Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan (file)
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has termed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s protest against the Central government’s “financial embargo” on Kerala in New Delhi on February 8, 2024 (Thursday) as “high political drama bankrolled by taxpayer’s money.”
During a press conference at the BJP’s national headquarters in New Delhi on February 7, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan sought to puncture holes in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s narrative that the Central government was responsible for Kerala’s fiscal crisis. His Cabinet colleague Rajeev Chandrasekhar and BJP’s Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar flanked him.
Mr. Muraleedharan accused the LDF of resorting to the “tactics of Joseph Goebbels” (Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda) by incessantly reiterating a lie to make it appear as the truth.
Mr. Muraleedharan also took a swipe at the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition in Kerala for “defending the LDF’s financial shenanigans” by not holding the government to account in the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
He said the ruling front and the Opposition in Kerala were INDIA bloc allies posing as enemies to hoodwink the Kerala electorate and ensure that the “LDF-UDF revolving door politics” endured.
Slams Kerala Budget
Mr. Muraleedharan accused Mr. Vijayan and Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal of making a “mockery” of the State’s 2024-25 Budget by supplanting the fiscal plan with a deeply resentful political statement that sought to cast the Central government in a poor light.
He said Mr. Balagopal used the Budget speech to heap blame on the Central government to paper over the LDF’s fiscal failures, including reckless borrowing and foundering financial management that caused the State’s revenue from tax and non-tax sources to plummet.
Mr. Muraleedharan defended the Central government by posing his statements as accusatory questions to Mr Vijayan. He pointed out that the 11th Finance Commission had termed Kerala the most debt-ridden State in the country.
Mr. Muraleedharan said the LDF government used most of its borrowings to pay pensions, salaries, and interest on loans and tide over the daily financial exigencies of running the government.
He alleged that the State used only a fraction of the mammoth loans from the open financial market for infrastructure development.
Mr. Muraleedharan asked Mr. Vijayan to explain how the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and the Kerala Social Security Pension Limited (KSSP), special-purpose vehicles for infrastructure development and financing the State’s social security net, respectively, paid back their vast borrowings. “What original revenue do these entities generate?” Mr. Muraleedharan asked.
He dared the LDF to move a breach of privilege motion against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman if he felt she had misled the Parliament by lying about giving Kerala its share of the national revenue.
Mr. Muraleedharan said the LDF falsely harped on the Centre not paying GST compensation for States, which ended as per national consensus and statute in June 2022.
Nevertheless, he claimed that the Centre compensated Kerala despite the LDF government’s late filing of the requisite forms. He said Kerala got the most significant share of revenue deficit grant disbursed among States.
Mr. Muraleedharan asked Mr. Vijayan to explain why beneficiaries of social welfare schemes in Kerala were driven to despair despite the Central government’s allocation of ₹602 crore for the State’s social security net. He claimed that the Central government had paid Kerala ₹720 crore for University Grants Commission (UGC) salary revision, and that nothing had come of it.