The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) has pulled off a major political coup by prompting Governor Arif Mohammad Khan to deliver its stated position on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and its angst about the fear gripping the minorities in the Assembly.
The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) bid to take the wind out of the government’s sails by blocking Mr. Khan on the floor of the Assembly got aborted once he read out the controversial references against the Act.
The decision to waylay the Governor was being perceived as an Opposition strategy to gain some lost ground from the LDF which had successfully organised a human chain as part of its anti-CAA agitation, even with the support of some Opposition members.
The LDF was widely believed to have succeeded in exposing what it had described as the UDF’s, especially the Congress party’s failure to rise up to the expectations of the minorities, both Muslims and Christians, who fear that the Act might threaten their very existence as religious communities.
Had the Governor chosen to skip the portions in question and not expressed his reservations about the government stance on the CAA, the Opposition could have mounted an attack by accusing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his colleagues of pandering to his wishes.
But by reminding the Governor of his constitutional obligation to deliver the policy address in its entirety, the government has succeeded in running its writ without hurting him. And that may have rendered a major jolt to the Opposition which merely chose to boycott the address virtually clueless.
Even at the height of sparring between the Governor over the government moving the apex court challenging the Act reached a frenetic pitch, Mr.Vijayan and his Cabinet colleagues chose to exercise restraint in their criticism against Mr. Khan.
Instead, it was the LDF political leadership that had taken up this task with vigour. That strategy appears to have helped keep a channel of communication open with the Raj Bhavan and prevent the row from escalating further.
Though the government and the Opposition claim of gaining an upper hand over each other in the row, the government move to bring round Mr. Khan to its stance and his decision to read the address, though after airing his personal objections, are being read as the practices of a robust democracy where areas of cooperation are explored amidst differences of opinion.
