CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan said the State government will take a final call on allowing foreign universities in Kerala only after taking all stakeholders, including student and teacher organisations, into confidence.
Mr. Govindan argued that a consensus view would inform any decision. The government will ensure the process, if implemented, remained rancour-free.
He said Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal had clearly stated in the Budget speech that the government will “examine” the possibility of allowing foreign investment in the higher education sector. He had made no definitive pronouncement.
Mr. Govindan denied reports that the CPI(M) national leadership and the Communist Party of India (CPI), a critical Left Democratic Front (LDF) ally, had pressured the party’s State leadership to walk back on its agenda to open the higher education sector to private capital and foreign varsities.
Quoting Kerala’s first communist Chief Minister E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Mr. Govindan said successive Left Democratic Front (LDF) had limitations in implementing the CPI(M) political line in its entirety. In a parliamentary democracy, the party and government were different but mutually complementary entities.
“It is misleading to draw an equivalency between the party and the government,” Mr. Govindan said.
“The government can’t always implement what the CPI(M) wants. Dialectics is at play in such situations. Reasoning, logic, argumentation and discussion would inform the path ahead,” Mr. Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan said Kerala was no independent socialist republic. “It is part of a capitalistic and feudal national polity where the Central government is withdrawing itself from crucial aspects of public life, including health, education, infrastructure creation and public distribution of provisions. He said that the BJP preaches the Congress’s line that there should be less government and more private sector”.
Mr. Govindan said such a line carried significant risks. “In the U.S., lakhs of people died due to lack of medical care during COVID-19 because there were no public-funded hospitals and private medical insurance remained behind the reach of a significant section of the population. Amartya Sen posited that Kerala fared 100 times better in managing the pandemic than developed capitalistic economies due to its resilient public health sector,” Mr Govindan said.
He said Kerala wanted the best of both worlds in higher education. Its higher learning sector has three tiers: public, government-aided and private institutions. Hence, the government examined the prospect of inviting foreign universities and allowing more capital in the higher education sector to further the LDF’s manifesto commitment to transform the State into a knowledge economy. The LDF government would ensure that the entry of foreign varsities would be transparent and regulated.
It would put a proper legal framework in place to ensure merit and affirmative action for marginalised sections of society reflected in admissions.
