Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] appeared poised to battle each other over a politically contentious petition seeking the Presidential imposition of a financial emergency in the State under Article 360(1) of the Constitution.
Mr. Khan hit a raw nerve by forwarding the plea authored by social activist R.S. Sasikumar to the government for comments. Mr. Sasikumar had sought the President’s intervention to “save Kerala from irredeemable financial instability precipitated by the State government’s reckless borrowing, lax tax administration, and unpardonable profligacy”.
Mr. Khan confirmed he had sought a report from the government on the State’s fiscal health. “Let the report come,” he told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Governor’s move comes when the political wrangling over Kerala’s finances has reached an apogee. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have held the government responsible for the State’s “poor finances”.
The government countered the campaign by accusing the Central government of imposing a politically motivated financial embargo on Kerala to choke the State’s development.
CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan took strong exception to Mr. Khan’s alleged bid to hold the State to ransom “by threatening to misuse his power to advocate for the declaration of a State of financial emergency in Kerala”.
Mr. Govindan accused Mr. Khan of threatening to employ a rarely used constitutional provision to give political cover to the Centre, which he accused of attempting to run Kerala to financial ruin.
Mr. Govindan argued that Mr. Khan had no case against the government by pointing out that Kerala’s “own revenue” leapt from ₹58,300 crore in March 2022 to a whopping ₹71,900 crore in March 2023. However, he alleged, the State lost ₹64,000 crore due to the Centre’s “obstinate denial of the revenue it owed the State.
Mr. Govindan said the Centre had withheld Kerala’s GST compensation and whittled Kerala’s share of the revenue deficit grant. It slashed the State’s allocation from the divisive pool. The BJP hauled down Kerala’s borrowing limit to stymie the State’s development.
Mr. Govindan said the CPI(M) would muster people to resist Mr. Khan’s alleged trespasses on fiscal federalism. He also said the party would marshal students, teachers, and parents to resist Mr Khan’s “bid to stack State-funded university senates with Sangh Parivar nominees”.
He accused the Congress of playing second fiddle to the BJP in Kerala by remaining silent about Mr. Khan’s “brazen misuse of gubernatorial authority”.
