Budget ‘25 reflects Centre's neglect of it: Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Following Centre's 2025-26 Budget on Saturday, the Kerala government pointed out Centre's neglect of the state saying that the budget reflected BJP’s “anti-Kerala” mindset.

Veteran Marxist party leaders M V Govindan and E P Jayarajan slammed the budget, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, and Union Minister of State George Kurian's controversial statement against the southern state with regard to budget allocations, PTI reported.

Reacting to the criticism by the ruling LDF and the opposition UDF against the budget, Kurian had said that if Kerala wanted more funds from the Centre, the state should declare it as backward in terms of education, infrastructure, and social welfare.

CPI (M) state secretary M V Govindan alleged that the BJP always adopted an "anti-Kerala stand" and its leaders from the state also have the same outlook.

He noted that Kerala has been in the forefront of the country's human development index, health, education and many other sectors.

Referring to the alleged neglect of Kerala's major demands in the union budget, the Left leader alleged that the BJP and the union government want to create hurdles in the state's development path.

"The objective of the BJP is to make Kerala poor and backward. They made several attempts to tighten their grip on the state. As all such attempts have failed, they are now trying to push Kerala backwards by denying deserved allocations," Govindan alleged.

Further charging that the union government and its ministers are also adopting the same stand, he said Kurian's remark against the state in connection with the budget allocations was also part of that.

Alleging that the union budget had discriminated towards various states based on politics, he accused the BJP-led Centre of acting against the country's federal principles and secular values and adopting a dictatorial mindset.