Breaking the ice over breakfast

Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and Ok.V. Thomas, Particular Consultant of the Kerala authorities in Delhi, throughout a gathering at Kerala Home, in New Delhi, on March 12, 2025.
| Photograph Credit score: PTI

The latest breakfast assembly that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hosted for Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the Kerala Home in New Delhi appeared to sign a thaw in relations between the southern State and the Centre, particularly on the monetary entrance. After the assembly, Ms. Sitharaman’s workplace shared pictures on social media.

Ok.V. Thomas, a Congress veteran who was expelled from his social gathering for aligning with the Communist Social gathering of India (Marxist)’s agenda and who’s now the Kerala authorities’s particular consultant in New Delhi, was additionally current on the assembly on March 12. However what actually grabbed the headlines was the presence and position of Kerala’s new Governor, Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. Even when we had been to low cost the acrimonious relationship that the Kerala authorities had with the earlier Governor, Arif Mohammed Khan, to see Mr. Arlekar accompanying Mr. Vijayan to the assembly was sudden.

A day earlier, Mr. Arlekar had hosted a dinner for the Members of Parliament from Kerala and interacted with them “on problems with concern”, because the Kerala Raj Bhavan later posted on X. He had additionally assured Mr. Vijayan, who was current on the dinner, of his assist to the State authorities in presenting its points successfully earlier than the Centre.

For Kerala and its CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Entrance (LDF) authorities, all that is occurring at a essential time limit. Concerning monetary issues, the Left authorities has for lengthy accused the Narendra Modi authorities of giving it quick shrift. It has blamed the Modi authorities for the State’s mounting cash woes and raged in opposition to the Centre for disregarding the idea of fiscal federalism. It even took the battle to the Supreme Courtroom. Final yr, within the aftermath of the damaging July 30 landslides in north Kerala’s Wayanad district, the Pinarayi authorities additionally criticised the Centre for allegedly failing to assist the State’s rehabilitation efforts with financial assist.

Over a five-year interval, the State authorities’s relations with the Raj Bhavan beneath Mr. Khan had additionally steadily crumbled, with each side taking the battle out into the open. Mr. Khan had taken robust exception to the federal government’s strategy on various points, particularly in what he perceived as its unwarranted interference within the administration of universities of which he’s Chancellor. At one level, Mr. Khan acknowledged that he was withdrawing the Governor’s pleasure so far as Finance Minister Ok.N. Balagopal was involved. In different phrases, Mr. Khan wished Mr. Balagopal dismissed for making remarks that he noticed as seditious, undermining nationwide unity and stoking regionalism.

On its half, the CPI(M) slammed Mr. Khan for dishonouring the Workplace of the Governor together with his brazen behaviour. Even the State Legislative Meeting was not proof against the excessive drama. In a single occasion, Mr. Khan wound up his coverage deal with in lower than two minutes, limiting himself to simply the primary and final paragraphs of the 61-page doc.

From there, the Kerala authorities’s relations with the Raj Bhavan beneath Mr. Arlekar — a Sangh Parivar veteran and former Governor of Himachal Pradesh and Bihar who succeeded Mr. Khan on January 2 — appear to have shifted swiftly to the pleasanter finish of the spectrum. Mr. Arlekar’s maiden coverage deal with to the State Meeting was, regardless of its two-hour length, shorn of any drama. Whereas he caught to the script, the federal government apparently took care to keep away from extreme political rhetoric within the textual content, setting the tone for what has since transpired.

How this perceived softening in Kerala’s relations with the Centre works out for the State stays to be seen, coming because it does forward of two essential elections — the native physique polls later this yr and the Meeting elections subsequent yr. Mr. Balagopal’s 2025-26 Funds speech on February 7 had opened with the announcement that Kerala has “undoubtedly overcome the attempting occasions of extreme fiscal constraints that had affected the State lately”. Nonetheless, Kerala expects the Centre to additional loosen its purse strings, particularly within the sharing of tax sources, and present extra flexibility in its stand on the contentious situation of borrowing limits. The State can be keenly awaiting the suggestions of the sixteenth Finance Fee, hoping that it’s going to get a greater deal than it did beneath the fifteenth Fee.