The Left Democratic Front government in Kerala chose an extraordinary way to celebrate its second anniversary. On November 18, the chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, and his entire 21-member cabinet embarked on a 36-day-long outreach to the people, travelling on a special bus that will pass through all 140 assembly constituencies. During this cabinet-on-wheels sojourn, named Navakerala Sadas (Assemblage for a New Kerala), the ministers halt at every constituency to meet prominent citizens who had been invited from the region. While they explain the various measures implemented by the government in the past three years, officials accompanying the ministers receive memorandums from the public on pressing or long-pending needs.
LDF leaders claim that this programme is historic because it is the first time that an entire ministry has literally moved from the state secretariat into the midst of ordinary people. Never before, anywhere, has the full cabinet kept away from the state capital for more than a month. The weekly cabinet meetings are also being held at various places during the journey.
Although thousands thronged the venues to meet the ministers and submit memorandums, the Opposition United Democratic Front and Bharatiya Janata Party have slammed the programme. They have boycotted it and called it the worst example of the government’s profligacy and political propaganda misusing public money with an eye on next year’s Lok Sabha polls. The media questioned the need for the ‘extravaganza’ when the government is in a deep financial crisis. The cash-strapped government has over Rs 50,000 crore pending under various heads, such as dearness allowances to government employees, welfare pensions, benefits for retired transport workers, schoolchildren’s mid-day meal funds and so on. The government was embarrassed when the media went to town about an impoverished 87-year-old walking the streets with a begging bowl to protest against her widow’s pension being pending while the Navakerala Sadas was on.
Projected as a symbol of the roadshow’s profligacy was the luxury coach in which the ministers commute. It is a new, 25-seater bus with a specially added hydraulic lift, restrooms, a revolving chair for the chief minister and so on. More than one crore rupees was granted from the exchequer for buying and redoing the coach. According to government sources, the super bus wouldn’t be a waste because it would be used by the tourism department later.
Protests against the show turned violent on the fourth day in Kannur when Congress workers who waved black flags at the ‘cabinet coach’ were beaten up by workers from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Television channels showed the visuals in detail and the police registered even cases of attempted murder against some of the miscreants. Yet, Vijayan justified the incident, portraying it as a “life-saving operation” to salvage the lives of the protestors when they jumped in front of the moving vehicle. Vijayan said he witnessed the incident from within the bus and that such “brave acts” should be lauded and repeated. This provoked angry outbursts from the UDF, which said that their members of the legislative assembly and Parliament would take over the protest.
“This Chief Minister is a criminal presiding over a gangster state. CPI(M) is fast heading to a disaster like what happened in Bengal,” slammed V.D. Satheesan, the leader of the Opposition. However, bedeviled as it is by internal schisms, the UDF appears hamstrung for a major offensive. The Congress is rattled about sections of its powerful ally, the Muslim League, warming up to constant wooing by the CPI(M). The Congress is also embarrassed over the widespread rigging found in the recent election for the post of the state Youth Congress president.
Another controversy was sparked when schoolchildren were brought and made to stand under the sun to wave at the passing cabinet-on-wheels. A directive by a district education department official asked schools to send children to the Navakerala Sadas. This led the Kerala High Court to admonish the officials and direct that no schoolchild should be made to attend. Earlier, the high court had also cancelled the department’s directive to deploy school buses for the Sadas.
Navakerala Sadas has come on the heels of ‘Keraleeyam’, a week-long festival organised by the government from November 1 in Thiruvananthapuram. Held at the cost of Rs 50 crore, it showcased the state’s economic and social achievements and cultural heritage; it was also lambasted as a splurge. The government has admitted to its serious economic crisis but has blamed it on the Central government.
According to it, the Centre is throttling the state in multiple ways. Vijayan stated that the Centre has deprived Kerala of Rs 57,000 crore. Pending payments due to the state from the Centre include goods and services tax compensation (Rs 12,000 crore), revenue deficit grant (Rs 8,400 crore), loan restrictions (Rs 19,000 crore), share from Central taxes (Rs 18,000 crore) and so on. There are also arrears in the payment of Central shares for projects under healthcare, education, paddy procurement, capital investment and so on.
The finance minister, K.N. Balagopal says that the state’s share in Central Taxes’ Divisible Pool has fallen from 3.58% during the time of 10th Finance Commission to 1.92% now. According to him, the 15th Finance Commission has revealed that the states bear 62.4% of the country’s total revenue expenditure, but are allowed only 37.5% of the total revenue income.
He charged the Centre with withholding allocation for the Central schemes being implemented by the state because the latter refused to align with its branding norms, such as using the logos of Union departments, photographs of ministers and so on. These include schemes like the Swachh Bharat Mission, Ayushman Bharat, National Health Mission and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, among others. Funds were also withheld from Punjab and West Bengal for the same reasons.
But all these charges have been rubbished. The Union finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said during her visit to the state on November 25 that whatever was due from the Centre was because the state had failed to apply on time or submit the necessary documents or because of the diversion of funds. She said that Kerala hasn’t submitted the required revenue documents certified by the accountant general to claim GST compensation since 2017. The Congress says that the state government blamed the Centre only to divert attention from its mismanagement, corruption and the wastage of resources.
Kerala’s public debt rose by over 80% from Rs 1,86,454 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 3,35,641 crore in 2021-22. Kerala’s current debt to gross domestic product ratio, at 36.6, is the 11th highest among states. According to Balagopal, the debt of every government has risen since Covid-19. “The Indian government’s present debt to GDP ratio is 58%. Its loans formed 6.8% of GDP last financial year while it sought to cap states’ loans to 2.5%. We have reduced our revenue deficit to less than 1%, which is unprecedented and resulted from good financial management.”
According to him, Kerala is on course for fast-track growth driven by massive expansion of infrastructure funded by loans. The growth would overtake the debt rate soon. “Despite the Centre’s attempts to throttle us, we have only increased our revenue expenditure to bring money and purchasing power to the people who would drive our growth,” he says. One hopes his optimism comes true.
M.G. Radhakrishnan, a senior journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram, has worked with various print and electronic media organisations
