New Delhi, EW News: Kerala and Tamil Nadu have joined their neighboring state of Karnataka in protesting against the BJP-led Centre over alleged discrimination and neglect in the allocation of funds. Kerala’s Left Front and Tamil Nadu’s DMK staged protests in Delhi on Thursday against the center’s apathy towards non-BJP-ruled states.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to the national capital his state’s protest against the Union government’s alleged discriminatory attitude towards non-BJP ruled states over funds allocations. The dharna, participated in by representatives of several parties, such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), National Conference, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), also became a show of Opposition solidarity in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress, a key Opposition force against the LDF in Kerala, stayed away.
Vijayan has taken the protest route against the Union government to protect his state’s interests and defend his government. The protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi was termed as one for the ‘survival of the states’ and to ‘safeguard federalism’. Just a day ago, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah had led a similar protest at Jantar Mantar against the Centre’s alleged bipartisan behavior and disparity in the share of central taxes to Karnataka.
Vijayan’s protest had earlier received support from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K Stalin. The Left was represented at the protest site by the likes of CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, politburo members Prakash Karat and A. Vijayaraghavan, CPI(M) Kerala secretary M.V. Govindan Master, LDF coordination committee convenor E.P. Jayarajan, CPI general secretary D. Raja, CPI Kerala secretary Binoy Viswam, Kerala Congress (Mani) leader Jose K. Mani, and ministers, MLAs and MPs from Kerala.
The CPI(M) rated the protest as a major success. Among the Opposition participants were Delhi chief minister and AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, National Conference supremo Farooq Abdullah, and Tamil Nadu Minister for information technology P. Thiaga Rajan.
Vijayan said Kerala’s historical battle was to “save the spirit of federalism” and protect the “interests of the states”. “The Centre is encroaching upon the powers of states and neglecting the Opposition-ruled states while giving preferential treatment to states ruled by the BJP and its allies,” he said.
“The Union government has been making laws that encroach upon the states’ powers and duties in several sectors, even on law and order, which is absolutely in the State List in the Constitution. Multinational agreements are being entered into, on issues that affect the states, without seeking the states’ opinion, let alone getting their consent. These are all telling examples of how the rights of states are being trampled upon,” Vijayan said.
“The Centre insists on its branding on projects supported with minimum allocation. Such directives are going to hurt the self-respect of the beneficiaries. No government with a welfare mission can insist on such branding,” Vijayan remarked. His reference was to Kerala’s Life Mission project, which has been stalled after the central government demanded its branding with logo on houses for the beneficiaries.
The Vijayan government introduced Life Mission—free housing for the poor and homeless—on coming to power in 2016, converging nine special projects, including the PM Awas Yojana. It has so far provided 374,508 homes while another 120,000 are under construction and spent around Rs 17,104 crore. The Centre has only provided Rs 2,081 crore as its share.
The maximum central assistance as subsidy for each house is Rs 2.56 lakh while the state government provides Rs 4.3 lakh for constructing the 450 sq. ft houses. The project is rated as one of the best initiatives introduced by a government in Kerala.
Vijayan also alleged that the Centre had hampered Kerala’s progress by introducing curbs and minimizing allocations. By staging the protest at Jantar Mantar, branding it as a fight for the survival of states ruled by the Opposition, and roping in Opposition leaders, Vijayan has fired a fresh salvo against the Narendra Modi government. He has won the first round but expects the BJP to strike back as it hardens its resolve to make a mark in Kerala in the general elections.
He said, “A “financial embargo” silently imposed by the central government on Kerala and some of the Southern and Opposition-governed states has unleashed a new war between the center and the states creating a polarised normative axis in redefining the North-South divide debate. The political economy of actual fiscal devolution observed over the last few years has experienced extensive ‘politicization’ by the Modi government.
As argued recently, this has been observed in the way the government has squeezed some states’ fiscal freedom to borrow. In the backdrop of the grave financial crisis that state governments are facing currently, Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal said that his state’s net borrowing limits have been reduced by Rs 4,000 crore.
