Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Fisheries Minister Saji Cheriyan on Wednesday said the CPI's concerns regarding the state's signing in the Centre's PM SHRI scheme would be discussed politically, and an appropriate decision would be taken based on that.
He said as soon as the CPI had raised their concerns over the matter, General Education Minister V Sivankutty directly went and convinced the party's state leadership about the circumstances that persuaded his department to take such a decision.
Senior CPI(M) leader Cheriyan's remarks came amidst intense political speculations about the stand to be taken by the CPI, a key partner in the ruling LDF, for putting pressure upon the Pinarayi Vijayan government to withdraw from the PM SHRI agreement.
A section of media reported that CPI ministers may skip the weekly cabinet meeting being chaired by CM Vijayan, scheduled to be held later in the day, as a mark of protest in this regard.
Cheriyan said as a communist party functioning in the LDF, the CPI has its own concerns in the matter, and the CPI(M) is not belittling it.
"Some more clarity needs to be made on the matter. The CPI wants a clear decision. This will be discussed politically, and we will go ahead after taking an appropriate decision," Cheriyan said.
He also justified the state government's decision not to go to court against the PM SHRI scheme like Tamil Nadu.
He said that the neighbouring state is more financially sound than Kerala, and they are yet to get any central fund with regard to the scheme despite going to court.
"It has already been made clear that the LDF government is not going to implement any of the educational policies of the BJP government at the Centre," the minister said.
He also clarified that education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution, and the authority to prepare school syllabus and curriculum rests with the respective states.
His statements come as talks between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam held in Alappuzha on Monday had failed to resolve the dispute over the PM SHRI schools scheme.
After the meeting, Viswam had told reporters that, "The issue we raised has not been resolved. We held talks with the CM, and it was very cordial. But no solution was found to the issues. So our concern remains. The next step will be informed later." When asked whether the CPI ministers would stay away from the next Cabinet meeting, Viswam said the decision would be announced by the party leadership at the appropriate time.
The Left parties have opposed the union government's National Education Policy (NEP) and the PM SHRI scheme since their introduction, alleging that they are part of the RSS's larger agenda to influence the education system.
The CPI's main contention is that the state government signed the MoU without any discussion in the Cabinet and that the party learned about it only through media reports.
However, state General Education Minister V Sivankutty maintained that the MoU was signed to avail the Centre's education funds and assured that there would be no changes to the state's school curriculum.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
