Kerala's Education Battle: Why PM SHRI Scheme Splits Left Front Allies

CPI is the second biggest ally in the ruling CPI(M)- led Left Front government in Kerala.

He also warned that accepting funds under the PM SHRI Scheme would effectively compel the state to implement the NEP.

Calling PM SHRI a “backdoor route” to enforce the NEP, Viswam said the funds and the policy are “closely linked”.

He pointed out that M.A. Baby, the general secretary of the CPI(M), has already clarified the party’s position.

Viswam's statement came as a sharp response to the CPI(M) legislator and State Education Minister V. Sivankutty’s earlier declaration that the state would go ahead with the PM SHRI scheme.

Viswam spoke to the media soon after he called the four state CPI cabinet ministers to his house ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting and held discussions with them.

At the cabinet meeting, the CPI ministers raised the issue of PM SHRI, and it is reliably learnt that neither Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan nor Sivankutty spoke about it.

The CPI has also expressed its displeasure at what it sees as a unilateral decision by CPI(M) without proper consultation within the Left Democratic Front to have announced that they will go ahead with PM SHRI.

Adding a new dimension to the debate, V.D. Satheesan, the Leader of Opposition, stated that there is “nothing wrong in accepting central funds”, but warned against allowing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s “communal agenda” to take root through such schemes.

“This money does not come from the Prime Minister’s home”, and added that the PM SHRI scheme had already been implemented in states ruled by the Indian National Congress, but it was done before the party came to power there. We all heard the curt response of the CPI(M) state secretary M.V. Govindan when he asked, ‘Who is this CPI?’. It’s a shame that a party like the CPI is being humiliated by the CPI(M), and it’s high time that they come out of the LDF,” said Satheesan.

- IANS