After days of political controversies, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has given his nod for a special assembly session on December 31. Law Minister AK Balan and Agriculture Minister VS Sunil Kumar, and Assembly Speaker P Ramakrishnan had called on the Governor to discuss the necessity of the session. The one-hour long session on Thursday will start from 9 am till 10 am, and will witness a discussion on the Centre’s three controversial farm laws.
The special assembly session was supposed to have been held on December 23, but the Governor did not give his nod, citing that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had not “provided the reason” for calling the special session. Following this, the ruling LDF and the UDF went out against the Governor on political and Constitutional grounds. Pinarayi Vijayan had written a second “confidential” letter to Arif Khan, which was leaked to the press inviting more controversies. However, in his letter to the CM, the Governor had criticised the leak as well as maintaining that Pinarayi had not properly explained the reason for the session.
The LDF and UDF jointly support the session, where they will pass a resolution against the three farm laws. UDF leaders had earlier said that a resolution is not enough, as an alternative law must be passed in place of the three controversial farm laws. Considering this, bureaucrats from the law and agriculture departments have begun collaborating on the preparation of a draft agriculture bill to be tabled on December 31. While there is widespread support for this across LDF and UDF, political observers do not believe a unanimous decision would take place since the lone BJP MLA O Rajagopal might reject it.
