The Kerala government has dropped its proposed “people’s resistance” event at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on February 8 and instead plans to hold a public meeting on “protecting the federal system of the Constitution” the same day.

The change in plan follows the Congress-led Opposition United Democratic Front’s refusal to take part in the protest march to be led by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues against the Union government’s “strangulation of Kerala’s finances”.

Sensing that a Kerala-centric protest may not attract other chief ministers, the Left Front has decided to broaden the base and make it a meeting against the Centre’s decisive moves to destroy the federalism of the country.

With this in mind, Vijayan has written a letter to select Opposition chief ministers such as M.K. Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and National Conference veteran Farooq Abdullah.

Though the Congress in Kerala has decided not to cooperate with the state
government in any of its protests, Vijayan has reportedly forwarded the letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge too.

“There have been several administrative and policy measures by the central government over the last decade, seriously endangering the federal system of the Constitution.... The constitutional system that has successfully integrated the Centre and states into India’s federal structure over the last eight decades is facing a serious challenge.

“Considering the seriousness of the issues, Kerala is organising a public meeting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on the theme ‘Indian Democracy at the Crossroads: Preserving the Federal System of the Constitution’,” Vijayan wrote in his letter.

Vijayan hoped that the public meeting would be able to highlight the Centre’s highhandedness against the states.

It is not known whether the invited leaders have agreed to attend the meeting given the changing political scenario in the Opposition camp at the national level.

However, with the state Congress’s decision not to have any truck with the Left Front in its protest against the Centre, the standoff between the government and the Opposition in the state is complete.

The Opposition sees the latest invitation as a “ploy” by the Left Front to trap them and take all the credit for being anti-Centre and anti-BJP in the election year. “Why did Pinarayi Vijayan think of this protest only at this hour, barely weeks before the declaration of the Lok Sabha elections?” leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan wondered. “What was the chief minister doing all these three years?” he asked.

Congress leaders feel that Vijayan’s tactic is to appease Prime Minister Narendra Modi by making Kerala a “Congress-mukt” state.