# Ajayan | Kerala over decades rose, brick by brick, on the quiet strength of education and public health and touched the sky, matching human development indices that could match global standards. But now, under the poetic chaos of modern “expertise”, the edifice trembles. And those at the wheel don’t just steer blindly, they do it with flair, straight into the heart of the iceberg, and yet claim their efforts are to keep the State on top.
From Dr Haris Chirackal’s social media post admitting serious shortage of facilities at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital to the fatal building collapse in Kottayam, the response was classic; blame the whistleblower, deny the rot. In the final diagnosis the pertinent question is if this isn’t public healthcare’s tragic slide, what else is?
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been proudly claiming that government hospitals are the people's top choice. But that script was torpedoed by his “ever-eloquent” Minister Saji Cherian amidst the Kottayam MCH building collapse. Meant to defend Pinarayi’s US medical jaunt (perfectly his right), Cherian’s confession was a masterclass: he once fled a government hospital mid-dengue out of sheer love for life. Honesty was never hit harder!
Health Minister Veena George has faced flak left, right and centre, even from within her own party, for what many politely call “a class apart in inefficiency”. Yet, with robotic consistency, she blames it all on a mysterious “system error”, carefully sidestepping the fact that she has been the system’s chief curator for four years and counting. And the refrain over all these years has been that “the matter is being looked into and will be rectified”.
Pharmaceutical firms are turning their backs on government hospitals with unpaid bills piling up like policy promises. The State’s flagship Karunya insurance scheme is in doldrums as the State owes hospitals a whopping Rs 1,200 crores. And this, in a State where over 13 crore people visit Medical College Hospitals alone, not counting the flood right from the primary health centres. It is not faith that drives them there; it’s desperation, because private care leaves holes in an already empty pocket. Yet, those in power trumpet these numbers as proof of success, proudly declaring public healthcare "number one", despite the missing staff, broken infrastructure, closed labs and empty shelves.
Incompetence graduates with distinction
The recent entrance exam fiasco is yet another “feather in the cap of chaos” that is Kerala’s education system. A decade-old ‘anomaly’ left untouched, a last-minute rule change dropped an hour before results point to a masterclass in apathy and dysfunction. Even after the High Court slammed it as “illegal” and “arbitrary,” the Higher Education Minister stayed on-brand: no accountability, just blame the media for asking pesky questions.
With studied indifference, she insisted that those who found themselves bumped from the top of the list after the High Court-mandated correction had no one to blame but fate; nothing at all to do with the government’s reckless bungling. The arrogance, clearly a hand-me-down from the top, shone through as she dismissed concerns that the last-minute change was not even mentioned in the expert committee’s report. She conveniently brushed aside the allegation that it was all a scramble to cushion State syllabus students after underwhelming qualifying Class XII results.
With universities running headless for months, a public slugfest with the Chancellor-cum-Governor chasing his own political script and party student cadres unleashed on the streets in protest; it’s anything but rosy. Yet, the government repeats that all is calm, nothing to see here, and certainly no reason for students to flee to other States or countries. It is like mocking and asking the students as to what is the need for stability, credibility, or a functioning education system.
Private woes in public schools
At the school level, the decay is not just visible - it’s scripted. Religious and communal puppeteers tug the strings while the Education Minister pirouettes through positions like an actor lost mid-monologue. The classrooms echo with absence, not just of students, but of quality, intent and integrity. Parents, unimpressed by the government’s blaring self-congratulations, quietly take the exit route to private schools, where at least the illusion of education isn’t this threadbare. Enrollment drops have become an annual ritual, a statistic buried under slogans. Yet ask the Minister, and he’ll offer a smile, a stumble and the same rehearsed line: “All is well.” Because denial isn’t just policy; it’s the only subject of governance taught with conviction.
Rudderless and adrift, the ship meanders aimlessly. Yet the crew, with straight faces and inflated confidence, insists it’s all part of a grand voyage. Apparently, it's not their job to steer, just to nod solemnly as the current does the decision-making. After all, when you've lost control, the best strategy is to pretend the chaos is intentional. And when tragedy inevitably strikes, the blame is swiftly tossed to that ever-convenient scapegoat - “the system”. Because it is easy to point at a vague, faceless entity and shrug. As a Left-leaning academic admitted: it's governance by ghost protocol: present in name, absent in accountability.
