Is Governor a BJP spokesman?

Santosh Kumar

Pinarayi Vijayan With Kerala G o v e r n o r A r i f Mohammad Khan using e v e r y opportunity to hit out against the state government over its stand on the new Citizenship Amendment Act, the impression gaining in political circles in the state is one of confrontation.
Even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his ministers restrain themselves from getting into a verbal duel with the Governor, Khan seems to have stepped up his aggression, bordering to whipping up an imaginary antiLeft Front hysteria in the state.
Khan’s recent emotional outbursts are seen as a conscious effort to divert the focus of the agitation against CAA in the state, which has now become a role model for other states, into one that of a constitutional tussle between the Governor and the Left Front government.

Khan’s brush with the Left Front government began at the 80th Indian History Congress held at Kozhikode December end, where his speech justifying CAA was disrupted by students.

The Governor, who left the venue in a huff, had at that time threatened to take action against the government for what he claimed “breach of protocol”. Nothing came out of it and there was a brief lull.

But once the state Assembly passed a resolution against the Act, not a single day has passed without the Governor making one statement or other condemning ‘his own’ government.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his ministers restrain themselves from getting into a verbal duel with the Governor. But Khan seems to have stepped up his aggression, bordering to whipping up an imaginary anti-Left Front hysteria in the state.

Once the state government moved the Supreme Court against the Act, Khan seems to have forgotten the decency and decorum of the post he holds.

Not that the state has not witnessed any Governorgovernment stand-off in the past. In fact, it had started from the very first democratically elected government of the state. In 1959, the EMS Namboodiripad-led communist government was the first to be dismissed in the country following the report of the Governor on deteriorating law and order conditions in the state.

However, it had not reached such a low where a Governor reminds the Chief Minister of his “duties” each time he sees a newsperson. Governors are not supposed to turn every occasion into a press conference as is the case with politicians.

Khan has been profusely quoting from the rule book and the Constitution to prove that he is head of the state, even above an elected government, which prompted the Chief Minister to curtly remind him that the days of ‘Princely Resident’ were over.

Arif Mohammad Khan “As far as I am concerned, the rules of duties are clear. The Chief Minister is duty-bound to approach me before he passes any such order...It is my responsibility to ensure that the Constitutional modality does not collapse. I will not be a rubber stamp,” Arif Md Khan has repeated many times.
Whether the Chief Minister is duty-bound to inform the Governor before moving the Supreme Court against an act or not is not the relevant question here. Nor is it a question of Governor being a rubber stamp.
An elected government has every right to question an Act if the people of the state feel so. There is wide-spread resentment in the state and fear among the minorities, especially Muslims, against the motive behind the new citizenship act.
Almost 27 per cent of the state’s population belong to the Muslim community and the state government is more duty-bound to assuage their fears.

An elected government has every right to question an Act if the people of the state feel so. There is widespread resentment in the state and fear among the minorities, especially Muslims, against the motive behind the new citizenship act.

Instead of understanding the sentiments of the people of the state, Governor Khan is trying to politicise the issue, obviously at the behest the BJP, of which Khan was a member in his last avatar as a politician.

When he was named as the Governor, there were apprehensions that his was a posting in deputation to win over the Muslim community in the state.

At present, the general feeling in Kerala is that the Governor is filling the dots for a non-existent BJP president in the state. The state BJP is without a president for the last three months, though the last one, the present Governor of Mizoram. P S Sreedharan Pillai, is trying to fill in the gap from Azawl. Pillai has been raising his voice in support of Khan.

Even as the behaviour of Arif Md Khan is “unbecoming of a Governor”, the LDF has played its cards well so far by letting the party, CPM, do the political talking.

Party paper Deshabhimani in a hard-hitting editorial has pointed out that it is the Governor who is breaching all protocols and not the government. The editorial attacked Khan for coming out in public against LDF government and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for not informing him before moving the top court against the CAA and for not signing the ordinance regarding the local self-government ward delimitation.

“The attempt is to establish a precedent that the state has no independent power and it should await the Governor’s permission even for constitutionally guaranteed rights,” it said.

With the BJP government at the Centre determined to push through the CAA followed by census and NPR, the stand-off between the Governor and the Left Front will only worsen in the days to come.

Justifying the anti-CAA resolution passed by the Kerala Assembly, the newspaper said it was “legal” and “passed in accordance with the rules and regulations”. “There is no need to inform the Governor in advance before the resolution is passed,” the editorial said.

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan It has been followed by an article by state CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan questioning the very need for the post of Governor in a democratic setup.
With the BJP government at the Centre determined to push through the CAA followed by census and NPR, feared by a majority as a shortcut to controversial National Register of Citizens, the stand-off between the Governor and the Left Front will only worsen in the days to come.