Why the CPI(M) is Compromising on its Opposition to the NEP?

The hush-hush way in which the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala, run by the CPI(M) ignoring the stiff opposition from its alliance partner CPI, has signed an agreement with the Central Government accepting the conditions for implementation of the PM SHRI project points to one simple truth: That the much talked about CPI(M) opposition to the BJP government’s National Education Policy 2020 was nothing but a farce.

The PM SHRI, or the Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India, has been devised as national scheme for qualitative strengthening of the school system with modern facilities and also to develop them as “exemplars” of the National Education Policy of the Centre. This policy has been rightly described as a roadmap for the implementation of the RSS agenda for laying the foundation for a Hindu Rashtra, capturing the minds of the younger generation.

The PM SHRI documents say that its objective is the effective implementation of NEP, developing model institutions in every part of the country. Those who refuse to sign up to this project would be denied funds allotted to states under the Sarva Siksha Abiyan (SSA) of the Centre. Since Kerala had refused to accept implementation of the PM SHRI from its launch in 2022-23, the Centre refused to release funds under the SSA which amounted to Rs. 1500 crore, according to state government officials.

The Central Government has been applying the weapon of denial of funds which should be routinely disbursed to the states as per the federal system prevailing in India. Many non-BJP state governments have raised the issue of unlawful financial pressures being applied by the BJP Government at the Centre. It is a matter of grave consequences to the Centre-State relations in the country. However, this has been a practice of the Central Government, not only in education but in other critical areas like healthcare, social security, etc, where central assistance is of extreme importance in running state-sponsored schemes. Such unilateral actions on the part of the Central Government have put the states into immense difficulties in recent times.

But the situation in education is a much more serious issue. For the development of each state, substantial investment in education is an immediate requirement. It cannot be put off as each generation needs to be properly educated and any lapse in such matters would mean a lost generation of our citizens.

But the BJP and its Government are making use of such rough tactics as they know the country would not accept their rightist agenda in education, laid out in NEP 2020, because its objective is to inject a decadent, irrational and unscientific ideology and illusions into the minds of the younger generation. Their ideas of our history and society are against the idea of a united India where each and every community and social group has a legitimate, dignified and equal place. But the RSS rejects such a comprehensive vision of India and promotes its own sectarian and exclusivist ideas where the majority community with its inherent social divisions will have the prime of place and all others will have to accept a secondary position if at all they are allowed to exist in the country.

It was because of this that many states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal resisted the Centre’s moves to force the PM SHRI and NEP down their throats. Tamil Nadu had successfully fought in the Supreme Court to get its legitimate funds released from the Centre. Kerala too could have taken the same route, but instead its CPI(M) Chief Minster Pinarayi Vijayan and General Education Minister V Sivan Kutty have chosen to accept the Centre’s conditions and secretly signed the agreement with the Centre, refusing to take the alliance partners into confidence or providing any space for a public discussion in the civil society.

This is a dangerous trend which the people of the state should resist without any compromise. What is at stake is the future of the state as a region where communal peace and social harmony has been a reality, unlike in many other parts of India. Kerala losing its hallowed traditions of communal amity and cooperation through the negative forces being unleashed in its new education policies could be a disaster for its people.

P Abdul Majeed Faizy
National General Secretary