Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday launched a sharp attack on Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, accusing him of blatantly violating constitutional principles by directly summoning the state police chief without consulting the Chief Minister or the minister concerned.
In a strongly worded social media post, Vijayan described the Governor’s action as thoroughly undemocratic and alleged that it amounted to an attempt to interfere directly in the administration of the state by bypassing the elected government.
“The Governor’s attempt to run a parallel administration by reducing the government to a mere spectator is undesirable,” Vijayan said, insisting that the Governor was bound to act in accordance with the advice and directions of the Council of Ministers.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s 2016 judgment in the Nabam Rebia case, Pinarayi said the court had made it unambiguously clear that Article 163 of the Constitution did not confer unfettered discretionary powers on the Governor.
He alleged that the Governor could not take unilateral decisions in such matters and questioned whether the state police vhief had met the Governor with the permission of the minister concerned.
Vijayan termed the Governor’s alleged direct intervention in the functioning of the state police, which is responsible for maintaining law and order, a completely wrong course of action and claimed that it could eventually lead to handing over the state’s police administration to the RSS.
He also criticised the UDF government for what he described as its conciliatory approach towards the Governor.
According to Vijayan, the government’s silence was being interpreted by the Governor as submission and was providing him an opportunity to expand his interventions into other departments.
The former Chief Minister also referred to the Governor’s reported meeting of officials at Lok Bhavan in connection with International Yoga Day.
He said the UDF government had maintained a culpable silence even after the issue was raised by the Leader of the Opposition, while the Chief Minister failed to act.
He recalled that the Chief Secretary had reportedly expressed displeasure over the meeting.
Drawing a comparison with the previous LDF government, Vijayan said the CPI-M-led government had mounted a strong constitutional defence when similar interventions were made by the Lok Bhavan.
He recalled that the Chief Minister had written to Lok Bhavan and directed officials not to attend such meetings.
Vijayan warned that the issue should not be reduced to an adjustment politics between the Governor and the state government, arguing that it involved the constitutional and federal rights of the elected government and could have far-reaching consequences.
He ended by accusing the UDF government of being afraid to utter even a single word against what he described as the Governor’s excessive exercise of power and constitutional violations, calling its alleged surrender of the rights of the elected government an insult to the voters.
(IANS)
