CPI Ministers to boycott Cabinet demanding withdrawal from PM SHRI pact

Uncompromising on its stand that the government should withdraw from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed under the contentious PM SHRI (Prime Schools for Rising India) scheme or put the agreement in cold storage, the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday decided to boycott the Cabinet till the first week of November. The next action plan will be decided by the party’s state council at its meeting on November 4.

The CPI was outraged by the fact that the government, without any consultation with the Cabinet, adopted the plan which was against the stated policies of the Left at the national level.

“The allegation that the government participated in the scheme to avail funds is not convincing. We have consistently opposed this policy of the BJP-RSS combine to privatise, nationalize and centralize education. Tamil Nadu refused to sign it and approached the court. Why can’t Kerala do this?” asked CPI general secretary D. Raja. Hindu on the phone.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan held talks with CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam and CPI Ministers K. Rajan, GR Anil and P. Prasad in an attempt to pacify them, but the talks failed. After a meeting with Mr. Vijayan in Alappuzha, Mr. Viswam said the government “did not address the issues raised by the CPI”.

Meanwhile, Mr Raja told reporters in Delhi that the CPI would not settle for anything less than “freezing or withdrawing” the MoU. Mr. Raja said the BJP-RSS combine has made the tacit acceptance of the “reactionary” National Education Policy (NEP) central in the release of federal education funding, including PM SHRI and Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK) allocations.

The CPI State secretariat and management, which met hastily in Alappuzha, also took strong exception to the government’s “secret” signing of PM-SHRI, an issue that the cabinet left for discussion in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) twice. Mr. Raja was categorical in his stand that the CPI(M) had grossly violated the principles of coalition politics and the CPI would not ignore this serious blunder.

However, he sought to downplay speculation that the CPI had severed ties with the coalition following invitations extended to him by many Congress leaders to join the United Democratic Front (UDF). “Some local leaders might have said such things. The last Congress government in Rajasthan led by Ashok Gehlot had participated in the Prime Minister’s SHRI scheme along with the Congress governments in Telangana and Karnataka,” Mr. Raja said, adding that the party would fight by remaining in the coalition.