THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After entrusting the Home portfolio to Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan in an unusual Cabinet reshuffle on Thursday, the UDF may have to eat its own words used against CPM when the party installed V S Achuthanandan as the Chief Minister without Home portfolio in 2006. The main accusation then was that the Chief Minister was ‘’powerless’’ as he was not holding the Home or Vigilance, the two ‘’powerful’’ portfolios. This became news, for it was after nearly 20 years that the portfolios were handled by a minister other than the Chief Minister. It may be noted that Oommen Chandy already handed over the charge of Vigilance on August 9, 2011, to Thiruvanchoor, in view of the Special Vigilance Court order in the palmolein case. Vayalar Ravi was the Home Minister in the K Karunakaran ministry for four years from May 24, 1982; but with a slight difference. Ravi was not from the Chief Minister’s party, Congress I, but represented Congress A, the second largest constituent of the UDF, till it merged with the parent organisation, nearly seven months after sharing power. But he had to resign on May 24, 1986 owing to differences with the Chief Minister. Later, Home became a regular portfolio of Chief Ministers along with General Administration, till the CPM picked Kodiyeri for the job to rein in the ‘belligerent veteran.’ Before Kodiyeri, the CPM had a separate Home Minister only once, when T K Ramakrishnan handled it in the first E K Nayanar ministry.Home was just another key portfolio, till it was handled by K Karunakaran, the leader of the single largest party in the United Front in the fourth Assembly, Congress. He is the longest serving Home Minister as he handled it in the ministry headed by C Achutha Menon from September 25, 1971 to March 3, 1977. Though he relinquished the Home portfolio on Thursday, Chandy may be marked as a Home Minister who had changed the ‘face’ of the State police. It was during his short stint of 79 days in the Karunakaran Cabinet as the ‘police minister,’ the decision to change the police uniform from half trousers to long trousers was taken. The two other ministers in the present Cabinet, K M Mani and P J Joseph, were also former Home ministers as they were in charge of the police in various ministries in the fifth Assembly.
Comments
0 comment