The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) staged a protest in front of Raj Bhavan, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government of hindering the progress of States by attempting to undermine their legislative and financial independence.
Inaugurating the protest, LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan accused Governor Arif Mohammed Khan of subverting the legislative power of the Kerala Assembly and denying the people’s will by refusing to sign important Bills passed by the House into law.
He accused Raj Bhavan of precipitating an administrative stasis by withholding assent to important Bills, including those related to the administration of varsities and the Kerala Lok Ayukta.
Mr. Jayarajan accused the Centre of repeatedly trespassing on fiscal federalism. He said the Centre sought to financially strangulate States by hauling down their borrowing limits for infrastructure development projects, unfairly including borrowings of State-owned entities in the provincial government’s public debt calculations, halting GST compensation, and whittling down the share of States from the divisive pool of taxes.
He accused the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) of playing second fiddle to the BJP by acting as the Centre’s ideological echo chamber in Kerala. Congress MPs demurred from raising the State’s apprehensions and demands with the Union Finance Ministry. “The UDF is inherently anti-development,” Mr. Jayarajan said.
He said Kerala’s development achievements and its transit to a knowledge economy frightened the Congress and the BJP. Despite intense recriminatory campaigns that bordered on the personal, citizens had gifted the Pinarayi Vijayan government two terms in power. The LDF was on the path to scoring a third consecutive victory.
He said despite the Centre’s best efforts to deter the LDF government, it had expanded its welfare pension network. The KFON project would bring Internet at affordable rates to ordinary homes. The LDF provided an alternative development agenda for the entire country to emulate, he said.
