PM SHRI: Remarks against Kerala CM despicable, says Minister

Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Sunday reacted sharply to IUML leader P M A Salam's remarks against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over government's signing of MoU on PH SHRI scheme, an accord since frozen by the state.

Calling the remarks despicable, Sivankutty urged the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership to direct Salam to tender apology.

"His remarks are extremely despicable and an insult to the cultural values of Kerala. Such inhumane and undemocratic comments should never come from a leader holding a senior position in a political organisation," Sivankutty told reporters here.

The minister said Salam's criticism was based on the state government's decision to sign the PM SHRI scheme.

'However, even while raising any issue, one must maintain decency in language--a basic sense that Salam seems to have lost. The League leadership should therefore ask Salam to tender an apology," Sivankutty added in a statement.

The CPI(M) leader further said people resort to such low-level personal attacks when they have nothing to engage in issue-based discussions.

Sivankutty claimed that these remarks stem from "political frustration and despair" at the revolutionary changes achieved by the Kerala government in the public education sector and its secular approach.

Even while utilising central funds, the government has ensured that Kerala's public education model remains uncompromised, he said.

Without a clear understanding of this, personally insulting the chief minister merely to create political controversy, was a cheap tactic, Sivankutty alleged.

People of Kerala would reject Salam's remarks with the contempt they deserve, the minister added in his statement.

P M A Salam, the state general secretary of IUML, had courted controversy on Saturday after making an allegedly derogatory remark against CM Vijayan over the Kerala government's recent decision to sign the Centre's PM SHRI scheme.

Speaking at a Muslim League conference in Vazhakkad panchayat here, Salam had alleged that the central scheme aimed to promote a Hindutva ideology and propagate distorted versions of history.

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IUML, a key ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), has been protesting against the state government's decision to sign the Prime Minister's Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) agreement with the Centre.

Currently, the state government has decided to freeze the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Centre following objections raised by CPI, its ally.