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National Cooperation Policy 2025 detrimental to Kerala's cooperative sector: Kerala Cooperative Employees' Union
The National Cooperation Policy 2025 unveiled by the Union government in July is part of an agenda by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to wrest control of the thriving cooperative sector networks in Kerala and other States, the Left-backed Kerala Cooperative Employees Union (KCEU) has said.
The policy reflects the political and financial motives of the BJP government, the KCEU said on Monday (August 18, 2025), announcing a Raj Bhavan march and Statewide protests on August 20 against the policy.
KCEU general secretary N.K. Ramachandran said that the policy encroaches upon the constitutional space of the States. Cooperative societies are part of the State List (Entry 32) in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. The policy will be detrimental to the cooperative sector of the State which accounts for almost 70% of the national average.
The policy is aimed at bringing the cooperative societies in the States under the control of the Union government and building a parallel cooperative network led by the BJP across the country, the KCEU alleged.
The KCEU described the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, passed by the Union government in July 2023, as inimical to the interests of the people and the cooperative sector. There are 95 MSCSs operating in Kerala. The State government has no control over them, unlike in the case of State-level cooperative societies. There is also no clarity regarding the governing council members and shareholders of these MSCSs, the KCEU said.
Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) State general secretary Elamaram Kareem will inaugurate the Raj Bhavan protest on August 20. The same day, protests will be held outside Union government offices in district headquarters across the State, the KCEU said.
