MALAPPURAM: The IUML is facing mounting criticism after the UDF government decided to proceed with the PM SHRI scheme, a project the party had fiercely opposed during the previous LDF government’s tenure. Senior IUML leaders, including current Local Self-Government Minister K M Shaji, Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty, and party general secretary P M A Salam, had been among the scheme’s most vocal critics.
However, following the government decision to continue with PM SHRI, IUML ministers, particularly General Education Minister M Samsudheen and LSGD Minister Shaji, have come under attack from Left leaders and cyber activists, who accuse the party of abandoning its earlier position.
The controversy has also exposed growing unease within IUML over the government’s delay in taking a definitive stand on the scheme. MSF general secretary CK Najaf told TNIE that the government should immediately withdraw from PM SHRI. “The people voted for UDF believing its promise that PM SHRI would be discontinued. The government must stand by its word,” Najaf said. MSF had conveyed its concerns to Chief Minister V D Satheesan and expressed confidence that a decision to withdraw from the scheme would be taken soon, he said.
Meanwhile, Shaji’s earlier declaration that PM SHRI would be “dumped into the Arabian Sea” has resurfaced, triggering widespread trolling on social media. Several CPM leaders, including former ministers V Sivankutty, A K Balan and M M Mani, have mocked Shaji over the remark.
Sivankutty sarcastically described Shaji as the “prince of taking a stand” while sharing a recent video in which the minister attempted to explain away his earlier comments as part of political ‘street speeches’.
Responding to the criticism, Shaji told the media that no government could withdraw from an agreement within a month of signing it.
He argued that strong expressions are often used in political speeches while criticising governments. The CPM has seized on the controversy to launch a political attack on the IUML. In a statement, the CPM Malappuram district secretariat accused the League of yielding to the RSS. “Ministers, including Shaji, are now swallowing the very words they used against the LDF government. Minister M Samsudheen is now claiming there is nothing wrong with implementing PM SHRI. It proves that the Muslim League is prepared to make peace with the BJP whenever it comes to power,” the statement said.
BJP state president K Surendran also mocked the IUML, pointing out that the PM SHRI scheme is being implemented under a general education minister from the Muslim League.
Several Muslim organisations have also come out against the government’s decision. The Sunni Yuvajana Sangam (SYS), the youth wing aligned with the Samastha Kanthapuram faction, accused UDF of abandoning the principles it once championed. “Today, when the UDF government is moving ahead with a project that was once rejected, it is undermining its political credibility,” said SYS state general secretary Rahmathulla Saqafi Elamaram.
