KOCHI: Priyanca Radhakrishnan, who joined the Jacinda Ardern government as New Zealand’s first-ever
minister
of Indian
origin
, is the great granddaughter of C R Krishna Pillai, a medical doctor and early communist leader, who shaped the literary and cultural sensibilities of the state through the Jayakeralam magazine.
Though Priyanca was brought up in Singapore where her father, Raman Radhakrishnan, worked as an engineer, her ancestral
roots
lie in North
Paravur
. Priyanca, who was elected to the Labour party in 2017, has been handed the community and voluntary sector and diversity and inclusion portfolios.
“C R Krishna Pillai, her maternal great grandfather, was also part of the labour movement and had contested against [former finance minister of India] T T Krishnamachari,” recalls G K Nair, grand uncle of Priyanca, who resides in Chowara, near Kalady. The Jayakeralam magazine he founded with Padmanabhan Nair was a left-leaning publication that was published by several writers, including ONV. “Her grandfather Ramachandran Pillai was a noted cardiologist,” he said.
Priyanca had travelled to Kerala twice in 2019 following the death of her mother, Usha, in February last year. “The last visit was in July for the final rites of her mother at Chelamattom,” said Nair. Priyanca’s father Radhakrishnan, who started his own engineering company after retirement, is settled 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 played an instrumental role in the formation of Kerala, the state of origin of my family,” Priyanca had written in 2014.