On June 7 this year when Kerala Governor Ramkrishnan Suryabhan Gavai granted permission to the CBI to initiate prosecution proceedings against CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC Lavalin case, he drew both flak and praise. In the process, he set a precedent of sorts by rejecting the CPI(M)-led state Cabinet’s recommendation against the prosecution and overruling the Advocate General’s view in the case.

Since that day, the Dalit leader hasn’t been sighted in public even as his effigies were burnt on the streets across Kerala and outside the Raj Bhavan. The state tourism department even cancelled a programme to be attended by Gavai later in the month. No fresh invite from any government department has been sent to the Raj Bhavan. But the Governor remains unfazed over the protests raging outside, sources said.

Gavai, 80, is one of those rare politicians who is known to have done the right thing at the right time and, thus, reach the top with ease. Never elected an MLA, he was elected to the Lok Sabha only once — in 1998 from Amravati, Maharashtra. Yet, he not only got elected as a member of the legislative council for a record five terms, first time in 1964, but also went on to become the deputy chairperson of the council (1968-78), and then its chairperson (1978-84). He became the Governor of Bihar in 2006 and has been the Governor of Kerala since June, 2008.

Gavai, an agriculturist and a wrestler from Darapur, Amravati, was part of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s movement for social justice.

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