Kerala CM Satheesan outlines aspirational vision: Focus on education (legacy universities, AI integration), health, and coastal development as a port city to leverage human capital and integrate into the global economy. 

Secular consolidation and non-confrontational Centre-state relations: Satheesan credits the election victory to unified secular forces and emphasizes resolving issues through dialogue while defending political positions, signaling a shift from past confrontational politics. 

Broader context of political transition: The Congress-led government’s moderate approach mirrors emerging BJP leadership changes, pressuring the Left to adapt to new political dynamics, with AI and education as key future priorities.

The Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan’s choice of the New Indian Express editor Santwana Bhattacharya for his first major media interview after assuming office 50 days ago comes as no surprise. Both are noted intellectuals and humanists at the core with a rare ability to synthesise to form a new unified whole. Ancient Greeks meant the word ‘syntithenai’ as the act of ‘putting together’.  

Satheesan presented a vision anchored on ‘aspirational Keralam’ and eschewed the combative spirit and oneupmanship characteristic of his predecessors. When he was invited to draw comparison with his immediate predecessor, he sounded bored and felt relieved to turn his back on it. And with a smile, he told Santwana, “Conventional politics has changed. The new generation doesn’t accept such things… Everybody is asking for a repeat, but I can’t.”

The ease and candour with which Satheesan could talk about the hugely sensitive issue of the antipathy in the recent years between the Christian and Muslim communities of the state who constitute almost half the population, brought out the best in him. While the Sangh Privar overtly, and the........

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