Pinarayi Vijayan slams Telangana CM over ‘dark era’ jab

ADaytime after Telangana chief government government minister A Revanth Reddy alleged that Kerala was plagued by depravity and malgovernance, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan hits plunk for at him, listing the state’s achievements in human development indicators and comparing them with Telangana.On Thursday, Reddy, after unveiling the manifesto of the Congress-led UDF, had commented that Vijayan’s “expiry date was over” and that the “dark era” under his administration in Kerala was ending.In a Facebook post on Friday, CM Vijayan said that someone has “seriously misled” his Telangana counterpart about Kerala and its developmental indicators. He said that Reddy had no right to comment on Kerala’s social indicators, considering he recently bulldozed the homes of the poor back in Telangana.“By conveniently ignoring the bulldozing of the homes of the poor in his own state, he appears ready to lecture Kerala on social progress and public welfare -- clearly, he has been seriously misinformed by someone,” Vijayan wroteVijayan put out several statistics to underline his point that Kerala fared much better than Telangana in several social and economic indicators.“In Niti-Aayog’s Sustainable Development Index (2023-24), Kerala is at number 1. Telangana is at number 6. It is not right to compare two states, but Reddy is hiding his administration’s own weaknesses to criticise another state. As per Niti Aayog, Kerala has the lowest poverty rate at 0.55%. We were the first state in India to eliminate extreme poverty. The share of poor people in Telangana is 5.88%,” he said on Facebook.Responding to allegations of corruption and administrative failure, Vijayan said, “He claims that Kerala is marked by ‘corruption and administrative failure’, but he should be willing to look at official data. Is he unaware that Kerala is among the least corrupt states in the country?”On education and health, Vijayan said Kerala’s literacy rate was 95.3%, far ahead of Telangana’s 76.9%, and added, “Kerala’s infant mortality rate (IMR) has dropped to 5 per 1,000 live births,” which he said was lower than that of countries like the United States.CM Vijayan pointed out that a top delegation of revenue and survey officials from Telangana had visited Kerala in 2025 to study its ‘Ente bhoomi, digital bhoomi’ project to digitise land-related records in the state. “It shows the political hypocrisy of the chief minister to make such comments when his own government saw Kerala as a model,” he said.He said that Kerala had “nothing to learn” from the chief minister of a state where salaries and pensions are not being paid on time. “The Telangana CM is welcome to come to Kerala and study its welfare public models,” said Vijayan.On Thursday, Reddy had criticised the Vijayan government for “remaining silent” as several national development projects, including key highway works, had stalled.He had called on voters to “teach a lesson” to both the BJP and the LDF, accusing the Centre of misusing agencies such as the ED and CBI, and alleging that CPI(M) leaders were being spared due to political arrangements.Questioning Reddy’s criticism, Vijayan said, “When his own government seeks to learn from Kerala’s initiatives, how is it that the chief minister himself ridicules them? What greater political hypocrisy could there be?”He also rejected Reddy’s allegation that the Kerala government was colluding with the Centre, and instead accused the Congress of failing to oppose central policies that, he said, were financially constraining the state.“Let me humbly say that Kerala has nothing to learn from a chief minister who leads a government where salaries and pensions are frequently delayed,” Vijayan added.Concluding his remarks, Vijayan said, “It is Revanth Reddy who should learn lessons in governance from Kerala. He is welcome to visit Kerala to study its welfare model.”(With PTI inputs)