The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala is entering its fifth year. Its policy effort over the last four years has been to strengthen and widen the historic achievements of the State in the social sectors, and to use them as a foundation for major growth in agricultural and industrial production.
In doing so it has had more than its fair share of challenges. Unexpected natural crises — Cyclone Ockhi in 2017, followed by two consecutive years of extreme rainfall events in 2018 and 2019, resulting in floods and mudslides across Kerala — and the Nipah epidemic were followed by the health and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Growth amidst constraints
A bitter campaign unleashed by the Opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party to discredit the LDF government has become widespread. The real purpose of this campaign is to undermine the achievements of public action under the leadership of the Left. With just a year left before elections to the Kerala Assembly, the Opposition is seeking to subvert the only genuine alternative to neo-liberal policies being attempted — within the constraints imposed by the Indian state.
The LDF government inherited a legacy of stagnant revenues and rising revenue and fiscal deficits. As per the provisions of the Constitution, the division of powers and finances between the Centre and States have created great asymmetry between the revenue-earning capacities of States and their expenditure obligations. With the intensification of a neo-liberal economic programme since 1991, implementing an alternative economic vision at the State-level has become very difficult indeed.
The unhelpful altitude of the central government in cutting down the borrowing limits of the State, and delayed receipt of compensation for loss from the implementation of Goods and Service Tax, further hindered the economic development of Kerala.
Despite these challenges the LDF government has sought to ensure adequate investments in all sectors such that the gains reach everyone, and these efforts have shown positive results. The State’s economy is growing at 7.2% now compared to the 4.9% during the previous government.
Pro-people policies
Let us briefly look at the progress Kerala has made in the last four years in the five important sectors of agriculture, public sector industry, social security, school education and infrastructure.
The LDF government has pushed ahead with modernising Kerala’s agriculture to ensure growth through scientific farming. The ₹3,860 crore Subhiksha Keralam programme, which is the main component of the post-COVID-19 package of recovery projects, aims to broaden and intensify food production, and involves agriculture, animal resources, dairying, fisheries, the development of water resources, cooperation and value-addition through industrial production.
Economic planning in Kerala has abjured the route of public sector disinvestment that the Centre and many State governments have so easily embraced. From cumulative losses of ₹213 crore under the previous government, public sector companies recorded a combined net profit of ₹106.91 crore in the LDF’s second year in office.
Social security and welfare pensions paid to more than 58.5 lakh people are a distinct feature of livelihood provision in Kerala. In addition, the “Housing for All” scheme, implemented through the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) Mission has seen the construction and delivery of more than 2.5 lakh houses.
Kerala is the only State where there has been a significant movement, comprising five lakh new entrants, of school pupils from the private to the public sector.
The State government has succeeded in initiating infrastructural projects costing about ₹50,000 crore through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). The hill highway with an investment of ₹3,500 crore is under progress, the work on the coastal highway has started, the work on the high-speed railway network will soon start, the national waterways is in its final stages, and the GAIL pipeline has become a reality.
These projects need new forms of technical expertise. Agencies that provide technical consultancies are selected through transparent procedures, they are given narrow terms of reference, and their advice is evaluated by the government for its relevance and suitability to the State’s needs. This standard international and national practice, and has, indeed, been the practice of successive Governments in the State as well.
A hidden agenda
It is in this context that the recent smear campaign unleashed by the Congress and the BJP must be seen. The establishment media repeats unproven allegations of corruption to attack government policy and malign leaders of the LDF government. Fictitious news is broadcast in the hope something will stick.
The attempt to link the government with a gold smuggling ring in Trivandrum International Airport is the latest attempt to discredit the government. It is basic knowledge that customs and the crime of international smuggling is a Central Government subject under the Union List in the Constitution. The Chief Minister correctly requested the central government to initiate a comprehensive probe into the incident and offered the assistance of the State.
The investigation has thus far not found any link between the LDF and the criminals. When a contract employee in a project of a State organisation, who is under investigation for involvement in the smuggling ring, was suspected of fabricating records regarding her educational qualifications she was immediately removed, and police action has been initiated into the allegations. A senior officer entrusted with the oversight of the particular department that employed her was suspended pending an investigation. The Chief Minister has gone on record that no person who is found guilty will be shielded.
The people of Kerala will certainly realise the hidden agenda of the Opposition and will support the only non-neo-liberal path of social and economic development in the country.
Indeed, transparency is a governance value that the LDF observes in practice, as Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daily press conference has proven. He presents a detailed report on the COVID-19 situation in the State, and then takes questions from the media, even the most tendentious and aggressive of them.
S. Ramachandran Pillai is Member Polit Bureau, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
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