The CPI's implied threat to keep away from the Cabinet on Wednesday until the PM SHRI agreement with the BJP-ruled Centre was junked seems to have worked. 

Kerala has not exactly parachuted out of the PM SHRI scheme, but the government would shoot a missive to the Centre to "freeze" the MoU. Freeze is only a temporary stop, not a permanent shutdown. 

On October 27, CPI national secretary D Raja, too, had said that if termination of the MoU was not possible, the government should at least write to the Centre asking it to freeze the agreement. 

CPM general secretary M A Baby has reportedly shared the contents of the letter with his CPI counterpart, asking the Centre to put on hold the PM SHRI roll-out in Kerala. Raja has given his approval. The four CPI ministers will attend the Cabinet meeting later in the day.

"Things are moving towards an amicable and positive solution. Both parties (CPM and CPI) agree that we cannot support NEP (National Education Policy) 2020," Raja told reporters in Delhi. He also hinted that asking for a "freeze" was the sensible thing to do now. "After having signed the MoU, you need to let the Centre know. If the Centre does not agree, we will see what we can do," he said.

Raja said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would articulate the government's stand after today's Cabinet meeting. 

The CPM has also promised the CPI to constitute a Sub-Committee to assess the provisions of PM SHRI and study ways to keep its offensive portions from seeping into Kerala's education stream. In addition, the implementation of the PM SHRI project will be kept in abeyance till the Committee submits its report.

A top CPI source said the party did have concerns about the compromise formula but would still play along. "The formation of the sub-committee is a clear indication that the CPM intends to implement PM SHRI. The government is still not willing to walk out of PM SHRI. We suspect that the sub-committee formed to study the scheme will be dominated by the CPM. And if the committee thinks the project is harmless, then we will be back to square one," the CPI leader said, and then added: "Even then, the party is pleased that it could force the CPM to make amends, even if not fully to our satisfaction. Our main objective was to keep the LDF thinking strictly to the left."

Going by the numbers in the Assembly, there was no reason for the 62-member CPM to yield to the brinksmanship of a 17-member CPI. Even if the CPI had left, the CPM could have ruled comfortably with the help of its five loyal independents and nine other small parties, including the KC(M). 

But if the CPM has finally decided to shake hands and concede defeat, it was only because of the realisation, even if late, that the CPI's revolt was robbing it of its ideological birthmark. 

After having taken a firm and considered stand as recent as 2023 that the National Education Policy 2020 would violate the Constitutional principle of equal access to quality school education, the CPM has now accepted the policy by agreeing to transform some government schools in Kerala into PM SHRI schools that will be powered by the NEP 2020. 

The relentless, uncompromising pressure that the CPI applied in the PM SHRI issue had caused huge cracks in the CPM's vaulting ambition to fully usurp the anti-BJP space in Kerala. The MoU was signed without a discussion in the Cabinet or the LDF. Even when CPI's revenue minister K Rajan wanted to know the status of the PM SHRI project during the October 22 Cabinet meeting, the CM and education minister V Sivankutty had reportedly remained silent. It was later revealed that by then, the MoU was already drawn up. 

This haste and secrecy gave the impression of a surreptitious trade-off between the Chief Minister and the BJP government. The Congress in Kerala is fanning precisely this sentiment. Mounting whispers of a secret affair between the country's only Left government and the Modi dispensation will hit at the very foundations of the Left movement in the country.

The CPI fears that it could impact even the Bihar Assembly polls, where both the Left parties are part of the Mahagathbandhan led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, and where the CPI has a slightly stronger presence than the CPM.