Kerala State Planning Board's decision to empanel consulting firms and think tanks for the preparation of the 15th Five Year Plan (2027–32) has caused the CPM to raise the spectre of "foreign invasion" and has provided the party yet another occasion to lambast the UDF government for bowing to the wishes of the RSS, this time for allegedly initiating moves to bury the Planning Board for good.

However, Planning Board vice chairperson K M Chandrasekhar ridiculed the charges and said that planning was here to stay. "We are in fact deeply in the process of preparing the 15th Five Year Plan," Chandrasekhar told Onmanorama.

The other day, Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Planning Board was about to hand over its functions to foreign agencies. His remark was prompted by a notification issued by the Planning Board on October 3 to empanel firms and think tanks for the preparation of the five-year plan.

Pinarayi saw in this an attempt to implement the BJP agenda of doing away with five-year plans. "It was after the BJP came to power that the Planning Commission was replaced by NITI Aayog. The UDF government's decision to implement the BJP agenda of shutting down the Planning Board is highly objectionable," Pinarayi said while inaugurating the party's Extended District Committee meeting in Kozhikode on October 6.

Former Finance Minister and CPM Central Secretariat member T M Thomas Isaac said that a senior NITI Aayog official had visited the Planning Board. "It is said that transforming the Planning Board into a 'NITI Aayog'-like think tank was the main agenda of discussion," Isaac said in a Facebook post.

"No. This is falsehood," Chandrasekhar rejected the claim. He said that the Board was already immersed in drawing up the 15th Five-Year Plan, implying that the act of preparing the five-year plan itself is repudiation of the CPM charge.

It was Isaac who first spoke of the 'foreign' threat. "The government could rope in any subject expert to support the Working Groups. But the UDF government is not satisfied. They are insistent on foreign consultants," Isaac said. He said that this was for the first time in Kerala's history that a tender was floated to involve foreign agencies, too, in the preparation of five-year plans.

The Planning Board junks this charge also. The Notification issued on October 3 is held up as proof. It very specifically says "Notification for Empanelment of Nationally Reputed Consulting Firms, Think Tanks, Research Institutions and other Professional Organisations."

Isaac's other major argument was that these "outside agencies" had been asked to do the Board's work. He listed out the proposed assignments of these empanelled agencies (policy, programme and data analysis; review of existing schemes and programmes; national and international benchmarking and identification of best practices; and preparation and review of Working Group reports and Plan documents are some of them) and asked: "What is the Planning Board for if they (firms, think tanks and research institutions) have been asked to do all this work?"

The vice chairperson said that the Board would have to depend on independent experts. "Since we are going into project mode in our future plans, we may need consultants to help us prepare projects. We do not have the expertise at present to formulate all projects entirely," Chandrasekhar told Onmanorama.

He also brushed aside Isaac's allegations that these external consultants would control the Working Groups. "Any project formulation exercise will be led by the Planning Board, and consultants will be used for technical work," he said.

For the preparation of five-year plans, it is usual for the Planning Board to constitute Working Groups for various subjects with the best experts available in these fields. The reports produced by these Working Groups are then submitted before the technical divisions of the Board, which will then be taken forward and discussed in detail with the government departments.

At the moment, the Planning Board has seven technical divisions: Agriculture, Plan Coordination, Perspective Planning, Decentralised Planning, Evaluation, Industries and Infrastructure and Social Services. In addition to traditional focus areas, the 15th Five-Year Plan would address new and futuristic subjects like artificial intelligence, deep tech and other emerging technologies, civil society interface and public outreach, and data and public finance.

Chandrasekhar also sounded a bit defiant about seeking expert help. "Wherever expertise is needed for the benefit of the State, the Planning Board will not hesitate to use it," he told Onmanorama.

Further, the vice chairperson said that employing independent consultants did not mean surrendering Kerala's interests. "The Planning Board has used consultants in the past. The first report on formation of KIIFB was prepared by SBI Capital Markets Limited," he said, obliquely hinting at the CPM's hypocrisy. "Many consultancy and legal firms were engaged in the preparation of concession agreement for the Vizhinjam project," Chandrasekhar added.

Moreover, it was pointed out that the selected firms and think tanks would only assist or supplement the Working Groups, not control or dominate them. And the consultants will be hired for a fixed term, two to seven months.

Earlier, when Chief Minister V D Satheesan released the 'White Paper', the CPM had alleged that classified government documents were handed over to private individuals. The Opposition argument was that a 'White Paper' should be prepared by the Finance Department and not independent experts.

The government had then responded that the document was drawn up under the supervision of the Finance Department.