C.R. Kesavan joins BJP, says not a dynast

The joining is seen as being part of the BJP’s push for traction in the southern States.

C.R. Kesavan, former spokesperson for the Congress and great-grandson of India’s last Governor-General C. Rajagopalachari, joined the BJP on Saturday, in the presence of Union Minister V.K. Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni and Bihar MLC Sanjay Mayukh.

The joining is seen as being part of the BJP’s push for traction in the southern States, where, apart from Karnataka, the party is yet to gain significant support. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Kesavan, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said that while he was identified with his lineage, he was not “a vanshawaadi or parivarvadi (dynast)”.

“My father was an engineer, my grandfather was a news editor with The Hindu in Chennai, and I myself was pursuing a professional life abroad. I came back to India and started from scratch,” he said. He refused to speak on the reasons he left the Congress on Saturday. He said that he had always been “fascinated” by the characters of Karna (in the Mahabharata) and Vibhishana (from the Ramayana), who were both great characters with a strong sense of right and wrong, but while one despite everything, chose the wrong side, the other, Vibhishana, chose “the path of Dharma.”

He said that he was impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis it engendered across the world. “Saint Tiruvallur said, that when faced with a crisis, you should confront it with calmness, something that I saw in Prime Minister Modi. His handling of the situation was exemplary and left a mark,” he said.

He also lauded Prime Minister Modi for “following Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of policies for the last man in the queue.”

Mr. Kesavan said that as of now, he has neither asked for nor received any indication of a role within the party. “We all want to contribute, and the BJP is a place where I think I can do this,” he said.