The Fall of the Captain
Vijayan and his daughter - curious nexus Power rarely falls in a moment. It corrodes first – quietly, almost invisibly – until one day the people withdraw their consent all at once. The latest verdict against Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala’s Assembly elections is not just an electoral defeat; it is a moral and political repudiation. Kerala has long prided itself on political literacy, never political idolatry. Yet Vijayan dared to become an idol! Quite strange given the radical Marxist origins of his politics. Vijayan’s first term as Chief Minister went well, probably because the 2018 deluge in Kerala followed by the Covid pandemic kept him too busy to pander to his own ego. When the state made him chief minister the second time, first of its kind in Kerala, governance soon became inseparable from Vijayan himself. The party receded; the leader expanded. Campaigns centred not on collective vision but on a single figure: the “Captain.” What was projected as strong leadership slowly o...
