Kerala PM SHRI row: Talks with CM Vijayan cordial, but the issue has not been resolved, says CPI

New Delhi/Alappuzha (Kerala), Oct 27 The rift within Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) over the government signing on the Centre's PM SHRI schme deepened on Monday as efforts to resolve the impasse between the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) appeared to have failed in a nearly 50-minute meeting between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam.

The meeting was convened to resolve differences over the state government’s decision to sign the Centre’s PM SHRI school development scheme without any discussion in the cabinet.

Talking to the media soon after the meeting, Viswam said that while the discussions were cordial, they did not lead to any concrete resolution.

"Our points have not been resolved, our talks were cordial, but our problem remains the same," he said.

Soon after Viswam spoke to the media, CPI General Secretary D. Raja told the media in Delhi that the state leadership met on Monday at Alappuzha and discussed the PM-SHRI issue.

"Our party is of the view that we cannot agree to the NEP 2020 as it’s a dangerous policy of the Centre and we have always opposed this. In this context, our party has expressed its opposition to the signing of the MoU. During the meeting with CM, our (state) Secretary Viswam reiterated the stand. He has asked him (CM Vijayan) to withhold the MoU. Our position remains the same, and we will continue to discuss further. The Kerala government should write to the Centre to withdraw what was signed," he said.

These remarks by the top leaders reflected the CPI’s continued dissatisfaction with the government’s unilateral decision to sign the PM SHRI scheme without prior consultation.

The CPI, the second-largest constituent of the LDF, has publicly maintained that it was not consulted before the government signed the agreement with the Centre and that such unilateral decisions go against the spirit of coalition politics.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the four CPI nominees in the Vijayan cabinet might not take part in the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday to send a strong political message that their party "cannot be taken for granted".

The move also marks the most serious strain within the LDF in recent years.

The last time CPI ministers staged a similar protest was in 2017, when they boycotted the Cabinet after Chief Minister Vijayan refused to act on their demand to drop then Transport Minister Thomas Chandy following an adverse High Court observation.

What hurt the CPI the most was at the last cabinet meeting, their nominee and state Revenue Minister K.Rajan raised the issue with Vijayan about the PM-SHRI matter, but with Vijayan knowing that the PM-SHRI programme was inked, he kept stoic silence.

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