Kerala conundrum

In the Kerala8217;s bipolar political matrix, coming to power is about riding the anti-incumbency wave. By that logic, come May and the Left Front should soon be in power here 8212; despite Sonia Gandhi8217;s recent appearance on the state8217;s political stage clad in the traditional mundu-neriyathu. The political discourse in the state tends to be so focused on the micro-realities of power politics, that the big pictures is lost in the confusion.

While Karnataka has become a cyber-hub; Tamil Nadu has emerged as a manufacturing giant, and Andhra Pradesh is rushing to catch up, Kerala continues to be the Cinderella of the region. A state with great potential that is going nowhere and is unlikely to go anywhere. The state has been applauded for its social indices. Rightly so. India has to be proud that Kerala has done better in literacy and health than even China. But the economic liberation that social well-being should have brought in its wake never came about, thanks to an unfortunate melding of parochial politics and militant trade-unionism. This meant that despite high literacy rates, meaningful employment within the borders of the state remained elusive. In one of the few states in the country where women are almost as literate as the men, women8217;s unemployment is almost twice as high as that of their male counterparts. In one of the few states in the country which boasts of an aware workforce, there is no manufacturing base to speak of, thanks to the state8217;s rich history of strikes and labour disputes.

Kerala surely deserves rather more than the uncertain remittance economy? The question Kerala8217;s voters should be asking those hoping to represent them in the next assembly is really quite a simple one: when will real growth come their way? It is unlikely that they will get a satisfactory answer. But that shouldn8217;t stop them from posing the question as clearly and loudly as they can.