- 10 minutes ago
In an interview, Kerala BJP Chief and Nemom MLA Rajeev Chandrasekhar discusses Kerala's political landscape, governance, and economic challenges. Criticizing the past decade under the CPM, he states, "It was not a Kerala model, it was a CPM model. And that model was a very, very dysfunctional model." Chandrasekhar evaluates the state's financial crisis, emphasizing that severe debt and lack of investment pose major headwinds for Chief Minister VD Satheesan's administration. He addresses controversies surrounding UPI merchant discount rates, terming opposition criticism manufactured and affirming that consumer transactions remain unaffected. He also comments on the Vande Mataram controversy, asserting that constitutional laws must be upheld uniformly across all states.
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00:00We have Kerala BJP chief, MLA from Neemam, former union minister of state of electronics,
00:07IT and skill development, a technocrat who has now become a full-time politician and
00:12entrepreneur who has now become a full-time politician, who has now shifted base from
00:19Delhi to Thiruvananthpuram.
00:21How has it been like, sir?
00:24First of all, thank you for having me and a minor correction, I don't know why you
00:28think I'm a full-time politician only now, I've been in politics for 20 years, I'm a
00:33three-term MP, so I think I've been doing full-time politics for about 20 years.
00:37It is true that about two years ago, the prime minister decided that I should be focused in
00:43Kerala.
00:45Certainly, it's been a very interesting two years, especially being that all of us, most
00:52people outside of Kerala fed this Kerala model, you know, God's own country story for so many
00:59years.
01:00But when you come here and actually understand the reality of what the last 15-20 years have
01:06done to Kerala, I can certainly tell you there's a lot of work to be done.
01:10We had Chief Minister, V.D. Satishan, earlier today, and he said that this is 1991, Dr. Manmohan
01:18Singh moment for Kerala, where Kerala is entering a new era and breaking away from past.
01:26No, I think he is right on a few counts, because this election, 2026 election, was certainly
01:35an election where people were angry, they wanted change.
01:40So that he's right on that account that people want change, they want a break from the past.
01:45He's also right that Kerala's economy is facing very, very similar challenges that India faced
01:53in 1991.
01:54But I would add that India faced similar challenges in 2014, after 10 years of Manmohan Singh.
02:01So I'm not so sure that that analogy is a very accurate analogy to use, because he has tremendous
02:08headwinds against him.
02:10This is not an easy problem to solve, because of all the fiscal problems that the 10 years
02:17of CPM have left behind.
02:21And while the story of 1991 India was a story where liberalization happened and the economy
02:28was opened up and investments flowed in, I would respectfully submit that solutions in
02:35Kerala are not going to be that simple at all.
02:37It is not going to be an easy walk.
02:40This is a tightrope walking that he, as a government and his government, has to do, particularly
02:47because Kerala is in a major debt trap.
02:51There is very little fiscal headroom for investment and growth.
02:55And the environment around Kerala, unfortunately he's inherited it, but part of it is his making,
03:02because the Congress has been in government for several years.
03:05The lack of infrastructure, the emigration of talent, the lack of investments and jobs,
03:12the high inflation, and as we've recently seen, the electricity cuts, and so on, so those don't
03:18paint a very good picture for investors who have to be a player in the Kerala economy for
03:24Kerala's economy to grow.
03:25So he certainly seems to be a man on a mission.
03:29He has presented a white paper, has come up with a roadmap, speaks about Mission Samudra,
03:36speaks about other plans that he has for his state.
03:40Would you say that he is more sincere than his predecessor, according to you?
03:44Oh, certainly.
03:45I think his predecessor is no standard to be compared to at all.
03:49The ten years under Pindrai Vijayan, where he started his mandate, he got his mandate in
03:572016 by saying in Malayalam,
04:02that means everything will become all right.
04:05The ten years on, under Pindrai Vijayan, it has certainly been the last decade for Kerala.
04:10The economic situation, the joblessness situation, the highest inflation in the country.
04:15And you are seeing today corruption, institutionalized corruption.
04:19Have you ever heard of a DGP of the police force being sent to jail for four years for corruption?
04:27And I always wondered when people said about Kerala model and when I was not in Kerala politics,
04:33I used to be in awe of that statement.
04:36And it is when you come here that you realize that it was not a Kerala model, it was a
04:40CPM model.
04:41And that model was a very, very dysfunctional model.
04:45There was political corruption, there was no development, there was joblessness,
04:49there was zero investment, there was zero economic activity,
04:51and you were essentially quadrupling debt per capita.
04:56So, the ten years that were before VD suggestion are certainly no comparison for him.
05:02Anybody will come out looking rosy if you compare them to the ten years.
05:06But he is certainly a man who has some clear thoughts, and I have said this in the assembly,
05:12the white paper was an extremely important move by the government,
05:16because the people of Kerala now realize the situation that they are in.
05:20And I think, look, good luck to him. I wish the best for our state, I wish the best for
05:25our people.
05:25And if he can pull it off, more power to him. But I suspect it's not going to be that
05:31simple.
05:31Since you spoke about the assembly and the role of the BJP in the assembly, you have three MLAs, including
05:38yourself.
05:39Yes.
05:40The ruling party has 102. What appears right now is that it is the BJP which is fighting the left
05:47more than the current government.
05:50I think that is each one, I mean, it's a funny situation where the Congress will claim that we have
05:57an understanding with the left before the election.
06:00And then the left will claim that we have an understanding with the Congress.
06:03Somehow that makes us feel very important.
06:06If both of them are claiming that the other is their friend, it seems to me that the case is
06:11being made that we are very relevant to their politics.
06:14But are you? You have been trying very hard for several years now to get some kind of toehold in
06:20the state.
06:21And that is really not happening.
06:23No, Maria, look, let's be objective and clear. Who's in an alliance with whom nationally?
06:29I mean, I just have to point out to you, there is a thing called Indy Alliance.
06:33It's supposed to be a political formation where they sit and have chai and coffee in Delhi regularly.
06:38Each of them take turns in calling the BJP fascists. They are both the CPM and the Congress.
06:43They are in cahoots, they are in a political alliance, in a formal political alliance in every state in this
06:48country.
06:49In every election in this country, from Tripura to Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu, the CPM and Congress are in a
06:55formal alliance.
06:56And they want to pull a fast one here and pretend that they are not.
07:01Look, I will trot out chapter and verse about how they are still in cahoots.
07:06The Shabarimala loot scam. It was an electoral issue.
07:13Four months on, four and a half months on, the Congress government has done zero to put the CPM ministers
07:21behind bars.
07:23The EXA logic, where a sitting chief minister's daughter has been accused of corruption.
07:28It is a case to be filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
07:32The sitting chief minister, the Congress chief minister, who basically got the mandate,
07:37arguing that Pindrai Vijayan was corrupt, has not made a move on it yet.
07:41So, look, these are games that politicians play. We all understand that. We are all grown-up people.
07:47We understand the games that politicians play.
07:49But I think the era of making fools of Malayalis and playing this game of you once, then me once,
08:00and you once, and me once,
08:01and making BJP the common target by calling us communal, that chapter is over.
08:08That game is over. People now see development and opportunity as the main issue.
08:14And they are asking which party can deliver prosperity, which party can deliver development.
08:20And it is that party that they will support.
08:22Yes, so you speak about prosperity, but why is it that the BJP is not able to convince the people
08:28of Kerala?
08:29Because you have tried really hard for several years now.
08:31And particularly since 2014, when we speak about the new BJP, there has been a lot of emphasis on Kerala.
08:38No, there is a simple answer for that. And it is obviously dated, predated my arrival.
08:43The narrative about BJP that has been successfully manufactured in Kerala for not just one day or one month,
08:50for several decades, is that BJP is a Hindu party. BJP is a communal party.
08:55That the BJP is against Christians and against Muslims. And that stuck.
09:00And maybe part of it was our fault. We did not contest it enough.
09:04Maybe our silence led people to believe that that is true.
09:08But it is the furthest thing from the truth.
09:10And today, we have a situation that the people who call the BJP communal,
09:16the same government have ministers from the Indian Union Muslim League,
09:20a party to whom Rahul Gandhi gave a certificate saying it is a secular party,
09:26saying,
09:27They are saying it openly, which is religion is our issue, religion is our issue, religion is our issue.
09:32And you have the temerity to call us communal.
09:36Look, the history of Kerala politics is that BJP has been put into a corner by both these parties.
09:42And you are not able to corner it? Or counter it?
09:45No, no, of course we have countered it.
09:46If you have got 15, 14 and a half percent, 15 percent vote,
09:4930 lakh people have voted for us in this election.
09:52Three MLAs have won the election.
09:54We have got Tiruvunduram Corporation, two municipalities and a score of panchayats,
09:58where BJP is governing.
10:01And in the NDA coalition today, there are Christian parties that are in the NDA,
10:04the NDA coalition.
10:05So I think, look, this is the beginning of a significant change in Kerala politics.
10:11The old model is just not going to work it anymore.
10:14That is why today you have, and I'm happy by the way,
10:17when VD Sandishan or the chief minister of Kerala is now talking development.
10:22He's talking about project Samudra.
10:25He's talking about portlet development.
10:27I'm extremely happy that for the first time, center stage, the main topic of discourse is the future of Kerala.
10:36I'm glad you came here, and you're talking about the future of Kerala.
10:39And the future of Kerala is not some trashy discussion on communalism and secularism,
10:45some fake discourse on that.
10:46It is about, are people getting the development that they deserve?
10:51Should children be the talent of our state, be exported out of the state,
10:55and go and work and find jobs and study elsewhere around the world?
10:59Talent is the biggest asset that we have in our state.
11:02And today, the average age of our state is going up because all the youngsters are leaving our state.
11:07Those are issues to be discussed.
11:08Not this fake 20-year-old, 30-year-old narrative about who's more secular and who's less secular.
11:14You know, since you speak about the state having the required talent pool,
11:19but is not able to really encash on it because most of them have left the state or migrated out
11:24of it,
11:25because of perhaps lack of opportunities, their aspirations were not aligned with the state's growth story.
11:31Now, here is the chief minister who's saying that he is trying to write a different chapter altogether.
11:37And that's where I want to understand from you.
11:40Do you think at this point that is really possible,
11:44particularly given the competition that you have coming in from neighboring states?
11:48No, I, like I said before to you, Maria, we wish him well.
11:53We want our state to do well.
11:55We want our children to get jobs.
11:58We want the education system in Keralam to be modernized.
12:01We want our colleges to be top class.
12:03We want our farmers to be commercially viable.
12:06All of these things, if any government does, we will fully support them.
12:10I said this in the assembly.
12:13But the problem with this is, when you dish out these promises and paint a dream, build a dream,
12:23you should also do some due diligence on whether you're able to do it.
12:27If 150 days on, a government that promised five guarantees is unable to fulfill four out of the five guarantees,
12:36120 days on, the only thing that has gone up is the per capita debt and the gross debt of
12:42the state government.
12:43Not one job, not one investment, not one company to come in here.
12:47If 120 days on, you have power cuts and you blame the rain for the power cuts.
12:54Now, if that starts, then every state government of BJP should blame the rains for the power cuts.
12:58What will you do in Delhi?
12:59You will go line up in front of the power minister.
13:03My issue is not whether his dream is a compelling dream, whether his vision is a compelling vision,
13:09whether what he wants to do is sincere or not.
13:11But I will argue today to you, and I say with full responsibility, he will come up a cropper.
13:16He will not be able to deliver because of what he has inherited and the very little wiggle room he
13:24has.
13:24And B, most importantly, the political stand that he is being forced to take that he will not cooperate with
13:31the center.
13:32There is no state in this country that can do well if you are at log-aheads with the center.
13:37This is just commonsensical...
13:38No, but he is saying that he will cooperate with the center.
13:41But he is not.
13:41That is for the state's good.
13:42No, no, I am saying, I can say many things including the fact that I want to be president of
13:46the US.
13:47But that's not, that's not what I say.
13:49It's what I do that is important.
13:50He is against PM Shri.
13:52How will you reform the educational system in Kerala if you say I will not implement PM Shri?
13:57How will you give better opportunities to poor children for better schools if the Muslim League education minister says we
14:04should throw PM Shri into the Arabian Sea?
14:07If you want cooperation and support from the government of India, you have to create the conducive atmosphere for it.
14:13You can't expect...
14:21You have to have a relationship with the center where you place the interests of the people of Kerala primarily
14:28and then play politics later on.
14:31You play politics during election time based on your performance.
14:36One 20 days later, tell me where we are on the education system in Kerala.
14:41Do we have any visibility of what he's going to do?
14:43No, he doesn't have it either.
14:46So this is, these are harsh realities.
14:49It is all okay to be a politician today, make a lot of reels, make a lot of grade...
14:55So he makes reels, is that what you're saying?
14:56I mean, the Congress politics is now reduced to that.
14:59You make a lot of reels of people having tea, coffee...
15:01Rahul Gandhi?
15:04So, since you're talking about Rahul Gandhi, let's talk about what he is saying, UPI tax.
15:09You were in Métis and you had, you know, projected UPI as for something which is common good or good
15:17for the people.
15:18And here is MDR which is coming in.
15:20And the Congress and the critics of that are saying that this is some kind of surrender to the US
15:27pressure.
15:27Because the MasterCard and Visa, these are two US companies which lost out because of the sheer spread of the
15:36UPI.
15:37And now you are trying to give that UPI in itself some kind of setback.
15:43Maria, I always wonder what is the best way to characterize Rahul Gandhi.
15:48And I always lose to describe him, you know, to find a way to describe him.
15:54But I've come to one conclusion, he's certainly a brand ambassador for a headache tablet, Saradon.
16:00Because what he does really gives everybody's common sensible man a headache.
16:06Because you are wondering, what is he saying?
16:09UPI today is a globally accepted, globally respected, globally fated platform of financial transactions and digital money and digital financial
16:22transactions.
16:23It is the biggest ecosystem in the world.
16:27Eleven countries have adopted it.
16:29Yes, and many countries are adopting it because it is cost, it's very inexpensive, it is smooth, it is efficient.
16:35Now, the government and the players including the NPCI and the RBI have decided to add a nominal charge for
16:43a transaction between an individual and a merchant.
16:47Merchants are an ecosystem that understand very clearly the concept of an MDR.
16:52MDR, they charge for credit cards, they charge for debit cards, they charge for everything.
16:57What is Rahul Gandhi's problem with this? I don't understand.
17:00Is he out of pocket on these transactions?
17:04Is he worried that suddenly his monthly bill is going to...
17:07No, he's not saying what his problem is.
17:10But this manufactured controversy that this is a tax, how is it a tax?
17:15What is it a tax?
17:17The MDR means what?
17:22Merchant transaction rate, merchant discount rate.
17:25What is that?
17:26I am yet to understand, despite all the posts and the rhetoric from the Congress, what is the point that
17:34they're making?
17:34That something that is free should remain free forever?
17:37Is that the point?
17:39Then why don't we just argue that passenger train ticket should be free?
17:43Why don't we argue that every service should be free?
17:45If it is free, somebody else is paying the bill for it.
17:50This is a transaction between an individual and a merchant.
17:54And the merchant is being charged a particular fee for it.
17:58Full stop.
17:59He's demanding a rollback.
18:01No, no.
18:02He can demand what he can.
18:03He can demand whatever he wants.
18:05That's okay.
18:05He's sitting in an echo chamber where there are three people giving him talis every time he says something silly
18:10and stupid.
18:11But we don't have to listen to that.
18:12My point is if he's saying something sensible, we are all here to respond to it or argue with it
18:19or have a discourse.
18:20But what is remotely sensible about what he's saying?
18:22So I essentially think that this is some kind of misinformation campaign.
18:25It is not misinformation campaign.
18:27It is just complete plain manufactured controversy.
18:30You create a controversy out of nothing and you act very completely outraged by it.
18:36Hope that somebody picks it up and gets similarly outraged by it.
18:39And hopefully that will cascade into multiple people getting outraged.
18:42But if you just slice and dice it and understand, put it under a microscope and understand what the issue
18:48is.
18:49UPI today is an extremely successful ecosystem platform.
18:53Number one, TICMAC.
18:55Many, many people in the country are completely using UPI and benefit by it.
19:01TICMAC.
19:02No peer-to-peer transaction is being charged.
19:05TICMAC.
19:06Who's being charged?
19:07A merchant is being charged.
19:08A merchant as in a commercial enterprise is being charged.
19:12A nominal charge for using the UPI.
19:15That money will be used to invest in UPI.
19:18That money will be used to modernize UPI.
19:21And it also gives the merchant a sense of responsibility that it is a paid service.
19:26This is all very reasonable, logical decision making on part of a government that is reasonable, logical and will never
19:36sacrifice consumer interest at any, at the annual of anything.
19:40But when it was conceptualized, it was free for all.
19:46Look, here's the thing.
19:48When you have something and it is still free for all.
19:52That's the point I'm making.
19:53It was conceptualized to be a very smooth, frictionless, inexpensive way of transacting digitally.
20:01And that design element is intact.
20:04The only change now is that the merchant side of it is being asked to pay a nominal fee.
20:12The consumer at large is unaffected.
20:15And the design feature that the UPI consumer will get frictionless, cheap, inexpensive, easy to use digital payment platform is
20:25completely unchanged.
20:26So that cap of 2,000 rupees, that above 2,000 there will be an MDR of 0.4%.
20:33Correct.
20:34And that is for the merchants to pay.
20:37Yes.
20:38So this entire controversy, would you say that this is much ado about nothing?
20:43It is not only much ado about nothing, it is much ado about minus nothing.
20:48I mean, I don't even understand where the ado comes from.
20:51I mean, much ado implies that there is some ado.
20:54What is the ado?
20:55If somebody can explain to me, I am, I'm a reasonably intelligent man.
20:59I was a minister there for three and a half years.
21:01I understand the UPI ecosystem reasonably well.
21:05I don't claim to be a genius like Rahul Gandhi.
21:07I don't read any fat books like him.
21:09But I certainly have a highly developed common sense.
21:12What is the issue?
21:13Somebody tells me I can argue.
21:16It is like P. Chidamaram saying...
21:17He is saying that this is a surrender to the US pressure.
21:21Quote unquote Rahul Gandhi.
21:22And the Congress party.
21:23Look, I can't answer this stuff because this is all conspiracy theories that make Oliver Stone look like an amateur.
21:30These are all made up.
21:32Where?
21:33Who makes it up?
21:33He probably as a department just manufactures these things as he goes along.
21:38The foreign minister issued a press note about the 100% tariff in clear stark terms.
21:43Saying we will never sacrifice our nation's interest.
21:46And that comes first, second, third, fourth and fifth.
21:50Do you see any Indian buying this argument that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji will surrender to visa and Mastercard
21:58because Rahul Gandhi wants him to?
22:01So let's move away from that and talk about the Vande Mataram controversy.
22:05Okay.
22:06I am sitting in a state which is ruled by Congress party.
22:10The chief minister says that in this state there will be only two stanzas.
22:14Something that the Congress working committee has approved of.
22:17But here is a law of the land which says clearly that it has to be about all the stanzas.
22:25What is BJP stand in the state of Kerala?
22:29No, no. BJP stand in the state of Kerala is the BJP stand all over.
22:32What is the law of the land is the law of the land.
22:36When the parliament passes a law, it is not subject to the Congress here or the Muslim League in the
22:42north of Kerala to determine what parts of the law they will follow or not.
22:47I mean, I think they are living in fool's paradise and in, you know, La La Land if they think
22:54they can chop and dice the constitution.
22:55These are the same people who hold the constitution up every time they take an oath in parliament.
23:01This is the same Rahul Gandhi who goes around the world saying the constitution democracy is under challenge and threat.
23:07No, I have said this publicly in my press conference.
23:11These people are living in La La Land.
23:12If they think that today the national song they will not sing four stanzas.
23:19Which means what?
23:20Tomorrow the national anthem they can say because Kerala is not mentioned in Dravid, we will not sing the national
23:27anthem.
23:28And this is all cuckoo.
23:30This is pandering to the lowest common denominator of politics.
23:34The chief minister, if he has any common sense, he took a oath saying uphold the law, I will uphold
23:41the constitution.
23:42He should have the common sense to understand.
23:44This is not things to be playing football with.
23:47You are part of a constitutional democracy, you're a state.
23:52You're not some adjunct of the Middle East or something.
23:56However much the Indian Union Muslim League likes to believe that.
24:00You have to follow the laws of the land, otherwise the consequences is something that you will have to deal
24:05with.
24:05So he is following what the congress party has agreed on.
24:08Well that's what I'm saying.
24:09If the congress party believes that they can create a system within a system.
24:13And that system within a system is ruled by some crown prince and some crown princes.
24:19And their friends in the Muslim league.
24:21If they believe that, then it is, they are like I said, they are living a delusional, fictional land.
24:27My last question and this is to Kerala BJP chief.
24:31Do you have a clear road map since you say that right now what you started five years ago in
24:37your ministry is being implemented and it has its fifth year.
24:41Is there some madman idea also for the BJP in the state?
24:44No, no madman idea at all.
24:46I have a very clear, lucid idea, which is that it is clear that the people of Kerala have begun
24:53to understand that the CPM and the Congress are the two sides of one coin called India.
24:58And really the alternate political formation is the BJP NDA.
25:02And this is the proposition that we are putting forth in front of them leading up to 29 looks of
25:07our election.
25:08Mr. Rajiv Chandrasekhar, always a pleasure speaking to you.
25:11Thank you for so much of honesty.
25:13Thank you so much.
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