Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Tuesday refused to give his nod to hold a special one-day session of the Legislative Assembly for discussing and passing a resolution against the contentious farm laws brought by the Union government. The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala sought a nod on Monday, to hold the session on Wednesday. The Governor on Monday asked the government for a reason to hold the session, following which the government gave two explanations. The Governor on Tuesday evening said that he was not convinced.
With this, the session won’t take place. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to the Governor, following the refusal, saying that it’s anti-constitutional. “It’s against sub-section 174(1) of the Constitution. The Governor has no discretionary power to convene or to adjourn the Assembly session,” the CM wrote.
“The argument that there is no urgency is wrong. It has been in the past days that the farmers’ protest in various parts of the country developed into this magnitude. Both the President and the Governor should act as per the advice of the cabinet. Sarkaria Commission has underlined that the Governor is bound to obey when a government that has majority in the House recommends to hold or adjourn a session,” he wrote.
Agriculture Minister VS Sunilkumar said, "We went by the rules as the decision to convene the Assembly rests with the cabinet and such a thing has taken place for the first time in the history of the state. This is definitely a serious political issue and even the Congress-led opposition had backed this session. We are waiting for the Chief Minister, who is outside the district, to return. A few other states have also held special Assembly sessions for this,” he said.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chenithala said that the MLAs should convene in the Assembly lounge and pass the resolution. The special session was planned for one hour and only the party leaders representing the various political outfits were supposed to speak and at the end, the resolution was supposed to be passed. The ruling Left Democratic Front has a majority of 91 seats in the 140-member Assembly.
Pinarayi had said earlier that Kerala will seek legal recourse against the farm laws and the special session was seen as the first step to that.
The three farm laws; the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, were passed by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in September.
Incidentally, Kerala in January this year became the first state in the country to file a case in the Supreme Court against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), after which the other states also followed suit.
With IANS Inputs