Kerala govt’s U-turn on PM SHRI faces internal huddle as CPI ministers threaten to boycott cabinet meeting, oppose Education Minister’s decision

Amid increasing infighting within the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) regarding the PM SHRI scheme, the Kerala government has been compelled to temporarily freeze the implementation of the scheme. The decision comes after the CPI accused the state government of unilaterally signing the scheme and demanded the government’s withdrawal from the Centre’s scheme, which, it claims, attempts to align the state education policy with that of the RSS.

Mounting pressure on the state government, all four Communist Party of India (CPI) ministers in the Cabinet threatened to boycott the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday (29th October) following the state government’s decision to sign the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme without prior consultation. As a result, the session was shifted to the evening. This was preceded by CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s attempt to resolve the rift with the CPI ministers by convening a meeting with the CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam and CPI ministers in Alappuzha, but the talks did not result in a solution.

Notably, the conflict arose after the Kerala government, which did not sign the memorandum of understanding (MoU) needed to participate in the PM SHRI scheme for about a year, took a U-turn and signed the scheme. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had termed NEP as “a danger to the nation”, and the state Education Minister V Sivankutty, who claimed that NEP could lead to “central interference” in syllabus design, signed the scheme without the approval of the state cabinet.

As per reports, the LDF allies have now decided to constitute a Cabinet sub-committee to review the agreement and examine options to secure obligatory Central funds for the education sector while avoiding the “implausible and unconstitutional” conditions attached to the scheme. With the local body elections approaching, the LDF is trying hard to resolve its internal crisis in time.

Why the Kerala government took a U-turn to sign the scheme

The reason behind the state government’s U-turn on the scheme was that the Centre withheld education funds worth ₹1,000 crore meant for the state after the latter refused to sign the scheme. Therefore, to secure the funds, the state government went ahead and signed the scheme without obtaining the consent of the state cabinet.

The Central Government runs an umbrella programme named Samagra Shiksha, under which states and UTs receive education funds that have been linked to the signing of the PM SHRI MoU. Since Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were the only states that refused to sign, 2024-25 funds were not allocated to them. On the other hand, states including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and others received thousands of crores under the same scheme.

The Central Government maintained its stance that all states must align with the NEP and PM SHRI to ensure uniform national standards. Insistence on compliance as a prerequisite to the fund release was intended to reinforce accountability and avoid politically selective implementation of central schemes.