CM Pinarayi Vijayan, it seems, has a liking for PM Modi’s style of functioning. After the LDF government in Kerala completed 100 days in office, Chief Minister Vijayan reached out to the people of the state through radio, a broadcast similar to Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
Said Vijayan to journalists in Delhi on Saturday, “I was not emulating Modi. I delivered the speech on being requested by Akashvani.”
This is not the first time that Vijayan has tried to imitate Modi. In the last three months, the state government has flaunted advertisements in newspapers highlighting its achievements, featuring a grinning Vijayan.
Like Modi, Vijayan, too, has evaded the media on most occasions. Both of them have the final say on important matters, maintain discipline in the administration and have displayed boldness while taking crucial decisions.
Modi and Vijayan, who have risen from humble backgrounds, have an iron grip over their parties, having sidelined the critics.
Said BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan to THE WEEK, “Pinarayi Vijayan is trying to imitate Modi so as to get popular. But, unlike Modi, Vijayan is not an honest politician. His intentions are not right. Let him imitate Modi as much as he wants, but it will serve no purpose.”
The puzzling similarities between Modi and Vijayan are a talking point on social networking sites.
Said Sebastian Paul, political commentator and former MP, to THE WEEK: “Such a comparison is natural. Pinarayi (Vijayan) could be emulating Modi. In a democracy, every chief minister or prime minister tries to gain as much publicity for his work. We know that Modi is a master in projecting himself as a popular leader. Pinarayi wants to follow him. There is no harm in such tactics.”
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, CPI(M) general secretary in Kerala, though, denies any such move on the part of Vijayan. “Such discussions are unwarranted,” he said to THE WEEK.
