'CPM doesn't want lecture on Left ideology': Sivankutty resents Binoy Viswam's sense of triumph on PM SHRI

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after the LDF government wrote to the Ministry of Education asking it to put on hold the PM SHRI agreement inked in October, general education minister V Sivankutty on Thursday expressed his deep resentment for what he perceives as the CPI's, especially its state secretary Binoy Viswam's, triumphant tone on the issue.

"I had come across CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam's statement that the letter to withdraw from PM SHRI was a victory of LDF politics," Sivankutty told reporters at his official residence on Thursday. 'Victory of LDF politics', to Sivankutty, sounded like CPI victory.

"This is not a question of anyone's failure or triumph. I don't subscribe to the notion that one group had lost and the other won on the basis of some intervention one group had made. The LDF had collectively decided to resolve the issue through consultations," he said.

Binoy Viswam responded that he would not be provoked into saying anything that would hurt the LDF in the coming local body polls. "It is the LDF politics that matters to the CPI the most," Viswam told reporters on Thursday. He stuck to the earlier stand that the government's decision to withdraw from PM SHRI was LDF's victory.

Questions were raised at the CPI state executive and the executive Council on November 11 about the reluctance of the LDF government to inform the Centre that it was opting out of PM SHRI, even 15 days after the decision to do so. Soon after the meetings, to maintain the urgency, Binoy Viswam met his CPM counterpart, M V Govindan, to convey the CPI's collective view on the issue. 

The very next day, on October 12, applying further pressure, the CPI ministers met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and expressed concerns about the delay. An official communication to the Centre was made that day. It was like the CPM was once again forced to act by the CPI.

Clearly, Sivankutty is worried about the CPI usurping the anti-RSS space in Kerala. He seems convinced that the CPI has developed a strut after the PM SHRI issue. He used innuendo to pluck out the CPI's peacock feathers.

"Now that it is not the time, I am not trying to assess who were at the forefront of the fight against the RSS at the national level and the sacrifices each had made," Sivankutty said, implying that the CPM had done considerably more to resist the Sangh Parivar. 

The general education minister was particularly bothered by the CPI state secretary's remarks, which Sivankutty saw as self-congratulatory, after the general education department formally informed the Centre that Kerala was opting out of PM SHRI.

One that seemed to offend Sivankutty most was Viswam's comment that the CPI knows what Left politics is and its core ideology. "All communist parties hold left values dear. I am not for a post mortem on who had gone back on those," Sivankutty said.  

Though he tried to restrain, after a point, he could not hold back. "CPM knows Left politics very well. Our party is not in such dire straits that it has to take lessons from others on how to go about implementing Left politics," Sivankutty said.

The minister was also unapologetic about joining PM SHRI. He sought to project the decision as a balance between the government's administrative duties and the CPM's unswerving commitment to the Left ideology. 

"The funds from centrally sponsored schemes are not anybody's favour. The money is the state's right. It is meant for the deserving, for the differently abled children, and marginalised communities. To try and secure the money is a Constitutional obligation," he said. 

At the same time, he said that Kerala would not allow anyone to mess with the secular and progressive values inherent in Kerala's education system. "Even when we agreed to sign, it was with the intention of accepting only those aspects that did not go against our education laws and curriculum," he said.

Sivankutty then hinted that the CPI's aggression had derailed the government's well-meaning strategy to support the education sector. "Now that we have opted out, I doubt whether we would get this money (Samagra Shishka Kerala funds that the Centre had linked to Kerala joining PM SHRI)," he said. "If we don't get the SSK funds, I, as education minister, cannot be held responsible. Somebody else will have to bear that," he said.

Kerala had received ₹92.41 crore from the Centre for SSK. The remaining amount, which Sivankutty feels Kerala would be possibly deprived of, is ₹1,066.32 crore.