Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to meet Kerala Cabinet at the technical area lounge of Thiruvananthapuram airport on way back from Sivagiri to Delhi on December 15.
At the Cabinet briefing chief minister Oommen Chandy said the meeting would start at 5 pm on December 15 but he wasn't sure of the time allotted. The chief minister is obviously embarrassed as the PMO could not fix an appointment to meet the Prime Minister during his two day visit in Delhi and the en route meeting at the airport is all that has been agreed to.
Modi is on his first visit to Kerala as prime minister. During the two-day visit, the main item on the itinerary is a meeting with defence chiefs in Kochi. The rest are all political and social functions including BJP public meeting at Thekkinkadu maidan in Thrissur on December 14, unveiling of R Sankar statue at Kollam and visit to Sivagiri Mutt the next day.
Official sources said arrangements are being made for a makeshift venue at the technical area lounge for hosting the meet. Additional chairs are being arranged to accommodate the prime minister and 21 ministers.
"During my decades old career I have never come across a meeting between PM and entire state cabinet taking place at airport lounge," said a senior official.
While a section of people feel that the prime minister could have agreed to a full-fledged meeting since the request came from a democratically elected chief minister of the state, others believe that Chandy and company were trying to pull off a meeting.
Former chief secretary Dr M Vijayanunni said the chief minister and his colleagues seem to be intruding into prime minister's busy schedule. The prime minister has multifarious appointments and they are trying to unnecessarily interfere with his engagements. After the meeting they want to gain some publicity claiming that prime minister has assured to look into their demands. Most of the demands are the same old ones pending before the Centre for years.
Vijayanunni said the chief minister had once announced that prime minister is going to preside over state cabinet meeting. "I called their bluff at that time. How can the prime minister who holds such an exalted position be brought down to the level of chief minister of a state ? Moreover, because of the highly confidential nature of Cabinet no outsider is allowed in the meeting. After that episode they have stopped talking about PM presiding over state cabinet," he added.
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