Welfare Pension Row: Venugopal’s Remark Puts Congress on the Backfoot

Congress came into this election thinking it would be a walk in the park. Easy win, no stress. But then, CPI M State Secretary M V Govindan threw a curveball by announcing M Swaraj, a CPI M state secretariat member, as the candidate from Thiruvananthapuram. That single move changed the entire game. The grip Congress thought it had on the election slipped away faster than a balloon caught in a strong breeze. Since then, they have been scrambling for media attention, trying to convince voters, and maybe even themselves, that they are still in the race.
And just as things were already going downhill, in walked K C Venugopal MP, with all the subtlety of a fully loaded tipper lorry driving through a glass showroom. He came to Nilambur to support UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath, and what did he do? He dropped a bomb of a statement that even left Congress workers staring blankly. At the UDF convention, Venugopal boldly said that the 62 lakh people in Kerala receiving welfare pensions are being bribed by the LDF government. Yep, you heard that right. According to him, these pensions, which are essential for the survival of lakhs of elderly, differently- abled and economically weak people, are nothing more than vote-buying tricks.
Instead of taking a step back or saying, "Oops, maybe I went too far," K C Venugopal did what Congress leaders often do best, he doubled down. By Wednesday morning, he was confidently repeating the same statement, just louder. But once people across Kerala, including many Congress sympathisers, started reacting with disbelief and irritation, Venugopal began slowly backpedalling. Now he claims he was only talking about the “pending” pension payments being cleared before elections. Not all pensions, apparently. Just the ones that make his story sound halfway believable.
To add to the fun, V D Satheesan jumped in too, echoing Venugopal’s claim that social welfare schemes are nothing more than election-time bribery. Yes, in their view, giving struggling citizens the money they are rightfully owed is somehow suspicious.
What really seems to be bothering them is that this pension scheme is actually helping lakhs of people in Kerala. And if people start living a bit more comfortably, there goes the UDF’s favorite campaign pitch about saving the poor. If voters are happy, it becomes a lot harder to convince them to switch governments. So the Congress strategy appears to be, if something is good and working, better criticise it outrightly and hope no one notices how helpful it actually is. Classic move, complain first, think later. He even tried bringing up the Oommen Chandy government, saying that back then pensions were always given on time and there was no due.
Alright then, let’s take a look at the facts.
Back in 2000, it was the LDF government under E K Nayanar that first introduced the Agricultural Labour Pension, a first in the country. And who stood against it with full drama? You guessed it, the Congress. Some of them even claimed the poor would spend it all on liquor. Still, the scheme got implemented, and was running smoothly. Until, of course, Congress came back to power.
Under the same Oommen Chandy rule that Venugopal now praises so much, the welfare pension system had pretty much collapsed. When the Pinarayi Vijayan -led LDF government came to power in 2016, they inherited a backlog of 18 months’ worth of unpaid pensions. That’s right, 18 months. And guess how much was being paid as pension back then? A grand total of 600 rupees per month.
Now under LDF, that amount has steadily increased to 1600 rupees. Under UDF, only 9,000 crore rupees was spent on pensions across their term. Under LDF? A whopping 77,000 crore rupees. Between 2016 and 2021 alone, 34,000 crore rupees was disbursed. In the current term, the amount has already crossed 40,000 crore rupees. Finance Minister K N Balagopal says it’ll hit 50,000 crore rupees by the end of this term.
Balagopal didn’t stay silent on Venugopal’s statement either. He called it a desperate, baseless accusation. He clarified that the pension amounts currently being distributed were budgeted much before the election dates were even announced. In fact, the Kisan Abhiman Pension Scheme – meant specifically for paddy workers, has zero dues.
At the moment, only one month’s pension is pending. That’s it. Just one. That’s not bribery, that’s standard government functioning. These pensions are not favours from politicians, they are the rightful due of lakhs of people who built this state with their sweat and labour. The government gives them dignity, not bribes. But Congress? They’re shooting blanks, trying to call every good thing a scam.
So now, Congress is stuck. In Kerala, they shout that pensions are bribes. In states they rule – Karnataka, Telangana, Himachal – they launch similar schemes and celebrate them as achievements. Apparently, a pension is “people’s right” when Congress gives it, and “corruption” when LDF provides.