Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Assembly witnessed high drama Tuesday, the first day of its budget session, after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called out Governor Rajendra Arlekar for editing the customary policy address.
Governor Rajendra Arlekar read out the policy address for nearly two hours. But soon after his speech, the chief minister took over and pointed out that the governor had made changes to certain paragraphs approved by the Council of Ministers. According to CM Pinarayi Vijayan, the governor omitted sentences that criticised him for delay in passing Bills and the Centre for denying the state its rightful share of central tax.
“In paragraphs 12, 15 and 16 of the policy address approved by the Council of Ministers, some changes were made in the governor’s speech. In accordance with the spirit of the Constitution and the conventions of the House, it is the policy address approved by the Council of Ministers that prevails,” the chief minister said, adding that the edited paragraphs would remain as approved by the cabinet.
However, the Lok Bhavan called the controversy “baseless”. A statement from the Lok Bhavan said: “The government had responded that the speech could be prepared and read with amendments that the Governor found appropriate. There was also an indication that the speech could be sent again with the suggested changes. However, the same speech was sent back to the Governor after midnight yesterday without any amendments.”
In his speech, the governor had avoided a sentence from the 12th paragraph: “Despite having achieved such social and institutional gains, Kerala continues to face a severe financial strain as a result of the Union government’s continued adverse measures that weaken the constitutional principles of fiscal federalism.”
The governor also omitted reading two sentences from the 15th paragraph on the pendency of Bills: “Bills passed by State Legislature have been kept pending for a long time. On these issues, my Government has approached the Supreme Court and they have been referred to a Constitution Bench.”
Similarly, the governor added “my government feels” before the last line of the 16th paragraph: “The tax share and Finance Commission grants are the constitutional rights of the states and not acts of generosity, and any pressure exerted on the constitutional institutions entrusted with this responsibility weakens the federal principles.”
The controversy is the latest in the ongoing tussle between the Lok Bhavan and the state government. Last year, two ministers had boycotted Lok Bhavan events over the presence of an image of ‘Bharat Mata’, associated with the RSS, at official events. Though Arlekar was appointed governor in 2025, the state government had frequent disagreements also with the previous governor Arif Khan.
In 2024, Arif Khan had read only the concluding paragraphs of the policy address in assembly.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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