‘Not a CPI-CPM tussle, but a test of conviction on ideology’: Binoy Viswam on Kerala’s PM-SHRI row

After the CPM-led LDF government in Kerala signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre this month to implement the PM-SHRI scheme in the State after having opposed it all this while, the decision to sign the MoU came under fire from within the LDF – the CPI opposed it on the grounds that it had not been consulted, and that the decision went against the Left’s stance of opposing the National Education Policy (NEP).

PM-SHRI schools are meant to showcase aspects of the NEP, and the PM-SHRI MoU that States sign with the Centre asks that the NEP be implemented in its entirety in the State. Since Kerala had not signed the PM-SHRI MoU, the Centre has withheld around Rs. 1150 crore due to the State under Samagra Shiksha, a school education scheme. The State’s move to sign the MoU was geared towards securing these funds.

Asked about what the way forward might be to secure the funds, Viswam said that the funds are not a kindness that the Centre is doing.

“The Center has to give its funds to the states…not only to Kerala, all states…for the implementation of Samagra Shiksha. All states have the right…it’s not the kindness of somebody, it’s our right. That right has to be accepted by the Centre. We believe that it is their duty to give us our share of the Samagra Shiksha funds,” he added.

Viswam did not address questions on the CPI’s opposition to the PM-SHRI scheme, citing the sub-committee that has been formed. After the MoU was signed, he had referred to it as a breach of the “decorum of coalition politics”.

On what the sub-committee might be expected to achieve since the MoU has already been signed, Viswam said: “I look at the sub-committee with expectations, because the formation of a sub-committee gives a message. That message is very clear – a government led by the Left parties, CPI and CPM in Kerala, has a position to review the MoU. That shows the gravity of their understanding, and their conviction on ideology. And that conviction, that political clarity…that credit goes not only to CPI, it goes equally to CPM also.”

He added: “I don’t want to make it a CPI-CPM tussle. I don’t want to make it a matter of discussion over success and failure. If somebody wants to gauge the issue only on the grounds of success, then for the CPI, I would say…success is of the LDF, of Left unity, of the success of Left ideology and Left politics. The credit can be shared equally by both parties, CPI and CPM. This is how we see it, because we are very firm on the cause of Left unity.”

Besides its issue over not being consulted before the MoU was signed, the CPI has objected to the aspect of implementing the NEP.

“The Left parties have always re-iterated that the NEP is a door for the BJP to smuggle its RSS agenda into the field of education. That is the conviction of the CPI and the CPM,” Viswam said.

Viswam referred to this conflict between the Centre and the State as one that was not just specific to Kerala.

“It’s a matter with a wider scope, and angle. It’s not only a Kerala issue; all over the country we are addressing the same thing. The central government of the BJP-RSS believes only in centralisation. That’s the fascist way of doing things — communalisation, centralisation, and commercialisation. That’s what they want to do in the field of education. And, they want to do the same thing in every sector of life. So, it’s a very anti-people, anti-national, anti-constitutional approach against which we have to continue to fight,” he said, when asked about what the way out of the conflict might be.

Reiterating that it is a “national concern”, Viswam said: “The whole fight…the argument put up by the CPI was to uphold the sanctity of Left ideology, and the right of this Left front to be called an alternative to the fascist RSS and BJP. So, we always believe and say that the Kerala LDF government is not only the government of a state. This government is a government which has a duty to communicate certain concepts…of values, and ideas and ideologies to the whole country. That is the significance our party attached to the LDF government and its policies. I’m very sure this is the approach of the CPM also. That’s why we could settle the matter very amicably and cordially.”

The CPI’s push on the PM-SHRI matter comes ahead of the local body polls in the State this year, and the Assembly election next year.

Viswam added: “Collectively, we are trying to find the correct path for the Left. Whatever is the achievement, it is the common achievement of both parties.”