PM SHRI: Union Minister’s reply exposes UDF government’s stand as baseless, says Pinarayi Vijayan

Published 1 August 2026 · politics

The United Democratic (UDF) government’s claim that Kerala cannot withdraw from the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme once it has signed

The United Democratic (UDF) government’s claim that Kerala cannot withdraw from the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme once it has signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been exposed as baseless by Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary’s July 29 reply in the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said on Saturday. Vijayan was referring to Mr. Chaudhary’s reply that “States that do not sign the MoU or withdraw from the scheme stand to miss out on these benefits of PM SHRI scheme.” The Union Minister’s reply indicates that legally there is nothing preventing States from withdrawing from the agreement, Mr. Vijayan said.

After opposing PM SHRI while in Opposition and then making a U-turn after coming to power by agreeing to implement it, the Congress, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the UDF as a whole have stabbed their own workers and the people in the back, Mr. Vijayan said. The UDF decision to implement PM SHRI exposes its “subservience to the RSS. “Can anyone be blamed for viewing PM SHRI funds as ‘blood money’ received by Kerala for betraying the people and surrendering to the Sangh Parivar?” Mr. Vijayan said. Policy decision The same people who had accused the then Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of forging a deal with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were seen levelling arguments in favour of the scheme’s implementation once they came to power.

Now that the UDF committee has taken a policy decision to implement PM SHRI, the government should apologise to the people, he said. Vijayan reiterated the LDF stance that although the then Left government did sign the MoU, it later froze it and formally informed the Centre about its decision. Neither had the LDF government taken up follow-up measures for implementing the scheme, he said. Punarjani scheme Vijayan demanded the UDF government to review its decision to drop the charges against Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan for soliciting foreign funds for ‘Punarjani,’ a scheme for resettling flood-hit families when he was the Leader of the Opposition.

The law should be allowed to take its course. It is not appropriate for Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala to appear before the media and announce the charges were being dropped, he said.