ACADEMIA Letters A Critical Review of the article ‘the Kerala model in the time of COVID19: Rethinking state, society and democracy’ Joshy Joseph Karakunnel Vijay Victor Joseph Varghese Kureethara The article published in World Development, 137 (2021) 105207 titled ‘The Kerala model in the time of COVID19: Rethinking state, society and democracy, written by Jos Chathukulam and Joseph Tharamangalam leaves enough room for further deliberations on this topic. We do agree with some of the insights shared by the authors though many of the arguments are far from reality and are camoufaged. The article inadvertently glorifes the ‘Kerala model of development’ and paints a wrong picture that the lower number of COVID-19 cases in the state, particularly in the initial two waves, is a big positive outcome of the model. Even WHO carried an article in its website (Responding to COVID-19 - Learnings from Kerala, 2020), commending that ‘Kerala template could serve as a great example for other states to emulate. Our review reveals the faws in the COVID management policies of the state and highlights the hollowness of such a model with weak macroeconomic fundamentals. Ever since the frst three cases were reported in the country (belonging to Kerala), the measures taken by the state administration were far from satisfactory, creating only panic and fear among the people. It is true that the transparency in information and willingness of the government to take the people into confdence has contributed to enhancing trust in the government (Rajeev Sadanan- dan, 2020). This trust continued up to the second wave of COVID-19 in the state. However, with the advent of the third wave of the pandemic the entire system built had reached a near- collapse situation and it seemed that the situation went completely out of hand. When other states record declining trends after reaching the spike, Kerala showed a signifcant uptrend Academia Letters, July 2021 Corresponding Author: Joseph Varghese Kureethara, frjoseph@christuniversity.in Citation: Karakunnel, J.J., Victor, V., Kureethara, J.V. (2021). A Critical Review of the article ‘the Kerala model in the time of COVID19: Rethinking state, society and democracy’. Academia Letters, Article 1826. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1826. 1 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0