The policy document Navakeralathe Nayikkan Puthuvazhikal (novel ways to lead new Kerala), presented by the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, at the CPM state conference in Kollam, received overwhelming support from the delegates. The document outlines major policy shifts aimed at attracting large-scale private investment, addressing financial challenges, and creating sustainable revenue streams.
What are the key features of this document? An important proposal is increasing private participation in sectors such as higher education, industry, and tourism. The government plans to establish private universities and research centres through public-private partnerships (PPP) and convert underperforming public sector undertakings (PSUs) into PPP models. The document suggests categorising people based on income to implement fee and cess structures. It emphasises the need to “identify sectors where fees have remained stagnant for years” and revise them to mobilise resources. The possibility of levying cesses across various sectors to mitigate the state’s financial crisis is also highlighted.
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Infrastructure development is another major focus, particularly around the Vizhinjam Port, logistics parks, industrial zones, and warehousing corporations. The document reaffirms the state’s commitment to major projects like SilverLine and the Sabarimala airport.
On welfare, it proposes increasing pensions, ensuring timely distribution, and even extending pensions to housewives. It also suggests reconsidering freebies given to wealthier sections. To boost employment, the document aims to foster start-ups and generate one lakh jobs by creating industrial clusters. It also revives an old proposal to mobilise resources through sand mining in dams. Additionally, the government plans to strengthen the investment cell to attract private capital into large-scale tourism projects, particularly in the hospitality sector.
The policy document definitely signals a shift towards private participation, including in industrial and tourism sectors, and proposes ending protectionism for loss-making PSUs, suggesting that those beyond revival be handed over to private entities under a PPP model.
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This shift, as various reports reveal, has unsettled allies, including the CPI, with some leaders criticising the proposal as a “dangerous trend” and a “problematic approach”. One leader has even asked, “Will they hand over KSRTC to private bus owners?”A senior CPI leader expressed concern that the CPM was losing its Leftist identity, recalling past opposition to privatisation: “How can public sector units be entrusted to private players? We have a history of supporting such units. Even when some private players showed interest in taking over PSUs like Keltron, the previous Left governments opposed it. It’s a highly dangerous trend.”
There are, however, several positive aspects of the document, the importance of which cannot be denied. The proposal to exclude the wealthy from freebies is a crucial step, as is the plan to provide pensions for housewives. Recognising domestic labour in this way is both unprecedented and necessary.
But then, those who believe that the CPM in Kerala has begun endorsing capitalism by accepting this document cannot be blamed. The CPM, when in state power, instead of fighting capitalism, negotiates it. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s tenure as the chief minister of West Bengal is an apt example of this trend. The CPM is indeed a party that has welcomed private initiatives in the past 20 years while running state governments.
Thus, those who accuse the CPM of hypocrisy and double standards are perhaps not entirely wrong, since at the national level, the party has consistently opposed privatisation. In fact, even in the draft political resolution for the 24th Party Congress, to be held in Madurai from April 2 to 6, 2025, concern has been expressed over the proliferation of the private schools: “With notable exceptions like Kerala, the privatisation drive is leading to an exodus of pupils from government schools to private schools.” The Navakeralathe Nayikkan Puthuvazhikal document suggests that Kerala will not remain an exception in future in this regard. CPM Kerala state secretary M V Govindan has, however, called the move “an alternative to crony capitalism”. He has said, “We don’t mean the crony capitalism that the Centre is doing now. Our approach will be different.” He has, however, not explained what makes their “approach” to private investment in the education sector different from those of other parties.
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There is also a contradiction in the CPM’s stance on climate change. In the draft political resolution, the party has maintained, “Crony capitalists and large corporations, including MNCs, are expanding mining, exploration and extractive industries, infrastructure and commercial activities in ecologically sensitive areas, including inside forests and wildlife habitats, damaging ecosystems as well as the lives, habitats and livelihoods of tribals, forest-dwellers and others dependent on natural resources.” The CPM has, in fact, continuously expressed concerns over climate issues. So, how can the Kerala wing of the party now propose sand mining in dams?
The CPM’s fundamental problem is that its regional political stance often differs from its national stance. This inconsistency damages its credibility at both the regional and national levels. While Vijayan’s document includes many significant and important proposals for building a new Kerala, the party’s inconsistencies regarding some policy issues are also evident. In fact, the biggest challenge for the CPM in the near future may not be fighting against Congress, the BJP, or the Trinamool Congress but rather confronting and resolving its own contradictions.
The writer is professor, Department of English and Culture Studies and director, Centre for Australian Studies, The University of Burdwan
