Labour Party Member of Parliament Priyanca Radhakrishnan has become the first Indian-origin Minister in New Zealand government. This is the second time that Priyanca has been elected to Parliament. Besides Priyanca, Dr Gaurav Mrinal Sharma is another Indian-origian leader who has successfully made it to the 120-member Parliament.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appointed Priyanca as Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities, Minister for Youth, Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment. Priyanca has her hands full as she has been given three full-fledged portfolios and one Associate role in the cabinet. Priyanca was Private Secretary to the then Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa in the last term.
Priyanca told a web portal: “This is a great privilege and I am humbled by this opportunity to serve the community.”
Priyanca originally hails from Kerala, though she later migrated to Singapore. In an interview to an Indian magazine she said: “My maternal great grandfather, Dr C.R. Krishna Pillai, was a medical doctor, who was the secretary of the Transport Workers Union. He was involved in left-wing politics in India and was part of the Aikya Keralam movement that was instrumental in the formation of the state of Kerala. He was also an author. One of the earliest travelogues for children in Malayalam was written by him in the form of letters to his granddaughter (my mother), and it was about his visit to the Soviet Union.”
Dr Gaurav Sharma’s parents migrated to New Zealand when he was a child.
Discussion about this post