Kerala

NSS, Church misusing education sector: CPI(M)

ALAPPUZHA: Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has come down heavily on the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the Church leadership saying that these sections are misusing the education sector to spread false propaganda against the Left Democratic Front (LDF).

Inaugurating the CPI(M)’s three-day district conference at Cherthala, near here, on Friday, Mr. Vijayan said Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had twice called both groups for meetings, but they did not turn up saying they did not have the time. “Now, when the Chief Minister was about to call them a third time, they are saying they will not come for any talks on the Kerala Education Rules (KER) issue.”

“It is not for the KER issue that they are being called. These communities are alleging that atheism is being injected into school textbooks and that the move to introduce sex education in schools will lead to sexual anarchy amongst the young generation. All of us know that both these accusations are wrong and it is on this issue that the Chief Minister wanted to meet them,” he said.

Stating that the NSS and the Church leadership should change their stance and accept the invitation, Mr. Vijayan said it was wrong to continue deceiving the public who trusted these two sections. “Like the Muslim community, who withdrew their agitation after realising that the government had no hidden agenda, these communities too should be ready to accept their mistakes,” he said.

Earlier, the party secretary said those who tried to use the controversy over socialism to attack the CPI(M) were now on the back foot. At no point of time had there been any confusion among the party’s ranks about its views on socialism. The CPI(M) always stood for socialism, he said.

“When can socialism be achieved is a question, and we know that we can approach it stage by stage. The first step has to be a people’s democratic revolution to prevent capitalists from coming to power. I will not say that there will be no more capitalism after the people’s revolution, but it certainly will not be anywhere near the seats of power. We are ready for a healthy debate on this,” Mr. Vijayan said.

CPI(M) district secretary P.K. Chandranandan presented the working report after which the delegates’ session began. Ministers T.M. Thomas Isaac, G. Sudhakaran, A.K. Balan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and M.A. Baby, party central committee members P. Karunakaran, E.P. Jayarajan, A. Vijayaraghavan, LDF convener Vaikom Viswan and party leaders M.C. Josephine, T. Sivadasa Menon, V.V. Dakshinamoorthy, C.B. Chandrababu, G. Venugopal and C.S. Sujatha were present.

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