Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, a prominent Sunni Muslim scholarly body in Kerala, submitted a memorandum on July 13 to the state Chief Minister, V.D. Satheeshan, asking the government not to implement PM SHRI, but to establish an Arabic university. The memorandum was submitted when a Samastha delegation visited the Chief Minister.
Subsequently, Umar Faizy Mukkam, a prominent and highly influential Islamic scholar, orator and senior leader of Samastha, told the media that PM SHRI is a scheme to thrust the RSS agenda on children. It will be a disaster for the country. Umar Faizy said that it is a threat to the country’s secularism. He said the government is aware of this. The memorandum also asked the government to consider the state’s common interests in the PM SHRI issue. Here are the additional demands:
Three-day holidays for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
Launch new schools and more batches in Malabar.
Establish an Arabic and foreign languages university.
The university has been a long-time demand of Samastha. Now, Samastha’s submission of the memorandum shows how tight its grip is on the UDF government. Impartial observers and the BJP/NDA have been alleging that the UDF government is controlled by Islamic fundamentalist organisations.
The latest demand comes less than a month after the Congress-led UDF government decided to go ahead with the PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India) scheme. On June 17, Chief Minister V.D. Satheeshan announced that the government would continue with the scheme and constituted a four-member committee to conduct a detailed study. The government said an action plan would be decided after the committee submitted its report.
The decision marked a U-turn by the UDF, which had opposed the PM SHRI scheme while in the Opposition. The government also maintained that the previous LDF government’s decision to freeze the PM SHRI-related agreements had no legal validity. The previous LDF government had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the scheme on October 16, 2025, to secure Central education funds, but later put the agreement on hold following opposition from the CPI.
Against this backdrop, Samastha’s latest demand that the Satheeshan government not implement PM SHRI puts renewed pressure on the UDF government over its decision to proceed with the Central scheme.
