A controversy is brewing in Kerala over Communist Party of India CPI leader Annie Raja’s alleged involvement in promoting state-sponsored human trafficking from Kerala to Israel. Kerala police refused to investigate Biju Kurian (48), who went on a government agricultural study tour to Israel and declined to return. Annie Raja recommended that fake farmer Kurian be selected for the tour. Allegedly, he is a local insurance broker.
Kurian was part of a central government study tour for local farmers from Kerala who went to Israel to study agriculture. The native of Iritty in Kannur was forced to return after the Ministry of Home Affairs promised to cancel Kurian’s Visa. With some Mossad prodding, the deserter soon landed at the Calicut International Airport in Malappuram on 27 February.
Local urban Naxals painted the tour event as Kerala state-sponsored and recruited at will. They are also the ones who are now trying hard to downplay the incident. Kurian’s incident has opened a can of worms, and it is feared that several other Israel travel scams will be exposed.
Israel has reduced agricultural costs, increased crop diversity, and achieved higher productivity using the latest technologies. Israel’s MASHAV International Development Cooperation Agency, under their Ministry of Foreign Affairs and MIDH (Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture), has implemented agricultural partnerships with Bharat under the Indo-Israel Agriculture Project (IIAP) since 2006.
In May 2021, Israel and our Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare agreed to enhance their cooperation in agriculture and signed a three-year work program agreement. Israel decided to train 1000 Bharatiya farmers to understand Israeli technologies and apply them on our farms here.
Though study tours are a part of this exercise, the main point is the Centres of Excellence (CoEs). CoEs generate knowledge, demonstrate best practices, and train farmers. The Israel embassy established new centers and encouraged private sector companies and collaboration. These programs are based in Bharat and are managed by the respective state governments.
In January, the 30th CoE demonstrated how to maximize resources in an arid environment by overcoming harsh climatic conditions near Grignow village in Bhiwani, Haryana. 29 other fully functional CoEs in 12 states produce more than four crore premium quality vegetable seedlings and train over 1.2 lakh farmers annually for best farm practices. Kerala does not even have a CoE.
So, farmers from each state visit Israel. They learn the latest Israeli water management technologies, recycling techniques, micro-irrigation systems, climate-adaptive farming models, hi-tech farming methods, and poly houses. The study tour is an opportunity to experience and learn about such technologies first-hand.
Accordingly, it was suggested to send people from each state. Israeli technologies in water management, recycling techniques, micro-irrigation systems, climate-adaptive farming models, hi-tech farming methods, and poly houses are well-known.
Urban Naxals hid all these factors and acted as if they were sponsoring the whole program. The Centre wanted graduate farmers below 50 years of age. Without giving even one single significant advertisement, local communists chose their cronies and forwarded the list to Delhi.
Only those with more than ten years of farming experience and more than one acre of land were to be selected for the team. There are lakhs of farmers in Kerala who belong to this category. Mysteriously, Kerala Agriculture Minister P Prasad received just 34 applications by e-mail and selected 20 individuals from that list.
Kurian, the Kannur Iritty-based ‘farmer’ who went missing in Israel, was part of the 28-member State Government delegation. State Agricultural Production Commissioner B Ashok led it on a five-day State-funded training program on modern agricultural practices, including precision farming and hydroponics. On 17 February, Biju Kurian went missing from Israel when the delegation was scheduled to return to Kerala.
News portals took up the story, and the controversy forced the State Government to take up the issue with Delhi. Our Tel Aviv Embassy took up Kurian’s desertion with the Israel Government. Israeli Intelligence Mossad soon traced Kurian to a village in Israel with a sizable population of Keralites. Incidentally, most of them work mainly as caregivers.
Urban Naxals tried their best to stifle the news that Kurian was selected for the study group on the recommendation of CPI national leader Annie Raja. Janmabhumi finally broke the news about her involvement. Allegedly, the decision to abscond was preplanned. Annie is from the high ranges of Iritty and is married to Vatican prop CPI General Secretary D Raja.
Gangs that smuggle people into Israel for money are active in Kerala. Local Christians are their primary prey. Newspaper ads invite applications from youngsters to become caregivers in Israel. The mafia charges between three and a half lakhs to five lakh rupees promising a visitor’s visa and an opportunity to immigrate illegally to Israel.
Some are transported to Israel and arranged accommodation along with other Keralaites already on the mafia’s payroll. Illegal immigrants tend to work primarily as caregivers for the elderly. Since they are primarily indoors, such workers can work without much legal trouble.
Later, an elderly local Jew shows that a caregiver’s assistance is necessary and citizenship should be granted. Such applications are accepted on humanitarian grounds. This is when the Keralites do other jobs and earn money.
Kurian absconded from the hotel where the delegation stayed and hid at an Iritty native’s place in Israel. He thought the matter might cool down, but it did not and forced his return. Efforts are ongoing on a war footing by urban Naxals to justify Kurian’s actions.
Kurian now claims he wanted to visit holy places in that country. His brother, Benny Kurian, a practicing lawyer in Kannur, was there to receive him at the airport. “I returned voluntarily; none had deported me. My brother met my flight ticket expenses, ” said Biju Kurian. The deportation part might be genuine since his visit visa was valid till 8 May.
Incidentally, the initial plan was for Kerala Agriculture Minister P Prasad’s plan to lead the Israel agricultural study tour. Prasad is a dummy minister with little power and is a CPI MLA. His flight tickets to Israel were canceled following ‘consultations’ between the CPM and the CPI. There were allegations that local radical Islamists led by local ‘Save Palestine’ activists stepped in.
The same urban Naxals who strongly criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel a few years ago and reacted strongly against Israeli incursions in Gaza are now allegedly selling Israeli dreams to Keralites for a few rupees. Is this the much-touted Kerala Model of governance that bends over for jihadis and forces Christians into trafficking mafias? The lady is yet to respond to these trafficking allegations.
