Shashi Tharoor flags 10 issues shaping voter mood ahead of Kerala Assembly elections

Shashi Tharoor says the state government has pushed Kerala into a massive debt trap

• Shashi Tharoor lists 10 major crises facing Kerala
• Kerala struggles with debt, job shortage, high costs, and farmer woes
• Tharoor urges change, citing faltering healthcare and education

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With Kerala heading into a high-stakes Assembly election, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has outlined what he calls the “10 major crises” confronting the state—ranging from a deepening debt burden to rising youth migration.

In opinion piece in NDTV, Tharoor said Kerala needs change. “And it is not an option but a necessity if the state is to survive as a viable economy. The current administration has failed the people of Kerala across the board,” the Congress MP said.

Tharoor highlighted the following issues currently facing the state.

Economic stress

Tharoor put severe financial crisis on the top of his list. “The government has pushed Kerala into a massive debt trap, borrowing money before the end of the year just to pay routine salaries and pensions. Today, our state spends more money on servicing its debt than on actual development projects,” he said.

Job crunch

According to him, Kerala’s highly educated workforce is increasingly leaving the state due to a lack of employment opportunities. Tharoor flagged a growing “brain drain”, with young people seeking jobs abroad amid limited local prospects.

Rising cost of living

He said the daily life of the “ aam aadmi has become unbearable”. “Instead of expanding the economy, the government burdens the public (which already pays the highest property taxes, stamp duties and other local levies in the country) with extra taxes and cesses…,” said Tharoor.

Distressed farmers

The Congress MP said despite Kerala being one of the world's hottest hotspots of biodiversity, its agricultural backbone is ignored, spices languish, fruit and vegetable farmers can barely make ends meet.

Investors’ plight

Tharoor said Kerala is plagued by ideological politicians, rent-seeking officials, and militant trade unions that thwart progress. “We have failed to completely abolish extortion-based practices like nokkukooli (by which union members extort payment for standing and watching your own labour) or ban the coercive practice of hartals,” he said.

Public healthcare

The Congress MP said Kerala has an “enviable reputation nationwide” for its public health system. “Today, our public healthcare system is faltering thanks to under-funding and neglect, failing to provide resilient systems that protect the most vulnerable,” he said.

Scams in cooperative sector

According to Tharoor, recent scams have wiped out the life savings of poor families, breaking the backbone of Kerala’s rural economy.

Decline in higher education

“Our universities are failing to prepare students for the 21st century. Merit is ignored in the blatant promotion of political interests, and our education system lacks the critical thinking and technological innovation needed for the 21st-century world,” said Tharoor.

Civic infrastructure

The Congress MP said Kerala’s “fragile ecology is threatened by unchecked quarrying and sand mining, as well as reckless, unplanned construction”. “We are also facing a severe drug crisis among our youth and deadly fatalities from an unchecked stray dog menace,” he said.

Social welfare

According to him, a welfare-only model cannot survive without wealth creation. He said that because the state has no money, welfare pensions are delayed for months, forcing the most “vulnerable to beg for what is rightfully theirs (and which is not enough to begin with)”.

Tharoor described his list as daunting but said the imminent state election means that an alternative is at hand. “Though I am not a candidate myself, I have agreed to take on the co-chairmanship of the Congress Campaign Committee - not just to point out problems but to present a vision for 'Kerala 2.0' that will inspire the jaded electorate, and particularly younger voters, to vote for change,” he said.

Tharoor said for too long, the state has “unwisely” compared itself to massive industrial states such as Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra and lamented our inability to emulate them. “Our future does not lie in competing for heavy smokestack industries. We must look across the seas and learn from small, successful states like Singapore, the Netherlands, and Costa Rica - countries with similar challenges of size and population density that have found creative solutions to their own development challenges and become models of success,” he wrote.