THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Terming the UDF government’s white paper and first budget as a road map to push the state backwards, Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday alleged that the documents reflected a neoliberal policy agenda aimed at handing over the state’s public assets to private capital.
Inaugurating the seminar ‘Return of the Neoliberal Agenda: UDF’s White Paper and Budget’ organised by the AKG Study and Research Centre, Pinarayi Vijayan said the UDF had made its class bias evident within a month of assuming office.
He alleged that the white paper was drafted on a neoliberal framework and that the budget followed the same policy direction, together serving as a blueprint for transferring the state’s public assets to private capital.
The leader of opposition noted that the state had emerged as a global model in sectors such as healthcare and education because of public investment and welfare-oriented governance.
Public institutions had played a crucial role in improving the quality of life of ordinary people, while initiatives such as people’s planning and decentralisation were rooted in social justice, he said. He alleged that UDF’s policies marked a departure from that development model.
He further accused the government of attempting to portray the state as being in a severe economic crisis by conflating fiscal stress with an overall economic crisis. Fiscal stress was real, he said, but was primarily the result of the Union government’s policies. The UDF was avoiding criticism of the centre and instead trying to shield it by failing to explain how central policies had adversely affected Kerala, noted the LoP.
The Opposition leader also alleged that the white paper was intended to justify what he described as the false narrative of an empty state treasury. He claimed that the state did not figure among the ten most indebted states in the country, contrary to the impression being created.
Senior leaders including Thomas Isaac, K K Shailaja, M V Govindan, Binoy Viswam and others participated in the event.