India / Kerala Guv gives assent to Assembly session on farm laws on Dec 31

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Monday morning finally gave his assent to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan government's recommendation to convene a special Assembly session on December 31. This recommendation was filed by the cabinet to discuss the three contentious farm laws introduced by the Centre and pass a resolution against them. 

Earlier on December 23, when Kerala CM had written a letter to the Governor, specifying the need for a special assembly session in short notice, the later had rejected the recommendation, shot a letter back, pointing out the reasons for not giving his assent. However, Later, Kerala Minister VS Sunilkumar and AK Balan met Khan at his residence on the Christmas day and appraised him about the government's position. 

The tussle between Kerala CM and Governor

After Kerala Governor declined to convene a special assembly session the Kerala cabinet had on Thursday again decided to recommend to him to convene a one-day session on December 31 to discuss and pass a resolution against the three agrarian laws.

The Kerala Government had written to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan to convene a special Assembly session which the latter had turned down and wrote to the chief minister stating reasons for refusing the government's request. In his letter to the chief minister on Wednesday, Governor highlighted that the cabinet had initially requested to summon the Assembly on January 8, for which he immediately gave approval, but the request was later withdrawn and instead, permission for a special session on December 23 was sought. He has also alleged that despite repeated efforts, CM Vijayan 'refused' to share the proceedings that led to the cabinet's decision to cancel the scheduled session for January 8 and instead seek an hour-long session on December 23. Thereafter, the state government has again urged the governor to convene a special assembly session on December 31.

Incidentally, Kerala is one such state which doesn't have the APMC system while the state government vows to extend support to farmers agitation who want the continuance of APMC Mandi system. Moreover, the Centre has assured that the APMCs and MSP mechanism will continue to exist even after the implementation of farm laws.

Governor Khan questioned the chief minister over the need to convene assembly session in a hurry as against the earlier decision of a scheduled session on January 8, to which the governor gave his nod. Responding to Governer's query on the 'urgency to convene a session', the Chief Minister said the protests by farmers can create havoc for a large consumer state like Kerala.