The “inordinate” gubernatorial delay in giving assent to Bills passed by their respective State legislatures has accorded Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Tamil Nadu counterpart M. K. Stalin a consequential opportunity to make a common political cause in addressing a volatile issue that has roiled both administrations and strained their relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government.
The dialogue between the two leaders, in the form of back-to-back official correspondence over the past week, has also appeared to lay the ground for a possible coming together of regional forces against the Centre’s alleged trespasses on federalism.
Mr. Vijayan and Mr. Stalin have concurred that gubernatorial procrastination over signing Bills into law precipitated an administrative stasis in their States. They have felt Raj Bhavans often overstepped the constitutional bounds and pushed States’ legislation into the abyss of uncertainty by withholding their imprimatur.
Mr. Stalin initiated the dialogue in a letter to Mr. Vijayan dated April 11. He pointed out that the Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution urging the Union government and the President of India to fix a time limit for Governors to approve the Bills passed by the State Assembly, a statutory step in the law-making process. Mr. Stalin urged the Kerala Assembly to adopt a similar motion to uphold the “sovereignty and self-respect” of State governments. Mr. Stalin also enclosed a copy of the Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution for Mr. Vijayan.
Mr. Stalin said the Tamil Nadu Governors’ unwillingness to consent to laws passed by the Assembly, including the “Bill to Ban Online Rummy”, constrained the House to adopt the momentous motion. Mr. Stalin anguished that Indian democracy stood ominously at a crossroads and the spirit of cooperative federalism waned.
In his reply dated April 17, Mr. Vijayan stressed the necessity for setting a deadline for Governors to decide on Bills. He said the Constitution did not specify the period for giving assent to Bills. Hence, he said there was the need for a “reasonable one”. Mr. Vijayan quoted the recommendations of national commissions to review Centre-State relations and study the Constitution’s workings to press his case for setting a deadline for Governors to withhold or consent to State legislation. He said denying assent to Bills passed by elected State Assemblies is tantamount to negating peoples’ democratic rights.
Mr. Vijayan also reminded Mr. Stalin of the Centre’s dismissals of the Kerala and Tamil governments in 1959 and 1976 respectively and called for defending the Constitution’s federal spirit from such future infringements.
