Kerala: Bureaucrat Marries Politician, Media Can’t Stop Obsessing

Divya Iyer - Sabarinadhan MLA wedding: A love story Malayalam media is too excited about.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

A young, woman bureaucrat and a politician in Kerala have decided to get married and the regional media just cannot stop obsessing with the story.

Aruvikkara MLA Sabarinadhan and Thiruvananthapuram sub-collector Divya S Iyer could be star-crossed lovers on the Titanic ship, going by the dizzying levels to which media outlets have been playing up the romance.

Ten days after the MLA made an announcement on Facebook that Divya was going to marry him; we've been encountering "details" about their love story every other day.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Most recently, we were blessed to know that the Czech-born French writer Milan Kundera was instrumental in bringing the couple together. Yes, we hope this vital piece of information helps you sleep better at night.

Divya said in an interview, "Both of us like Kundera's works. I was surprised when Sabari told this to me first...I would never have imagined that there would be a politician in Kerala, who reads Kundera."

Speaking to the same publication, Sabarinadhan too, expressed the same excitement in finding a common interest. He said:

I too, was surprised. A doctor who reads philosophy, that too Kundera’s. In short, we have Kundera to thank for!

And the fact that Divya said she was surprised a politician had read Kundera has led to much trolling on the internet. Many have taken to social media, sniggering at Divya and announcing that many politicians in Kerala have read Kundera.

All that's fine. But is this a love marriage or an arranged marriage? The question Kerala wanted to know was asked by a TV reporter minutes after the MLA posted about his relationship on social media. In a video interview that was telecast in one of the leading news channels in the state, Sabarinadhan tried to evade more personal questions and appeared to be guarding intricate details of his personal life. Legitimately so.

"'It's a love-cum-arranged marriage," the MLA answered, treading the diplomacy path cleverly.

"How did the two of you meet?" they wanted to know. The duo answered that too.

"It was the recently concluded Malappuram bye-polls that brought us closer. We got to spend considerable time with each other and our families were happy about the two of us getting together. So it happened," said Sabarinadhan.

He has since been parroting the same lines in multiple interviews. Our sympathies.

In a recent interview to Manorama Online, Divya said that it was during a play that they first met each other. And so, an article on the “nexus” between a politician and a bureaucrat was born.

From having to explain what attracted them to each other to confessing who made the first move, social media users now have enough information with which they can write a thesis on the couple.

Sabarinadhan, who used to work in Mumbai, took the plunge to Kerala politics after the death of his father and former Kerala assembly speaker G Karthikeyan.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

After winning the elections in 2015, Sabarinadhan became the youngest MLA in the assembly. Much like Sabarinadhan who garnered public attention through his work that was lauded by many, Divya S Iyer too attracted media attention through her work.

A doctor by profession, Divya served as the Assistant-collector of Kottayam before she was transferred to Thiruvananthapuram. It was during her tenure in Kottayam that she made headlines as the “songbird bureaucrat.”

In the run-up to the assembly elections in May last year, Divya had released a song asking people to vote that she had written herself and lent her voice to.

The news value of their relationship cannot be denied, considering the near-celebrity status they both hold in their respective professions. But isn't this enough already? Two people are getting married with mutual consent. Can we wish them the very best and let them be?

(This story was originally published in The News Minute.)