The relationship between Kerala’s lawmakers and the Governor has reached a nadir in the absence of protocol adherence by the former
Kerala’s legislators (both new and old) need a crash course on the basics of Indian Constitution, if recent incidents in the State capital are any pointer. At no point in history has the State experienced the kind of crisis it witnessed last fortnight. For almost six hours, Kerala’s political landscape plunged into tension following reports that Governor Arif Mohammad Khan was unwilling to sign the policy declaration of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Government, which he was to read out the following morning to mark the beginning of the fourth session of the 15th Assembly.
The Chief Minister rushed to the Raj Bhavan and is believed to have pleaded with the Governor not to put the Government in an embarrassing situation. Khan was upset with the CPI(M)-led Government over a series of issues; the latest being the controversy over the appointment of veteran journalist Hari S Kartha as his additional private secretary. The appointment order was held back by Pinarayi because of “Kartha’s association with Sangh Parivar”. Many political pundits were of the view that the controversy could have been avoided. Kartha was the chief editor of Janmabhumi, the BJP mouthpiece, and he was drawing a salary. Following a cardiac issue, he resigned from the daily and was recuperating when the BJP hired him as a media consultant in 2015.
His credentials are impressive. With a post-graduate degree in economics, Kartha was rated as the best financial journalist in the State. His dispatches were highly professional. When the CPI(M)’s Viswanatha Menon presented his Government’s first full-fledged budget in 1987, Kartha wrote that Menon was trying to hold a countrywide festival with two pints of milk. Decades later, Menon admitted in private that Kartha’s rating was the best compliment he had received in his political career. It was this journalist-turned-commentator whom the CPI(M) was trying to portray as a ‘Sanghi’.
But the run-up to the latest imbroglio began the day Khan assumed charge as the Governor. He was upset with the appointment of the CPI(M) leadership’s coterie in the State’s institutions of higher learning despite not being qualified for these posts. The spouses of Speaker MB Rajesh and MLAs AN Shamsher and KK Ragesh had been appointed assistant professors/lecturers despite not possessing the requisite qualifications and it cast a shadow over the Government’s job. The extension of service given to Kannur University Vice-Chancellor Gopinath Ravinndran, a Marxist historian, and the decision to promote R Bindu, the Higher Education Minister, as professor, months after her resignation from the job to contest the 2021 Assembly election are other actions not in sync with the Left party’s professed ideology. Bindu’s main credential is that she is the spouse of Vijayaraghavan, a CPI(M) leader and chairman of the liaison committee of the LDF, a ‘super cabinet’.
The Marxist Government’s new obsession seems to be bending and breaking the established rules and norms to suit its own convenience. Last month saw the proclamation of an ordinance that has crippled the power of the Lok Ayukta, the State’s whistleblower. The reason? The Lok Ayukta was about to pronounce its order in cases where some of the CPI(M) Ministers and lawmakers are facing investigations.
The strange spectacle of the Treasury benches sitting with grim faces while the Governor read out the policy declaration 2022-2023 was shocking, to say the least. Arif Mohammad Khan was waxing eloquent about the CPI(M) Government’s performance since 2016. According to the policy declaration read out by him: “Kerala is the best managed State in the country. There is no unemployment, no poverty, no strikes …and investors are making a beeline for the State. Despite the discrimination and indifference shown by the Central Government towards the State, we have managed to emerge as the best State.” But there was no thumping of desks or smiling faces to be seen in the House while the Governor read out the declaration; simply because it was lacking in credibility and sincerity. If the annual ritual of policy declaration had at least some grain of truth in it, Kerala would surely have become “God’s Own Country” at least a decade ago.
Pinarayi Vijayan and his comrades in the party should bear in mind the fact that the media singing paeans to the Government is not the yardstick for assessing the quality of administration. Moreover, the humiliation being meted out to the Governor by the lawmakers in the State is certainly not in good taste. Mani, a CPI(M) leader who himself is a former Minister, used the most unparliamentary language against the Governor. The Governor is credited with flashing the biggest scam that has haunted Kerala in the recent past: A job scam that is certain to put the Government in a tight spot! Each Minister in the Kerala Cabinet is an employment centre, offering jobs to 25 party cadres every two years on a co-terminus basis. These ‘personal staff members’ get full Government pension after two years of service, equivalent to the pension drawn by the Government staff who retire after putting in service of 25 to 30 years. But that’s a story for another day!
(The writer is a senior journalist with The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal.)
