Pinarayi Vijayan

Pinarayi Vijayan
Secretary, CPI(M) Kerala State Committee Member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau
Personal details
Born	March 21, 1944 (1944-03-21) Pinarayi, Kannur district
Political party	CPI(M)
Spouse(s)	Kamala
Children	One son and one daughter
Residence	Pinarayi, Kerala
Religion	Atheist

Pinarayi Vijayan (Malayalam: പിണറായി വിജയന്‍) is a politician and a former minister of Kerala, South India. He is currently a politburo member and the state secretary of Kerala State Committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)).

Early life

He was born on 21 March 1944 into an Ezhava (thiyya) family in Pinarayi in Kannur district. He is married to Kamala and has two children.

Political career

Pinarayi Vijayan entered politics through student union activities and eventually joined the Communist Party in 1964. He was president and secretary of the Kerala Student's Federation (KSF) and also served as the president of Kerala State Youth Federation (KSYF). During that period, when communists in Kerala were organising the political activities from different hide-outs, Pinarayi Vijayan was imprisoned for one and half years .Later he was elected the president of the Kerala state co-operative bank. And during emergency he was arrested and tortured by police. He got elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1970. He was re-elected in 1977, 1991 and 1996. He was the Minister for Electric power and Co-operatives in the E.K. Nayanar ministry from 1996 to 1998. In 1998 he became CPI(M) state secretary. He was elected to the politburo of CPI(M) in 2002.

Suspension

On May 26, 2007 the CPI(M) suspended Pinarayi Vijayan and V. S. Achuthanandan from the politburo for their public remarks on each other. The central committee has approved the politburo's decision to suspend them. It concluded that open criticism against each other aired by the two leaders had "violated the norms of the party". Pinarai was reinstated as members of the Politburo later.

Positions held

• Was the state president and secretary of Kerala Student's Federation and president of Kerala State Youth Federation (KSYF).
• Served as president of Kerala State Co-operative Bank.
• Elected to Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1970, 1977, 1991 and 1996.
• Served as minister in Kerala government between 1996 and 1998.
• Secretary of the Kerala state committee of the CPI(M) since 1998.
• Member of the CPI(M) politburo from 2002.

Controversies

• The SNC Lavalin controversy in Kerala is a major allegation that rocked Kerala politics . The Comptroller and Auditor General of India report said that the deal Vijayan had struck as electricity minister in 1998 with Lavalin, a Canadian firm, for the repair of three generators, was a huge fraud and had cost the state exchequer a staggering Rs 3.76 billion. On 16 January 2007, Kerala High Court ordered a CBI enquiry into the SNC Lavalin case. On 21 January 2009, CBI filed a progress report on the investigation in the Kerala high court. Pinarayi Vijayan has been named as the 9th accused in the case. CPM backed Pinarayi saying that the CBI move was "politically motivated".However, there has been no evidence of any personal financial gain to him on account of the contract given. The CPM led Kerala Government decided not to let Vijayan to be prosecuted in the case. Overruling the cabinet recommendation, the Governeor allowed CBI to prosecute Vijayan based on prima facie evidence. Though CPI(M) called Governor's move un-constitutional, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said there is nothing surprising or wrong in Governor's decision. With Kerala Governor's recommendation to prosecute Vijayan in the SNS Lavalin case, he became the first Politburo member in the CPI(M) history to be prosecuted in a corruption case.

• On February 16, 2007 the air port security in Chennai Airport recovered five bullets from Vijayan's baggage. The Chennai airport security had let him off after receiving a faxed copy of his license.

• The stand-off between the CPI(M) and the Catholic Church in Kerala took another nasty turn with CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan demanding that the church withdraw a controversial pastoral letter issued recently.The letter had recommended a "liberation struggle" on the lines of the one in the 1950s to liberate the education sector in Kerala from state control, so that the management can charge fees and capitation without government intervene.

• On 16 October 2007, Pinarayi had called Paul Chitilapally, the bishop of Thamarassery in Kerala, as a "wretched creature" for his lie. He was speaking in a memorial remembrance of Mathai Chacko, MLA from Thamarassery and a CPM member.He said “A lie is a lie, and just because it is uttered by a bishop it does not become a holy lie” . Later, the Roman Catholic Church in Kerala is up in arms against the CPM leadership as his comments against the bishop. However, he repeated the wordings and stick with the comments he had mentioned. This made a heated discussion among the Catholic community across the state and has protested against his speech by closing all educational institutions and churches.