Controversy over lack of criticism of Union government in policy address

The governor’s lack of criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government in his policy speech delivered in the Kerala Assembly, contrary to the trend in recent years, sparked a controversy on Friday, with Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan claiming that the policy speech was silent on “what should be said about the Union government” due to political allegiance to the BJP.

He said such approaches were indicative of “slavery to communal politics” and would result in Kerala losing what was right for it. There was no mention of the Central policies threatening fiscal federalism or the fiscal policies of the latter. It was stated that in his policy speech, he also remained silent on the Union government’s decision to implement the Viksit Bharat-Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Guarantee and the UDF government’s stance on the issue.

Answering questions at the press conference, Chief Minister VD Satheesan said that the State government will criticize the Union government when the time comes.

“Why should we criticize in the first place? We will examine the reasons for the centre’s failure to allocate funds, whether it is due to the state government not issuing civil service certificates or other factors. We are examining these properly,” he said.

There have been instances in recent years where the Governor has omitted parts of his policy speech criticizing the Union government. Earlier this year, during LDF’s tenure, the Governor omitted references to the serious fiscal stress faced by Kerala resulting from a series of adverse actions of the Union government that undermined the constitutional principles of fiscal federalism and the issue of pendency of bills passed by the Assembly. The then CM Mr. Vijayan later read them in the Assembly.

The CPI took strong exception to the Governor’s policy speech, describing it as an attempt to mollify the Governor and compromise with the hostile Centre.

Senior CPI leader K. Rajan, MLA, said the policy address did not contain any policies for the benefit of the common man.

He questioned the UDF government for meekly accepting the Centre’s alleged strangulation of the State and the Governor’s long inaction on many laws designed to serve the common people.