K.P. Kannan, honorary professor at the Institute of Human Development, New Delhi, has expressed concern over the growing dichotomy between the State’s socio- economic challenges and politics.
Delivering the valedictory address at the two-day seminar on ‘Kerala Economy: Challenges and Way Ahead’ organised by the K.N. Raj Centre, Mahatma Gandhi University, here on Sunday, Prof. Kannan said politics of Kerala had become a ‘rent-seeking’ activity in recent years and there was a growing mismatch between the domains of politics and economy of Kerala, which tended to undermine all the achievements that the State had registered under its peculiar model of development.
According to him, Kerala has forgotten the long road it has traversed to attain a decent level of human development and social welfare. “That is why first generation issues were no longer the issues of public concern”. He said that an otherwise active public domain in Kerala was yet to absorb the full significance of the overarching changes to prepare itself for meeting what may be called the second generation challenges of development.
“Kerala now has to grapple with the second generation challenges, but in a national and international context that is radically different from the earlier one. Instead of graduating to an expected level of social welfare and human development, some of the public discourses in Kerala point to the consequences of a fast globalising regional economy under the national dispensation of a neo-liberal policy regime that has elevated ‘growth at any cost’ as a paramount national objective., he said.
Some of the public discourses in Kerala point to the consequences of a fast-globalising regional economy, says K.P. Kannan.
