Governor edits policy address, CM calls him out, still Arlekar sneaks in Uniform Civil Code message

The calm in the Kerala Legislative Assembly during the Governor's address on Tuesday turned out to be highly deceptive.

After Governor Rajendra Arlekar completed his nearly two-hour, seemingly uneventful 'policy address' and was ushered out, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan returned to the House and announced that the Governor had indulged in a bit of omission and addition.

"It is the policy address that was approved by the State Cabinet in accordance with constitutional principles that will prevail," the Chief Minister said.

The changes were found in paragraphs 12, 15 and 16 of the policy address. The Governor took out a line each from paragraphs 12 and 15, the first against the Centre and the other against his own office. And in the 17th para, Governor Arlekar inserted a subjective angle to distance himself from what was said.

Here is the first line of the 12th paragraph that the Governor bypassed. "Despite these social and institutional achievements, Kerala continues to face severe fiscal stress arising from a series of adverse Union Government actions that undermine the constitutional principles of fiscal federalism."

In the 15th paragraph it was the last line. "Bills passed by state legislatures have remained pending for prolonged periods. My government has approached the Supreme Court on these issues, which have been referred to a Constitution Bench."

Governor Arlekar retained the last line of the 17th paragraph. "Tax devolution and Finance Commission grants are constitutional entitlements of states and not acts of charity, and any pressure on constitutional bodies entrusted with this task undermines federal principles."

However, instead of making it sound like a statement of fact, Arlekar began the sentence saying, "My government feels tax devolution and Finance Commission grants..." Don't fire the shot from behind my shoulders, the Governor was in effect saying.

Speaker AN Shamseer seconded the Chief Minister's opinion and ruled that only the address prepared by the government and approved by the state cabinet would prevail. "Deletions or additions will not be officially recognised," the Speaker said, and added: "Even in earlier instances the Chair has made this clear."

Lull before the storm
When the Governor was reading out the 'policy address' it felt like after the pugnacious addresses of Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and the highly sanitised first Arlekar address last January that tried too hard not to offend the BJP-ruled Centre, the Kerala Assembly had settled back into the ritualistic mode of the pre-Arif Khan years when governors read out from the text placed before them without a twitch of disapproval.

It was as if the Governor had decided to let the Government have its say on the eve of the 2026 Assembly polls, a one-time amnesty. As it turned out, the Governor was not in a mood to oblige.

Anti-Centre bitterness expressed
Nonetheless, even what the Governor read out boiled with resentment at the Union government's autocratic and discriminatory ways.

For instance: "My government has categorically rejected the claim that Kerala’s fiscal stress is the result of extravagance." or "Making things more challenging, this year alone, the state has been denied ₹17,000 crore due to curtailment of its borrowing limit and IGST adjustment. A further loss of ₹4,250 crore due to GSDP methodology that deviates from the accepted recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission." Or "Despite these social and institutional achievements, Kerala continues to face severe fiscal stress arising from a series of adverse Union Government actions that undermine the constitutional principles of fiscal federalism."

Hindutva message slips through
Finally, while concluding, the Governor departed fully from the text, and the political intent hidden in this Trojan Horse went unnoticed.

"At the end, I will just remind all of us that Constitution makers like Babasaheb Ambedkar had visited Kerala Legislative Assembly 75 years ago. Then, it was the Travancore-Kochi Legislative Assembly. Nonetheless, the importance of the visit (Ambedkar's) is very high and we have to celebrate it sometimes," he said.

Though this was not seen as problematic by the Chief Minister, a closer reading would reveal a deftly veiled but sharp political message. Ambedkar addressed the Thiru-Kochi Assembly in June 1950, four months after the Indian Constitution came into force on January 26.

It is the reason behind Ambedkar's Kerala visit that makes Arlekar's concluding remarks politically sensitive. Ambedkar flew down to Kerala to hold discussions with Hindu leaders in the Thiru-Kochi region on the necessity of the Hindu Code bills that both he and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were championing.

Together, these bills -- Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act -- legally abolished the caste system and introduced uniform personal laws for Hindus, including Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs. The personal laws of Muslims, Christians and Parsis remain untouched.

When he told the Kerala Assembly that Ambedkar's visit has to be "celebrated sometimes", Governor Arlekar was perhaps suggesting the need to introduce the Uniform Civil Code for the entire country, an RSS project that has been vehemently opposed by secular formations.