Chennai-born Keralite is NZ’s 1st desi minister

Chennai-born Keralite is NZ’s 1st desi minister

03.11.2020 

Priyanca Radhakrishnan, a first-generation immigrant, became New Zealand’s first-ever Indian-origin minister on Monday after PM Jacinda Ardern inducted five new ministers into her executive, two weeks after a landslide victory in the general election.

“Today has been an incredibly special day. I’m feeling a lot of things including an overwhelming sense of privilege to become part of our government,” the 41-year-old Labour Party member said. The new minister for diversity, inclusion and ethnic communities was born in Chennai but her family is from Paravur in Kerala, reports Binu Karunakaran. She went to school in Singapore before moving to New Zealand to further her education. Her Left-leaning greatgrandfather C R Krishna Pillai, a doctor, had played a major role in shaping the literary and cultural sensibilities of the state.

Radhakrishnan with PM Arden

NZ PIO min’s great-granddad was a Left leader in Kerala

Priyanca Radhakrishnan was brought up in Singapore, where her father Raman Radhakrishnan worked as an engineer before returning to India to set up his own engineering company and settle in Chennai. “I come from a politically active family; a family that is dedicated to doing their part to make the world a better place. My great-grandfather, Dr C R Krishna Pillai, was involved in Left-wing politics in India and was instrumental in the formation of Kerala,” she had written in 2014.

Radhakrishnan has spent her work life advocating on behalf of people whose voices are often unheard – women survivors of domestic violence and migrant workers who have been exploited. First elected to New Zealand’s parliament as a Labour Party representative in 2017, the new minister has also been given charge of the ministry for the community and voluntary sector, and been made associate minister for social development and employment.

She had travelled to Kerala twice last year following the death of her mother Usha. G K Nair, a grand uncle of Radhakrishnan who resides near Kalady, said she owes her political genes to her maternal great-grandfather, who had once contested an election against former Union finance minister T T Krishnamachari.

(Inputs from agencies)