf. Traditional jobs in the Gulf are drying up and Malayalis are returning in hordes by the day.
The Centre would have to take proactive measures, in partnership with the State government, to address the issues thrown up by the reverse migration of Keralites from the Gulf.
Mr. Muraleedharan’s role will be crucial in this.
