With Pinarayi’s Raj Bhavan visit LDF lost a chance to make Governor fall in line: Kanam

Thiruvananthapuram: The Communist Party of India has termed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's visit to the Raj Bhavan in order to get the Governor's assent to the customary policy address to the Kerala Legislative Assembly as “abject surrender” before the latter.

The chief minister went to the Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor without the knowledge of the political leadership, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said while unleashing a scathing attack on the ruling dispensation.

The chief minister’s Raj Bhavan visit is a political loss to the LDF, Kanam told “Manorama News” in an interview.

Kanam said the LDF should have politically exposed Governor Arif Mohammed Khan's cheap bargain for approving and delivering the policy address.

By unleashing a political attack, the LDF could have established that the Governor was an agent of the central government who is out to destroy the federal structure of the country. Through such a stand the LDF could have created circumstances under which the Governor would have been forced to deliver the policy address in consonance with his constitutional obligations.

The CPI has been voicing its displeasure over the equations between Kerala Governor and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) State Government. The party state chief Kanam Rajendran and his party colleague Revenue Minister K Rajan disapproved the Governor's intransigence on a few administrative matters, the latest being withholding consent, at least briefly, to the policy address which was delivered on the opening day of the Budget session of state assembly a few days ago.  

The CPI leader said instead of taking him on politically, the government's decision to yield to Arif Mohammed Khan's demands was totally wrong. The decision was taken by those heading the government and the entire responsibility is theirs.

Kanam said the Governor would have had no option but to sign on the policy address had the Cabinet met again and sent the draft to the Raj Bhavan for the second time. “Skies would not have fallen had the  Assembly session been deferred for one or two days to make the Governor fall in line. By doing so the LDF would have raised its prestige to a higher level,” the CPI leader pointed out.

Earlier, the CPI had expressed serious differences over the manner in which the Lokayukta ordinance was brought in by the government. 

>> Watch this space for a detailed interview.

Kanam’s strong criticism of CM's Raj Bhavan visit and the Lokayukta ordinance reflected the CPI’s anger against the chief minister and CPM leadership for taking unilateral decisions without going in for any political consultations within the LDF.

He even scoffed at the removal of a bureaucrat by the government in a bid to humour the Governor prior to getting the nod for the policy address.  

Kanam said the decision reminded one of an old practice in Kuttanad wherein an agricultural worker used to be sacrificed for a better paddy crop. His remark was directed at the shifting of General Administration Department (GAD) secretary K R Jyothilal from the post for writing a dissent note while accepting the Governor’s demand to appoint BJP leader Hari S Kartha in his personal staff.