Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government would transform learning from the school level and upwards to transform Kerala into a knowledge society.
Inaugurating the 89th Sivagiri pilgrimage here, Mr. Vijayan said the government emphasised creating a knowledge economy. The accent was on research and development. The administration would reskill youth to meet the demands of the global labour market.
Mr. Vijayan said the creation of background infrastructure was imperative for the State’s development. The government was committed to ensuring uninterrupted power, modern transport infrastructure, and broadband internet connectivity. The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board would spearhead the State’s developmental aspirations. The administration would also improve the State’s tourism infrastructure. The future lay in electric vehicles, he said.
Mr. Vijayan slammed the bid to bracket social reformer Sree Narayana Guru with a particular set of people.
He said such attempts denied the Renaissance humanist in the seer and negated his message of universal love and peace. The Guru himself had dissuaded the effort to portray him as the symbol of any one particular group.
Sree Narayana Guru was a seer and social reformer at the same time. His teachings had triggered the renaissance movement in Kerala. However, some quarters denied the Guru’s progressive teachings. Such revanchist forces aspired to pull back Kerala into the medieval ages. They wanted to exacerbate religious and caste divisions to reap political dividends. The Guru’s message of equality and fraternity assumed more significance in the present context.
Mr. Vijayan lamented that many were still immune to the Guru’s message. The social reformer had insisted that humankind served itself better via education and improvement of living conditions.
The path to such an egalitarian future lay through the understanding that humans were born equal. They had equal rights. The Guru had put religion secondary to human upliftment and emancipation. He had famously said that humans should improve, irrespective of their faith.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M.K. Kanimozhi, MP, Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust (SNDST) president Swamy Sachidananda, V. Joy and K. Babu, MLAs, former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, Varkala municipality chairperson K.M. Laji, and SNDST general secretary Swamy Rithambar Ananda were among those who spoke.
