After opposing PM SHRI, Kerala’s UDF government agrees to implement scheme — with riders

The previous CPI(M)-led government’s refusal to sign on led the Centre to withhold Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan funds to the state, triggering a tug-of-war between the Centre and Kerala.

Last year, the CPI(M)-led LDF government folded, signing an MoU with the Centre for rolling out the scheme in Kerala, a reversal prompted by the state’s financial crisis. However, after the Congress accused the LDF of secretly implementing the Sangh Parivar agenda in Kerala, while its ally IUML claimed the UDF would “throw the PM SHRI MoU into the Arabian sea” if it came to power, the government put the scheme’s implementation in abeyance.

That stance appears to have changed. Addressing the media after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, V D Satheesan said Kerala was “already a partner of the PM SHRI”.

“We are forced to continue with the scheme after the previous Government signed the MoU with the Centre and received the funds. Now, we are exploring the ways to protect the state’s educational rights. We want to protect the state’s educational rights,” he said.

He, however, said the state would maintain autonomy over the curriculum.

“Our ideological opposition is that the Centre should not interfere in curriculum freedom. We will not allow the Centre to meddle in the powers of the state in deciding the curriculum. Secondly, the state should have the right to select the schools where the project should be implemented. A cabinet sub-committee led by general education minister N Samsudheen has been appointed to prepare the government stand on the PM SHRI, which will be communicated to the Centre,” he said.

Now in the Opposition, the CPI(M) too appears to have reversed its stance, invoking the Congress’s own objections to the scheme.

“When we signed the MoU with the Centre, Congress had alleged we were implementing the Sangh agenda. The government under the LDF had not taken a single paise under the scheme. Congress has completely surrendered before BJP. Satheesan is lying, the LDF government had not completed any formality for implementing the PM SHRI,” he said, adding that the “secular society of Kerala will not allow the Congress to implement the Sangh Parivar agenda in the state in the manner the party had rolled out in other states”.

For its part, the BJP has called the state government’s claim of controlling the curriculum an attempt to “hoodwink” the public.

“Both Congress and CPI(M) should apologise to the student community in Kerala for delaying implementation of the scheme for the last four years,” senior BJP leader K Surendran said. “[Chief Minister] Satheesan, who opposed the scheme on the ground of secularism, is now forced to implement it. The Centre will have a clear say on the curriculum in PM SHRI schools. Satheesan’s stand that the state will decide on curriculum is only a ploy to hoodwink IUML and Jamaat-e-Islami. The Centre will not allow the state to distort the curriculum.”

Over the years, the Left opposed the project, alleging it was a Sangh Parivar agenda to saffronise school education. However, the state’s financial constraints and rising education arrears, to the tune of Rs 1,466 crore, forced the previous LDF regime to climb down from its stance and sign the MoU. In Kerala, 33 Kendriya Vidyalayas and 14 Navodaya Vidyalayas are part of the scheme.

Under the PM SHRI scheme, states have to bear 40% of the project expenditure, as with other centrally sponsored schemes. So far, 13,095 schools from primary to higher-secondary levels across 776 districts are part of the scheme.