The CPI has accused the Education Department of acting unilaterally and violating front etiquette by inking the agreement with the Centre without prior consultation.
Published Oct 25, 2025 | 2:26 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 25, 2025 | 2:26 PM
Education Minister Sivankutty meets CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam. (Supplied)
Synopsis: It has now emerged that the MoU was prepared on 16 October following secret deliberations in Delhi, known only to select top officials and members of the Education Minister’s office. Many ministers reportedly learned about the signing only through media reports.
In an attempt to douse the growing tensions within Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), the CPI(M) has taken a conciliatory step over the controversial signing of the PM SHRI school project MoU, which has drawn sharp criticism from its coalition partner, the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Education Minister V Sivankutty on Saturday, 25 October, personally reached the CPI state headquarters, MN Memorial, to meet CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam and explain the circumstances surrounding the signing of the memorandum.
The CPI has accused the Education Department of acting unilaterally and violating front etiquette by inking the agreement with the Centre without prior consultation.
It has now emerged that the MoU was prepared on 16 October following secret deliberations in Delhi, known only to select top officials and members of the Education Minister’s office. Many ministers reportedly learned about the signing only through media reports.
Sivankutty, who held discussions with Binoy Viswam and CPI minister GR Anil, told reporters after the meeting that all issues related to PM SHRI would be “resolved through discussions.”
However, he declined to divulge details of the talks, describing them as part of a “friendly conversation.”
Sources said the Education Minister conveyed that the MoU was signed to prevent the lapse of central funds and that the project would not alter Kerala’s public education framework.
He also sought to allay CPI’s concerns that the Centre’s initiative could undermine the state’s education policy.
Despite the outreach, the CPI appears unmoved. The party has maintained that the signing of the MoU — done without the knowledge of even CPI(M) ministers — marks a serious breach of collective responsibility.
“It was a violation of front etiquette,” Binoy Viswam had said earlier, terming the episode “a matter of humiliation” for the CPI.
The CPI’s state executive committee, which is set to meet on 27 October, will take a final call on the party’s stance.
Ministers K Rajan and P Prasad have been tasked with studying the issue in detail.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is currently in Oman, is expected to meet CPI leaders upon his return to further ease the friction within the front.
Earlier, the CPI mouthpiece Janayugom published a strongly worded editorial criticising the move and the justification offered by Education Minister V Sivankutty.
The editorial accused the CPI(M) of undermining the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) collective decision-making process, terming the signing of the MoU “a violation of the basic democratic etiquette of the front system.”
It pointed out that the issue had twice come before the state cabinet, where CPI ministers had insisted on a political discussion before any decision.
Rejecting the Education Minister’s argument that Kerala joined the scheme to secure its share of central funds, Janayugom asserted that the CPI’s objection was not to the “Prime Minister” branding but to the scheme’s ideological underpinnings and link with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The editorial alleged that PM SHRI schools serve as “demonstration models” aimed at promoting the RSS-BJP ideology and paving the way for the privatization of education.
It further warned that accepting the Centre’s conditions for funding reflected “a slave mentality” and a surrender of federal democratic principles.
The piece concluded that Kerala’s LDF must not adopt measures that weaken its ideological opposition to the “communal fascist and authoritarian” tendencies of the BJP-led Union government.
(Edited by Sumavarsha, with inputs from Dileep V Kumar)
