The alleged organised assault on Kerala’s alternative path of development became the reigning theme at a public meeting marking the conclusion of the Statewide Janakeeya Prathirodha Yatra led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary M.V. Govindan here on Saturday.
The campaign, aimed at mobilising public opinion against the Union government’s policies towards the State as well as communal politics, reached the capital after traversing through the entire stretch of the State over four weeks.
Inaugurating the public meeting, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) focussed its attacks against Kerala as it was very well aware that the State was led by a government which was offering an alternative direction for development and people’s welfare. The BJP did not want this alternative to be propagated among the people of this country.
“The Union Home Minister had spread a lot of untruths against Kerala. I came prepared to answer these allegations. But President Droupadi Murmu has made my job easy, as she gave one of the best certificates to the State yesterday by endorsing the Left Democratic Front’s work in the interests of the people. The people of Kerala too have realised this. Even the Modi government’s own institutions such as the NITI Aayog had to say that it is leading in all social indicators. This will continue to rise with the involvement of the people,” he said.
Mr. Yechury said that Kerala’s Opposition parties should also realise that merely attacking the LDF government on all sorts of issues was not going to impress the people, as they had seen the substantive issues that the government had taken up.
Mr .Govindan said the public mobilisation witnessed during the yatra was a clear indication that not just the LDF government, but Kerala and its people too, were facing an unprecedented attack from a nexus of communal bourgeois forces and a section of the media. He also highlighted the huge participation of women in the yatra, and reiterated the LDF’s promise of providing pension for homemakers, as an acknowledgement of their labour.
“The Union government has imposed all kinds of restrictions on the State government. A total of ₹40,000 crore that it was supposed to provide before the end of this financial year is still pending. Kerala’s achievements in social indicators are being used against it to deny it adequate financial allocations. The State’s share of resources has come down from 3.9% during the 10th five year plan to 1.9% at present,” he said.
He said that the LDF government began its second term by individually identifying 64,000 of the poorest of poor families in the State and taking steps to ensure shelter, livelihood, food and medical aid for them. “The government has made its commitment to adopt these families. We did not decide to adopt Adani or Ambani,” he said.
The LDF government had also forged ahead with its development agenda by taking measures to improve basic infrastructure. The National Highway work, which had remained stalled due to land acquisition issues, was now progressing and was expected to be completed within two years. This had set alarm bells ringing in the United Democratic Front (UDF), which had now taken a stand to stall all developmental works, said Mr. Govindan.
