CPI resolute in its stance on PM SHRI; CPI(M) to assuage hurt sentiments

With the Communist Party of India (CPI) demonstrating steadfast resolve in its stance that the State government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) withdraws from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre, subscribing to the contentious PM SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India), the CPI(M) is contemplating ways to restore the thaw in its relations with the CPI in view of the upcoming local body elections. 

Senior leaders of the CPI(M) confirmed to The Hindu that the party would try to cool tempers by explaining the reasons for hurriedly joining the scheme. A meeting of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) would be convened soon to give an explanation to the allies. The withholding of federal funds due to the Samagra Shiksha Kerala created a dire situation, but allies should have been taken into confidence before pressing ahead with joining the scheme, a leader said. 

Contrary to their previous stance, the CPI(M) leaders contended that the State would be at liberty to formulate its school curriculum, and that the concurrent nature of education would not be altered by the scheme. They remained hopeful that the CPI would eventually come around. Some, in the meantime, sought to call out the CPI’s “virtue-signalling” by highlighting the implementation of PM USHA (Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan), a centrally sponsored scheme in the higher education sector, at Kerala Agricultural University under the Ministry of Agriculture, which is under the CPI. 

“Withdrawal from the scheme is not among the options before us,” said a CPI(M) leader. But the government could write to the Centre expressing its concerns. An alternative would be to go slow on the implementation of the scheme, he said. 

The CPI State leadership on Tuesday resolved to boycott Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, maintaining that “even a hint of a compromise with the BJP-RSS in Kerala would have national consequences”. Binoy Viswam, CPI State secretary, remained hopeful of an early resolution of the issue. Asked about the way forward, he said there remained multiple options in politics. 

Other constituents in the LDF such as the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) and the Indian National League sounded optimistic about the CPI(M) offering a convincing explanation for hastily signing up for the scheme at the alliance meeting. “A discussion within the alliance would have preempted the awkward situation, but the General Education Minister would have been under tremendous duress to get the funds for the payment of salaries. We should look at it from his point of view,” argued Thomas K. Thomas, MLA, and State president of the NCP(SP).