A day at Nava Kerala Sadas: Vijayan returns as ‘Captain’ at the head of Cabinet-on-wheels

As Riyas talks about the impact of the LDF government during its seven-and-a-half-year regime so far, the Cabinet bus halts nearby. The minister abruptly suspends his speech when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Cabinet colleagues alight to a rapturous reception by the crowd. Waving his hand, Vijayan and his entourage soon take seats on the dais.

The state-wide tour of the 21-member Cabinet, called “Nava Kerala Sadas” (new Kerala meetings), is in Kottayam in its last leg in the district. The unprecedented Cabinet tour, which has been in the spotlight since its launch on November 18 at the northernmost village of Paivalike in Kasaragod district, is scheduled to come to an end on December 23 in the state capital. By then, the Cabinet-on-wheels would have covered all 140 Assembly segments in the state.

Three sadas or meetings are held each day. Before Vijayan’s arrival in Kottayam on Thursday, three ministers had completed their speeches.

The first sadas of the day was at Kuravilangad, which comes under the Kaduthuruthy Assembly seat, held by Mons Joseph of the Kerala Congress. The highlight of the sadas is a matter-of-fact speech by Vijayan.

Rubber sector crisis

Highlighting the achievements of his government, Vijayan hits out at the Union government over the crisis in the rubber sector. Kottayam is one of India’s leading rubber producing districts.

“The Centre is hostile towards rubber cultivators. The Kerala government has been demanding that the support price of rubber should be raised, but the Union government doesn’t agree. This has inflicted big harm on rubber farmers. Tyre firms are allowed to import rubber. Don’t worry, the state government has taken steps to protect your interests, by trying to start its own rubber company,” the CM charged.

The sadas have two major themes. The “strides” Kerala has taken under Vijayan, and the BJP-led Union government’s alleged bid to undermine the state’s growth by turning a blind eye to its financial woes. Ministers take turns to highlight how the LDF has transformed Kerala since 2016. In every meeting, they recap local developmental initiatives to showcase its progress card at the micro-level.

On Thursday, Minister Riyas mentioned development of road infrastructure in Kaduthuruthy Assembly constituency in the last two-and-a-half years.

Morning interactions

Every day, the sadas begins with the CM and his Cabinet colleagues meeting a few hundred invitees over breakfast. The invitees are prominent local residents, including the Hindu, Muslim and Christian religious and community leaders, apart from local businessmen and cultural leaders. During the post-breakfast interaction, Vijayan is flanked by different community leaders. They are bishops, Muslim clerics and saffron-clad Hindu sanyasis.

In a throwback to the pandemic days, Vijayan addresses the media every day after the breakfast meeting. Although his Cabinet colleagues sit next to him, Vijayan alone addresses the media, often clearing the government’s stand on current issues, besides routinely attacking the Union government.

The Cabinet’s statewide tour is bringing back memories of the turbulent days of the 2018 flood and the 2020 pandemic ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, when Vijayan was projected by the LDF as Kerala’s “Captain” for steering the state through these crises. While the government is using the sadas to take its achievements to the doorsteps of people in all Assembly segments, Vijayan is being projected as a leader who transformed the state in every sphere over the last seven-and-a-half years.

At Kuravilangad, people arrive in droves at the sadas venue by vehicles arranged by the local government bodies managed by the LDF. Although the High Court has ordered against using school buses, a lot of vehicles from educational institutes could be seen bringing people for the event. Most of the participants at the sadas are aged women with only a few youngsters taking part in them despite the Cabinet tour being projected as a brainstorming session with all sections of society.

Multiple counters have been opened near the sadas venue, where people can submit their petitions. With the government having promised to take action on all petitions received at the sadas within 45 days, people jostle outside the counters to register their complaints. On Thursday, as many as 3,856 petitions/complaints were recorded from the Kaduthuruthi Assembly constituency.

Rosakutty Devasia, 64, is clutching a petition seeking widowhood pension. “I lost my husband 10 years back. For the last two years, I have had no widowhood pension. I have only a small house and seven cents of land. A few years back, I had availed a loan of Rs 5 lakh to build a house, for which, the bank demanded that I somehow show an income of Rs 2 lakh. Now, citing that, I’m being denied my widowhood pension. I don’t have any income. My son is a daily wager,” she said.

K Joseph, another person in a queue, is knocking at the authorities’ doors to have his ration card converted from an APL (Above Poverty Line) card to the BPL (Below Poverty Line) one. “I only have 30 cents of land. My children are not staying with me. I have been demanding that I be given a BPL card. Having failed several times online, I’m trying again this way,” he said.

A few meters away at the sadas venue, Civil Supplies Minister G R Anil can be heard addressing the sadas about the number of ration cards issued since 2021.