COVID, Kallarangatt and 'Juliet killings' to dominate Kerala Assembly's third session

Kerala assembly
The state government, is expecting to improve its rank in the upcoming grading. Photo: IANS

Thiruvananthapuram: The 24-day third session of the 15th Kerala Assembly, which will witness the intense scrutiny of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government's first 100 days, will begin on Monday.

Some of the issues that had animated the second session during July and August - Karuvannoor bank scam, gold smuggling gang wars and Kodakara hawala scandal - seem to have died down. While some like COVID management (the TPR is still above 13 per cent), plus-one admissions (after the record SSLC pass this year, even full A-plus students are finding it hard to secure admissions for subjects of their choice), frequent fuel price hikes (the need to forego a part of sales tax would be raised again), Muttil tree-felling case (suspended officers have been reinstated) and COVID-induced livelihood crisis continue to simmer.

Though adjournment motions will be moved on all these issues, sources said the government would concede a discussion in the Assembly on at least two issues: one, how to go about re-opening schools and colleges after COVID and two, how to support the informal sector that has been decimated by the pandemic.

The scheduled dates for the re-opening of both colleges and schools fall within the period of the third session, from October 4 to November 12.

Last session, the opposition, through reasoned and forceful arguments, had also forced the government to alter many of its COVID policies, especially some of the restrictions that were arbitrarily imposed.

The opposition had also made the government concede that there indeed was a mismatch in the declared deaths and reality.

Late last month, the government had decided to include 8,000 more deaths in its official tally.

In the two months after the last session, more sensational issues have also cropped up. The most important, the one with a serious bearing on the nature of Kerala, is the 'narcotic jihad' comment of Pala bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt and the communal divide that the prelate's comments had caused.

Though opposition leader V D Satheesan was the first to rebuke the bishop, saying his words had crossed limits, the chief minister, after dithering for a while, made it abundantly clear that there were no such phenomena called 'love jihad' or 'narcotic jihad'.

However, before the chief minister's categorical rebuttal came and when the government looked comfortable taking a neutral stand, inter-religious bitterness had aggravated alarmingly.

The UDF, especially the Congress and the Muslim League, had used the opportunity to play the role of mediator between communities with a certain degree of aplomb.

The results of the last Assembly polls had indicated that the secular space had been cornered by the LDF. The UDF will use the Assembly session as an occasion to reclaim the space.

If the 'narcotic jihad' remark had belied Kerala's latent 'belief bias', Monson Mavunkal has shown how easily a confidence trickster could lure even the high and the mighty to his trap. The Opposition would present the Mavunkal case as proof of the Home Department's incompetency. Senior police officers, including former DGP Loknath Behra, are said to have close connections with the dealer of fake antiques.

This, however, would be a double-edged sword for the Opposition as reports of KPCC president K Sudhakaran's closeness with Mavunkal had also surfaced.

Sudhakaran, further embarrassing his party, had said he had visited Mavunkal's house thinking he was a cosmetic surgeon.

The increasing instances of what has been called 'Juliet killings' is also expected to come up for discussion. Official figures say that 12 women were killed in the last four years by spurned lovers. The latest happened in Pala, where a 20-year-old youth sawed the neck of his friend using a paper cutter.

Nonetheless, the bigger focus of the third session will be on legislative business. Last session, after a point of order was raised questioning the existence of a large number of ordinances, Speaker M B Rajesh had promised a special session to pass into bills many of these ordinances. The Assembly will approve into bills 45 ordinances that are now in force.

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