By P. Sreekumaran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The White Paper tabled in the Kerala Assembly by the VD Satheesan-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government proclaims from the housetop as it were that the former Left Democratic Front (LDF) alone is to blame for Kerala’s economic woes.
Ironically, the White Paper itself is replete with proof of the new Government’s bitter bias and hostility to its predecessor.
First things first. The Government was pushed to the backfoot at the very beginning of the exercise of laying the White Paper on the Assembly’s table. Former Chief Minister and the new Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Pinarayi Vijayan and former Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal accused the Government of serious violation of the Constitution by getting the White Paper drafted by outsiders – an external panel – and not by the Finance Department. This was a serious violation of the rules governing White Paper preparation, they argued, adding that in the process, critical secret data had been made available to outsiders.
The paper also buries, fathoms deep, the lies uttered by Chief Minister V D Satheesan day in and day out regarding the fiscal health of the State. For instance, Satheesan had persistently claimed when he was the LoP that the State’s debt had touched the Rs six -lakh-crore mark. He repeated it even after the previous LDF Government had stated that it would not exceed Rs 4.8lakh crore. The white paper proved the LDF right as it estimated Kerala’s outstanding liabilities at Rs 5,07 lakh crore, disproving Satheesan’s claim.
Moreover, Satheesan had also claimed that the LDF Government owed over Rs one lakh crore to the government employees. The white paper revealed that the actual arrears are only to the tune of Rs 48,000 crore.
Balagopal further said that the document reinforces the privatisation policy being assiduously promoted by the BJP-led Union Government. The White Paper seeks to jettison the famed Kerala model followed by the LDF which puts a premium on people-friendly policies and welfare measures. Both Pinarayi and Balagopal sounded a stern warning to the UDF Government that any attempt to abandon the people-oriented development agenda implemented by the LDF Government would result in a serious backlash.
They also laid accent on the need to sharpen the focus on health, education, public distribution, electricity, drinking water supply and transport as they are services to be ensured to the people and not profit-oriented industries. To look at them as mere profit-making enterprises is to encourage neo-liberal, privatisation policies which will deepen the misery of ordinary people who are already groaning under the unbearable burden of skyrocketing prices. That was the burden of their song.
Meanwhile, senior CPI(M) leader and former state finance minister Thomas Isaac has alleged that substantial portions of the 195-page White paper appear to have been generated by Artificial Intelligence(AI)! All platforms were used, pointed out Isaac, to analyse data including those from the Secret Section of the Finance Department. Thomas wondered how the 195-page document was created in less than a week.
Isaac has posed a few questions to the Chief Minister. The CM should clarify whether the document was indeed generated by AI; if so, to what extent; and whether sensitive data from the Secret Section of the Finance Department was released externally and analysed using such tools. Isaac’s posers have come close on the heels of Balagopal’s questioning of the propriety of tabling a White paper drafted by external parties in the Assembly. In the past, White papers laid in the House, Isaac said, were prepared by the Finance Department. Incidentally, the document was readied by a panel headed by former Cabinet secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar.
There are many guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, Union Finance Ministry, the High Court and the Kerala Government on the application of AI tools including Large Language Models(LLM) on sensitive and confidential government-related information, Isaac argued. Such practices undermine public trust in documents tabled in the Assembly and also the State’s efforts to create an AI policy, Isaac concluded.
Now, a look at the contents of the White paper. It says: “Behind Kerala’s social achievements lies a fiscal structure that is under serious and growing strain.” Implicit in the statement is the open admission that Kerala has indeed made social achievements – a grudging acknowledgement of the LDF Government’s achievements in the face of heavy odds. The document also admits that the State faced a shortfall of nearly Rs 20,500 crore in Central transfers in 2026-27. But it blamed the LDF Government for it by saying that it was all due to the “wild” guesswork made by the erstwhile government in the budget estimates. “The fiscal situation is very vulnerable. Outstanding liabilities amount to 35% of the Gross State Domestic Product(GSDP),” according to the CM.
Committed expenditure – salaries, and wages, pensions, and interest payments – swallowed 77% of the revenue receipts in 2025-26 against an all-States average of 46.4%.
Worryingly, many recommendations in the document signal major departures from the existing government policy. It moots “creation of favourable conditions for heavy private sector investment”. The policy shifts are also clear, especially in the case of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), loss-making public sector units (PSUs) and the State’s power sector, where it has suggested private investment and Central public sector investment!
The document showers grudging praise on KIIFB, which played a pivotal role in boosting infrastructure development in the State, as a bold experiment. But in the same breath, it says that the body is in need of comprehensive revamp! The White paper also recommends urgent reforms in the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and the Kerala Water Authority (KWA). Another ‘hard political decision” the document indicates is raising of the retirement age and having pay revision only once in 10 years instead of five years at present.
A distinctive feature of the White paper is its accent on liabilities and negative aspects, and its deafening silence on the achievements and gains made by the LDF Government. Just one instance would prove the point. Kerala has made tremendous gains by increasing income from its own revenues by almost doubling it from 40,000 crore to over one lakh crore. The paper is silent on this. Likewise, the paper demonises the KIIFB but ignores the big role it played in infrastructure development.
At the end of the day, it can be said without fear of contradiction that the White paper is a an exercise aimed at blaming the LDF Government for the State’s indifferent fiscal health. A glaring omission is the silence on the Union Government’s Kerala-hostile policies and attempts to squeeze the State economically by withholding funds and legitimate dues it is entitled to. The silence stems from the UDF’s meek submission to the Union Government and utter inability to even lodge a protest against such blatant bias. The bottomline is: The UDF Government which sought to put the LDF Government in the dock ended up exposing its own inadequacies and plain pusillanimity to fight for Kerala’s rights. (IPA Service)
