Social activists, academics protest Nair-heavy Kerala Planning Board

By Rosamma Thomas* 

Kerala's newly reconstituted State Planning Board has come under fire from social activists and academics, who allege its appointments are dominated by a single caste group and fail to reflect the state's social diversity. In an email to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, prominent members of Kerala society said they had hoped the Congress government would champion inclusion — hopes they say have now been "belied" by the board's composition.

In its revised budget for 2026-27, the state government had announced a plan to transform the State Planning Board into a think tank to monitor the implementation of priority projects. The Left opposition had alleged that the state government was mimicking the Union government, which had replaced the Planning Commission with the NITI Aayog.

"When Kerala voted for change and Shri V D Satheesan was made chief minister with wide public support, we were hopeful that the new chief minister would follow the values of inclusion and diversity that you espouse. However, it appears that our expectations were unfounded. The new government also shows a propensity to follow the entrenched practice of favouring the privileged castes in political appointments. The composition of the re-constituted State Planning Board is a typical case in point," stated the email to MP Rahul Gandhi, signed by Dr A B Moideenkutty, former director, Minority Welfare Department of the state government; V R Joshi, former director of the Backward Classes Development Department, Government of Keralam; V S Mohammed Ibrahim, former director of the Backward Classes Development Department of the state government; advocate N D Premachandran, president of the Sree Narayana Seva Sangham; and sociologist Prof Vijaya Kumar, among others.

"The Vice Chairman and the four expert members appear to have been selected from an exceptionally narrow segment of Kerala's remarkably diverse social landscape. The entire spectrum of society beyond this privileged caste formation appears to have been virtually excluded, despite Kerala having a large pool of accomplished professionals and scholars of national and international standing from Backward Classes, Muslim, Dalit and other historically under-represented Hindu and Christian OBC communities. This exclusion covers over 85 percent of the population of Keralam. There is not a single woman among these political appointees, although there are a large number of eminent women scholars and planning experts of repute. The three advisers earlier appointed by the new Vice Chairman also appear to come from essentially the same social profile," the email states.

The email notes that the appointments indicate that primacy was accorded to caste rather than to professional qualification or expertise. "This creates the impression that access to positions of intellectual and institutional significance is being determined less by professional distinction than by membership of a particular caste... and political proximity. The appointment of a consultant associated with the BJP government is particularly troubling, while individuals whose professional credentials appear difficult to reconcile with the designation of 'expert' have been taken on board. Such a pattern increasingly resembles the practices we witness under BJP governments," the email states.

The email asserts that the State Planning Board is meant to function as a centre for long-term thinking, applied scholarship and evidence-based planning. It notes that even though a research degree alone is no measure of professional worth, it was noteworthy that only one of the five political appointees held a PhD.

On August 29, the state government appointed four members to the State Planning Board — former technocrat G Vijaya Raghavan; P P Balan, considered an expert in local government; environmentalist Sridhar Radhakrishnan; and New Delhi-based Varun Santosh, also a spokesperson for the Congress party. The State Planning Board is thus Nair-heavy.

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*Senior journalist